First Impressions of Reykjavik

So I'm here and I've already decided I'm not coming home!

My flight was pretty good, although I didn't sleep. i was in a middle seat, but luckily i was between 2 very nice guys about my age. the one on the right was stopping over in iceland on his way to london where he's moving in with his boyfriend. he was super nice. the one on my left was kinda chubby, maybe a couple years younger than me, and had a fleece army print sweater on with dragons in the design too. the chubby one was icelandic and was born there but moved to canada very young. SO right at the beginnning of the flight i was talking to the gay kid about stuff. all of a sudden chubby kid chimes in... "have you tried whale meat?" so i pause... and turn... and say "no actually. i haven't. have you?" and he says "ya a couple times" i said "...is it good?" he thinks, then says "with the right sauce." and then he turned on his headphones. it was sooo random.

and no i will not try whale while im here.

I DID go whalewatching when I got here though. First I had just enought time to grab a sandwich. I humiliated myself because i ate it, paid the waitress, and left, and back at the hotel discovered I had a massive chunk of spinach in my teeth.

On the way to whalewatching, this weird chick from iowa who teaches special ed decided i would be her whale watching buddy.

Whale watching is overrated... we saw some Minky whales, but really all you see is their fin from a distance for a brief second. On a related note: puffins are ADORABLE!

I'm staying at Hotel Fron which is in an AWESOME location right on the main street. It's super loud though, so I might ask for a room further away from the elevators and higher up. The room is tiny but very cute. I have a massive balcony, and I get MTV and the discovery channel. The water reek of sulphur (which I expected, but it's still gross). Free internet in the hotel though! And I have a mini fridge, which is perfect for the vodka and wine I bought at duty free on my way here :)

Other fleeting thoughts about iceland:

-its so weird to take a nap and wake up at 10 pm and have it be completely daylight. Talk about screwing with your inner clock!

-the air smells like fish

-5 minutes of walking through reykjavik indicates that it's SO FREAKING COOL. It's hard to explain... its just so trendy and cool! I hate the word "trendy, but I don't really know what else to say... creative? artsy? unique?

-they have tons of chocolate bars that involve licorice and chocolate... f*ing weird!

-icelandic is such a weird language! i love hearing, but i cant understand a word of it! At lunch, my waitress had a tattoo, so I asked if she had gotten it in reykjavik. She said yes so I asked if it was a good tattoo place. she was like "ya its the best! its just over on gfbjdbkebglfbgvfjbvjfsv street. the artists name was gfbjdbkebglfbgvfjbvjfsv..., he's very famous." i seriously could not make out a single syllable!

anyways. it's prettymuch midnight and I stil want to try to hit up a bar so I can spend a small fortune trying icelandic booze. Sorry about the poor typing, this keyboard is stiff.

ciao!

Status Update: Packing for Iceland

Still haven't left. Trying to pack. I've got my camera bag and 3 lenses. I've got a rain jacket. I've got jewellery. I've got clothes for going out. I've got my $35,000 of icelandic monopoly money (35,000 Icelandic Kronur = about $400 Canadian). And I've got 7 pairs of shoes for my 6 day trip...

Breakdown of the shoes I'm bringing:

-1 pair of Reebok Easytone Running shoes... I want to wear these when I'm on tours or doing lots of walking so I can see if they really tone my butt while walking.



-1 pair of hightop Pumas... for when I need something super comfortable and fairly warm, but more stylish than the Reeboks



-1 pair of gold flats... cuz they're new and cute



-1 pair of gold-ish snakeskin strappy sandals... for if it gets hot. And also because they're new



-1 pair of black ballerina flats with chains around the ankles... for when the other flats don't match what I'm wearing



-1 pair of killer high black strappy heels with little studs... cuz they're freaking hot!



-1 pair of lower, plainer black heels, in case my feet get too massacred by the other heels


...see my dilemma???

Vacation Time!

Alright! So I'm off to Iceland for a week... I'll have tons of pics to post when I get back, but for the time being I'll leave you with a comic from PhD Comics about vacation: