Reykjavik to San Francisco

The final leg of our trip was the flight from Reykjavik to San Francisco airport. We flew WOW Air, a budget Icelandic airline.

After waiting for a mechanical problem to be corrected, we were in the air and on our way home. G mostly snoozed, and I mostly binge-watched Netflix shows I had downloaded in the Reykjavik airport.

About 8 1/2 hour later, we were on the ground in San Francisco. Tired and hungry and sore from sitting so long, we stumbled off the plane and into the airport. After waiting our way through the immigration line, we emerged in the airport.

We caught an Uber and made it home by 11PM. Exhausted, I went straight to sleep. I had work the next day.

Last Day in Reykjavik

On this day, our last in Reykjavik, we woke up and ate the included breakfast at the hotel.

After packing up or bags, we headed out into the city to see Reykjavik in daylight. The highlight of the walk was stepping inside the performance hall, Harpa. I'd spent several days in Reykjavik in 2013, but I'd never been to Harpa before.

Harpa has one of the most interesting architectural styles in the city. While blocky and dark from the outside, it is light and colorful on the inside. The geometric windows create patterns of light on the floor. There are souvenir shops on the bottom floor, but as you ascent the levels of stairs, sounds of musicians practicing reach your ears. These musicians are practicing for concerts, likely later in the day. Unfortunately, we didn't have more time. If we had, we might have stayed to listen to one of the rehearsals. As it was, we had to return the car by 4PM, and we still wanted to stop by the Viking World museum near the airport.

The highlight of Viking World was the full size Viking ship replica hanging in the main room of the museum. Patrons are allowed on the ship to explore and take photos. Again, we were short on time, and I could have spent a bit more time exploring the museum grounds, but I did get my picture taken on a Viking ship!

By 3:20, it was time to head to the airport, Keflavik. Keflavik is less than 10 minutes from Viking World. We hit a snag when trying to gas up the rental car, but turning in the car went off without a hitch. Before 4:00 PM, we were in the airport terminal checking in.

Next stop: home.

New Trip

It's that time again. G and I are setting out on a new trip. This time, we are headed to Iceland, land of waterfalls, the aurora borealis, and Icelandic horses.

It's a straight flight from San Francisco to Reykjavik, just about 8 hours in the sky. The next you hear from me, I'll be in Iceland!

Off to Sweden

It's 5AM, and I'm on my way to Keflavik airport. My next adventure awaits in Stockholm.

The Old British Bat Rant

And now, probably for my pleasure alone, I will recount the story of the old British bat. I wasn't even going to talk about her, but I decided that in 5 years when I am nostalgically rereading old blog posts, I will think this is hilarious.

This lady in her 50s or 60s, June, is from somewhere in England. She loves Iceland and her husband, possibly in that order. The day she arrived (two days after I did), she decided the room was too hot. She turned the heat off. Afraid of being cold during the night, I turned it back on after she had left. By the time she came back, she couldn't do anything about it (a man was sleeping in the bed in front of the nob). 

Tonight, I came back to the hostel, and she told me that she turned the heat off again. I voiced my concern that I thought the room might be too cold without any heat. She assured me that I would be fine and explained that she gets warm. I mentioned that she had more covers than I did. Apparently, that was a wrong move on my part. Actually, she couldn't understand why I left home without a sleeping bag. 1. I don't own one. 2. I didn't think I would need one. I had read that in Scandinavia, you are expected to bring your own sheets, but I never read that you had to bring your own blanket too. 3. I have traveled to 40-something countries and have never had to provide my own blanket, and have only had to provide sheets once or twice.

She reiterated that I'd be fine. I'm not so sure. I am currently sitting in the breakfast room (right outside the room she had been airing out for an hour). The breakfast room is freezing - cold enough that my undershirt, long sleeve, pullover fleece, and fleece jacket aren't quite enough.

I have the last laugh though. My flight is at 7:35 in the morning. I'm waking her up around 4:30. 

