Iceland Adventure, Part 1

Perhaps I should get back to chronicling my adventures. All of my two fans will be excited.

I've been traveling in Europe for a bit over a month now. G and I were traveling together until he finally had to go home to go back to work. In fact, today is his first day at work in a month. Good luck, G.

I, on the other hand, have about two weeks left of my trip. I decided to stay a bit extra in Europe because I wanted to see Scandinavia. G doesn't like cold places, so he had no problem with me going out on my own to discover Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

Which leads us to here and now. Here is Reykjavik, Iceland. Now is Monday, October 7th.

I arrived in Reykjavik on Saturday in the afternoon. I already had my bus into the city booked, so all I had to do was find it and get on (which was not that hard since the airport is fairly small).

I was dropped off at the BSI bus station and walked the rest of the way to the hostel. Of the five beds in the room, I got the worst. The other beds consist of a mattress with a bottom sheet and pillow case. My bed consisted of box springs and a 2-inch thick foam mattress. No bottom sheet. No pillow case. This "mattress" doesn't even fit properly on the bed; it's 4 or 5 inches short in both directions. And this is where I'm supposed to sleep. For 4 nights. I kid you not.

That afternoon, I put on more layers. Because 4 wasn't enough. I walked towards the giant church, Hallgrímskirkja, then down into the city center. I didn't make it that far before hunger got the best of me, and I turned my attention to finding food.

I couldn't find the cheaper Bonus supermarket (whose mascot is a very porky porker reminiscent of a piggy bank), so I settled for a store advertising its status as a 24 hour store. I made some excellent purchases: ramen noodles, American-style popcorn, and a very expensive cheesy croissant. It turns out that the expensive cheesy croissant had a slice of ham baked in. Not cool, Iceland - hiding meat inside a pastry and then naming it some outlandish Icelandic name that probably translates to "croissant with ham inside" but means nothing to a very hungry vegetarian with a penchant for croissants.

I did not purchase the $5 croissantwich in vain, however. The next day, I sat in the sun by the lake behind city hall and fed it to some greedy swans and ducks. I hope they appreciated the little something extra.