Iceland
The country of Iceland is a beautiful place and with the weather staying around 55 degrees the whole time, we felt at home like Boone. Upon arriving, we were a little overwhelmed because the Icelandic language is absurdly difficult to understand, learn, or try to pronounce. Although it took us awhile to figure out how to navigate our way from the airport to our air bnb, we were happy to make it there to drop off our backpacks.
Thorlaug, our air bnb host was there when we arrived. The place was perfect in a quiet neighborhood down the road from the Reykjavik City hostel and a 10 min walk to the store. Starving upon arrival we asked Thorlaug where we should grab lunch and she told us of a pizza place around the corner. We get to walking and Lo and behold guess what it was? Domino's. Needless to say, we opted for something else.
Excited to explore we meandered our way around the area near our apartment and found a casino bar. After requesting 2 Icelandic beers, we were not disappointed at all in their flavor. Karmen got the Boli, which was a "high alcohol" content one of 5.2%. With a hint of lemon it was refreshing.
On our 2nd day of 3 in Reykjavik, we wanted to check out downtown and the waterfront. Desiring to see some viking remnants, we walked along the waterfront to admire the a replica of a viking ship. After checking that out and taking a few photos we kept strolling around the downtown area shops. It was fun to window shop Because there were a lot of neat boutiques and stores full of Icelandic fashion. Starting to feel a slight a headache from the cold wind on our ears, we decided it was time for a break from our leisurely stroll and stopped in for a drink at Dillon's whiskey bar. This place had a good feel to it and had so many whiskeys it was almost unimaginable. After Dillon's we passed by the Lebowski bar which specialized in at least 30 White Russians. Although this place was really neat it was not neat enough for us to pay $18.00 for one White Russian.
Our last stop on the second day was at Skulis, a craft beer bar. This place was awesome! We took advantage of happy hour there and after that we ordered a flight of 6 Icelandic beers. This flight was the biggest flight we had both ever had, with a half pint for each sample. :) Besides the delcious beers there, the service was impeccable. The bartenders were funny and very nice and informative. They played us some Icelandic music because we had inquired why we only heard music in English everywhere there. After at least an hour of banter with these bartenders and them teaching us different phrases, we decided to head home because we were kind of tired still from jet lag.
They also gave us the 411 on the thick sulphur smell in the hot water supply. Steam comes up from underground and is used to power turbines. Once used it cools to a scalding 180 degrees F so watch out for burning yourself. The cold water is piped from mountain springs and was perfect drinking water.
After heading home we bought tickets to go to the Blue Lagoon the next morning, one attraction we surely would have regretted missing. Pushing close to $70 each including transportation it was still worth it. The lagoon was beautiful and they aim to keep it from being over crowded so buy tickets ahead or you may have to wait your turn. As a plus any sulphur smell was almost undetectable.
When we left after two hours we were refreshed but exhausted. We grabbed some Pho at a nearby Vietnamese spot and headed back to our crash site. We relaxed for a bit but went to bed early because we had to wake at 3 am to catch our ride to the 6 am flight we took to Berlin. And that brings us to this moment now! We have arrived safely in Berlin where we are typing this past due blog post. So until next time, as our friends in Iceland have taught us, gotohellkey! (Which means have a nice weekend)
