Iceland was great. It was different than anywhere else I've ever been and also not exactly what I expected. Also, it was a different kind of trip than I'm used to. I generally might do one tour in a week, but otherwise seek things out on my own. Of course, unless you rent a car there's no real way to do that in Iceland & we didn't rent a car, so there were many tours involved. this sin't a bad thing, just different from my norm.
Downtown Reykjavik didn't seem to offer a whole lot, though admittedly we didn't spend too much time there. We wandered around a bit on our first day & last evening, but that was pretty much it. Apparently it's a pretty happening place on the weekends when all the Icelanders are out partying. If I were to go back, I'd like to go over a weekend and in the summer, just for comparison sake.
So, where to begin...my friend Tony & I met up at the airport in Seattle where we caught an overnight flight direct from SeaTac to Reykjavik. Iceland is on Greenwich Mean Time, which is currently 7 hours ahead of me in Pacific Time. So, we left about 5pm Pacific & landed about 7am GMT.
Once we got our bags & figured out which bus to get on it was about an hour till we arrived at our hotel. Thankfully we were able to check in right away. And we had a beautiful view! So we relaxed, showered, etc., then caught the hotel shuttle into downtown where was deliriously wandered around & grabbed some breakfast.
One thing I was both curious and worried about was the food. I knew everything was gonna be expensive, I just hoped it wasn't going to all be super unusual. I'm generally up for trying new things & food is usually a huge part of travel for me, but gelatinous food & things like putrefied shark are not my cup of tea at all. Anyhow, I had a really great ham & cheese omelet that was more like a frittata for breakfast that first day. :-)
Reykjavik itself was a bit of a disappointment. There were a few cool buildings, but overall the architecture left something to be desired. Lots of rectangular, grey stucco apartment buildings and such. Sort of a cold war era gloominess to it all. There was a lot of litter and tons of graffiti. Some very cool graffiti murals, but also lots of random tagging. So totally not what I had envisioned at all.
There were some cool statues, a beautiful lake filled w/ ducks & swans, an awesome modern performing arts theatre and a beautiful massive church too. So, it wasn't like it was awful, just unexpected.
After walking around for 4-5 hours, getting a bit lost, then finally getting on the right bus, we went back to the hotel for much needed naps. That night we went to a little pizza place near the hotel for dinner. Now, I know pizza isn't what comes to mind when you think about Iceland, but I must say, it was damn good.
That's it for now. I'll write more later & get into the good stuff - glacier hiking, hot springs, waterfalls, horseback riding, etc.
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