Things you see everywhere in Iceland

• snow
• mountain
• ice
• nature

Day 4 20/1/08 - Iceland

Reykjavik -> London

Highlight

• Had breakfast while waiting to be picked up for The Blue Lagoon (3,500 ISK), a unique geothermal spa situated in the youngest lava field in west Iceland.
• It was so surreal when we arrived. You have to follow this trail, covered on both sides with ice, before you get to the main entrance. The whole structure was very modern. We bathrooms were cool. You get changed, shower, then brave the cold before jumping into the milky blue water. There’s not much to do, you can put some silica mud mask on your face, go under the waterfall…but that’s the point, isn’t it?
• You can also get massage and spa treatments, but we hardly had time to eat or take pictures or browse the products in the shop, so next time I want to spend at least a day there. And I am DEFINITELY going back.
• After the relaxation, got dropped off at the airport. It’s excellent. We took some photos with the statues outside.
• Bought Askja light jacket (7,550 ISK) for Slokky, and Kjolu suede jacket (4,250 ISK) from 66 o North since they were 50% off.
• Got on the plane no problems. Read a food mag while everyone else entertained themselves watching Stardusk. They were still having their problem at Heathrow, so we had to circle in the air for more than 40 minutes while we wait for a chance to land.

Food

• Hotel Cabin buffet:
  • ham
  • cheese
  • cucumber
  • tomato
  • bread with jam
  • oranges
  • cereal
  • yoghurt with mixers
• Blue Lagoon hot dog (230 ISK)
• Kaffitar Cappuccino (320 ISK)
• kaffitar green tea mints
• Icelandic air meal:
  • bread roll with butter
  • chicken
  • potato salad
  • chocolate bar
  • apple juice

Day 3 19/1/08 - Iceland

Reykjavik

Highlight

• Today was taken up by the Golden Circle Tour run by Reykjavik Excursions. Another early start, we piled on another bus, for another patriotic Icelandic guide, and were on our way. The weather was much worst today, snow falling constantly. We got to our first stop, Nesjavellir power plant, before the sun came up.
• We got forced to watch a video about the high temperature geothermal area, and how it gets its energy from Lake ingvallavatn. Then we got to look outside at the steam and smell the sulphur.
• Back on the bus, to look at the Keri crater. Maybe it’s more interesting in the summer, but it was just a snow covered field with a big hole.
• Travelled through what was supposed to be fertile agricultural areas, but in essence you can just see snow. Arrived at Hverageri, which is supposed to contain greenhouses where Iceland grows their fruit and vegetable, but we couldn’t go and see it, so that was really boring.
• Sun beginning to come up now, so the bus ride was spectacular, with the sky changing colour and white everywhere.
• Sklholt church, which is supposed to be the ancient seat of the Icelandic bishops. The church itself is very boring, just a rectangular building, nothing like all the churches we’ve seen around Europe. The most interesting thing is the lovely mosaic on the altar.
• Next we were supposed to be heading to the highlight of the tour, the Gullfoss waterfall. Well, there was certainly a lot of water, and it is quite spectacular. It’s smaller than Victoria Falls, but much more powerful. In fact, we spent so much time there we were really rushed for lunch, as we only had ½ hour to spend there. The café just sells your basic provisions, but they have soup and hot bread rolls, so I was very happy. I was even happier that they give you free refills, so we had 3 bowls of it.
• Then off to the geyser called Geysir that originally gave these things a name, so I expected it to be spectacular, after seeing them in NZ and Japan, the whole geothermal area around the spouting hot springs weren’t that impressive, and you had to wait ages for it to blow. Because it took so long and the weather was deteriorating further, we didn’t spend too much time here.
• Last stop was also where we went last night, Ingvellir. It’s not so cool in the day, especially since it was covered with inches of snow, we did manage to get some shots of the cracks today though.
• The tour was a bit less than I expected, but we had dinner to look forward to. We got dropped off in town, and rested in a hotel lobby before making our way to Vidt Jornina for dinner. It’s very cute, like going to someone’s house for dinner, with separate little rooms as a dining area. Again, we were under dressed and loud, whereas everyone else was having a civilised evening. Everything was Icelandic prices, but the produce and the cooking was excellent, and made a good night out.
• We passed up on the opportunity to go clubbing as we were absolutely knackered from all those late nights, so just relaxed at the hotel with some poker and a lot of alcohol.

Food

• Hotel Cabin buffet:
  • ham
  • cheese
  • cucumber
  • tomato
  • bread with jam
  • oranges
  • cereal
  • yoghurt with mixers
• Gullfosskaffi lamb soup (1090 ISK) with hot bread rolls and refills
• rye bread
• salami
• lamb head jelly
• Scottish shortbread
• dinner at Vidt Jornina:
  • Hot smoked lamb's heart w/applesalad and horseradishcream (1600 ISK)
  • 2 kinds of mousse with langoustine’s tail (1750 ISK)
  • Herb-coated lambfillet w/dijon and redwinesauce (3860 ISK)
  • Grilled starry ray
  • bread
• Southern Comfort & Coke
• Vodka tonic
• chips and biscuits

