A Midnight Journey to Reykjavik
It seems that anyone and everyone is going to Iceland. Maybe that comes with the continuous advertisements that you see for Iceland Air on the T or it is just the Northern Hemisphere's answer to New Zealand... but I can officially say I'm one of those people who went to Iceland. Thank you sale advertisement on Facebook and a hint of spontaneity. I went with my roommate the first week of October over Columbus Day weekend with the logic being it's the shoulder season, the weather is a little wet while not being too cold, and the Northern Lights are viewable; so many things to cross off the bucket list. Looking back, the joke of the trip was Iceland should be renamed "Cloudland" come autumn and the national color should be gray.
Our flight arrived at midnight Friday, catching the Flybus for a 50-minute ride to Reykjavik through torrential rain and howling wind, arriving at the BSI bus station. We walked to our hostel at Hlemmur Square and dropped off our luggage because we couldn't actually check in until 3:00 p.m. A word to the wise: Don't arrive at midnight and be unable to check in until that afternoon. We had a long night (or morning) in store for us. We left our luggage behind at the hostel and thankfully the rain was subsiding so we didn't get too wet.
Our plan was to stay at the bars until the closed at 5:00 a.m. and try to stay awake from there, visiting various bars on the way down Laugavegur that caught our eye. We stopped in the bar Boston because how could we not, coming from Boston after all, but that didn't amount to much. There were maybe two couples dancing to some classic rock music Eventually we arrived at Lebowski Bar for a real taste of Icelandic nightlife at 2:30 in the morning before making a final stop at Kiki, since that's where the line was and seemed to be the best dance place in town.
We didn't really know what to do after that but thankfully did some research on what was around, and decided to walk to the grotta hot spring and try to catch the sunrise. What else do you have to do when you have 9 hours to kill and restaurants for breakfast don't open for another 3 hours. Turned out to be a nice little foot soak as we watched the sun come over the horizon and actually be able to see our surroundings for the first time since we arrived. We weren't able to walk to Grotta Lighthouse because the tide was rising rapidly and getting stuck on an island for 12 hours until the tide lowers is not a great way to start a vacation - especially seeing as we hadn't really eaten much other than a takeaway sandwich from the airport and a substantial amount of beer.
To make a long story short, we walked back to town, ate breakfast, and walked through most of the city center doing everything we could to stay awake. Thank goodness the clouds cleared and the sun was out to keep us company. We didn't fully appreciate it since little did we know, today would be our last good glimpse of a blue sky for nearly a week. After a bit of wandering and having our first glance of Hallgrimskirkja, we made our way to the hotel and groveled for them to let us check in at 11:00 a.m. since we were riding the struggle bus real hard. They told us no dice but we could use their couches on the side where a group of people already looked to be napping. The couches turned out to not be the most comfortable things but to us, anything soft felt like a slice of heaven. Eventuall, we wandered back to Hallgrimskirkja and the statue of Leif Erikkson so we could fully appreciate the city's most recognizable landmark. Constructed in 1937, the unique design represents the basalt columns from cooled lava that can be found around the country - think Svartifoss in Skaftafell National Park, which will come at a later time. The church makes a fantastic landmark since it is the tallest structure in the city and on the top of a hill so it is almost always within view. Apparently making a mistake, we decided not to pay about $8USD to climb to the top.
The rest of the day was pretty typical, since we managed to nap until check-in and drop our luggage off in the room. Finally free of the burden of having no place to sleep, we hit the streets again for a let lunch at Noodle Station and dinner at Cafe Loki for a sample platter of traditional Icelandic foods. We decided on a sharing a sample platter of sheep head jelly (think Pâté) on rye bread, white fish mashed with potato, and smoked salmon, all served with a side of bean salad and mashed turnip. Of course no meal would be complete without fermented shark and the shot of brennivin that the waitress talked us into getting for the "full experience." This was accompanied with a relatively normal meal of smoked lamb and potatoes. Anthony Bourdain did us quite a set up by describing fermented shark as the most disgusting thing he had ever tasted -- I actually found the brennivin to be worse. Following one with the other was rather like chasing gross with grosser as opposed to the more popular tequila shot that actually chases with something pleasant. All this was accompanied by a lovely view of Hallgrimskirkja and a nice little rainbow that came out during the light rain.
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| Bye bye, Boston |
Our flight arrived at midnight Friday, catching the Flybus for a 50-minute ride to Reykjavik through torrential rain and howling wind, arriving at the BSI bus station. We walked to our hostel at Hlemmur Square and dropped off our luggage because we couldn't actually check in until 3:00 p.m. A word to the wise: Don't arrive at midnight and be unable to check in until that afternoon. We had a long night (or morning) in store for us. We left our luggage behind at the hostel and thankfully the rain was subsiding so we didn't get too wet.
Our plan was to stay at the bars until the closed at 5:00 a.m. and try to stay awake from there, visiting various bars on the way down Laugavegur that caught our eye. We stopped in the bar Boston because how could we not, coming from Boston after all, but that didn't amount to much. There were maybe two couples dancing to some classic rock music Eventually we arrived at Lebowski Bar for a real taste of Icelandic nightlife at 2:30 in the morning before making a final stop at Kiki, since that's where the line was and seemed to be the best dance place in town.
We didn't really know what to do after that but thankfully did some research on what was around, and decided to walk to the grotta hot spring and try to catch the sunrise. What else do you have to do when you have 9 hours to kill and restaurants for breakfast don't open for another 3 hours. Turned out to be a nice little foot soak as we watched the sun come over the horizon and actually be able to see our surroundings for the first time since we arrived. We weren't able to walk to Grotta Lighthouse because the tide was rising rapidly and getting stuck on an island for 12 hours until the tide lowers is not a great way to start a vacation - especially seeing as we hadn't really eaten much other than a takeaway sandwich from the airport and a substantial amount of beer.
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| Sunrise from grotta hot spring |
To make a long story short, we walked back to town, ate breakfast, and walked through most of the city center doing everything we could to stay awake. Thank goodness the clouds cleared and the sun was out to keep us company. We didn't fully appreciate it since little did we know, today would be our last good glimpse of a blue sky for nearly a week. After a bit of wandering and having our first glance of Hallgrimskirkja, we made our way to the hotel and groveled for them to let us check in at 11:00 a.m. since we were riding the struggle bus real hard. They told us no dice but we could use their couches on the side where a group of people already looked to be napping. The couches turned out to not be the most comfortable things but to us, anything soft felt like a slice of heaven. Eventuall, we wandered back to Hallgrimskirkja and the statue of Leif Erikkson so we could fully appreciate the city's most recognizable landmark. Constructed in 1937, the unique design represents the basalt columns from cooled lava that can be found around the country - think Svartifoss in Skaftafell National Park, which will come at a later time. The church makes a fantastic landmark since it is the tallest structure in the city and on the top of a hill so it is almost always within view. Apparently making a mistake, we decided not to pay about $8USD to climb to the top.
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| Far plate: Smoked lamb, potatoes, peas, and red cabbage Middle: Fermented shark complete with Icelandic flag toothpick and brennivin shot glass Bottom Plate: Sheep head jelly on rye bread (top), smoked salmon (bottom left), white fish and potatoes (bottom right) - all three served on freshly made bread. |
Going back to the hostel, we ended up hitting the town for a second night returning to Lebowski Bar. We had to wake up early the next morning for our only organized tour of the entire trip - snorkeling Silfra and the Golden Circle - so the night thankfully found us back at the hostel at a reasonable hour.
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