Iceland

Day 1: May 13

Our first day of our trip went by fairly smoothly! We arrived safely in Iceland and had a pretty long day wandering around the capital of Reykjavik. The time difference is 7 hours, which makes for some pretty brutal jetlag, but we survived.

In the morning we arrived at KEF airport; Iceland smells like sulfur and fish, looks like Mongolia if it had a coast, and is bahut expensive. Like, when we went out for dinner in the evening we got like 4 different types of naan off the sides menu to save money and it still cost $25. Ouch. The server seemed a little offended that we were trying to go cheap.

At the airport we exchanged some cash for Icelandic kroner, about 111 to a dollar. We then tried to get bus tickets with a card, only to discover that Cam had left his debit card on the floor of the car a couple thousand miles away in Sammamish. Already this promises to be an exciting trip! Luckily I had my card and plenty of cash, so the only issue was transferring his money to my account and having joint expenses until we met Dad in Munich with Cam’s card. We took the bus to the main station in Reykjavik, enjoying the stark landscape out the window on the way there.

Reykjavik is so beautiful! It has really charming narrow streets and cute square colorful houses.  Our apartment (which took a bit of confusion getting into, involving several Icelandic bystanders who we asked if they knew Johann; finally someone did and we found out that we couldn't check in until like 4 pm, it being 10am at the moment) is right next to this beautiful cathedral called Hallgrimskirkja. This church is the tallest building in the city and is at the top of a hill, so we haven't gotten lost yet despite the roads being named Skovsgdgfgor and Trygsnlgsgsja (I'm kidding, but that is pretty darn close to their actual names). We took a different route every time we went back to the apartment, and it’s altogether very pleasant and charming.

Hallgrimskirkja

Cute houses

So we ended up putting our backpacks in luggage storage at the bus station and walked around the city. Again, very beautiful, and it would have been a perfect day if not for the debilitating jetlag. It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you get four hours of sleep a night for like three nights in a row and expect to be able to sleep on a plane as you make a 7 hour time zone jump, you have set yourself up for disaster. We took the elevator to the top of Hallgrimskirkja (doing the honest thing and buying tickets for it, although nobody was even watching so we could have walked right on) and saw some really awesome views of Reykjavik. I fully support that we should have more colorful roofs in America.

View from Hallgrimskirkja

So we walked around the lovely downtown and tried to not fall asleep whenever we sat down, went back to the apartment and finally got in and took a blessed 2 1/2 hour nap. Eventually we roused ourselves and went back out for dinner and more downtown walking; there are really cute shopping streets that close after 6 and sell $50 Icelandic wool hats, and eventually made it back inside in the rain. I had looked online at what to do in Reykjavik so we had some ideas about some interesting things to do, but none of them really worked out. The hop-on-hop-off bus tour didn’t start until June, and we walked into a museum without realizing that we needed to buy tickets, and the flea market is only open on Saturdays, and there was totally a concert going on but tickets were much too expensive. It was very difficult to make decisions anyway since we were so exhausted. Still, you can’t complain about being halfway across the world in Iceland, and I thought Reykjavik was charming.

Cute church by the place we didn't see a concert

BTW, everybody speaks English here.

Day 2: May 14

Day 2 in Iceland! In the morning we rented a car, got a free map, and went off on our own to explore the Golden Circle. Spoiler alert: it's not gold. Or a circle. What it actually is is three main tourist destinations: Pingvellir national park, Geysir, and Gullfoss.

Pingvellir, which should start with that letter that looks like a P but actually the round part is in the middle of the stem and is pronounced with th as in thunder, is pronounced Thingvetleer. It's some sort of ancient site where the original Viking law-forming ceremony occurred. It was really beautiful and they made it into a national park when America was all into that in the 30s. It’s essentially just the wild frontier of Iceland, with a pretty river, stretches of brown tundra, and a cute little church. Love those Scandinavian churches. We walked around for a bit and took a few pictures. Saw a couple of Icelandic elves. You know, the usual.

Pingvellir

Geysir, which means gusher and became the official English word for the phenomenon, is a group of geysers that smell unpleasant and erupt occasionally. We passed by Strokkur, a small one which erupts every few minutes, and stood in front of the big one, Geysir, for a little while to see it erupt. I was under the impression that the big one, which is twice the size of Old Faithful, went off every couple of minutes, so I was really confused that the safety rope was only about 15 ft from the edge. Isn’t that dangerous? Turns out it erupts hardly ever. Good thing we're not still there waiting. The premier Icelandic wool sweater company is named Geysir so you see posters for it everywhere, with beautiful models wearing large woolen sweaters that they don’t actually tell you cost upwards of $200. A conversation with the landlady on Day 1 revealed that most Icelanders actually take an annual trip to Denmark to buy clothes to save money, clothes are that expensive in Iceland.

 oh I don't have a picture of Geysir because my camera died

Gullfoss, Golden Waterfall, is a ginormous waterfall. Not much else to say about it. It was rainy and cold and we walked right up to the edge of the waterfall and got a little wet, which Cam was not surprised about although somehow I was. We also switched can-you-take-a-picture-of-us with a group of cute Irish boys. Didn’t get their number.

