Day 1 & 2
This was one of those trips that you plan and plan; and plan more and when the day comes you are still wondering if you have packed all the stuff you need. So I got to the Pittsburgh airport 4 hours early (I couldn’t wait any longer…). After collecting my boarding pass, clearing security, grabbing something to eat, and finally boarding the plane I was pleasantly surprised to see how roomy the seats were. When I read up about WOW airlines it was advertised as “pay for everything”… yes even for good old H2O. We flew over Niagara Falls, which I got a really good view of from the plane (setting the stage for the zillion waterfalls to come in Iceland) before settling into the 5+ hour uneventful flight journey.
Next thing I remember was the pilot saying we were 20 minutes to the tarmac and I peered out the window for 20 minutes to catch a glimpse of the island from the sky before landing. I could see nothing but clouds and mist before the runaway opened up before us… just 200 feet before touchdown. It would be a real bummer if my road trip was going to be like this for the next 10 days.
Sorry to pick on stuff but the first thing I saw was an "Exit Iceland" sign. Probably a “Welcome to...” or “This way to...” would be warmer. Maybe they were going for; we are a country of ~330,000 people so a single exit of the highway (or in this case runway) would suffice… I’m joking, don’t drop the HAMMER (Viking reference) on me. By the way there are some really interesting stories off how Iceland got its name from the Vikings, but the one I really want to believe is this (fiction obviously!!)
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"Once upon a time, war broke out among Norwegian Vikings. One band launched the boats and fled. They discovered a green island and settled. Afraid that their enemies might pursue them, they sent word back to Norway that their island was actually an ice-land, but that another island - more distant, larger and indeed covered by ice - was inhabitable green-land. And so the green island became Iceland, and the icy island became Greenland"
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OH did you know that Reykjavik is the northern most capital in the world (so check one off the bucket list). Keep in mind that this is a country of 330,000 people, so getting around 2,000,000 tourists per year requires our support to keep this country beautiful as ever.
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It was a cloudy and damp day so after collecting the car from the car rental agency I had plenty of time to kill before checking into the hostel. So I decided to make a slight detour to the “Bridge between Continents”. It’s a small footbridge connecting the North American plate with the European plate. How many times can you say you had one foot on each continent at the same time? it was a cool moment but the rain was coming down pretty hard at that point and my stomach was growling.
From there I headed to the hostel to get settled in before taking a short walk to the “Hallgrímskirkja” church which looks like a giant musical organ. Luckily it had stopped raining and the wind had died down so it was quiet nice to walk around for a bit. There were a few tourists there already taking pictures. Just across the church if you start walking down “skólavörðustígur” street you will find plenty of little kaffi (coffee) shops, restaurants, stores and boutiques. I must have spent at least 2 hours there just browsing through the shops.
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Stop by the “Listvinahús” craft shop. They have some really interesting pottery. If you go there at the right time you might catch the owner making some of them. It’s not the traditional clay pottery, as he mixes in molten lava.
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Strolled back to the hostel for the night.
