Iceland - Day 5: Reykjavik

Wednesday June 14, 2017

I woke up early again today; laid in bed for a good while before I couldn't handle it anymore and started getting ready, which woke John up. It was a quick morning routine for us because we didn't have to pack up the tent and gear. We decided to explore the city on foot until around 2 or 3 pm so we could come back to the campground, finish laundry, pack up, and head over to our overnight stay near the airport. All we had to do was get ready, eat breakfast, pack a lunch, and head out.

We took the waterfront path to the Sun Voyager sculpture. It's a nice paved path and has an adjacent pathway designated for bicyclist. We saw a lot of people exercising and commuting to work on foot and bike. The weather was a little brisk, especially since my jeans hadn't dried all the way the night before haha, but felt good as we walked. The waterfront is really pretty and kind of reminded me of Vancouver. A cool wind blowing off the ocean, clean fresh air, and a pretty cityscape to boot.

The Sun Voyager isn't anything super special, just one of those "must see" things in Reykjavik. It is set on a killer backdrop though. It also wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it would be. After going to NYC and seeing the throngs of people lined up to snap a picture with the Charging Bull and Love sculpture I was expecting something similar here. Not so with good ole Iceland. No standing in lines, hardly anyone was even there. It was nice.

We continued on the waterfront to the Harpa, Iceland's version of the Sidney Opera House. This building was surprisingly awesome. I had heard the architecture was cool, but thought it'd just be something we looked at as we passed by. It was really was cool though and the place is open to the public, so you can just waltz in and wonder around looking it everything.

The building is made up of what looks like hexoganal prisms. It's very pretty and so unique. The inside is made up of lots of dark tiles and black concrete, which gives a super sleek look. We stayed in there for a while just looking around.

Possibly the funniest part of the day was coming upon a hallway full of OLED TV screens with rotating images of Iceland scenery and wildlife. It was an advertisement for the TV's, but I will admit, the images looked very impressive and beautiful. The best part was there were a handful of Asian tourists snapping photos of each new pictures as it rotated through! I could barely keep it together haha! SOOOOOO funny!

Next we were thinking of going to the Viking Maritime Museum, but after researching it a bit we realized the museum is about the history of fishing in Iceland, not about Vikings. So we changed our minds on that one. We decided to walk up there anyways though, and I'm happy we did because it kept us on the waterfront and took us through this cute little fishing district.

After reaching the museum we decided to cut into the city center and visit the famous Hallgrimskirkja, a Lutheran parish church. On the walk over we cut through Reykjavik's version of Central Park and stumbled on another smaller church that was very quaint. The architecture was very clean cut, almost plain looking, even the stain glass windows were organizes and geometrical. We really liked it though. Very Scandinavian, like if IKEA made a church haha.

Hallgrimskirkja didn't disappoint either. Again it was very clean cut and simple, but it has a cool Norse-esque architecture. It's also the largest church in Iceland and one of the tallest structures in Reykjavik.

They were tuning the organ while we were there too, and both of us always find those instruments impressive. We sat inside for a while enjoying the building and the sounds emanating from the pipes. It also felt good to rest our feet for a bit after walking all morning.

The last thing we did in the city was walk down the famous Laugavegar road full of shops and restaurants. A tourist trap if I've ever seen one haha. Gotta do it though. We stopped in a cool store with information on Icelandic reindeer. They were, of course, selling items made of reindeer, but the shop was almost like a museum,  and we enjoyed browsing around. We also dropped into the famed 66 North store (similar to Patagonia). Oh man. Talk about pricey. It was fun playing the "guess the price" game, but we definitely didn't belong there and so didn't stay very long. We were pretty pooped by this point so didn't stop into any other stores.

Had to take a picture with this gem

And in front of this storefront too because "Kron" is a nickname John's family gave us, though it never really did catch on...

On our way back to the campground we made a quick pit stop at the Hofdi house where the famed Reykjavik Summit was held. In 1986 Reagan meet with Gorbachev here and it is famed as being the beginning of the end of the Cold War. A cool little piece of history.

