Honeymoon Day 1 - Reykjavik
We arrived in Revkjavik 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The flight took less than five hours. I nodded off for about 15 minutes during a movie, but didn't sleep otherwise. The time just flew (heh) by. Getting through customs was a breeze. We didn't need to fill out any paperwork and the customs agent only asked me how many days I was staying before he stamped my passport and sent me on my way. Then, the same guy asked Casper if he was visiting Iceland. I don't think he was quite awake yet. We even beat our baggage to the carousel. It took us a few minutes to find the bus into the city, but we made it just in time. The ride into the city took about 45 minutes and then it was a 10 minute walk to our hotel.
There was a slight snafu with checking in, since we arrived a half hour earlier than expected. We rented a studio apartment, so the check-in guy wasn't at the building yet. However, it was 8am, so we walked down the street, found a tiny coffee shop and hung out for a bit. The young man who checked us in to our apartment was super nice and very delightful. He gave us our keys and walked us over to our apartment. I absolutely love the apartment. It's probably only about 200 square feet, but they did an amazing job making good use of the space. There is a kitchenette with a mini fridge, two burners and a sink. We got two twin beds (that we pushed together) with down comforters and tons of pillows! We also have a TV, a small chest of drawers, a night stand and two person kitchen table. We have a good size closet, too, and a small bathroom with a shower stall. It is perfect.
After getting settled, I decided that I needed to find a pharmacy to get some cough syrup, so I went out and took a walk while Casper started the napping. I was delighted to find one just four blocks away and got a view of some gorgeous snow capped mountains. I then wandered around a bit, before returning home and starting my nap, as well.
We slept just 3-4 hours and then got up to do a little site seeing. There is a large church tower nearby, which we were instructed by several people to go to, for a 360 degree view of Reykjavik. It was freeeezing (this will be the theme of the week), but SO worth it. We did some grocery shopping on the way back to our apartment. Eating out is very expensive here, even by DC standards, so we wanted to save a bit by cooking some of our meals. I love grocery shopping in foreign countries. It's so interesting, to me, to see the different kinds of products they sell and how they package things. Packaging becomes excessively important when you don't know the language. Also, it's a bit nerve wracking to take some cough medication when you can't read anything on the bottle.
Anyhow, we stocked our fridge and pantry and put on some more layers for going out in the cold. I can even hear the wind whipping loudly outside as I am typing right now. I have been appreciative of my decision to buy good, lightweight winter jackets about 37 times today. We called to confirm our Northern Lights tour, but were a little sad to find it cancelled. However, we still have four more days to make it happen. They will not do the tour if the weather conditions are not favorable for a chance of the lights appearing. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for us!
Since we now had our entire evening free, we went downtown and walked around for about an hour before we settled on a restaurant. We ended up at what looked like a quaint locals cafe called The Laundromat Cafe. There is an actual laundromat downstairs, but the upstairs is all cafe/bar. I got the homemade meatballs with fried potatoes and cole slaw. I never eat cole slaw, but this stuff was really good! I got a house wine, which was from Italy. Love it! Casper got a local beer. The ambiance was as great as the food. We had a nice leisurely, European dinner.
We had decided to try and take the bus to a thermal pool about two miles away. We found the bus stop and figured out which bus we needed, but the next bus was 25 minutes away, so we cabbed it. We have been trying REALLY hard to pronounce some Icelandic words and phrases, but it is damn near impossible. The great thing is that the locals realize it and they are all, "yeah, we know, it's really tough." As our check-in guy said, Icelandic, along with Mandarin, are considered the two most difficult languages to learn, and Mandarin is way more useful.
So, we got to the thermal pool, which is basically like a bunch of hot tubs outside. As mentioned, it is freezing cold here, so you really have to make a mad dash from the locker room to the pool and from pool to pool. The pool decks have this amazing grippy surface, though, so it is easy to run around without worrying about falling. This was a VERY local establishment, which was great. I love the idea of thermal pools as a group activity/hangout spot. We even met some gals from London and chatted with them a bit. After drying off and changing back into our warm clothes, we were able to relax inside with some hot chocolate while we waited for the bus to come.
I do think that the ability to read a bus map is a a very important and useful travel skill to have. The taxi ride wasn't bad at about $18, but the bus was about $5 for the both of us and only took about 15 minutes. We walked home from the bus stop and have since been snuggled up in bed, looking forward to another fun filled and busy day tomorrow.