Redeye Reykjavik

Earlier this week I decided that one backpack wouldn’t suffice for a nine day trip so I decided I needed another, smaller, backpack for the day trips. I also figured out how to cleverly attach them together, until I realized I could just carry the second backpack on my shoulder because it was easier. Kristen went grocery shopping and purchased us snacks – PB&J, cheddar cheez-its and boxed wine. We left on time (!) and arrived to the Dulles airport the anticipated 5 hours early only to learn that the Icelandair check in desk isn’t actually open until 5 pm. So we hung out by this strangely barren area of the airport while I read Jim Butcher and Kristen read about how crazy Bobby Fisher was. The doors in the picture actually lead to just air, there isn’t anything beyond the windows. Strange airport.

We made it through security in about 1 minute despite no pre-check on my boarding pass. After waiting about 20 minutes we were let into the Turkish Airlines lounge where they had real food! The pasta was pretty good, the beef was good and the chicken was just okay. The rice needed some sauce on it but it was cooked well. Overall worth the 20 minute awkward wait outside.

The flight boarded early and I managed to get lucky and not have anybody sitting next to me! Although the people opposite the aisle insisted on crinkling their bag of chips as loud as possible. We landed 20 minutes early at 6:00 am instead of 6:20 am which meant we showed up eight hours early to the hotel instead of seven and a half. On the bus ride to Reykjavik we made some friends – they had decided to come to Iceland the day before with their little toddler son. They weren’t actually sure which hotel they had told the bus to go to… They gave us some Appelsin to try out, it’s like orange soda which doesn’t actually taste like anything.

When we got to our hotel we had some time to kill so we walked down Laugavegur (the main downtown shopping strip) until we reached Harpa music hall. We walked around a bit and stopped by Hallgrimskirkja for a photo op. Funnily enough the church has no special significance other than they wanted to make it look cool. In front of it is a statue of Liefur Eriksson. We then turned around and got some breakfast at a place I had read about. It looked really good!

It was okay, the free coffee at the hotel was better. Feeling energized we switched our walking tour from 1 pm to 11 am – really good idea. Tomas was our guide and we walked all throughout downtown Reykjavik – learned a little about the language, the culture, the economy and the history of everything. Overall it was a really good tour and a good introduction to what was what in Reykjavik. Afterwards we went to get a hot dog at the stand where Bill Clinton had the best hot dog of his life. The hot dog was better than breakfast, but could’ve used some bacon to take it to the next level.

Then we went back to check in to the hotel at around 2 pm to try to check in again. Room still wasn’t ready so we went to the hotel bar where they have a 2 for 1 deal on Fridays! 2 Carlsburg’s brewed in Iceland for only 1.200 ISK! Our room is pretty nice, two single beds and an awesome bay view. We can see Harpa and Hallgrimskirgja from our windows. After a nice nap we went back out (Kristen might be allergic to the beds…) Our first stop was to go back to Hallgrimskirkja because the clouds had finally gone away and it was sunny. It cost 900 ISK to get to the top but the view was definitely worth it. Panoramic view of the city of Reykjavik itself and a view of the surrounding fjords and mountains. Reykjavik kinda reminds me of Shadyside or Boulder: really cool place, everyone wants to be there, not a lot of real estate.

After here we walked down to the old harbor and had a nice dinner of lamb and some Icelandic IPA called Urfur (wolf). We also got some arctic char as an appetizer. The food was so good though that I forgot to take pictures of it until it was mostly gone. A couple things I’ve noticed since I’ve gotten here: way more smokers than anticipated and way more fancy cameras out in the open. Lots of people just walking around with cameras still attached to tripods. It’s been a fun 36 hours so far!