Iceland, day 1
Zach and I arrived in Iceland today after an overnight trip from Seattle. I'm pretty tired, as I found it nearly impossible to fall asleep at 5PM PST on a plane seat that didn't recline.
Today was mostly spent wandering around Reykjavik and drinking coffee to wake up. The early morning was quite quiet - not too many people on the streets at 8AM on a Sunday. By noon things had picked up a bit and we could get into our rooms (YAY, shower!). Interestingly, the hot water here is drilled for and I think is centrally provided - it can reach up to 185 degrees out of the tap! It also smells sulfurous, which is odd to catch a whiff of in my hair every so often.
After putting stuff in our rooms and showering, we went to a local Danish "open-faced sandwich shop" and got fish on a super grainy bread (no wheat in it, I think) with mustard, lox, and roe on top. Quite tasty. Afterwards we went to the culture museum, which was so-so. They had several medieval manuscripts of the Eddas, which were quite interesting, and a "natural history" section which was primarily Victorian-era taxidermy (interesting, though odd), and a film exhibit that was rather plain.
[Addendum: We went to Icelandic Fish and Chips for dinner and although they initially goofed our order by forgetting to fill it, they plied us with so much stuff that I nearly felt embarrassed by the end. I got a free Malt Extract beverage (like nothing I've had before, and not worth getting again), Zach got a free fruit drink, we both got free onion rings, which were by far THE BEST onion rings I've ever had (they used flake sea salt to season them and a lot of grease, which might be the trick), free herbal tea at the end, and were offered free dessert but were just way too full. Our meal, which incidentally was also good, was essentially fish and chips on top of salad.]
Pictures and commentary are available on Facebook, here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2645792&l=1b50e59a61&id=637646375
Today was mostly spent wandering around Reykjavik and drinking coffee to wake up. The early morning was quite quiet - not too many people on the streets at 8AM on a Sunday. By noon things had picked up a bit and we could get into our rooms (YAY, shower!). Interestingly, the hot water here is drilled for and I think is centrally provided - it can reach up to 185 degrees out of the tap! It also smells sulfurous, which is odd to catch a whiff of in my hair every so often.
After putting stuff in our rooms and showering, we went to a local Danish "open-faced sandwich shop" and got fish on a super grainy bread (no wheat in it, I think) with mustard, lox, and roe on top. Quite tasty. Afterwards we went to the culture museum, which was so-so. They had several medieval manuscripts of the Eddas, which were quite interesting, and a "natural history" section which was primarily Victorian-era taxidermy (interesting, though odd), and a film exhibit that was rather plain.
[Addendum: We went to Icelandic Fish and Chips for dinner and although they initially goofed our order by forgetting to fill it, they plied us with so much stuff that I nearly felt embarrassed by the end. I got a free Malt Extract beverage (like nothing I've had before, and not worth getting again), Zach got a free fruit drink, we both got free onion rings, which were by far THE BEST onion rings I've ever had (they used flake sea salt to season them and a lot of grease, which might be the trick), free herbal tea at the end, and were offered free dessert but were just way too full. Our meal, which incidentally was also good, was essentially fish and chips on top of salad.]
Pictures and commentary are available on Facebook, here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2645792&l=1b50e59a61&id=637646375