No offense to the other cities we've visited so far, but this is the one we'd been waiting for. Iceland is where we'd always planned to go. I got up before the alarm and took a shower. Liz got up and we sauntered quite casually to breakfast, then back upstairs to pack. I really did enjoy Oslo: it was like the best parts of the other three cities rolled into one, even if none of them matched up to the others individually. The goal was to be out of the hotel by 1100, but we were ready just after 1000. We figured that we might as well head out and make the airport less stressful. Thanks to a stroke of luck at the tram stop and the wonderful Flytoget express train, we were at Gardemoen by 1100. It was, therefore, a pity that check-in didn't open until 1200. After check-in, it was through security and to the gate. Ordinarily, I'd leave minutia like security out of this journal, but since I realized I had left my watch at the checkpoint, I thought it relevant. My second big “oops” of the trip but, as with the first, all ended well and I got my watch back.
The airport itself was very modern and airy, reasonably well laid out and manageable. With all the time on our hands, we hit a tourist shop and picked up some souvenirs, and had a pair of baguette sandwiches from a restaurant near our gate. Waiting at the gate was pleasant at first, but grew tiresome quickly as more and more people showed up and started forming a queue for absolutely no reason. Said queue was, naturally, a large mass of people between where we were sitting and the nearest bathroom, which I, naturally, had to visit more than once. Boarding for the flight was delayed over 30 minutes, which had us departing 30 minutes late and arriving about 20 minutes late.
The flight was pleasant enough, as I spent most of it reading and Scott watched Sherlock Holmes (not as bad as I'd expected, per Scott). We didn’t get to see much of the landscape as we were descending because there was low cloud cover, but what we did see was impressive. After our arrival and long walk through the airport, we were picked up by our taxi driver and given a bag of utterly useless tourist info put together by the Nordic Visitor people. I can’t stress how nice it was to simply climb in the back of a taxi and mindlessly be shuttled to the hotel – I wish we’d had that in each city, not just those we arrived in by plane.
A couple of things leapt out at me about Iceland straight away: the parts of the landscape that aren't rocks seem to be covered in lupines and the water in the bay near Reykjavík is a color I have never seen before—it's a dark jewel teal where the sun hits it and it's magnificent.The landscape was barren, rocky, shaded with green from peat and moss, and almost completely desolate. Near the airport there were lupines EVERYWHERE and it was simply gorgeous, albeit totally uninhabited. Truthfully, I think I liked the fact that it was uninhabited – I kept imagining walking out across the strange landscape, wind blowing in my hair, taking shelter under rocky outcroppings and writing poetry and painting.
I guess we had forgotten that the airport is about 40 minutes outside Reykjavík, but it gave us a chance to see the “suburbs” of Iceland. The drive was other-worldly. If this had been the only part of Iceland I had seen, I'd have thought the island unfit for human habitation. It's completely alien with rocks, moss, and lichen everywhere and the odd patch of grass or pool dotting the scene. It may be the closest I ever get to walking on the Moon. It's as if the whole horizon is under construction. It was stirring and depressing, both awe- and woe-inspiring, and, on the whole, everything I'd hoped for.
Getting closer to civilization, all the little houses clinging to the harsh landscape looked so painfully beautiful, and the growing sprawl of the city in front of us seemed less and less appealing. Part of me wanted nothing more than to be in our hotel, where another part of me wanted to continue on that lonely road through the huge open wilderness for hours. I’m very glad we’re doing the Golden Circle tour tomorrow so we can see more of the natural beauty of this place. Civilization reared its head here and there and, finally, Reykjavík loomed ahead. Through low clouds and mist, it really did offset the wastes through which we had passed. We passed Perlan and not far from the massive cathedral, Hallgrímskirkja, and arrived at the hotel. For the first time in many years, we got an actual KEY to our room, not a card.
The Fosshótel Baron is kind of part of this weird juxtaposition – the front half of the hotel is shiny and new, all Scan style and aluminum siding, whereas the rear of the hotel looks like some long hall or lodge, and has rooms with whitewashed antique furniture and steeply slanted ceilings. Our room is one of these “historical rooms,” complete with an exposed wooden beams, one of which is vertical and clearly weight-bearing, judging by the long cracks along its grain. The only windows in the room are skylights in the severely angled ceiling directly over our heads as we lie in bed. The highest point of the ceiling is by the door, where there is an ornate chandelier for no apparent reason.
After settling a bit and catching up with the world, we started thinking about dinner. Being two hours behind the peninsula from whence we came, our stomachs were now screaming for food. Liz found a place about a block and a half away that served Balkan (Bulgarian, to be specific) food. Sure, let's go have an adventure! It was quite tasty and they had extensive veggie options. I had something called Sirene, which was a vegetable stew of some nature with goat cheese and an egg poached within it. I had zucchini which had been cut into thick slices, sandwiched with salty goat cheese, and fried. It was served with a yogurt-dill sauce and was indescribably tasty. The desserts were also good – a kind of chocolatey torte/cake with a baklava-ish quality, and a flan-like custard with burnt caramel sauce.
Because of the depressed economy here, it may have been our cheapest meal yet: at around 4500 ISK, that's about $36, including two desserts. Interestingly, on our way to dinner, we discovered that, direcly beneath our room, there is a 24-hour convenience store/supermarket. This could prove extremely handy later.
After dinner we walked back down the main shopping street to our hotel. The shops were all closed, but they looked interesting and I’m looking forward to exploring them. I’m excited to be in Iceland, but also somewhat homesick after 11 days away, and hopefully that the next few days will keep us busy enough to avoid being sucked into homesickness. Tomorrow should be very interesting since it’s a guided tour of the Golden Circle which is scheduled to take 8.5 hours and leaves at 8am. Luckily with the time difference, it’s 9pm here but feels like 11pm to us, so getting up at 7am tomorrow should feel like 9am and not be completely unbearable.
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