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We landed in Keflavik at 5:35am local time (1:35am NYC time). After
getting through customs, we figured we'd have about nine hours to explore
Iceland. The plan was to rent a car, drive into Reykjavik (which
as far as we could tell was only about 80km from the airport) and then
play
it by ear from there. Time
Elapsed With No Sleep:15h
5m
See? There's Keflavik in the southwestern corner of the map.
We were starting to feel a little tired on the plane, but we totally
rallied and got a second wind the minute we stepped off the plane (must've
been that reindeer meat finally kicking in).
We breezed right through customs...
...without any problems...
...and then the realization that we were actually IN ICELAND hit us. Iceland!
Oh, snap.
We quickly traded in our tacky greenbacks for a fistfulla polychromatic
peningur (which is Icelandic for "money"). Or as the natives say, "Najök-najök,"
which is Iceland for "Bling-bling." (P.S. - I am totally
lying.)
After we got our money all squared away, we headed over to Hertz and
rented a car. We told the woman at the counter that we only had a few
hours and we asked her if, besides Reykjavik, there was anything that
we should be sure not to miss in the short time we had. She was like
"Eh, not really." So we were like, "What about that Blue Lagoon place?
We saw video about it on the plane and it looked amazing! Is that worth
checking out?" Once again we were met with a tepid "Eh, it's ok" and
a shrug. (We wrote off her lethargy as an effect
of the less than four hours of sunshine Iceland receives during its
winter days).
6:40am (local time and still pitch black out).
We spent the hour-long drive into Reykjavik betting on what time
the sun would rise. Price Is Right rules in effect: the one who managed
to come closest, without going over would be declared the
winner. It was then agreed upon that the winner would get to make out
with Gemma, Grant's
hot little sister, (mmmmmm....Gemma) when we stopped at Grant's
parent's house in Essex on the last leg of our trip. But then we all
remembered
that Gemma had a boyfriend. (Booooo).
7:25am: Lost. We were right on target until the
highway we were on turned into this crazy-ass rotary that shot us off
in the wrong
direction. We stopped at a gas station for directions, but nobody there
spoke enough English to be helpful - so we hunkered down with the map
and tried to figure it out. (Check out Fatty's priceless "We're lost"
expression).
8:02am (yep, still dark). We made it to downtown Reykjavik
(the world's northernmost capital) and parked our teeny-tiny Eurocar
in a public lot near the Tjörn,
which is a big, man-made lake in the center of the oldest part of town.
We didn't manage to get a picture of him, but on the walk over to the Tjörn,
this
thirty-something
year-old
guy,
who
had
what looked like a giant lobotomy scar running horizontally across his forehead,
ran
up to us and said "Where are you from?" in perfect English. "New
York City," we told him. "Oh, yeah? What do you do?" Me: "I
work at a software company." He then leaned in really close towards my face
and asked, "A SOFTware company, or a softWARE company?" Then
cackled manicially and ran away.
8:15am: Just as we arrived at the Tjörn, the
sun came up (which made me with my prediction of 8:10am, the big
winner
of the "When Will
the Sun Rise in Iceland" Contest. Too bad I didn't win jack shit). That
building on the left is one of the Municipal builidings of the city.
Here's Chris and I trying
our best to not look cold for a photo. We
didn't want to pack a whole bunch of winter clothers that we'd only
be using for a half-day in Iceland so all we had with us to fend of
the 4°C
temperatures (about 39°F) were our light jackets.
A few minutes later, we watched this guy show up with a little kid
and a huge garbage bag full of rolls and bread.
As stood nearby discussing what our best plan of attack in exploring
the city, , he overheard us talking and asked where we were from.
"Oh shit," we thought. "Here we go again." But
when we told him we were from NYC,
he
told us
that
he'd
lived in NYC for a bunch of years as well. He introduced himself as
Smari and told us that he'd lived in the
States for 15 years and that besides NYC, he'd also worked as a bakery
manager in New Hampshire and San Francisco.
