Reykjavik Day 1

Hi everyone,

I'm here in Iceland. I left last night out of Boston and we had a pretty uneventful flight. Icelandair is a pretty nice airline with entertainment systems in the back of all seats, plus a USB charger to keep your iPod/iPhone charged up. The plane was completely full, mostly due to a group of soccer teams heading over to Sweden for the Gothia Cup. I really wished a had window seat because as we went north over Canada and dropped down near Greenland, the sun was rising in the middle of the night. Apparently you could also see Greenland all lit up in the rising sun. I might try to switch my seat on the way back if there are any available.
We got into Iceland just about on time, 6:30 local time. Customs was a breeze and after finding out a few others on my plane were also with my group, we all headed over to the bank to exchange money and buy bus tickets. The bus ride was about 30 minutes long to a central bus station and then we transferred to a smaller bus to take us to our hotel.
The people at the front desk were great. We weren't supposed to check in until 2PM but they maneuvered rooms so that we could all get settled.
I unpacked and took a nap for a few hours (something I will likely regret tonight and tomorrow but necessary!) and then headed out to wander around. This is one of two free days I have so I wanted to see some parts of the city that I might not get the chance to see again. I walked a good distance up and down little side streets.
Compared to the US (and every other major city I've been through in the world), Reykjavik is very small and the population is low. It's a very pedestrian friendly city and drivers will slam on their brakes if they see you waiting to cross the street.
It's also, an incredibly clean city. There are garbage cans and recycling bins everywhere and I passed no fewer than 20 people cleaning the streets while I was walking.
I'm going to attempt to upload some pictures I took today but our internet connection is painfully slow so I'm not sure how many I'll get up.
Debating about whether to head to the University (about 1/2 mile away) for this public event that they leaders of our trip are having. I'm thinking I'm going to just hang out here and go to bed early! We start classes tomorrow at 9AM and go all day with a poster session in the evening.

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Part of trip: Iceland

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