Velkominn to Reykjavík!

I've only been in Iceland for a bit over 24 hours now, but already I feel like it's been much longer. Yes, I'm still amazed when I look out of the window of Leifur's house out onto the vast North Atlantic Ocean, but roaming the streets of Reykjavík seems already comfortable to me. Maybe it comes with general travel experience, or maybe Iceland is more welcoming than other places. I haven't quite figured it out yet.

Anyways, let me take a step back to before the trip. I'm on this trip with my buddy Jon, who is also in NAME, and we're visiting and staying with my friend Leifur from CISV, who I met at Step Up in Galicia in 2019. I haven't seen him since, so it's really exciting that we have been able to reunite and reminisce a bit!

Iceland Air, until this May, has not offered a route between Detroit and Reykjavík, so in order for it to be "direct," Jon and I flew out of Chicago. After saying goodbye to Arend (Jon stayed at our apartment the night before, as his lost power), we headed on the road. There was nothing too special about the drive, and we were scheduled to be in Dune Park, Indiana at 11:02 to catch the commuter train/bus that would take us from the commuter lot into Chicago. We decided to check the commuter transit times, at which point we realized that the bus was coming at 11:02 exactly. Though we didn't speed too much, there was certainly an urgency to make it there before 11:02. We made it, amazingly, with enough time to quickly pump up the gas, and buy the tickets. Not more than a minute after the tickets were bought, the bus pulled into the station, we all got on, and were off in just another minute. Seriously not a minute wasted here... We transferred to commuter rail in Gary, Indiana, and made it to Millennium Station at 12:40. I had to also head to the Spanish Consulate to get my visa application in the works, but they closed at 1. I figured there was no chance that I made it over there in time, but again, amazingly, the consulate is just a minute away from Millennium Station. We ran upstairs, and without a line, were able to get in contact with people. Our efficiency was great!

The rest of the afternoon was spent roaming around Chicago, buying some last minute supplies for the trip, including a new coat for me since I tore mine up the other day... At about 2:00 we headed over to O'Hare, and of course, I was thrilled to be taking the subway!

Quick subway review: The L is interesting, since outside the loop, there are very few station interchanges. It seems as if the lines exist to get you out of the loop in a certain direction, but I can imagine that it would be clunky to actually use it to get between two places not downtown.

Anyways, enough about Chicago. We got to the airport with plenty of time, and grabbed a quick bite before getting on the plane. O'Hare has significantly expanded since last time I was there (for Bulgaria), and our gate was at the very end of this new section. It took a very long time to walk from one end to the other, and there's no tram like in the McNamara terminal.

The flight was good. There was nobody else in our row, so Jon and I got a middle seat between us. I ended up sleeping for most of the flight, though it still didn't feel quick. It was a single aisle plane, a B737. It was interesting to be taking a "long-haul" flight in a not so long-haul plane. Unfortunately there were no cool views of Reykjavík coming in, as it was dark out for the entire flight. We landed at 6:40 AM and were quick to get off the plane, through customs, get our bags, and find the Útgangur (exit). By this point, I was already surprised at all of the cognates that I recognized in Icelandic. It actually is very similar to German and English in (some) of its vocabulary. For example, exit in German is „Ausgang," so clearly the "gang" part of Útgangur comes from that. The Út part sound like "out," and the "ur" is a suffix that ends about a quarter of the nouns in the language. By the end of the first day, I was already not struggling to pick out any and all cognates on signs and such.

Leifur had originally said that he was probably not going to make it to the airport that early, but after a poker night, his friend and him ended up all the way over to Kefalvík, the city where the airport is. As soon as they pulled up, he ran out of the car and greeted me. It was seriously great to see him again, and seriously, it feels like he's barely changed since last time I saw him. He said similar of me. Clearly he looks older, but his voice and the way he talks is still immediately recognizable. And his Icelandic pride, which is SO strong, has not dwindled in the slightest. He's so eager to boast about anything and everything Icelandic.

