Ultima Thule (II)

[mrph]

I'm currently sitting in a swimming pool cafe in Reykjavik while souldier_blue enjoys the pool. I'd been intending to swim myself, but events have conspired against me, so I'm sitting this one out.

It's been a lovely holiday, so far, if slightly odd. The guest house is lovely, and quite informal - and I really do like Reykjavik.

The city centre is quite small, and occasionally things remind me that this is Iceland and things are different here... but even the bits that aren't exactly picturesque have Scenery looming in the background.

No pigeons; no seagulls. Allegedly only one Indian restaurant in the whole country (yes, it also does takeaway) - and it's closed for refurbishment. No trains; Alex tells me that Icelandic doesn't even have its own word for train. Phone books arranged in alphabetical order, by first name. And most of the cars still have winter tires on, which make a strange crunching noise on roads; it's almost like listening to them drive on gravel.

There has, of course, been some good food involved. Yesterday featured lunch at Silfur - we struggled to find somewhere that was actually open, and when we did we were the only people eating there...

The evening started much the same way... a reservation for the early sitting at the Raudara Restaurant, which was completely empty when we got there. It gradually filled up, though - apparently it's a 'food and fun' week, with restaurants offering a specially crafted three course menu. In any case, the food has been excellent...

(my only complaint is that I'm not drinking alcohol during Lent, and the restaurants don't exactly have a wide range of non-alcoholic options - Coca-Cola, Fanta or Sprite...)

Last night was also supposed to be the Northern Lights trip, but that was cancelled due to cloudy weather... the trip was meant to leave at 9pm; the organisers helpfully emailed people at 7pm to explain this - which led to a long wait in the cold, as Alex hadn't received the mail... Still, it all worked out.

Today's been a bit more leisurely, just wandering around Reykjavik. Elevenses at Cafe Loki, overlooking the Hallgrimskirkja - plus a hotdog at Iceland's most famous hotdog stall, Baejarins beztu (so I guess I can say I've now eaten at the same place as Bill Clinton; although I bet he didn't have to queue... :).

The rest of the holiday's going to be outside of Reykjavik and completely different; tomorrow's the Golden Circle tour and Sunday's a trip to the Blue Lagoon. Should be fun...

...thinking of the tour, I should also mention that most of the tourist-y shops seem to sell boxer shorts with Geysir on the front - not exactly subtle and understated, hmm? :)

Comments

[adamw]

I'm so jealous - you are one of three of my friends going in the next month, and I really want to go back!

Eating in that city is wierd - I suspect when I do go again _pinkdaisy_ may struggle a little, being vegetarian...

Enjoy the Golden Circle, and hope that the cloud isn't too low - the views are incredible if the cloud lifts.

[venta.livejournal.com]

From our experiences in Iceland, vegetarians are OK in Rejkavik. Outside of the capital, they won't so much struggle as fail abjectly.

(If you go when Iceland's open (ie May-August) it might be easier.)

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

There's really not an awful lot of Iceland outside of Reykjavik though. Well, at least not much in the way of restaurants.

I guess that's kind of what you mean :).

[venta.livejournal.com]

If I were to go back to Iceland, most of the things I'd want to see are outside of Rejkavik. In 7 nights there last time, we only spent two in the capital.

Everywhere we went had places to eat (OK, sometimes place singular) but many of them simply didn't cater for people who didn't want to eat lamb or fish.

[souldier-blue.livejournal.com]

Um, there is *one* veggie restaurant in Reykjavik... I guess you're Ok if you eat fish, too.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Iceland Excursions (I assume that's who you're with, as they're about the only one) are actually quite good at phoning the hotel if you're in one.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Well, they're not doing too well this weekend - today's tour also went A Little Bit Wrong, as they had the wrong pick-up time on our ticket and receipt...

They quite rightly pointed out that their website had the correct information... But, um, only on the pages for other versions of the tour, not the one that was booked.

[souldier-blue.livejournal.com]

They somewhat failed on that front. Next time I'm booking with www.grayline.is (they were part of Reykjavik Excursions, but split off a few years ago, apparently)