I got into Reykjavik pretty late so I just found a place and kipped at the airport for the night. No trouble since you know of my airport obsession. I also had to wait to change in my $5o bill for Icelandic money. Because that was all the money i had left and turns out $27 of that went to my return bus ticket!!
The next morning I was up early as fuck because I was meeting my couchsurfing host at 6:30 am at the bus station. It worked out perfect because he was getting off work and could pick me up there.
The first bus into Reykjavik left at 6 and I was on that bad boy. Also I was the only person on the bus. But I made it in on time and easy peasy I was picked up and off to his house we went. Turns out it was dead city centre and it was so nice. I had my own room and there was heated floors and I passed right out for a nap.
When I got up a few hours later I was chatting with my host and he had some volunteer work to do since he was part of the local search and rescue volunteer team. So it was perfect timing because I was ready to see the city!
The weather that first day was perfect and amazing! As you can see from the pictures!
Then that night we went in search of the northern lights. But first stop the most famous restaurant in Iceland... A hot dog stand. It was delish and cheap, perfect for my budget. Then a look out on the whole city!!
It looked like a little tiny christmas town and it was so pretty covered in snow.
Sadly I didn't get to see any northern lights. But that's okay I'll just have to go back some time. But it wasn't a wasted trip to the middle of no where. On the way out we stopped by the president's house. There is seriously 0 security. I could have walked right up to the door and knocked and guess what.... the president probably would have answered! How bizarre? Of course this launched me into a typical round of 100 questions. So it was a fact filled evening trying to see the northern lights.
Mornings were a crazy experience in Iceland because the sun rose really late so when I'd wake up at like 9 it looked like this....
So it made me want to sleep all day. But the second day when I woke up it was to this..
A blizzard! Apparently they aren't that common in Reykjavik. It was super nasty looking out and my host was leaving to go find a missing person and he offered me the key to the flat in case I wanted to go out... I did not. I opted to stay in and edit.
Yes that is snow piled against the door on the right...
It was a warm coffee filled day. Then when he got back for the night he was like let's get ice cream.
Like what!? Isn't it too cold? Apparently not. It's what all the locals do. They LOVE ice cream. I can see why after having some. It was soooo good. While we were eating our ice cream we drove around city centre and stopped by a small thermal spring on the outskirts. It's apparently a place where the local kids go late at night.
This is where my adventure in Reykjavik began. So my host had his cousin coming in the night of my last night there and he said I was welcome to stay but I don't know why it made me feel insanely awkward to think of that. So I was like no biggy I'll just grab a hostel my last night. By the way a Hostel was not in the picture at all because at this point I had about $15 to get me through the next two days and Hostels started at $25. So I decided it was totally called for to once again indulge my airport loving spirit!!
So there was still a bit of a blizzard the next day. But I packed up left a nice good bye note and off I went to see more of the city. At one point i was convinced my nose and finger tips were forfeit. Even though I had two pairs of pants, a shirt, sweatshirt, heavy jacket, gloves, hat, and my Buff as a face cover. It's not like I was running around poorly clad. I was bundled up as fuck! And still I was freezing. So I stopped at Mokka for a coffee. I'd heard about this cafe on a PBS show actually, it's apparently really famous. So I blew $7 of my precious money on a coffee. IT was totally worth it!!
Then I did a bit more walking around and I swear the weather was fickle because one minute it was snowy then 5 minutes later it was crisp and clear. My host had said that it's a joke in Iceland that if you hang around for 45 minutes you'll see all the weather in that time. It's true. Because that afternoon the weather flipped and flopped between nice to sort of nice to horrible to sunny and amazing. It was crazy.
These pictures were all taken within 2 hours of each other....
The weather's fickleness was what caused me to turn up at the bus station that afternoon soaked and cold and drippy. But I caught one of the last buses out of Reykjavik, strangely enough the last bus would have been at 2:15pm because the buses only run according to departing flights.
My Flight wasn't out till 5pm the next day. I got to Keflavík airport at 3pm on the 17th of December! I suddenly had 26 hours to kill at the airport and holy shit was I excited!! Like seriously over the moon. I spent a few more precious LSK on lunch, dinner, tomorrows breakfast and lunch and snacks....
For less then 500 LSK that food lasted me nicely on my airport adventure!!
And I know it sounds crazy and I don't think I can ever quite get people to see my side of loving airports. If you would like to try and maybe have a laugh at my airport antics last december you can read the blog I wrote while in the throws of sweet airport bliss!!!!! So read it HERE and have a laugh.
Welcome back. See I love airports! I might have a mental affliction... but whatever. I will always be like a kid at christmas when I have to catch a flight. I'll always arrive 3 hours early if I'm leaving from Newark or 4- 26 hours early if it's a flight from Europe! I will also enjoy sleeping in them whenever I can. Because despite what you might think there are some decently comfortable nitches if you look hard enough.
Okay Taylor enough! Stop with the airport obsession..... *deep breath* Okay so about 4 hours before my flight was to board I checked in and went through security. On the other side I spent a few more precious LSK on coffee. Exchange rate it was $2.50 for a refillable cup of coffee. I was doing some more editing and got so jacked on caffeine that i was a bundle of jitters when I boarded.
Strangely being so jacked on caffeine made the Flight go by pleasantly. I watched afew movies then suddenly I was landing in the USA!!!
After a loooooooooooooong wait at border patrol and a few questions. And oddly enough this happen every time I reenter the USA the border agent looks at my passport and looks at me then asks me to smile. I'm barely even smiling in my passport photo.... Strange... maybe they all just inheriently know that i have a stunning smile. Any how out I go and there's my Mum and Dad! It's always nice coming home and seeing my family at the airport.
And that brings my whirlwind adventures Europe to a close. Shortly I shall be posting a reflection post because I feel like this trip redefined my comfort zone and self opinion more then any trip before ever had. So stay tuned!
Cheers,
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