The Iceland Plan
After a 4am start and a 6am flight, myself, Katy Perry, Koala and Canuck (my 3 girlfriends and I) arrived in Reykjavik. Our plan was to spend our first day in Reykjavik, our 2nd day on a Whale Watching boat, and our 3rd-5th days road tripping and heading to the Blue Lagoon.
Where we stayed
We had decided on staying at the Bus Hostel in Reykjavik, as it was also the home of SadCars, the car rental company we were using for our 3 days road tripping.
The hostel was pretty new and thus, it was decked out well. The common areas like the bar were opulent and rustic, with moose heads and animal skin rugs. The dorms were very spacious and the duvet was probably the coziest duvet I’ve ever slept under.
The only negative was that it was not ‘downtown’, but a 10-15 minute walk away. This would never be an issue for me, except that we were there in November and the temperatures were frigid.
One quick tip
When we landed at Keflavik Airport, we dawdled our way through this pristine airport, checking out Duty Free for ages and finally, we made it to the area where the bus departs to take us to Reykjavik downtown.
However, the bus we booked plans its schedule based on flights arriving, so our bus had already departed and there was not going to be another for quite some time! We luckily talked our way onto a different bus, for free, and this bus took us all the way to our hostel – marvelous!
So my tip is: don’t spend too long in duty-free checking out the booze as you may miss your transport into town!
Day 1 – Reykjavik
While we were on the bus from the airport, we found little magazines to read about Reykjavik. Within this magazine, it showed us that the hotdog food vans are meant to be exceptional, and there is a new food van in town – The Lobster Shack. It was decided then and there that the 4 gals needed Lobster, and we needed it now.
After working out a route to walk into town, we began our hunt for the Lobster Shack. We knew it was by the water, but that didn’t mean much to us being brand new to the city!
But Reykjavik being a small place (able to walk from one side to the other in 15 minutes easily), we found the Lobster Shack and were thrilled! By this point we had become starving – a common theme of our 5 days in Iceland.
The Lobster Shack has either a Lobster roll or a Lobster soup. It didn’t matter what we each picked, we “mmmm”d and “yuuum”d our way through the meal.
We had found a spot to sit, outside on a bench (freezing our butts off) to eat our meal, and decide where we’d go next. During this short-lived moment of belly happiness, an Icelandic guy came up to us and started talking.
He was quite entertaining and we were all laughing with him and it was decided that he’d take us to the grand church, as his father (or some family member) had built it (or something… I didn’t really pay too close attention).
Off we walked up to Hallgrimskirkja with our Icelandic guide.
Hallgrimskirkja
Now, this is an architectural darling! Hallgrimskirkja is a Lutheran parish church, rising 73 metres high.
It was designed to represent the basalt lava flows of Iceland’s landscape.
Inside the church, I whiped out my selfie stick. I don’t know why my friends think it’s so hilarious.
For a very small fee, you can take an elevator to the top of Hallgrimskirkja to the viewing deck. Check out the views.
Whilst up in the viewing deck, all four of us gals realised that our friend was a bit quirky and taking up too much of our 1 day in Reykjavik. It was at this point he began making friends with a group of 3 guys, who we found out were all Russian and in town for the Air Waves music festival.
We got chatting to The Russians for a little while, before we attempted to leave Hallgrimskirkja without our Icelandic mate. This didn’t work and we had Mr Iceland follow us to the grocery store until finally we asked if we could part ways. I for one thoroughly enjoyed his stories and could have listened to him some more, but we needed to SEE Reykjavik and he was holding us back.
After we had ditched Mr Iceland, we thought we’d never see him again, but sure enough, we saw him and The Russians all going to have some Icelandic cuisine, rotten shark.
Sometimes you meet interesting individuals on vacations which is half the fun, and I will never forget him.
Meeting Kiki
Later that evening, after warming up at the hostel, we four gals ventured back downtown to meet up with a blog-friend of our friend Katy Perry (who writes a blog). Kiki is from the USA and lives in Iceland with her Icelandic beau and blogs about how amazing Iceland is.
