Layered dream in Iceland

Date: 12/14/2022

I am in Iceland for the first time in many years. It’s nice to be back. I’m exploring the city. I end up in a dead end alley that terminates on a rock slope with a wall at the end. I climb the stone, but there’s no way out. Youths are hanging out in a little courtyard with more rocks. I go through a door into a corridor but quickly get lost and can’t find my way back out. One door is not blocked, but someone inside slams the door when I try to go through. I walk until I see light. There is a bright conference room with a group of people in chairs, all calmly looking forward. There is a view of infinite green moss and rocks and mountains through bay windows. I talk to someone and ask how long they’ve been here. They guess a few hours. I ask them the year, and they say 1962. They’ve been here for 60 years and haven’t noticed. I talk to a few more people and leave the room. The doors in the corridor are still all locked. There is a small digital panel in the wall. It asks me trivia questions about the Icelandic zodiac, but I’m not good at the quiz. I find an elevator and press the down button. The doors open but there is just an empty shaft. I walk in and fall down. Now I am in another version of the corridor. The people from the room before are now wandering around, more aware. I again explore, this time ending up in a light blue room with one of the men from before. He asks me lots of trivia questions. There is a fish tank. Even though this layer should be lower, the view from his window is much higher than before. I leave and keep exploring. In a back room I. Manage to pry open a window and get outside. There is infinite rubble and debris, but it’s sunny and cheerful. The green moss and mountains are all around the city, but out of reach. I walk along a path in the rubble, sometimes jumping from pillar to pillar. Eventually I find the remains of a train, converted into shelter. The same people from before are inside. The woman is sitting next to a deflated bouncy house, trying to extract something magic cal from inside. Someone else is making potions. I leave the train, but I’m told it’s just infinite debris. I’m asked to fix the train engine. I go underneath and have to solve more puzzles on a little digital screen. I keep getting them wrong and need to reset. Eventually I get to a puzzle with hoses and get the train running with a lurch. I’m in a small room. I’m thrown to one wall by the motion of the train, but it doesn’t seem to be in the right direction. I crawl to the open side of the room with the man from before, and we get out into a cargo platform. We need to climb from cargo to cargo, along the length of the train. Gradually the cargo changes. Instead of boxes, it’s a clothes rack. I see that there is cheap carpet underneath us and I hop down. We’re now inside a thrift shop. A general is hiding between the racks, and I have to find him. I remark on how realistic the carpet feels. That’s the end of this series of dreams. In the next dream, I’m describing this dream in detail to my parents. I notice how every phase of the dream has the same people, a trivia puzzle, and a physical puzzle to solve. They’re polite, but I know that explaining a dream is boring.