Hah.

UPDATE: In fact, the four nights I spent in Reykjavik were the only nights I was not provided with a blanket. The woman's assertion that I should have brought a sleeping bag really did not make any sense.

Also, I did wake her up.

Hah.

Iceland Adventure, Part 3: The Blue Lagoon

This morning, I woke up to several inches of snow on the ground. I was a bit surprised; I hadn't seen snow on the online weather forecast. Iceland has been so cold; I'm glad I borrowed Greg's fleece when he went back home. I'm not sure I could survive temperatures in the 30s and low 40s without that extra layer.

The sun was already out and melting the snow by the time I walked outside at 10 AM to the front of the hostel to await my ride. I was picked up by the Bus Travel company and taken to the Blue Lagoon (Bláa lónið in Icelandic), 45 minutes southwest of Reykjavik. One of the most popular tourist attractions in the country, the Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa. I suspect the name comes from the color of the water which is a milky blue color.  Also popular with the locals, the Blue Lagoon features warm water high in minerals like silica and sulfur.

Because Iceland is situated at the juncture of 2 tectonic plates, the country has a lot of volcanic and geologic activity. Yesterday, the Golden Circle tour guide said that Iceland has more hot springs and geysers than any other country. Temperatures of the hot springs vary, but the Blue Lagoon is quite comfortable at about 100 degrees. A man-made lagoon, the Blue Lagoon is fed by a nearby geothermal power plant. Iceland boasts a large number of these geothermal power plants. Hot water from underneath the ground is pumped up to the geothermal power plants, used to heat water for household consumption, then pumped back into the ground. Interestingly, the hot groundwater cannot be used for household consumption because it contains a number of minerals that would destroy the plumbing pipes, so it is simply used as a heating source.

The bus arrived at the Blue Lagoon at about 11 AM. I had purchased my ticket online in advance, so I took the printout to the reception desk where I received my electronic bracelet. The blue bracelet gave me access to a locker in the locker room and allowed me to make purchases at the bar or café. I went back to the locker room area, changed, rinsed off, and shivered as I made my way through the bar area to the lagoon outside. I hung up my cover-up and towel and walked as quickly as possible to the edge of the steps into the water where I discarded my shoes. I descended those stairs as quickly as I could and sunk into the warm water.

The steam coming off of the water made it difficult to see my surroundings; when the wind was low I couldn't even see the other people lounging in the lagoon. I floated over to the far edge of the lagoon where buckets of silica mud sat. The mud was supposed to be good for your skin. I slathered some mud on my face and looked silly for fifteen minutes until I washed off the mask. I didn't notice a difference in my skin. I noticed others going overboard, slopping the mud all over their backs and chests. I saw one girl who looked like she had the stuff dripping off her nose. It turns out that she didn't; it was a nose ring between her nostrils.

I lounged and floated and lounged some more until my hands and feet were so pruny I couldn't take it anymore. I practically ran from the edge of the water inside the building. It was so cold! I rinsed off, changed back into my six layers of clothing, and left to meet the bus that would take me home. Of course, the second I exited the visitor's building, it started to sleet. Unfortunately, I couldn't have waited because I only had a few minutes until the bus arrived. By the time I arrived at the covered bus stop, I was soaked. I thought I was never going to get warm again.

The bus was packed with tourists going back to their hotels. I was the first to be dropped off at my hostel.

Aside from the extreme cold, today was great. 

Kit Kat Imposter

While on this trip, I have had some cravings for American food. My current obsession is pancakes. I want pancakes. While at the grocery store a couple of days ago, I saw a 3-pack of Kit Kats. I had to have them. I don't usually have American products while I travel - I usually try European candy bars instead. But I wanted a Kit Kat.

This Kit Kat was an imposter. The complaint? The chocolate is too good. It's not the same. It's some sort of fair trade chocolate. But when I bought that Kit Kat, I was not looking for good fair trade chocolate. I was looking for home. Alas, the Kit Kat failed me.