Meeting Kiki was really interesting, to be able to get a first hand insight into Iceland, from a non-Icelandic. She is learning Icelandic, and works a job and is always sightseeing the magical places outside of Reykjavik. After spending only half a day in Reykjavik, I already knew I wished I could have a much longer time in Iceland to be able to see even a handful of what Kiki told us about.
Drinking with the Icelandics
After a civilised glass of wine (that cost an arm and a leg!) we ventured on to a pub in the downtown area. The Dubliner! This pub is an Irish pub and it was crowded to the BRIM! This is because that night they were releasing the Tuborg Christmas Beer!
As it was beer related, I was down. My mission for the night was to drink a Christmas beer and to get one of the Christmas hats that people were wearing in the bar.
After a little bit of banter, I managed to get myself a Santa hat which has lights built-in – which I paraded around for the rest of the evening, so chuffed.
The Tuborg Christmas beer was yummy! I’ve not had it before, and it felt quite special that the barrel was being opened while we were in the pub!
Day 2 – Reykjavik
As we lay in our dorm beds all cosy and warm, Katy Perry received an email from the Whale Watching company. We weren’t going. The boat couldn’t go due to bad weather. These things can’t be helped!
In that case, it was time to REALLY see Reykjavik since we had a full day to explore.
Our first stop was to have some good coffee. I am a bit of a coffee snob, so everywhere I go, I try to go to at least one quality coffee shop/cafe and taste how good the coffee is.
Your best chance of finding good coffee is to follow the hipsters. We had our coffee in Reykjavik Roasters. It’s a relaxed coffeehouse where they roast the beans they’ve purchased from places like Columbia.
Volcano Museum
When we heard about the Volcano Museum, we thought – we absolutely have to go! So, we went. As you walk in, there’s about 4m x 4m of space that is the Museum. Then there is the Volcano Cinema. We thought, what the heck, we need to stay inside a bit longer, lets watch the movie!
Within moments of sitting down, O, our resident Koala, fell asleep. This is a classic representation of our friend Koala. She falls asleep anywhere, anytime.
For the rest of us, the movie was quite interesting to learn about the Volcano on the Westman Islands when it erupted.
Selfie Stick
After the Volcano movie, we walked around the harbour area with its statues.
I had recently purchased a selfie stick while in Rome and was showing off how awesome it is to my friends. Whilst I was doing this, we were walking towards a statue to have our selfie photo taken with, when as I was paying attention to setting up the selfie stick, I tripped over a chain fence and went flying, straight into the asphalt! My friends found this utterly hilarious, as did I, but I gained wounds to both of my knees that to this day, are scars of my love for the selfie stick.
Foodies
To cheer me up after the fall, we decided we were starving and needed a hot-dog. The hotdogs from the hotdog vans are glorious!! This is definitely something you need to put on your ‘Must Eat’ list of Reykjavik.
Another place you need to put on your must-eat list is the soup in a bread bowl restaurant, Svarta Kaffi. Soup in a bread bowl, in the cold weather, there’s nothing better.
Icelandic Men
So, Icelandic men are gorgeous! They have that Scandinavian look, but every last one of them has a beard. Now, beards are IN and so are Icelandic men! Also, they all seem to be muscley and tall and handsome – we couldn’t believe it. Yes gals, get over to Iceland if you want to meet a HUNK.
I love Iceland
Iceland is a remarkable place. Reykjavik, being the capital, is the smallest capital I’ve been to in my life. Iceland is also the coldest place I’ve been a tourist in my life. Being a tourist in Iceland, you feel like you are flying under the radar because there is nobody around! Also, you will never have to stand in a queue in Iceland.
After our 2 days in Reykjavik, we spent 3 days exploring outside of the capital in search for natural wonders. We found plenty! Please read my Iceland road-trippin posts for more Icelandic adventures!
Iceland Video
I created a video of our 5 day Iceland trip on the Magisto App, watch it here: Iceland Video
Australian expat, married to a Dutch guy, living in Amsterdam. Previously lived in London for 3 years, too! Lover of travel, coffee, brunch, beaches, fresh flowers, and family. Now a new mum, navigating life with a baby!
0 thoughts on “Reykjavik, Iceland”
oh the soup bowl!! yum! And O, the resident koala hahah
Little Splodge.. Can’t hang
How were you still enjoying his stories is beyond me..