As we drove back to the house, we took a quick detour to get to the convenience store. The kid runs on these energy drinks that are uniquely Icelandic, called Collab. They're made from collagen from fish skin with some flavoring added. I tried my first one, and the collagen certainly gives it some funny texture, but it's very very faint. I likely wouldn't have noticed if he didn't explain what it was beforehand.

We all crashed once we got back, and I was up again at 10:45. Leifur and Jon woke up closer to 1, so I had the morning to sit and watch the water out of the window. I went out for a few minutes, but it was a bit rainy and windy, as one would expect here, so I wasn't out for long. (I didn't bring my coat). Leifur's house is super nice, and honestly, very similar to an American house. I thought I have been in few European houses that are quite as American as this. But then I realized that this isn't really Europe. When Leifur woke up, I asked him about this, and he said that if he were to identify himself with a larger group outside of Iceland, it would be only Scandinavia, not Europe, which I found both expected and interesting. But walking down the streets, being in the houses, seeing the dress here, it doesn't feel European in the slightest. It's something completely different.

We then headed out to see the city. Our first stop was the waterfront on the north, which actually is all reclaimed land. There, they have the big new theater/opera house, along with some big-name expensive brands that wouldn't be out of place on the Magnificent Mile... We made another stop to a convenience store, where I got a Kókó Mjólk (chocolate milk) and Leifur got another of his Collabs. The Koko Mjólk was very low-key tasting, and I really liked it. Just milk with a hint of chocolate.

We continued to walk around downtown, which included heading to Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, the famous hotdog stand of Reykjavík. For some reason, Iceland has a rich history of hotdogs and hamburgers. Leifur says it's because they're nutritious and flavorful, but there will be more on historical Icelandic nutrition coming up, I suppose...

The architecture of Reykjavík is really interesting, mostly because of the building materials there. Most buildings are made of this cement that is mixed with rocks from the beaches. Again, more on this later... We also saw the Alþingi, the parliament building. The building was built in 1881, while the country was still under Danish control. They were declared independent later on (a little fuzzy on the details), and were taken over by the British during WWII. At that time, though, the British brought a lot of development and infrastructure to the island, including the ring road that goes around it. In 1944, they became fully independent.

From there, we went out to the western tip of the peninsula that Reykjavík is on, once again, a beautiful, beautiful spot. We got out and took some pictures, before heading back to Leifur's. There, the ocean was at low tide, so we walked out to the beach and explored a little more. There's a hot spring actually in the ocean, so we were able to stick our hands in there and feel the warmth. And the North Atlantic is not warm otherwise, believe me, we tried sticking our hands in that too...

I've never actually realized how much of a difference the tides made until today, though, since when I woke up, all of where we were yesterday was underwater. I guess there's about a 6' difference in water height between the high and low tides, which I find crazy.

We then walked back into town, up to where the port is. Leifur's office is right on the port and everything in there is nautical themed. All of the meeting rooms have ship wheels or lines plans or buoys in them, and it was really cool for Jon and I to see... We ate dinner at the food hall underneath his place. The food hall scene seems to be the hip new thing here; it's basically a food court that looks a little more up-scale, and you'll find them all over. We got dinner from a place that sells just Icelandic food, obviously, and the lamb was delicious. I got it on a sandwich, but the lamb was seriously something else. It was juicy and seasoned so well. I will certainly have to get more lamb in the future here, although I'd imagine I'll be trying some Fish and Chips before that. Enjoy the pictures of us being amazed at boat things!

So in Iceland, they have figured out how to use every part of the fish. They use the liver oil for vitamins, especially because of the lack of sunlight in the winter. They use the skin for wallets and other luxury items, they use the collagen for the energy drinks, and they use dead cells are used as treatments for wounds.

We ended the night out in Reykjavík, mostly walking around, and we grabbed an authentic Icelandic beer while we were at it.

When we got back to Leifur's house, he had a few of his friends come over. We watched some episodes of this British comedy, the Inbetweeners. It was funny because the British humor is so different from the American humor that I found the series to be more awkward than funny, but I suppose that's a cultural difference in its own. I also applaud anyone that can understand that show because I didn't realize just how hard it is to understand Brits either...

I'll be back with more stories later!