Day 2 18/1/08 - Iceland

Reykjavik

Highlight

• After all the drama, arrived at Keflavik Airport at 2am. Caught a maxi-cab to our hotel. By the time we checked in and got ourselves ready for bed, it was past 4am. What a start to the day.
• Breakfast at 9:30, just before they closed the buffet. The food was limited in choice and unexciting, but at least they had nice yoghurt.
• We were all super excited to see the roads were piled high with snow. We marvelled at how thick the snow was and all jumped around in it until the novelty wore off and we realized all our clothes were wet.
• Walked along the coast into the city, with beautiful mountain view and water, and little Puffins swimming around.
• The city itself is quite small, the main shopping strip, Skolavordustigur St and Laugavegur St, is lined with cool shops of things I can’t afford. I did look longingly at some beautiful clothes and shoes. We spent ages in the 66o North store.
• Saw a restaurant that was selling reindeer meat wrapped in pastry…resisted the urge to try…
• Loaded up on tourist brochures at the tourist centre for the next time we want to visit, in summer of course.
• By this time we were desperately in need of a coffee and to get away from the snow. When we found out that Kaffitar has won 2nd place in the World Barista Champions, we were besides ourselves. It didn’t disappoint. The cappuccino was the best I’ve tasted since Australia…The place was packed, and I can understand why.
• The hallgrimskirkja (Hallgrims Church) is probably the best tourist attraction in town. It’s perched on a hill with a statue of Leif Eriksson out the front. The architecture is pretty cool, like harmonica pipes. Inside is ok, but the highlight was definitely the tower (400 ISK), if you can brave the wind. You get to see Reykjavik from all sides. Unfortunately the weather was too overcast to get any decent pics.
• time to look for some sustenance, wondered the streets to the famous hot dog cart, Baejarins Bestu. It’s a little cart, a bit like Harry’s Café de Wheel, it’s an institution in Iceland. There’s really nothing more satisfying than having a hot dog with crunchy onions on a cold winters day.
• Time to visit the pond. More time was spent photographing the ducks and swans, stepping on the ice to see if there were any weak spots.
• We had done everything by about 3:30pm, and as the sun was about to set, it was good timing. Since the weather has cleared, we decided to go to Hallgrims again.
• We missed out on the Einar Jonsson Sculpture Garden last time, so we ventured in this time. All the sculptures were covered in deep snow so you couldn’t really see them, although one really intrigued me…we brushed off the snow to reveal it was of a man and a cow…in a very awkward position. Apart from that, it was like a snow playground. We slid down slopes and sloshed around in the snow.
• We left everyone with their SLRs to capture the fading nights of the church, and walked back to the hotel. Stopped off at Bonus to stock up on our Icelandic products. I was very happy to find Kaffitar coffee beans for sale (and figured that it must be the Starbucks of Iceland). If only we had coffee like that…
• Slokky managed to get us lost on the way back, so had to take a huge detour and track through thick snow before getting back.
• Ate our dinner in the common area. The salmon and bread were quite nice, but the skyr wasn’t to my taste.
• We were already really tired by this time, but we still had the Northern Light tour to go.
• The tours were packed, there were heaps of buses going out. Our guide was this cute old lady who managed to get us quite excited about the Northern Lights. We found out that all Icelanders are very passionate about their country, and she shared her enthusiasm with us.
• Did we see the lights? Maybe…we saw faint hints of the light, a grey band that grew and moved, and then disappeared. It was nothing like what they showed you in the photos. Apparently we caught the end of the lights, a few days earlier they were really active. Better than nothing I suppose. We looked at the photos taken with the SLRs later, and found that the grey bands turned green in the photos…
• The best part though, was walking between the tectonic plates at Ingvellir, where the Icelandic parliament Alingi was founded in 930, which makes it the oldest known functioning parliament in the world. We were between the plates were we saw the first glimpse of the light, which were actually slightly greenish.
• I think what was more exciting was being out in the countryside at night, thick blanket of snow stretched before you, and glazing into the night sky and the stars.
• Got back just after midnight for another exhausting sleep.

Food

• Hotel Cabin buffet:
  • ham
  • cheese
  • cucumber
  • tomato
  • bread with jam
  • oranges
  • cereal
  • yoghurt with mixers
• Kaffitar Cappuccino (300 ISK)
• Baejarins Bestu hot dog with everything
• fried catfish in spelt and barley batter with potatoes and mango skyronaise
• rye bread
• smoked salmon
• salami
• chocolate and banana skyr
• banana

Day 1 17/1/08 - England

London -> Reykjavik

Highlight

• Trust our luck. First, there was going to be a strike on the day we fly out, then when the strike got cancelled we thought we were in the clear.
• Found out a few hours before that there was an accident and they closed a runway at Heathrow, so all planes were delayed. I tried to call the airline to find out more information, but they just said the flight was scheduled and to come to the airport.
• Everyone got there around the same time, got told there was a 1 hour delay, so went off to have dinner.
• We were at Terminal 1 and there were not many shops, so spent a couple of hours in Giraffe discussing anything and everything.
• 2 hours later, managed to board the flight, another hour of delay on the plane, then finally took off.
• So tired by that time, I only managed to eat my meal, I couldn’t sleep but couldn’t quite pay attention to Rush Hour 3 anyway.

Food

• Dinner at Giraffe:
  • Cajun chicken melt (£6.95)
  • Chilli beef lasagne (£7.95) - Deep layered tortilla, smokey angus beef & mixed been chilli with jack cheese, sour cream, fresh tomato salsa & pumpkin seeds
  • Hippy hippy shake (£3.25) - Mango, Pineapple, Passion fruit, Banana & pomegranate juice
• Icelandic air meal:
  • bread roll with butter
  • chicken
  • potato salad
  • chocolate bar
  • apple juice