Iceland... the land of ice.

So I've been home for a little while now, collecting my thoughts about Iceland, and now it's time to post.

The verdict: I need to go back! Iceland is seriously the best place I've ever been, and I very strongly plan on moving there. Also, 24hour sunlight is awesome!

On my first day i went whalewatching, which you can read about here.

Whale watching

On my second day I explored Reykjavik and bought WAAAAAY too much stuff. Everything in iceland is SO expensive. For instance, a beer costs about $14. A bottle of vodka costs double what it would here in Canada. The one cocktail I remember buying myself was about $20. Dinner for myself would range from $60-$100. Lunch would be between $30-$50 (I actually had a $30 hamburger). Reykjavik's most famous restaurant is actually a hotdog stand, and it's just a couple dollars for the BEST hotdog ever.

Baejarins Beztu Pylsur... Best Hotdogs!

On my third day I went horseback riding in the morning, and then to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, which was very very touristy (so many kids!) but still very cool. I got a 2-hour in-water body wrap and massage, so I actually just floated around the water being massaged and stuff. The only downside is that the water was very salty and destroyed my hair! The water was so cool though... it was almost milky white!

Water at the Blue Lagoon

On Saturday and Sunday I hung out in Reykjavik and went to some galleries and museums. The National Art Gallery had 2 very cool exhibitions on... Edvard Munch and Cindy Sherman's Film Stills.

On my second last day I went on the Golden Circle Tour, where you drive around to some of Iceland's main natural sites including Geysir, Gulfoss (a beautiful waterfall), and a place where you can clearly see the separation between the North American Techtonic plate and the Eurasian one.

Standing between the Eurasian techtonic plate (right) and the North American one (left)

The big wall with the waterfall is the North American techtonic plate

Gulfoss

Geysir (you can see a man in the bottom right corner... that should give you an idea of the scale)

The earth here is red from iron

At nighttime the Icelanders don't really go out until midnight, so I'd nap until about 11 and then head out. Most nights I hung out with my fabulous icelandic buddy Toti. Toti is also the reason I stood 1 foot away from Bjork! On my second day, in the afternoon, I was about to take a nap when Toti texted me about an art show down by the harbour. I said I was pretty tired so no thanks... then I woke up an hour later with a text on my phone that said "but Bjork's here", so I got down there in about 5 minutes flat! She was there with her kid, and as much as I desperately wanted to approach her, I was advised not to :( There were also 2 members of Múm there, and I even drove past Jonsi's house later that night!

Performance piece at the art show

Proof!

Me + Toti

Toti sitting under my new favourite photo

Some fun Iceland facts I learned:

-They don't have a word for "please". Instead, they have 3 words that mean "do it".

-Until recently, it was legal in Iceland to kill Turks.

-Beer was illegal in Iceland until a couple years ago. Not all liquor, just beer...

-The largest group of immigrants in Iceland is Polish people.

More photos:

Weird Statue at the Keflavik Airport

Flying over Greenland

The Reykjavik Pond at about midnight

Some dude bleeding in the street at 1am.

This is about 11:15 PM

Me on top of my new favourite statue

My new favourite statue

View of Reykjavik from the top of the church

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!