19 Hours In Iceland
Iceland.
19 Hours.
What to do?
I found myself in this situation and obviously the most important thing I have to focus on is… time. I am all about min/maxing and in Iceland… you can only do so much because of that one thing. Iceland’s airport, Keflavik, is one hour away from Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. Build in that time and since you are more than likely taking buses both ways… lets just say you lose three hours in transit time alone.
So where do I spend my time wisely?
Let me tell you.
The Blue Lagoon
I sincerely hope you have heard of this place. If not… imagine a milky blue hot spring set in the beautifully desolate landscape of Iceland. And there you have it.
This place is incredible. I’ve never been to any place like it before and I absolutely want to go back. The temperature difference when you are in the waters is the perfect kind of ridiculous. The air is below freezing yet… while inside the waters? Over 100°F. They also give you a complimentary facial while you are in there because the silicon rich mud there is incredibly beneficial to the skin. Plus you can get any kind of drink you want at the swim up bars that are attached to the pools.
They do ask that you shower before getting into the spring because good hygiene for everyone is key but besides that… an absolute dream. I originally only charted a couple of hours here but once I got in? I quickly decided to push that to three hours. The hot spring is actually quite large and there are multiple areas that you can go to once you are in. I can remember finding a really nice spot close to the back that had a small rock under the water but close to the side… which enabled me to put my feet up and just lean back and relax. It was heaven.
After thoroughly enjoying the hot spring and feeling re-energized like I had never been on a plane from Los Angeles to Iceland just a few hours ago… I got on a bus for an hour-long trip to the capital!
I know you want to really experience the bus ride that I took… so you are in luck! The video above is a terrible 360p video of a live stream I did at the time. It isn’t the full hour and I know you are sad about that… but I hope you enjoy the couple minutes that I recorded.
REYKJAVIK
It is small. Once you know that there are more sheep in the country than humans… that’s really all you have to know. There is also the fact of where Iceland is on the globe. It is only a few degrees south of the Arctic Circle which means near endless sunny days in the Summer time… which is when I went.
I was randomly dropped off near the middle of town and after checking my pre-loaded maps on my phone… I set off for the largest landmark in the city. The Hallgrimskirkja. For those that aren’t perfect linguists… a good pronunciation of it is: HALL-creams-kirk-yuh. Though, if you want to instill fear into your enemies? Just try yelling whatever pronunciation you think it might sound like and I bet it will do the job. I got there just in time to hear the organ being played and man was it beautiful. Give it a listen.
After that I got my obligatory picture in front of the church by Mr. Leif Eiríksson and headed into the city. Since my plane had been delayed and I had decided to take a little extra time at the Blue Lagoon… a museum I had been wanting to go to had already closed. Actually… a great deal of places had already closed. Fortunately there was a world famous hotdog shack that I had marked that was still open! It seems that it is a major tourist attraction for nearly anyone visiting. I must say… it is a weird dog. It has this caramel maple sauce on it with mayonnaise that is unlike anything I had ever had. I kind of want to have it again weirdly enough. If you are in Reykjavík… check out Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur.
Pardon the focus issues on this one. It was really cold there!
At this point of the day… It was pretty cold and I was basically looking for anything to do since a lot of places had already closed for the day. I saw that there was a new convention center and decided to peek my head in there. The architecture was really pretty cool looking. It was eerie though… There wasn’t a lot of people there and I didn’t linger.
I then started to hit some Craft Beer bars… because if you don’t know yet… I’m kind of into that scene just a tad bit. I first hit up Microbar Reykjavík which was a very solid spot and I grabbed a flight of Craft Beers to taste. Though nearly all beer is imported since the nation is an island… They had a decent selection! I then hit up Mikkeller and Friends which I have just checked and noticed that it is permanently closed. It was a fun spot that was situated inside of a house which made the ambience of the bar quite interesting.
My time in Iceland was brief… yet filled with fun. Next time I go… I will make sure to try and hit up the countryside because I know it is otherworldly.
