Day 18 - Reykjavikian Observations

[life_of_glamour]

Reykjavik isn't like any other European capital. It's younger, it doesn't have any castles, it's tiny. Most of the buildings date from the early 20th century. There are a few museums, there's one exhibition over where some builders found a Viking-era longhouse within city limits during a dig, but that's about it for historical interest. I promise you - there's no Viking stuff here - no artifacts, no remains...nada. The one claim to fame they push here is that Reykjavik has a "thriving nighclub and party scene." Huh. Whatever, not my thing, and I cannot imagine how that would be any fun considering what I've observed of the Icelandic personality - but I'll get to that.

So as far as what to do with ourselves for a day left to our own devices, considering that we'd already seen their biggest monument on a night we spent here earlier (it's a church built in the 1960s. *yawn*), already walked around their Viking longhouse exhibit, and seen enough 19th-century Icelandic turf-farm and folk museums during our drive around the island to last us a lifetime, well...

cathyn mentioned this morning that he'd like a t-shirt from the Reykjavik Harley Davidson dealer (it's a thing he does), and since there was nothing else I needed to do here, he got an address online for it, according to google maps it was 3km away. Thus we started out on the regrettable incident already recounted, involving about 3 hours of walking in moderate to heavy rain, culminating in my utter symbol of travel defeat - a taxi ride back to our hotel (which we were retro-actively glad of, when we saw just how far we'd strayed and how long we rode to get back!). We did, in fact, accomplish our goal, however. And soak our clothes.

And yet all's well that ends well, as when we exited our taxi we saw the most welcome sight - a Waffle Van in the City Center! Liege Waffles, even! You may remember the Waffle-Mania of 2010, wherein we spent Christmas in Brussels and gloried in the sweet waffley goodness found around every corner. Obviously we deserved a waffle after our long, wet ordeal!



Oh, now let me tell you about something I noticed when we first got into Akureyri, the first town of any size we encountered in Iceland a couple weeks ago. I noticed, as we started walking around, that there seemed to be this very popular brand that many of the stores were selling. Well, first I thought it was a store name, then I saw it on many store windows and I thought maybe it was a clothing line:



This Utsala brand was everywhere! Some stores were even advertising that they had it with sheets of paper in the window, just regular printer paper!

A couple of days later I realized - Utsala isn't a brand, it means "Sale". *sigh*

Iceland has some great heraldry - every village we visited had its own coat of arms, displayed proudly at the village liimits, and in various other places. In Reykjavik they have great heraldry and you see it everywhere - on buildings, sidewalk grates, even rubbish bins are emblazoned with the city heraldry.



I may have mentioned a time or two about the Icelandic personality. It's what the guidebooks describe as "stoic" or what you or I might call "dickish". Granted, we have met one or two individuals who weren't total dicks, but in general rule people range from benignly rude to outright hostile. I actually had a woman grimace and then growl at me once on the street - for smiling at her.





But for all that, it is a gorgeous country, and highly geologically active. Geysers, glaciers, icebergs, volcanoes, northern lights (we didn't see them they're a winter thing, but we've been assured the get 'em), bizarre rock formations and lava fields that criss cross the countryside.

All that, and the most popular restaurant is a hot dog stand.



So we had pylsur for dinner tonight at the most beloved vendor in the country (in continuous operation since 1935!) and I'm assured these hot dogs are a cut above the usual hot dogs you get.

In any case, beat the hell out of some of our other street food options.



In a nutshell, Reykjavik - kinda boring. If you're going - do Reykjavik first, then you won't find it disappointing and dull.