Iceland, Pt. 1

Around the time we got married, my wife and I talked about making Iceland our honeymoon destination. It had, for some reason, captured both of our imaginations over the years. Back in 2008, on a trip to Scotland, I tried to include a stopover in Iceland, but I wasn’t able to work it into the itinerary. As for Katelyn, she’d wanted to go ever since her brother and his wife visited some years ago. After a year of planning and accruing vacation days, we were ready for our own trip to Iceland.

We first flew from San Francisco to New York, where we visited with family and stayed the night. I thought this might work better than trying to sleep on a redeye flight, but truthfully I was too excited to get any rest no matter the arrangement. The following day was spent in transit, flying Icelandair from New York to Keflavik.

We arrived just after 11pm and took the Flybus to the bus station. After all the hours of preparation and the hectic activity of travel, the ride on the bus was quiet and calm, and there was no hint of Iceland’s dramatic landscapes in the darkness beyond the windows. Shuttles waited at the bus terminal to take us and our fellow weary travelers to our hotels. “Alda,” I replied when prompted, squinting blearily at the headlights surrounding us.

The streets in Reykjavik were quiet when we arrived at Hotel Alda. The receptionist good-naturedly checked us in and supplied us with a complimentary cellphone. I was grateful for his kindness, and even more grateful for the modern and comfortable hotel room.

Day 1: Reykjavik

Our first day was spent settling in and getting accustomed to our surroundings. It took a while to sink in that we were actually in Iceland. In some ways Reykjavik feels not so different from a trendy neighborhood you might find in the Pacific Northwest. Misty conditions, quirky bars, trendy music, and plenty of spoken English created that impression, yet the fantastic landscape and brightly colored buildings subverted it.

After coffee and a pastry at popular café Reykjavik Roasters, we visited Hallgrímskirkja with its iconic design inspired by natural basalt columns. We enjoyed expansive views of the city from the clock tower. The interior was spartan, but no less inspiring with its vaulted ceilings, tall windows, and gleaming pipe organ.

We learned that Iceland first adopted Christianity as its official religion in the year 1000. Pagan practices were still deemed acceptable – in private, of course – and the need for an Icelandic-language Bible played a huge role in preserving the language. There was no written tradition prior to that point. Instead, laws were memorized by law-speakers and the epic sagas were preserved orally.

For lunch, we heeded numerous recommendations in favor of the hot dogs at Bæjarins Beztu. The menu was comprised of HOT DOG and SODA. Can’t argue with that kind of simplicity! What’s the big deal about hot dogs, you ask? It’s okay, we didn’t know either. For one, they can be found almost anywhere on the island for very reasonable prices. They’re also absolutely delicious – made with lamb and topped with brown mustard, remoluade, and crispy and grilled onions. We enjoyed our pylsur at the nearby picnic tables, resting them in handy tabletop cradles.

We moved on to the nearby Vikin Maritime Museum. They had a great exhibit on women in the fishing industry, who were at one time a major part of its success. Only around 1900 did Icelandic society begin to paint women sailors as unattractive and brutish, and to insist that a woman’s role was to keep the household. It seems sentiment is finally turning the other way – more women are becoming ship’s engineers today.

The Saga Museum gave us the the medieval history of the island, complete with creepy wax mannequins. The audio tour lead us through the characters and events of the sagas: from the beginnings of the settlement, to the discovery of Vinland, to the conversion. I had no idea of the brutal internal strife during the middle ages, which was characterized by virulent plagues and a failing political system that allowed chieftains to consolidate too much power, resulting in ugly civil warfare.

A number of foreign embassies lined the way to Tjörnin. We took a break and watched the ducks at the somewhat dystopic-looking Ráðhús Reykjavíkur (city hall). Next we looked for a way in to Holavallagarður, one of Europe’s oldest cemeteries, but the gates we tried were locked. We must have been getting tired because neither of us thought to walk around the block to find another way in. Instead, we returned to the hotel to relax.

Feeling a bit recharged, we got dinner at Lebowskibar. It’s themed after The Big Lebowski and known for its many White Russian variants.

Our last stop of the day was at Sólfar, a sculpture evoking a Viking knorr. A fellow tourist took our picture there. The evening was very calm – the water looked like silver, reflecting the clouds.