Gullfloss

We also added our own stop to the Golden Circle, a lovely church in a village called Skatholt. There were totally some archaeological ruins right next to it so I was loving it. I really like how in Scandinavia they have signs that tell you if there is a church or a tourist site nearby, it makes it easier to find things. We were driving along and I was totally looking for Skatholt, and luckily there was a cute little church symbol on the road sign so I didn’t miss it. Cam wasn’t convinced we were supposed to be turning there but I insisted and look, we found a cute little church.

Church at Skatholt

Overall it was a really lovely drive and it was cool to travel through the countryside of Iceland. It certainly has its own stark beauty. I got to practice my navigation skills and Cam got to practice his test-the-speed limit skills, both situations being mildly nerve-wracking. There may or may not be a speeding ticket waiting for us if we ever go back there if the flash of a camera from the automatic speed sign is any indication. When we got back to the apartment Cam went back out to find the recording studio of Sigur Rose, his favorite Icelandic band, in the next town over. I opted to stay inside and rest, and luckily didn't get lost or ticketed.

Back in Reykjavik and walked around shops for a bit. Real Icelandic sweaters, which apparently EVERY Icelander owns, are like $200, so getting one was out of the question. Alright, maybe a hat? The cheapest we saw was $35, most expensive was $115. Okay, how about half a hat, one of those knitted headbands. $17, alright, I can deal with that. I decided within a few hours of being here that my Iceland souvenir was going to be some sort of Icelandic knitted headgear, so I'm pretty happy about it. We also stopped by a cool World Instruments shop that had a ukulele painted to look like a watermelon, and Cam tried pretty much every string instrument he saw. There was even a neat native Icelandic string instrument that he got to try and he almost broke some sitar strings.

Sweaters!

We kind of got kicked out of our apartment into the owner's other property (this one an IKEA showroom with six rooms but less cereal in the kitchen) and met some nice Australians. One of them offered me Icelandic alcohol; too bad I had to say no, she said it was really good rocket fuel. Why anyone would drink rocket fuel I don't know.

Ooh, we also had an interesting dinner at Café Loki, traditional Icelandic food. We had meat soup and various breads with interesting toppings, like mashed fish, smoked trout, and sheep's head jelly. The last one I would not recommend to anyone. It was really gross. Like, really really gross. Since there’s really not much in Iceland you have to hand it to them for being creative with their food.

The sky is still awake even though it’s 10:30, which seems to be a typical thing up north in the summer. The IKEA curtains didn’t do much to block out the dusk light, but at least they have good design.

Day 3: May 15

Today we went on a tour to the Southern Coast! It was really beautiful. Our tour guide was a 64-year-old Icelandic man named Steynthor Olafsson; Steynthor means "stone Thor", essentially "a big man without feelings." He was really cool and knew lots of cool facts about Iceland: for instance, there are only 1.4 murders a year in Iceland and there are only 140 people in jail in the whole country. The population is about 325,000, so that's pretty impressive I think.

Southern Iceland is much greener and has more rolling hills (wait those are volcanoes) than Reykjavik, which is on a bay in the Southwest. There were lots of big farms and cute little villages; one of my favorite things so far (and I have lots of pictures of them) are the cute little square churches with white cement and red roofs and little square bell towers/steeples. They're all over. We stopped by two really neat waterfalls and could have gone behind one of them but Cam pointed out that we would just get wet. True, but it was a missed photo opportunity. There was a nice couple on their honeymoon in the tour group with us so we traded taking pictures with them a lot, though we also got some good selfies, no worries about that.

We got to hike on a glacier as well! Actually, not quite, there was copious signage asking us not to hike on the glacier without a guide, but we got pretty close anyway. We also got to try some glacial ice, which I think is the most delicious ice I’ve ever tasted. One neat thing about Iceland is how natural all of their water and energy is, which has the dual-edged sword of making everything smell like sulfur but the energy bill is only $8 a month. Also, it’s illegal for restaurants to charge for tap water because it’s the same as the bottled water and it’s all good.

By a glacier

We also stopped by the southernmost point in Iceland, which was a keyhole rock in the ocean that reminded me of Mom and her having us point them out in all the museums we went to on our previous trip to Europe 12 years ago. When you look off the coast there, you are looking at open ocean that goes all the way to the South Pole. It was really neat and was just the most beautiful weather you can imagine. Well, it was pretty windy, but that was fine with me. The beaches in Southern Iceland have black sand which I think has something to do with the volcanoes. There was also one cliff face with these rocks that are square and jagged and look like they came from Minecraft, but I don’t know how they got that way. Maybe I should take a geology class.

look there's Antarctica

Other highlights include cool moss-covered lava fields outside of Reykjavik and a really delicious fishburger in a town called Vik. Cam had an eggburger which I assured him he could try himself at home and ended up just making a mess.

More window shopping/strolling along in the evening. Turns out second-hand stores in Iceland are still expensive. We found out from the landlords that a cool sculpture of a Viking ship was just a five-minute walk from the apartment, so we braved the rain and took some pictures with it. We were walking right along the harbor, quite a nice stroll despite the rain.

I like Iceland! I’m glad I had the opportunity to spend a few days there. I loved the architecture and the small-town feel, and it wasn’t took difficult to get anywhere or what you need. The biggest downside I would say was the expense, but you can’t really expect to not spend money when traveling in Europe. I thought the landscape was beautiful and the people friendly, and I would be happy to go back.

P.S. Expected to see puffins on the coast. Were sadly disappointed.