Waiting to get out of the city

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We have arrived in Iceland after maybe one of the worst flights we have ever had, the turbulence was terrible over Sweden and Norway with the plane jumping around but we made it safe and sound to rainy Reykjavik. We were a little surprised by how little to do in the city there is, just seems a place to stay a night or two before heading out into the country. We were greeted by our wonderful hosts on arrival into the city who told us all about the country and the economy crash that happened here which is still a fairly hot topic. For the afternoon of our arrival we did not get up to much really and I guess we visited most of the places of interest in the capital.

The next day we were into the city fairly early and walked around trying to find things to do before meeting up with ours hosts in the afternoon and we were lucky enough too bumped into a free walking tour. It was perfect for us (and the 80 other travelers) with the leader telling everything about the history, politics, trolls, first Icelandic female lesbian Prime Minister in Europe (if not the world) and a lot of funny stories. So after this we were very confident that we had seen and learnt a great deal of the city but we were now waiting to try the tasting side of the country.

This is when we meet up with our host’s to go and get first some shark. Now this is not any shark but one that was caught, buried in the ground for six months, dug up and there you have it. What you get is a chewy white meat with what looks like fur growing on it, smells terrible (like fish that has been in the sun for twothree days) but did not taste that bad considering. Well our poor host, Ari was very close to throwing it back up but us to managed to keep it down.

Next on the menu to be cooked at home was whale. Well this is a hot topic in Iceland with the whaling but it is traditional food so we had to give it a go. Really dark red meat which is cooked for only 35 seconds one side and then 36 seconds on the other so it is still very red in the middle. We have never had anything like it, nothing at all is close to it but we both enjoyed it very much. Diana who normally doesn’t have meat unless well done even enjoyed it so that is saying something. But with Iceland heading into the EU next year it seems that it may be the end of the whaling here with mixed opinions all over the place.

So that is pretty much it for Reykjavik, tomorrow we are heading into the country which we have been excited for quite some time to see some wonderful nature.

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