Back at camp we were both really tired, but were able to finally finish up our laundry, pack everything up, and head out. Originally we planned to camp again that night at a site just minutes from the airport. The weather called for rain though, and the last thing I wanted to do was have to pack up a wet tent early in the morning. Instead we hoped on our phones and found a nice hotel for cheap at a small town named Grindavik, just a few minutes away from the Blue Lagoon.

We drove over that way, checked into our hotel, and then hoped back in the car to go find Bryggjan, a restaurant I read about with good reviews. This restaurant turned out to be a really cute hole-in-the-wall type place. We walked in to find handball playing on a projector and a handful of locals inside watching. The menu was written on a small whiteboard hanging by the door. Options were Coffee, Tea, Bread, four flavors of pie, and two flavors of Soup. Awesome. We got the Lobster Soup and the Lamb Soup, I told the guy behind the counter (only guy in the shop) and he handed me two bowls and pointed to a small table where two thermoses of soup sat, some bread in a basket, individually packaged butter, silverware, cups, and pitchers of water. It was a help yourself type place with the option to get refills. Totally Awesome.

Both soup flavors were soooo good. The Lamb Soup was like a beef stew and I think my favorite. The Lobster soup was very rich and a bit fatty and salty. Super good though, especially when dipping in your bread. We had to go back for seconds and then decided to try a slice of pie as well. After looking them over we chose the Caramel Cream Meringue. Dude. So good. Melt in your mouth deliciousness. It was a huge piece too. No regrets haha. The owner was nice and chatted with us a bit before we paid and left for the hotel.

After camping every night on the island it was definitely nice having an evening in a comfy hotel bed. We were able to neatly pack our bags, relax, watch some TV, shower, and sleep like rocks in preparation of our early flight the following morning.

Funny Things:

• Our 7:30 am flight the next day made for a pretty early morning. We had to wake up at 4:45 to allow time to make the 25 min drive to the airport, return the car, get checked in, go through security, and have a comfortable buffer for our international flight. Pretty much everything went without a hiccup; but after returning the rental car we ended up waiting for the shuttle from the car place to the airport for about 10-15 minuets only to find out that the bus shuttled us maybe 300 yards to the airport entrance haha.
• After getting through security we had a bit of leftover Icelandic cash, so decided to blow it all on the ridiculously priced airport food for some breakfast. John said he had a 10,000 Krona bill in his wallet and a couple hundred in coins. So we browsed for a bit, choosing our food items very carefully so as not to go over budget, but use up everything we had. We got up to the cash register to find the 10,000 Kr bill was actually just a 5,000 Kr bill. We didn't want to be those people hastily putting food back, so ended up just paying with the credit card haha.
• While purchasing our food I guess I had laid my passport down near the cash register. We were turning to leave and a kind gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to it, otherwise I totally would have left it there. Yikes!
• So, we were walking for 3-5 minutes trying to find our terminal when an airport worker tapped John on the shoulder asking his name. He stated it to her and she proceeded to hand him his credit card! He had left it in the card reader after purchasing our food.
• Once to our terminal we had to go through a passport check and the people informed us that our flight was actually delayed two hours..... of course it was.
• We made camp near our gate and about an hour later were called to the service desk and issued 20,000 Kr vouchers to purchase food.... I mean yay, but we wished we hadn't already spent money on breakfast. *sigh
• So we went and browsed some more, looking for snacks we could take on the plane and have later in the day for lunch and stuff. We were very very careful this time, whipping out our calculators, checking, double checking, and triple checking; doing everything so as not to go over budget. Welp I waltzed right up to the cash register, laid my food down, and handed over my voucher. 300 Kr over. Of course. So I hastily flagged John down and grabbed the 5,000 bill he had. Talk about a rough morning. I mean how does this even happen? I even went back into the store to find a spoon and check the price tag on the stupid item that went over and the sign stated it was the original price I had budgeted for. So either it was priced wrong, or the cash register rang it up wrong.
• By this point we only had a few hundred Kr left in coins so John went back in and used it all by purchasing a coke. Long story short... we were a mess at the airport haha!