Iceland Part 1

I have been to two places that seemed stunningly alien to me. The first was the desert around Jaisalmer in India. The second was Iceland. Iceland is, in a word, stunning. My husband and I spent four days there in January 2016, and we’ve both dreamt of going back from the moment we left.

The story of our trip to Iceland is one that is very much representative of the way Mr. C. and I make decisions. One of us will make a suggestion or ask a question, the other will agree, and the decision is made. In August 2015, only a month after we’d started dating, Mr. C. went to a concert in Pennsylvania with a friend. Groupon came up in their conversation, and our lives changed forever. Mr. C. found trips to Iceland, including flights, hotel and a tour of the Golden Circle, for $600. He texted me to ask if I wanted to go to Iceland with him in January. I knew at that moment, I wanted to marry him, and our trip to Iceland was the first of many awesome adventures together.

We flew out of Boston on a Wednesday evening and arrived early Thursday morning after about a five-hour flight. I have a tendency to plan active arrival days on trips, especially if I arrive before noon. I have three reasons for this. One, it means I get right to sightseeing. Two, if I don’t even give myself the opportunity to sleep, I have to power through my jet lag. Three, it is rarely possible to check in to hotels, hostels, or Airbnbs before noon. All three reasons were irrelevant to Mr. C when we arrived in Reykjavik. To be fair, it was going to be dark until about 11 anyway, so actually seeing sights was going to be a somewhat limited experience. Plus, our hotel was 100% available for check-in when we arrived from Keflavik airport (p.s. most international flights to Iceland arrive at Keflavik, not Reykjavik. KEF is about an hour bus ride from Reykjavik). Groupon allows you to select the hotel you stay in for some of their trips, just like they let you select the departure city. The price changes based on your selections, and being fairly broke at the time, Mr. C. and I selected one of the least expensive hotel options, Skuggi Hotel. Had I not been the one to select the hotel, I would’ve thought we had spent far too much to stay at Skuggi. It’s a chic Scandinavian style hotel, with beautiful Icelandic touches everywhere. It gets bonus points for being very close to the water and in walking distance of some of the best sights and restaurants Reykjavik has to offer. I highly recommend it. In any case, Skuggi Hotel had our room ready, and it was still dark out, so two out of three of my usual reasons for not crashing as soon as I land in a new place went out the window. Mr. C and I napped until the sun came up and then began to explore.

All good adventures start with a feast. For reference see The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Harry Potter…Likewise, our Reykjavik city sightseeing started with a large late breakfast and espresso at The Grey Cat. We continued on, refreshed and caffeinated, to snap pics of awesome street art and seriously phenomenal landscapes. We also visited the Reykjavik landmark, Hallgrimskirkja, whose facade towers over the city, modeled on the basalt columns of the island’s coasts. We took an elevator to the top of the bell tower for a small fee and were rewarded with incredible panoramas of the city. Well, I was rewarded, Mr. C. does not like heights and while he bravely came up the elevator with me, he was decidedly opposed to going anywhere near the windows. After the church, we popped into a coffee shop, Reykjavik Roasters, to refuel. Reykjavik Roasters’ vibe is as if your hipster friend opened a coffee shop in their apartment. It’s very cozy and promisingly busy with excellent coffee. As an aside, Iceland ranked third on The Telegraph’s list of most coffee consumed per capita, coming in at an even 9 kg each! If you’re a coffee lover (kafephile?), you’re unlikely to be disappointed by Iceland’s coffee shops.

Our final stop for the evening was Hlemmur Square’s restaurant, Pulsa. Now, ‘pulsa’ or ‘pylsa’ means ‘hot dog’ in Icelandic so of course, we ordered our first Icelandic hot dogs for dinner. If you ever happen to have a layover at Keflavik, and you can’t swing any time to actually visit Iceland, at least have a hot dog. The street vendor versions of hot dogs, which make marvelous late night snacks, is a topic I will return to in part 3 of this series on Iceland. However, our hot dogs at Pulsa were an elevated version, delicious, with a casing that snapped when we bit into them. Sam’s came on a bed of caramelized onions, plus a sprinkling of green onions. Mine was topped with spicy mayo and accompanied by pickles. All of this we devoured and washed down with our first Icelandic beers. Not a bad first day! Read about day 2 here!