Advertisement
Published: June 28th 2010
Edit Blog Post
My Icelandic pal Osk claims was the Topas that kept me from feeling too lousy when I finally hauled myself out of bed at noon. She and the girls insisted i down a shot of the salty licorice-flavoured booze with them - an Icelandic specialty that riffs off the excellent locally made candy. It was one of the more vile alcoholic things I've ever tasted and for me, as you know, that's saying something.
It's about 11C and overcast, My hotel is a short walk to the centre of town the main street, Laugavegur. Just about everything was closed and the streets were quiet - a few tourists and some cats. There are kitties - most of them black - all over the place. They are magnificently aloof. The incredible Hallgrimskirkja Church dominated the view - a futuristic structure that looks like a spaceship at the start of liftoff. I'm fascinated by it and hope to get inside tomorrow - it was closed for services when I was exploring Sunday. No nosy tourists, we're Lutheran. I ended up back at the park that was the scene of some of our adventures last night and had breakfast/lunch at the Paris cafe -
croque monsieur and another cup of that amazing coffee. Then I wandered towards the port and a large indoor flea market. It was a chance to hang with locals and a ton of fun. Lots of used clothing - this is where shoulder pads go to die. It was an 80s elephant graveyard. But there were some finds, like the great chunky 70s necklace I picked up for a song. Lady asked for 3,900 kronur ($31 Cdn) and I got her down to 3,000 ($24). This may be the only deal I score here, so I savoured it. Of course there was the local equivalent of the Vege-matic guy, and instead of the smoked sausage sample lady, it was a dude handing out shards of smoked shark - which is eaten here like Pringles. I tried some and found it, well, like chewy fish bits. The cats would lose their minds over this stuff.
I stopped to admire some lava and precious stone jewellery and the artist turned out to be from Portland Ore. Her name is Andrea Ellen and I was knocked out by her stuff. She spoke fluent Icelandic to customers (at least it sounded fluent to me)
shoes for sale
Good price -300 kronur is about $2.50 and then switched to English. She married an Icelander and picked up the language in just two years here. I picked up two pair of earrings from her. After a day of pawing through the clothes and exploring, I was feeling peckish - a shard of shark didn't cut it. Just outside the market is Reykjavik's favourite place to eat - the famous Baejarins bestu. What kind of food? My friends, it's a hot dog cart. Locals lose their minds over hot dogs - called pylsa. The skinny sausages are pretty good - the skins burst when you bite in, like a knackwurst. It comes topped with fried onions, ketchup, remoulade sauce and (oh no! sweet and savoury) am ultra-sweet mild brown mustard-like sauce. And yes, Bill Clinton ate here. Like, where hasn't that guy eaten?
More walking and exploring, another coffee (I admit it, I'm an addict and now a slave to the local brew) and and then sleeping mask on for an early night. Tomorrow, I am off to explore the Golden Circle.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.432s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 10; qc: 58; dbt: 0.1423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ósk
non-member comment
Tópas
Now you can show everyone in Kanada how Topas tastes like.... Loved the chicken vase ;)