I have officially made it back to Iceland once again, and it is as wonderful (and expensive) as I remembered. Jen and I landed yesterday at 7 am, after only sleeping about an hour on the flight. Needless to say we were rather tired. But I have learned the hazards of jet lag, and we forced our selves to stay awake for the first day. So we dropped our bags off at the hostel, and set off to explore!
First we went by the metal viking ship on the shoreline. A classic point in Reykjavik, especially since it is across the street from our hostel. Then we headed on into town. We wandered a little bit, bought some postcards, had some breakfast, then aimed up for the church, Hallgrimskirkja. Somehow I have never been into this church before, even though it is one of the focal points in town. Not really sure how I managed that. But it had the most amazing organ inside. Absolutely huge, and the organist was in and rehearsing while we were there. Slowly we headed back to the hostel from here and settled in a bit, making ourselves stay up as late as we could before going to bed.
And this morning we woke up jetlag free! So we walked down to the car rental and picked one out before hitting the road. We made our own version of the Golden Circle, by going to Thingvellar National Park, Geysir, and Gulfoss falls. All three were amazing, though Gulfoss remains my favorite. It was fun to see it raging too, since last time I was here it was frozen solid. At Geysir, we met a guy who went to the U of O and has a cabin at Priest Lake. We chatted for awhile, and learned that he was there working as a photographer for a cruise line. He had spent the last four months aroudn the Baltic Seas, and had just come from the Shetland and Faroe islands. Next week he will be in the Caribbean.
After finishing our circle, we headed south to try and find Selfoss, which it turns out is not a waterfall like I thought. So instead we continued on to Stokkseyri, which I've wanted to see since I've loved the song "Stokkseyri" by Jonsi and Alex. It was raining a constant drizzle here, but we still got out to see the unique black sand beaches. They were very neat, even if the tide was really far out.
Once we got back, we decided to see the Harpa music hall and then get some dinner. The Harpa was even more amazing than I thought it would be! Especially once we realized the ceiling was a continuation of the hexagonal cuts, only in mirrors. The whole place was like a giant glass honeycomb. And just to top it off, the music coming from the ground floor was The Planets, by Holst. Couldn't have asked for a better experience there.
Then Jen and I went to the Tapas Barinn for dinner. We went here because we could get smaller serving (cheaper) and it was a popular choice for the city. The menu may have also swayed us a bit. We tried the minke whale, smoked puffin, and Icelandic foal, as well as each ordering a potato with salad. We became slightly concerned to what the portions would be like, when our waiter asked us if we just weren't very hungry then tonight. Then he brought us the bread and tapade dish, which we didn't order with a smile. We decided we were hungry enough that we didn't really care if he charged us for that too or not. And it was delicious. Then came our courses. The foal was delicious! Rather tough, but great flavor. The puffin? Smoked raw. That was an odd experience to eat what seemed like raw bird. And the flavor was odd. We didn't care for it much, so you puffins are safe from us! Then came the whale. It was pretty good, though not memorable until we put the sauce on it. Made a complete difference!
After we finished up, our waiter tried to convince us to get desert. We told him we were just too full! Then we laughed a little over an accidental, "if you now what I mean joke" and just had an overall good time chatting with him, and laughing that what we really need was more water, not more food. He then proceeded to run off and return to present us more water with a grand flourish. He then wouldn't let me pay yet, telling me to wait, and came back with a dessert for us, and insisted that we try it. It was so delicious! Even though we were both rather full, we quickly cleaned the plate of the soft cheese dessert that was drizzled in a citrus sauce when a crisp bottom. To top it off, when he brought the bill, we hadn't been charged for it or the bread. What a delightly meal it had turned out to be, and we tipped as well as we could, since we had little ISK on us at that time.
Tomorrow we are thinking we may keep the car for one more day, and try to see a couple more waterfalls and head to the Blue Lagoon. We'll see what we end up doing in the end though!
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