Arrival in the Land of Fire and Ice

---

After that long and tiring day of exploring New York, I was hoping to get some sleep on the flight from New York to Reykjavik. As my luck would have it, I probably got no more than 1 hour of sleep. Maybe it was the excitement of finally going to Iceland that prevented me from sleeping. As we descended into Reykjavik, the first thing you noticed while looking out the windows was how desolate and lunar the landscape appeared. Keflavik Airport is located well outside the city center so taking a taxi would not be a very econmical choice for us. Luckily, there were airport shuttles that transported arriving passengers into the city almost an hour away. The weather this morning in Reykjavik was sunny and a bit on the warm side. Definitely a far cry from the chilly cold weather that I was expecting. Driving from the airport to Reykjavik, you immediately notice the lack of trees in the area. Most likely because of the high lattitude as well as the volcanic rocks that cover much of the landscape. The shuttle dropped us off at the bus station where we would transfer to a smaller van due to the narrowness of the street where our hotel was located. Hotel Fron was our home for the next 2 nights and is located on Laugavegur Street, Reykjavik's main drag for shopping and nightlife. We left our bags with the front desk since our room was not yet ready and decided to stroll around in order to get our bearings. It was a Sunday morning and there wasn't very many people walking around Laugavegur. We were looking for someplace to have breakfast and realized that not many places were open. It turns out that on Sundays, most establishments didn't open until noon. We found a small store and purchased some beverages in order to quench our thirst before deciding to walk towards the ocean which we were able to see from Laugavegur. Arriving at the water's edge, there wasn't much to see. However we did see the Solfar sculpture not too far away. One of the icons of Reykjavik, the Solfar is a steel sculpture in the shape of a viking ship. It was a beautiful piece of art that seemed to sum up the spirit of Iceland but at this early hour and on such low energy, it was a bit hard to fully appreciate it. We killed some time climbing the scupture and posing for photos before deciding to walk back to the hotel to see if our room was ready.

After settling into our room overlooking Laugavegur, our first objective was to find somewhere to have lunch. We walked back up and down Laugavegur before just settling on lunch at the hotel restaurant. Being that it was a nice sunny day here in Reykjavik, we chose to sit on the outdoor patio. I was trying to order something typically Icelandic but ended up ordering the fish soup. It was such a relaxing and enjoyable lunch sitting outside until a group of American guys probably in their early 20's decided to show up. Judging by their accents, I would guess that they were from New Jersey or perhaps Boston. These guys were so obnoxious and seemed to take great pride in being drunk and all were determined to outdo each other with stories of their personal experiences with cocaine. From what I was able to gather, they were embarking on a backpacking trip through Europe. I could not help but shudder at the thought of these idiots being ambassadors for my country. After lunch, we continued exploring further down Laugavegur. Eventually we ended up at Austur Vollur Square, a square consisting of grassy lawns and surrounded by 2 of the most important buildings in Iceland. The warm weather brought many locals out to enjoy today's weather as the square was packed with people relaxing and sunbathing on the grassy lawns. Still very much sleep deprived, we just staked out a spot with the locals and enjoyed the sunny day. With the sleep deprivation and jet lag setting in, we went back to the hotel where all 3 of us just crashed. I was able to get in a small nap before waking up feeling a little ancy to go out exploring a little more. Vita and Shea were both asleep so I decided to venture out on my on. With no real destination in mind, I wandered down Laugavegur again. On one of the streets leading off Laugavegur was the Hallgrimskirkja Church, a Lutheran church that is one of the city's main landmarks. It was a bit of an uphill walk but I decided to check it out. Standing in front of the church was a statue of Leif Ericson, the first European to set foot in North America more than 500 years before Columbus. The church itself is said to have been designed to resemble the volcanic basalt columns that can be found throughout Iceland. The rest of the evening was spent just lounging around in the hotel room falling in and out of naps. We knew that since it was June and being so far north, we would have an extended period of daylight than we are normally used to. With the extended daylight hours, we completely lost all perception of time. It wasn't getting dark so we didn't even think about getting dinner. It wasn't until about 10:30 that we realized we should find dinner. We decided to find a tapas restaurant that we saw an advertisement for in a local newspaper. While walking to dinner at 11:00pm, we were all amazed and fascinated at the amount of daylight that was still out. At the tapas restaurant, we decided to try a few delicacies that none of us had ever tried. Smoked puffin, which is a bird common in Iceland and sort of resembles a penguin, was one of the tapas which we ordered. I found it to be okay but neither of the girls liked it very much. We also ordered kangaroo meat which we all thought to be very good. Who would have thought that our first night in Iceland, we would be drinking pitchers of Sangria at a tapas restaurant and eating kangaroo! After dinner, it was almost 12:30am and we were still wandering around downtown amazed at the amount of light still out. Not ready to go back to the hotel, we decided to stop in a bar called The English Pub for a few drinks. We only stayed for about 30 minutes where we tried an Icelandic beer called Viking while enjoying the live band.

---