Reykjavík, Iceland

A whirlwind last 48 hours, but we made it to Paris!

Our flight from JFK to Keflavik was smooth, and I am very impressed by Icelandair for how cheap flights were! Each seat has a TV screen, & at the beginning & end of the flight they play Icelandic music & scroll through facts about why Iceland is great. Ex: The prime ministers number is in the phonebook; The most popular restaurant is a hot dog stand; The most popular dish is rotten cured shark meat (even though Mexican seems very popular…there was fajita seasoning in the market we went to), etc. We were able to sleep a little bit, but not until today have I felt well-rested.

Arrive at Keflavik at 5:45am local time, hopped in a taxi towards Reykjavík & had a lovely conversation with the driver. The drive was breathtaking – the calm ocean on one side & rocky hillside on the other. He told us we were driving on the fault line, and that when we left the airport we were on the Eurasian plate & as we got closer to Reykjavík we moved onto the North American plate. Cool! & thanks to my one semester of Geoscience, I understood what he was talking about. P.s. all throughout this drive the sun was rising. It was the most beautiful ride from an airport I have ever been on.

7:00am – Arrive at hostel, where we discover there are no extra beds at the moment & we can’t check-in until 2. New plan: power through it. So we left our bags at the front desk, popped on some walking shoes, and headed out into the city. (pop. 200,000) I will let pictures document our morning:

Funny storefront in a main square

Hello ocean

Hallgrímskirkja (Church)

View of Reykjavik from top of Church - note all the colors in the houses & buildings

More Reykjavik

At 11am we trudged back to the hostel & thank god – there were 2 extra beds. We slept. At 3pm we woke up hungry & went to a café for some amazing hot chocolate & a savory spinach & cheese crêpe. 

The café was reminded us of an Icelandic version of River Road. No frozens, but the decor was artsy & it was definitely a popular place to hang out or do work. I could have stayed there all day, but we picked up our things & headed to city hall. The city hall is on a pond, & on steps nearby there were several moms & kids feeding a plethora of ducks, swans and other birds (so cute). Inside housed a HUGE topographical model of the country of Iceland! I loved it & MK called me out for being a nerd :)

To quickly wrap things up - we walked around a lot more & went to an English pub to watch the Liverpool/Brighton game, had an Icelandic beer, & headed back to the hostel to get a few hours of sleep in before our 4am wake-up call for the airport shuttle. More on the craziness of getting to Paris later or demain!
Plans for today: Musée d'Orsay & French phones
Demain: Versailles!!!

bises