He'd moved back to Iceland a few years ago and was managing a bakery
there. He'd just gotten off work - so he grabbed a bag full of day-old
bread, and brought his son to the pond to feed the
birds while waiting for his wife (who was originally from Russia)
to get out of her class at the nearby University.
After we told him that we were only in Reykjavik for a few hours to
sightsee before having to catch a plane to London, he told us that
he had a few hours to kill and if we were interested, he'd be happy
to take us on a walking tour of the city. He suggested we grab a cup
of coffee to warm up, and then he'd show us around. We were speechless.
In a 20 minute span we'd two people: one was the craziest
person in
Iceland,
the other was the nicest.
As we walked along, Smari told us all about his life growing up Reykjavik
- and then out of the blue he pointed to a store and said "That
store right there, that's my sister's dress shop." We were like, "Oh,
that's rad." He goes, "She's a fat bitch. I hope she's goes bankrupt."
We were completely caught off guard and when we all started
laughing Smari's like, "No seriously, she's a real cunt." I nearly
lost my mind.
It was right around this time that I decided it was time to pull out the video
camera
and
start
capturing
some of
this. I mean, Christ, I'd already failed to capture the lobotomy guy and Smari
dropping the C-bomb about his sister - I wasn't about to miss out on any more.
I asked him if he minded me filming him talking and he said he didn't.
As soon as I started taping, he launched into all these stories about Iceland's
crazy nightlife and told us that we needed to come back over the summer
and
spend
a few
days. "Don't worry about a hotel." He told us, "You won't be needing
one." Hahaha. (Footage coming soon).
I should also at this point tell you all that we carried Fatty's
rad little
MiniDV video camera
with
us
throughout the entire trip and we ended
up
shooting
just
over
14
hours of
tape (which
I'm in the process of editing into a full-length video diary). Over the
next
few
months
I'll
be
posting some of the choice clips from it. Woo.
We walked to the north-western edge of town and checked out the mountains
across the bay.
And also checked out a whole bunch of vehicles outfitted with monster
tires.
The Fatty.
Then Smari took us to the Hallgrimskirkja church, the tallest building in the
city.
Out front of the church is a statue of Leif Ericsson, the Icelandic
explorer credited with the discovery of Vinland (North America). The
inscription on the back of the statue reads: "Leifr
Eiricsson Son of Iceland Discoverer of Vinland. The United States
of America
to the
People of
Iceland on
the
One Thousandth
Anniversary
of the Althing. AD 1930" (I didn't know what an the Althing was.
I've since learned, via Dictionary.com,
that it's: "The parliament of Iceland. The oldest assembly in Europe,
first convened in
930.")
After Hallgrimskirkja, Smari took us over to the outdoor sculpture
garden at the Einar Jonsson Museum. He's Iceland's most famous sculptor
and his work (which was from the very early 1900's) was pretty far
out
there.
The garden was filled with these enormous bronze sculptures mostly
drawing from various Nordic mythology.
Craziness.
Here's me taking a picture of Fatty taking a picture of one of the
smaller, detailed sculptures.
And here's the really neat artsy picture Fatty took.
I really wish we the indoor portion of the museum had been open because
I would have loved to see some of his other work.
There are a whole bunch of pictures of the stuff inside the museum
on their
website.
Chris and Smari's son (who's name I forgot!)
After the museum, Smari remembered that he'd only put a few minutes
of time in the meter back at the Tjorn, because he'd only been planning
on being there for a few minutes. So we all headed back to the Tjorn.
Miraculously,
he managed to avoid getting a ticket (but he did accidentally lock
himself
out
of
the
car...Doh!). We thanked him for the tour (it's still one of the nicest things
a stranger has ever done for me - so Smari, if you read this, thanks again!)
and then told him that we were thinking about checking out the Blue Lagoon on
the way back to catch our flight
but that the lady at the rental car place had seemed underwhelmed when we asked
her about it. Smari told us "Fuck that lady. If there's only one thing you could
see in Iceland, it should be the Blue Lagoon. Don't miss it. Go there now." That
settled it. We bid Smari farewell, and headed for Grindavik.
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