Reykjavik!

An early start (combined with the fact that we woke early) in Paris, meant that we were excited and ready to roll right from wake up onto our final flight to Iceland!

Contrails and the moon from the plane

We didn’t get out to see Paris city/ central. Being sensible and having a meal, getting stuff done showering and getting some much needed sleep. seriously over rode our desire to venture into the city on an adventure. Taking the shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel made a very good point: our hotel was located among the typical “airport wasteland.” you know them, the large expanses of vacant land, prisons, more desolate roads and the occasional quaint town. A seemingly huge maze of roads between hotels, terminals and large mounds of dirt.

I must say, we are really fond of Icelandair! They’re like the small international carrier like jetstar or virgin australia. The hostesses are friendly, the meals reasonably priced, and you can buy their blankets/ souvenirs.
We picked up a blanket each, figuring with the trip ahead, it would definitely be used for the small price of €8 that we paid for it.

The cute thing about this airline is the headrest covers have little sayings on them. The two different ones are:
“Good night is ‘goda nott’ in Icelandic. It has a soft and cuddly sound.”
And
“In Iceland it’s customary to say thank you after each meal with the phrase “takk fyrir mig.”
This comes from Icelanders, who incidentally also believe in elves and spirits/faeries.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, which, I guess is the way you want them to go. Today was the day of the main event, our arrival in Iceland!

We disembarked the plane with a bounce in our step, more than keen to get the adventure started. We were delighted to see our bags on the collection carousel, after having been without them since Sunday night, it was a relief to know that Paris hadn’t lost our baggage or screwed up some way.

After collecting the rental car keys and finding it in the lot (this was actually a lot harder than it should have been, I blame the cold wind and lack of jumper) as we bolted from. The terminal, initially thinking that it wasn’t that cold outside, and after a few minutes, the 6 degree wind making its true presence known.

To us Australians, Icelanders drive on the “wrong” side of the road. Today’s driving was a warm up for the next few weeks of getting out of the mindset of driving on the left hand side of the road, and doing it American style, on the right.

Its true what everyone says about the drive from Keflavik to Reykjavik. It feels like you’ve landed on the moon. Large piles of dark grey rock line the many kilometers of vast, expanseless nothingness. You could be forgiven for thinking that it was recently built, as the mounds of rock look so recently upturned. Glancing towards the coastline the occasional stone hut with a red roof makes itself known, it’s colors striking violently against the otherwise natural surroundings.

A certain exciting part of the day was going into the supermarkets and seeing what was on offer. Much the same as australia in some regards, largely different in others. Milk is not so popular, fruit and vegetables are expensive and kind of rare and Icelanders obviously love their breads, sweets and cheeses. I finally got to try Skyr, and I really really enjoy it. I had 3 tubs today! It’s got a great nutritional profile, low calorie, low fat, very high protein. Oh, that’s another thing, there’s protein shakes and all the sports nutrition paraphernalia in every shop! The flavors are fruity but not overpowering, like a thick yoghurt. I look forward to having more of this wonderful food.

What’s not so great is the carbs. In a land where only 1% of the land is Arable (where fruit and veg can be grown) breads, pastas and rice make up the rest of an Icelanders diet. This seems to be a fact I can’t ignore. The shopping for the next few days was done at a few varying supermarkets. The variety is different in each store, kind of like an IGA, where the fruit and veg, and meat, cheese and dairy is stored in walk-through cold rooms, instead of cold cabinets..

After grocery shopping… The Bonus logo is a retarded pig.

As planned, we stopped by the camping shop and picked up a stove and burners, josh some new pants, and me, some new jackets. Having only a bright pink fleece to wear all day everyday, I decided together another, which we cheap. There was also some other wind proof jackets on sale, and I picked up one of these at the great price of 70% off, making it around about $50 aud.

Score!

A communal collaboration space at our hostel….

Tonight, we’re staying in a hostel, named Kex, which seems to be popular with all walks of foreign life. It’s been many years since I stayed in such an establishment, the memories of showering with thongs on was relived moments ago, not to mention the awkward juggle of making sure he fresh clothes dont get wet by the shower spray…The nature of many boisterous personalities thrown into a very well decorated room (in fact this is true for all the rooms) is almost intoxicating in its lively spirit. I just wish I wasnt feeling so darn tired from the days adventures, so that I could soak up a bit more of the charm of the place. It’s a very hipster-styled place. I’ll take some photos for you. There’s a jazz band playing here tonight, and you’d swear it was a weekend. But that’s a hostel for you, every night is a party. This place however, appears to cater for all ages, there’s no one dominant age group.

Reykjavik town is very much a fishing village. The buildings are either concrete corrugated iron or stone, large windows are decorated with all sorts of strange ornaments; much like a shopping window display. The irons are vibrant and help make the city streets feel lively and fun. There’s also the typical housing-commission style houses and apartments, these are the depressing grey you’d expect from the lack of a designers input. We have scheduled some more time at the end of the trip, the last 2 days before we fly out, to return to this hostel and explore Reykjavik further.

Wednesday morning we leave the city and begin our clockwise tour of Route 1, Iceland. Looking forward to finally pulling out the DSLRs and use them, as our travelling shots have all been compacts and iPhones.. The simple reason for this is the camera bags are always stored in overhead lockers, and not willing to show our fellow travellers our kit, we’ve kept them a secret. Surprisingly, we were not frisked or pulled aside for “random” security searches during any if our flights!

I just realized that this post is huge.! I’m going to try out some more pictures into my posts, so please be patient… The pictures are coming, I promise.

It’s 9.30pm and the sun set an hour ago, but blue hour lingers longer.
I’m trying to linger and not cave into tiredness like my body is begging me to feel, but the jazz band playing which is 2 floors below our room may just be what keeps me up tonight.

Have a great day Australia, much love from Iceland