It's finally here, the moment you have all been waiting for, an exciting summary of our trip to Iceland (only Day 1).
Let me get the bad news out of the way first, no, we did not see the Northern Lights (I am pretty sure we got nazar). Yes we are incredibly sad but the trip was definitely worth it.
Anyhow, you may be asking, Iceland? Why Iceland? To be truthful, I don't even know. I just remember standing in Bushra's kitchen showing her the Groupon deal for Northern Lights in Iceland (air + hotel + city tour + Northern Lights tour) and buying it. I still can't believe we went.
You guys, I literally spent months researching and talking about Iceland. I am pretty sure I spoke to everyone who lives in Iceland, went to Iceland, or thought about going to Iceland. There is a lot of information online that is helpful and a lot that is not, but there is nothing like actually being in a different country and making mistakes. Bushra and I made a list of things that you should keep in mind when traveling to Iceland:
(1) Get a Traveler Rewards credit card so you get points and won't get charged international fees - I got mine from Bank of America.
(2) If you're renting a car, check for traveler insurance (we did not and paid extra for insurance) and buy your own car adapter with phone charger (we did not and paid $20 for an adapter)
(3) Know the emergency line (its 112 in Iceland)
(4) Get an international line before traveling
(5) Convert Icelandic prices into dollars by getting rid of the last two digits -- so if something is 1,400, that equals approximately $14.
(6) Accept that fact that everything is Iceland is super duper expensive
(7) Make a list of places you want to see and decide which ones you can skip because there is not enough daylight in a day to see it all (applies in Winter only).
(8) If you are renting a car, know that there are speeding cameras everywhere. If you see a sign blinking on the road, its blinking because you were speeding and it took your picture.
(9) Use Google Maps for directions because it works without the internet once you have already put in the address. We did not know this until we had used most of our internet. Internet is very very important.
(10) Be careful of the roads. Roads are divided by a dotted white line and not a solid white line. There are lots of one ways and traffic circles.
(11) Clothing - take lots and lots of layers. We took socks (40 below socks are amazing), lined boots, gloves, hand warmers (very important), caps, scarves, sweaters, t-shirts, and tights (lined and regular). Don't b
(12) The weather is super bipolar in Iceland. It rains, snows and hails, all within 15 minutes. They have a saying in Iceland: if you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes - a very true statement.
Now the trip. We went Sunday night and got there early Monday morning (the states are 5 hours behind Icelandic time). The flight was about 5ish hours from Dulles. We landed at Keflavik International Airport. From there we waited until our rental car guy came from Sixt and drove us to pick up our car. It was pitch black this whole time. The sun doesn't come out until about 10:30 and decides to set around 4. Yes, the days were barely 6 hours long, which is probably why we didn't see as much as we wanted to. Anyhow, we got the car and drove to Reykjavik which was probably 45ish minutes. In Iceland, you drive on the right side of the road, American-style, but the speeds are in kilometers per hour. The road names are incredibly confusing so you can't really get around with GPS. There was a parking garage near the hotel so parking wasn't an issue. The street signs make no sense. There was a round blue sign with a red X and we had no clue what it was - means no parking.
We got to our hotel but of course couldn't check in until after 1. Our hotel was situated right in the middle of Reykjavik - a lot of restaurants and shops within walking distance. There was no food on the flight so we went to the closest thing, that was open at 9, and had a $10 bagel. Ten Dollars.
By the time we got done eating, it was time for the city tour. This picture pretty much summarizes Iceland. Dark. Wet. Cold.
The first spot was seeing a piece of the Berlin Wall, this little neon dude right here.
Next was the Northern Light museum, which was meh (okay fine it was cool, I'm just bitter about not seeing any myself) but not as cool as the wall murals across the street. Iceland is really big into art and music and there are wall murals everywhere. My favorite were these by Guido Van Helten:
Last spot was the Perlan or the Pearl. There is a revolving restaurant on top of the building where you can see the whole city. The guide told us that usually people go around the whole circle to see the city but there was no point of doing it today because it was so foggy and rainy. Everyone ran inside while Bushra and I walked around. We were literally flying because of the wind but walked/ran it all! It was raining and super windy by the time we got to the Pearl so there are no pictures.
Afterwards we finally checked in and got our thing settled. Bushra wanted to "rest her eyes" but I convinced her otherwise (it wasn't easy). We walked around Reykjavik and bought some souvenirs. I was eyeballing the famous Icelandic wool sweater, but the cheapest was $150. $150. I quickly changed my mind on buying a sweater. We had dinner at a Pakistani restaurant (you don't want to know how much we spent here). Halal food is shockingly everywhere in Reykjavik. We thought it would be a good idea to buy food for the next day so we wouldn't waste any time/money doing that. We got a large cheese pizza for, wait for it, $28. We got back to our room and crashed.
Day 2 started off in a very interesting way but before I write about that, I need to edit the pictures. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week.
