CHAPTER 2 | went to my room and Grauben came with me. She packed my trunk for me. Iwas eross as I didn’t want to go to Ieeland. Griiuben gave me several good reasons to go. I was angry with her, A lot of equipment arrived at the house. It was all for going to the centre of the Earth. I went to bed at 10 o'clock. I had many nightmares, | dreamed about falling into big canyons. | fell into bottomless pits. The professor dragged me into the bottomless pits, I woke up at 5 o'clock. I was very scared. I was still very tired. I went into the dining room, My uncle was sitting at the table, He was eating his breakfast. Grauben was sitting at the table too, I didn’t eat anything because I was too scared to eat. I didn’t say anything about my nightmares. ‘A carriage came to take us to the station, It arrived at half past 5. My trunk was still upstairs. My uncle sent me to bring it down, He packed the carriage with all his luggage. “Hurry up, Axel! We'll miss the train.” he said, I brought my trunk downstairs. Griuben said, “Goodbye, professor.” Griiuben kissed my cheeks. She was erying. “Goodbye Griiuben,” I said and got on the carriage which took us to the train station, We had a nice train journey. Finally!” my uncle shouted. The train stopped in Copenhagen. We got off the train, We went to the Phoenix Hotel in Bredgade, My uncle let me wash my face. Then he dragged me to the Museum of Northern Antiquities. Professor Thomson was in charge ofthe museum. It had lots of old stone weapons, goblets and jewels, We didn’t ell Professor Thomson we were going to the centre of the Earth, Professor Lidenbrock sai, “We're going to Iceland to look around. C: you help us find a boat?” ross (a) an bottomless (a) having no bottom: very deep Grauben kissed my cheeks. She was erying, 4 IsProfessor Thomson helped us find a boat to Ieeland. It was, called the Valkyrie. It was going to Reykjavik, It was a ten day journey. My uncle was seasick. He didn’t got to talk to the captain about Ieeland. We got to Reykjavik without any problems. We went fo see the governor and the mayor. They agreed to help us. They took us to meet Mr. Fridriksson. He was a science teacher. My uncle went to the library. He was looking for more jing by Ame Saknussemm. | explored Reykjavik. We stayed at Mr. Fridriksson’s house. My uncle told me, “Don’t tell Mr. Fridriksson what we're planning to do.” We had dinner, Professor Lidenbrock and Mr. Fridriksson spoke in Ieelandic. didn’t join in, They talked about science and the library, “Your library docsn’t have many books,” said Professor Lidenbrock. “We have eight thousand volumes. They are all shared out. Everyone in Ieeland knows how to read. We believe in reading books, not keeping them locked up. It can take years for a book 10 come back to the library,” said Mr. Fridriksson. “L was looking for any books by Ame Saknussemm,” said my uncle, “He was a great man nd brilliant writer but we don’t have any of his book: Mr. Fridriksson, “Why not?” asked. Professor Lidenbrock. “He was named asa heretic in 1573. They bumed all of his books,” said Mr, Fridriksson. “I see. That makes sense. He guided us to the volcano. He probably wanted to hide his He walked the whole way. discoveries,” said my uncle. “What are you doing here?” asked Mr, Fridriksson, “We are here to look at the rocks. We're going to look at said Professor Lidenbrock. the voleano, “You'll have to go by land. You'll need a guide. Il introduce you to one in the morning,” said Mr. Fridriksson, ‘The guide was called Hans Bjelke. He was a hunter. He guided us to the voleano, He walked the whole way.They gave us four horses; two to ride and two to carry our luggage. Hans led us down the road. “He will be helpful when we go to the centre of the earth.” my uncle said to me. We stayed at a farmer’s house that night. The farmer held a feast for us. We slept on straw beds. The next day we rode to the next town. We saw a leper by the roadside. Hans greeted him warmly. The leper was wearing old and torn clothes. He stayed away from us. We reached the town of Stapi. Hans took us to meet the rector of the town. The rector let us stay at the parsonage. He was also the blacksmith. feast (n) a large meal leper (n) a person suffering from leprosy (an infectious skin disease) 18