I got back last night from Iceland. Since I didn't bring a computer while there, and internet access was 200 krona for 15 minutes (which is less than it sounds like, since there are 126 krona/US dollar), I decided to rely on my memory and do the whole trip in one long post.
Day 1
Erika and I got in to Reykjavik at about 8am on Fri. The owners of the bed and breakfast we stayed at were quite nice, and fed us breakfast, and let us keep our bags there. Then, we set out to explore the city. We did this a bit slowly, since I was still recovering from bronchitis. We first went to Hallgrimskirkja, which is a church by our hotel. Unfortunately, the tower is under construction, but, fortunately, we could go up in it anyway. There's a huge organ in the church, and Erika went there to hear a concert (I opted for a nap, cause I was quite tired). There were great views from the top of the tower.
We discovered that Reykjavik has a few oddities. There are lots of statues scattered all over town. I captured about a quarter of what we saw. Also, there are people who dress up or paint themselves in different colors and wander around. I got pictures of the white people, but there were also people in red who biked by, who I didn't get my camera out in time for. There's also apparently a place in Reykjavik where you can go to lose a horse, or, perhaps, to find a horse you've lost.
That was about all I was up for on day 1. The combination of bronchitis and flight and time change did me in, and I went to bed around 8 -- well before the sunset at 1am.
Day 2
The next day, we bundled up and headed to the harbor for a whale watching tour. Although the tour was called a whale watching tour, and we did see a few minke whales, I was really on the lookout for puffin. I became quite a fan during the trip, and almost all the souvenirs I got were puffin-related. So brace yourself for lots of puffin pictures, plus pictures of a few other Icelandic birds, with just a few whale backs thrown in.
After the whale (and puffin) watching tour, we wandered around a bit and headed back to the hotel. Again well before the sunset at 1am. I actually never saw the sun not in the sky (or the sky not with sun somewhere behind the cloudiness in the sky) the entire week I was in Iceland.
Day 3
On the third day, we decided to explore the other side of Reykjavik. Each of the first two days, we'd headed down to the harbor area. On this day, we headed in the opposite direction, toward the Botanical Gardens and the zoo. It rained a bit on our way there, which was annoying to be walking in, but worked out well for the pictures -- I'd read a book about taking pictures that had a tip of bringing a water bottle with you, to spritz flowers. Since I didn't do this, the flowers in the pictures are naturally wet, from the rain we walked through to get to the garden.
We didn't realize how big Reykjavik is! We ended up walking about an hour to get to the gardens, wandering through them, peaking in at the zoo (it was over 500 kronir to get in, and we weren't sure we wanted to see the zoo that much), and then heading back in the direction we thought would get us to our hotel. We ended up at a shopping mall instead, where we took a break, before wandering back to the hotel.
Day 4
After all that walking, we decided to take a break the next day, and went to the Blue Lagoon. This is a truly weird place. I didn't take any pictures of it, since I wasn't sure my camera would mix well with sulfery hotsprings, but you can see a shot here, from Wiki:
As you can see, there are hot springs, with a power plant in the background. The whole thing was actually a pretty relaxing experience (I think I fell asleep a few times). It was pretty crowded, but the whole place was so big it didn't feel that crowded. However, Erika and I had the second glimpse of how small Reykjavik is. We saw a couple from our bed and breakfast for the second time. (We'd also seen them on the whale and puffin tour). This was later followed by seeing a couple the next day who'd been at an Indian restaurant we went to, which was followed by seeing a group of people from a tour we went on walking down the street a day after the tour, which was followed by seeing someone who'd been at Geyser at an Italian restaurant we went to. It was quite odd. Granted, there are a limited set of things most tourists probably do, but that's the case in a lot of places, and I don't usually keep seeing people I recognize!
Day 5
The day after the Blue Lagoon, we went on a part of the Golden Circle tour. This is a circle of neat things to see around Reykjavik. Since we did just a part, our tour was more of a Golden Line tour. We first went to Pingvellir, which was the first national park in Iceland. It was also the setting of the first parliament in Iceland. It was a really pretty place, but with lots of bugs. I'm not sure I'd have picked it as a place for the government to meet, just because of all the bugs.
All of Iceland is on a series of volcanoes, and you can see a gap in the earth at Pingvellir. Keeping the tradition of the government meeting there, the prime minister has a summer home there.
After Pingvellir, we stopped at Geyser. The town is named after (and primarily composed of) some geysers. One of the geysers is named geyser, and is the source of the word geyser for geysers. However, this geyser isn't that active anymore. Instead, a neighboring geyser is the active geyser, and currently geysers about ever 10 minutes or so. The whole area is sort of reminiscent of parts of Yellowstone. However, in Iceland, there's more green by the geysers, and you're allowed to go up much closer to them. Not too much of the area was roped off.
After Geyser, we went to Gulfoss, where there's a huge waterfall. It's also pretty close to a snowy area with mountains around it. There were also several mysterious piles of rocks in the area. I'm not sure who made them or why, but I took pictures of them.
Day 6
For our last full day in Iceland, we decided to brave the public bus system. We'd actually wanted to brave it for our Golden Line tour, but it looked like the buses just went to the stops we wanted to go to once a day. Since staying over night in each place to catch the bus to the next wouldn't work, we went with the tour option.
For our braving of the public bus, we headed to Esja, a mountain just outside of Reykjavik that's popular to hike up. I'm not sure if the clock on the bus was rigged, but the first bus we took was supposed to leave the stop at 10:18. According to the clock, as we pulled out of the stop, it was 10:18. There must be some button the driver pushes to make it look like the bus is on time!
We had a wait for our second bus, and used the time to get some candy, so we had exact change for the bus on the way back. (The driver won't make change).
Then, we got to Esja. There's a pretty clearly marked path to go up it, but the path gets pretty steep in some places. I got about a third of the way up, and started coughing, which seemed like a handy excuse to head back down. Erika got about half way up, and then the trail map indicated that the path required two hiking boots (although I'd think the whole path would require that, but the hiking boots were a measure of the difficulty of the path), so she headed back down. She got high enough up to see snow, and get quite misted on.
The whole area reminded me of 2L, since it was filed with all sorts of purple flowers.
After making our way back to Reykjavik (after successfully flagging down the bus driver, thanks to a helpful tip on where to stand (not in the bus shelter) from the first bus driver), we decided we deserved some ice cream. We wandered around a bit, looking for a good spot, and settled on Cafe Paris. Out the window was a view of a gargoley sort of guy. Also out the window was a view of one of the guests of our bed and breakfast, walking by, which made Reykjavik seem quite small again. On our way back to the hotel, we passed an odd yard, filled with heads and weird sculptures.
And that's my trip to Iceland in one blog post. My cough is much better now, suggesting that a good way to help bronchitis may be to take a trip to Iceland.
