In Reykjavik
Even though our bodies were on Calgary time and thus thought it was 1am, it was 8am in Reykjavik and so the hotel was serving brekkie.
Oh, those crazy Scandinavians and their “caviar in a toothpaste tube”
(Reminder that clicking any photo will display the entire image on your screen without scrolling)
The view from the hotel’s brekkie place was great, though!
The coast looked nice in the sunshine - we enjoyed the sun while we can, it’s supposed to rain the rest of the week.
After brekkie, off we walked into Reykjavik, the northernmost capital city in the world.
We saw Leif Ericsson’s church
We stumbled upon the gaybourhood
We even accidentally found the ‘world famous’ hot dog stand
The streets are lined with simple archictecture, function over fanciness.
Speaking of streets, don’t bother asking directions. Nothing they say do you a bit of good unless you know the language - if someone says “left on [street] then right on [another street] and you’re trying to follow along on the map, you’re probably not getting very far:
Some of the buildings are made of lava stone - which is incredibly plentiful, as Iceland is basically just one big volcano
There was a neat bar/pub made from an old library
And then dinner at this little corner restaurant
Rob had a “lobster dog” and I had lamb soup (a very common thing here). Both were good.
Here’s the menu for the place. YES, “dung smoked salmon” means what you think it does.
Also, the fermented shark is a thing “every visitor should try” but at these prices, I think I’ll wait and see if they have it on the cruise ship, where it will be free.
FYI: 100 Icelandic kroner = approx $1 CAD. So something that’s 2345 kr would be $23.45 CAD
It’s expensive to eat here! (Or do anything else, for that matter)
Wine is $15/glass, even for the lest expensive one! We drank water at dinner and had a bottle of wine back in the room, which is what I’m doing while typing now.
And with that, I’m off to bed. I’ve slept maybe 3 hours in the last 48, so I’m overdue.
Until tomorrow, he’s an Icelandic word that might come in handy in the winter back in Canada: