Yay! Finally going to Iceland! We flew Icelandair, which I just need to give a little shout out to. Get a load of how much legroom I have! Plus I have freakishly big hands, so that really is a lot of space.
We stayed in a cute little apartment. It was super cozy and right in the center of town.
We headed out from our hotel, passing the lake and the part of the city where Reykjavik actually started. Fun Fact Time: Reykjavik only became an official city 200 years ago. For Americans that sounds old, but compared to most European cities, it's pretty young. Also, Reykjavik is the world's northernmost capital.
Our first stop was Baejarins Beztu Pylsur - a famous hot dog stand once visited by Bill Clinton. I thought the city was much larger than it was - we overshot the hot dog stand by 2 minutes, proving that it takes about 5 minutes to walk through the main part of the city center. Fun Fact Time: I heard a bunch of various statistics, but apparently Iceland has about 300,000 people, and anywhere from 115,000-180,000 live in Reykjavik. And apparently not one of them has a degree in census-taking.
This was the beginning of what proved to be a food-filled vacation, primarily with American-inspired food. I was in love.
So was the Frenchie. This hot dog had it all - onions, crispy fried onions, crazy relish, spicy mustard, and ketchup. Mmm.
I promise I'll get to some non-food stuff soon. But I am just TOO EXCITED that I got to eat TACO BELL in EUROPE. You don't understand what this means to me. When I was younger I tried to convince my parents to open a Taco Bell franchise. Also, ever since I was young I've wanted to go to Iceland. You can imagine the excitement I felt when I was EATING TACO BELL IN ICELAND.
Here's what we ordered. Good thing the boyfriend has a big appetite because I might have overdone it.
Our Northern Lights tour got cancelled that night due to the weather, so we just went back to the apartment, first making a pit stop at a grocery store to get stuff for breakfast the next day. Philly cream cheese! Butter flavored microwave popcorn! Iceland, who do you think you are? America? Vicki's pantry? Either way - I love you! Fun Fact Time: It's easiest to see the Northern Lights outside of big cities where there's no light pollution, and on nights where there is a clear sky. It was pretty cloudy on Friday, which is why we didn't see them. Otherwise, the weather was actually pretty good. Typically Reykjavik has milder weather than Toronto and New York City. Good thing, too, since I hate the cold.
So after breakfast the next morning, we headed out to tour the city. The moon was still out at 10:43 local time.
We checked out this modern Viking boat thing.
And it was near a newer part of town.
Then we had to stop for coffee. Partially because I had to go to the bathroom but let's be real - it was partly because we hadn't eaten in about an hour. We got these cute little coffee and a brownie that clearly someone ordered while I was in the bathroom otherwise it wouldn't have had nuts in it.
Cool church. Named ... um ... something.
Then we went to the harbor.
Cool boat.
Oh good, time for more food.
This time some famous burgers recommended by the New York Times. Mmm.
They even named the street after it!
Then, now that we had slim and trim swimsuit bellies, we headed out to the Blue Lagoon. Fun Fact Time: The Blue Lagoon is where one of five geothermal energy plants are in Iceland. The water is 35-50 degrees Celsius and is 2/3 saltwater and 1/3 freshwater. The entire lagoon is replenished every 40 hours.
Oh, and it's gorgeous.
And steamy.
And you can drink ice cold beer (which stays cold since it's like 35 degrees Fahrenheit outside) while you stay nice and warm in the water. I never wanted to leave.
And you can use some of the silica deposits as a face mask. Some of us liked it more than others.
Then we headed out to try to see the Northern Lights. This is what we got. Actually, in real life we could see them a bit, but they were totally not as impressive as they can sometimes be. But it was freezing out, so I was kind of OK with it.
Trusty Reykjavik Excursions bus again the next day, this time for the Golden Circle tour.
We started out at Gulfoss. Purty, huh? Fun Fact Time: "Foss" means "falls" in Icelandic.
Then on to the geysers. Strokkur is the most active at the site. Fun Fact Time: The Strokkur geyser was cleaned out in 1963 and has been erupting every 3-5 minutes ever since.
This is the geyser called Geysir. Fun Fact Time: We get the English word "geyser" from this famous geyser, "Geysir". Bet you never thought I could use that word that many times in such a short space. Geysir is supposed to erupt about every 10 minutes, but apparently it was on break when we were there. Lame. We're going back to Strokkur.
Strokkur is the coolest, in my opinion. It forms a bubble at the top for a split-second, then explodes.
It also looks cool from far away.
Here's a video of the geyser exploding.
Awww. Me and Mika are SO cute, eh?
Oooooh, pretty scenery!
Then back on the bus and on our way to Thingvellir, the site of Iceland's first Parliament and also where the North American and European tectonic plates touch. Fun Fact Time: Iceland's Parliament, Althingi, was formed in 930 AD and was the first Parliament in the world. Interestingly, it was right at the point where the tectonic plates meet, which is a little symbolic, eh? More Fun Facts: These tectonic plates are slowly drifting apart, making Iceland 2.5 cm bigger each year.
And that's all, for now. I love that place, though, so I'm sure I'll be back someday.