As a matter of fact, Kit Kat is not the only American food product that has failed me on this trip.

The Sprite? Has Truvia in it and 30% less sugar here now. It's still marketed the same - regular Sprite. You only find out about the Truvia if you bother the read the small print on the back of the bottle. I'm all for low-calorie drinks, but I prefer to be fully aware that I'm drinking Diet Sprite.

The Pringles? No, thank you. They were downright disappointing. I don't even know what was wrong with them; they just weren't Pringles.

The M&Ms? Better, actually. I'm not sure if the chocolate was sweeter or the peanuts were fresher, but the M&Ms were, in fact, better.

The tally for American candies? Europe 1, America 3.

Reykjavik

I can't talk about my trip to Iceland without talking about the time I spent exploring Reykjavik. I didn't actually spend much time in Reykjavik. I flew into Reykjavik on Saturday and spent the afternoon that first day walking around. Yesterday, I had a full day in Reykjavik. I suppose I thought the city was bigger or would take more time to see, but it turns out that I saw much of the city in my short walk on Saturday. Although some of what I saw yesterday is what I saw the day before, I did see a few new sights.

Since the hostel was near the Hallgrímskirkja (the large white church at the top of the hill) I started my exploration of the city there. I had seen the church the day before in fading light, but I had wanted to see the church again to see if I could take some better photos. Also, the church was on my way to Because yesterday was Sunday, the church was busy with Sunday activities, so I didn't go inside. I took a few photos then walked past the church and down Skólavörðuholti Street to downtown.

Parliament House from Austurvöllur Park

I had visited Austurvöllur Park the day before, but I walked through again to take photos in better light and to get to Tjörnin (the Pond). The Parliament house (Alþingishús in Icelandic) borders Austurvöllur Park. Interestingly, the Icelandic Parliament is the oldest in the world. Founded in 930 at Þingvellir (now a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site), the parliament was moved to Reykjavik in 1844. The Alþingishús was built some years later in 1881

Tjörnin (the Pond)

As chronicled in another post, I spent some time sitting in the sun feeding the ducks and watching others feed the ducks at Tjörnin (which literally translates to "the pond"). Once I got too cold to sit there anymore, I walked through downtown to the harbor area where I found a rather unusual playground.

Unusual playground along the harbor

Although it doesn't look like it in the photo (above), that is actually a playground. With the exception of a few tires, all of the play equipment was created out of seafaring items. I spent some time on this playground because I was really intrigued by the boat. I realized that the boat was actually part of the playground equipment when I noticed a couple of tourists climbing the unstable ladder to board the boat. The boat was fairly small, and I didn't want to explore the boat with the couple on board. Additionally, I thought I might get scared, and if I did, I didn't want the couple to witness my fright. I waited until they had left before I took my turn.

Climbing the ladder was definitely nerve wracking. I was a little afraid that the ladder would fall despite being held by what I could only hope was a trusty rope. Once aboard, what I first noticed was the complete disrepair of the boat. The paint was peeling, and that was the least of my worries. All metals aboard the boat were rusting through, even the anchor. The wood that the boat was made of was rotting in places as well. I saw a hole in the wood deck. Worried about the boat's ability to not fall apart while I was aboard, I climbed down very, very carefully.

As I walked away from this rather unusual playground, I saw a father walk over to the boat with his son, wiggle the ladder as if to test it, and allow his son to climb up to explore the boat. Apparently, Icelanders are far, far less uptight about things like child safety than we are.

View from Göngustígur, a walking path along the shore

I continued walking northwest along Mýrargata Street until I reached a roundabout. At this roundabout, I found a Bónus Supermarket. I got something for lunch, checked my iPad to see where I was, and crossed over to Göngustígur, a walking path along the shore. I followed this path until it ended then crossed back to Mýrargata Street to head back to the hostel. 

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.