Finally, a little vacation time and a chance to see a good friend of mine again, all in scenic Iceland. This will give me a chance to unwind before I head back to Italy again in a few weeks, right?
The trip to Iceland was thankfully the worst part of my entire trip, and it wasn’t even that bad. Hell, if you like rollercoasters, I’m sure you would have enjoyed the flight into Newark and Baltimore. Thanks to the wonderful timing of my trip, I had the exciting experience of flying into the remnants of hurricane Ernesto, which meant some minor delays (thankfully I had a lot of free time in my schedule) and a bit of a bumpy ride. Oh, and thanks to the ground crew’s attentive service, my backpack got soaked, as did a good chunk of my clothes. Meh, I made it to Reykjavik in one piece, and on time, so I’m happy. On the ground through customs (complete with metal detectors for some reason), buy some kroner, and off to catch a bus for the city center.
At the central bus station, the driver stops and starts asking everyone where they are going. Problem is, I left the directions to Jay’s hotel in my backpack. Underneath the bus. So I have no idea, and am told to get off and wait for the “min-ee boose”, which I failed to translate to mini bus. I wait a few minutes, then head inside and ask someone at the desk what’s going on. They explain the mini bus (the other bus is too big to get around the downtown core), and tell me to wait outside. A half hour later, I go back inside ask again, and am told that maybe they can arrange something in 20 minutes. All told, I wait about an hour, and almost get left behind again. When I finally get to the Metropolitan hotel, Jay is just on his way out, so it was rather fortunate timing. We head back up to his room, grab his stuff, and head off in search of our new hotel (supposedly just down the street). After about 45 minutes of wandering and checking maps, we finally get the right street, find the hotel, and are told that we can’t check in until 2 (it’s around 10:30AM). Off with the bags, and out exploring we go.
We mainly just wandered around the downtown area, checking out some shops and the big church (big mess of concrete, but sweet view from the bell tower). Unfortunately, we were up said bell tower at 1PM, so I can tell you exactly how loud those bells are. We both got some nice pictures of the city there, which I hope to post later. More aimless wandering, and it’s back to the hotel to check in. I wasn’t paying attention when we booked the room, but thankfully Jay was. Problem is, twin room and double room are two different things, so rather than two separate beds, we had a single double bed. Nice and cozy. After a bit of explanation, the staff kindly changed the beds for us, and we were back to a good 3 feet of separation. As an aside, if anyone is in Reykjavik, I highly recommend the Hotel Phoenix, as the staff there was just incredible. Then it was off for some more exploring, some more pictures, a quick dinner (I also recommend the restaurant Red Hot for a taste of home, and a hell of a server named Frank), and off to sleep.
The next day (Sunday) was the “Golden Circle” tour, which hits the major highlights of the area around Reykjavik, such as Gullfoss (The Golden Waterfall), Thingvellir (ancient parliament site in a national park…also where the rift between the tectonic plates is) and Geysir, which are geysers. It meant 8 hours on a bus, but it was well worth it as Gullfoss is beyond explanation. I can’t wait to go back and check out some of the more remote falls. Then back to the hotel for a quiet night of vodka and gummy candy. Mmmm…alcoholic gummy candy.
Monday was our walking day, where we checked out everything we could think of around Reykjavik. We took in a few museums (whose names I forget), as well as a volcano show (which I also recommend, although only stay for the 1st hour) and the Blue Lagoon. Not much more I can say about the Blue Lagoon other than it was awesome, especially on a cooler day with the mist rising from the hot water. Just awesome. Tuesday, it was another tour, this time of the southern shore with it’s extremely inhospitable terrain. There were some more beautiful waterfalls, a nice hike up a little hill for some scenic pictures, and a great view of a glacier, all combined with a great commentary from our Icelandic driver. He rocked. Oh, and another short hike up a ravine to a waterfall/well combo that was unbelievable. It’s also where my companion/sidekick Jay hit his head and temporarily knocked his brand new camera out of commission. Not good. We also made a new friend in Dana from Brooklyn, who was more than happy to drink free vodka with us, and show us some sights we hadn’t seen around town (the cemetery is spooky at night).
Wednesday, it was early to rise, packing up, and heading off to the airport for our flights. Jay left much earlier than I, so he was back in Sweden before I even left the ground, but it also meant that I got to check out the water tanks (called Perlen), which offered a different, but much clearer, view of the city than the church tower did. Well worth the ½ hour trek each way. And had I known the bus schedule a little better, I would have also made time to take a swim in the ocean, but things didn’t quite work out L
The flight back to Ottawa was as smooth as it could be, with a minor delay in Boston, which meant my flight from Toronto to Ottawa was held. But I made it home, safe and sound, and even managed to get into work the next morning without incident.
One awesome trip.
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