Wednesday, July 12, 2023

The sun never set during our polar-route flight from SEA > KEF. This is a shot we got over Greenland in the middle of the night.

Landed in Iceland to beautiful clear views. And had a fun time watching our shadow on the moonscape.

Despite the lack of sleep on the redeye (per uzhe) I felt pretty alert and oriented when we landed. That is until we tried to navigate our way to the Flybus counter. Obviously one would follow signs to baggage claim to find ground transportation, but for some reason the fact that you have to walk through the A-gates terminal to get to baggage claim was highly confusing to my sleep-deprived self. But we got there eventually and it was really easy to use. We had pre-purchased our r/t tickets to take advantage of a savings code, so we just had to go get in line next to the big bus. I got this one picture in before I fell asleep for the remainder of the ~45 minute journey to the central bus station in Reykjavik.

That would be a plume of smoke coming from the volcano that had just erupted a couple of days earlier. Per the Icelandic Meteorlogical Office, “there was a 200-meter (656 feet) long fissure on the slopes of the Litli Hrútur mountain, ‘from which lava is emerging as a series of fountains.'” We never saw it up close; you had to hike several hours to get to a safe vantage point to see the lava, or spend hundreds of dollars on a helicopter ride.

At the central bus terminal in Reykjavik Flybus divided us into little vans based on the locations of our hotels, then it was maybe a 5-10 minute ride to the Hilton. Nice hotel, nothing out of the ordinary for a Hilton. On check-in we were surprised to hear we would get complimentary breakfasts in the morning “due to our status”. Ummm… we don’t have that kind of Hilton status, but OK. Room was clean, comfortable, well-appointed, blah, blah, blah. Best part – FREE using Hilton points. Travel hacking saved us $320!

The only downside of the hotel was it was a bit of a walk into the central part of Reykjavik. Not terribly far, but far enough that the idea of walking 15-20 minutes for food made us sacrifice a little judgment. We were starving and in big need of a nap. The nice gal at the Hilton front desk said if we walked across the street we would find a couple of fast food type options. What did we find? A burger joint with a severely concerning name.

Yes, we ate there. Nothing bad, nothing great. But yes, $40 for two burgers, fries, and drinks. Yes, the trope about food in Iceland being expensive is true.

We were done with our lunch around 12:30 and our next scheduled event was a food tour at 16:00. We napped HARD. When the alarm went off I must have still been in REM sleep. But we made it out the door and had a lovely walk into town, partly along the glorious (albeit windy) waterfront.

The meeting place for our tour was Harpa, the city’s concert hall. We were a few minutes early and had the pleasure of walking around for a bit. Gorgeous building and lived up to the hype. Especially on this gorgeous day with all of the light streaming in.

The basalt columns design took me back to my Giant’s Causeway visit in 2011…

OK, highlight of the day… FOOD TOUR! Much anticipated. We did our first food tour in Mexico City last year, and loved it so much we expect to do them regularly and was an immediate point of research for Reykjavik during our planning. The only one I found was from Wake Up Reykjavik but since it was so highly rated I didn’t hesitate to book it. I also found this YouTuber’s video on it which helped sell it. And the cost seemed reasonable – I think we paid $120 for the 3ish hours, and made 5 stops. Considering how expensive food is in Iceland (remember the $40 for 2 at that meh burger joint earlier today?), this seemed really reasonable.

Our guide had one of those Icelandic names that English-speaking people can’t handle, so he told us to just call him “Day”. He said this was his side hustle on the weekends, and that during the week he’s a sportscaster interviewer. He said he has a “famous hand”… for holding the mic in shots. Glad he clarified.

First stop: Fjallkonan. Lovely place with a big outdoor patio and beautifully appointed interior. We sampled their Lamb & flatbread, and their Arctic char & blini. Small bites, but this is a marathon.

Second stop: Messinn. Here we had generous portions of their Icelandic Plokkfiskur with Bearnaise Sauce, and their Arctic Char. Both were super tasty but everyone was particularly wow’d by the Char. For an extra fee Scott and I ordered cocktails which were also super tasty and helped wake me up a bit. We were offered rye bread, but I passed worried it would fill me up too fast.

Third stop: Baejarins Beztu Pylsur aka the famous hot dog stand. Here was the best part of this stop today – we were offered a coupon for a free hot dog for another day if we wanted. And yes, we wanted because we could already feel the fullness coming on after the last stop and knew we had two other stops to go!

Fourth Stop: Islenski Barinn aka The Icelandic Bar. Thanks to the internet I knew this was where we would get to try fermented shark if we wanted. I’m usually game for weird tastes so I knew going in that I was doing it. Scott, however, completely surprised me when he said yes, too! It might have helped his interest that the traditional way to do this (for an additional cost) was pair it with Brennivin. Day educated us that this was the moderate level of fermentation for the shark, and it comes in milder and rougher forms in other places. We were instructed to chew it a minimum of 5 times to get the flavor, then follow with the shot. Basically the shark just smelled and tasted like ammonia, or pee if you prefer that visual. The Brennivin immediately removed the flavor from my mouth, kind of like how a pickleback works.

After that, we each had a small beer and a lovely bowl of hearty lamb stew.

I just looked at their menu online and saw that they offer other dishes with fin whale, reindeer, sheep’s head, or puffin if you want to be a monster. No judgment.

Fifth stop: Cafe Loki. I 100% failed to take any pics at this place, so I’ve stolen one from the internet. Two best things about this place are the view and the rye bread ice cream. The ice cream was good, like super good. They also gave us what I think they called a Kleinur which is a traditional donut that grandparents serve, and like what a lot of grandparents serve it was too dry for my taste.

The view from our top-floor table was of Hallgrimskirkja, the famous Lutheran church that you see on any internet search of Reykjavik. We didn’t go inside today but the structure is really beautiful. And although Reykjavik itself is pretty flat, they managed to place this perfectly on the one hill to give it a lovely, iconic vibe to be seen from pretty much everywhere. Oh and we took a group photo from the food tour here.

Small world moment – one of the women on this tour has 9 Instagram friends in common with my friend Erin. And they’re both liberals from Kentucky. Maybe there are only 10 liberals in Kentucky and that’s why they know the same people.

Here are some random photos we took that day of art that caught our attention:

Overall a fantastic first day in a new city. Clean spaces. Fresh air. Beautiful weather. Full bellies.

We walked back to the hotel and crashed. Unfortunately I didn’t fall asleep until around 2:00 AM thanks to time zones. Thank gawd for friends in earlier time zones to keep me company (shout out to Kelly and Erin).