Making the Most of 56 Exciting Hours in Reykjavik, Iceland

DAY ONE – 16/17th September

What a weirdly interesting day it’s been. My flight left Calgary at 8PM, and we technically landed at 2AM MST, but it was 7AM Icelandic time. I had less than three hours of sleep with a whirlwind trip of less than 56 hours in Reykjavik ahead of me.

At first glance, I couldn’t help but make connections to one of my favourite movies ‘Secret Life of Walter Mitty.’ Many of the scenes were shot here. Arriving on a rainy, gloomy day just made me more excited. The best part was seeing some of the mountains in the distance, and the coloured roofs as we approached.

I took the bus in to Reykjavik from Keflavik and the airport, which cost me $7,299ISK ($53.79USD) for a round trip. It was a bit of a gutting way to start savings for the trip, but it had to be done. I’m booked for a tour tomorrow around the south coast – my splurge for the entirety of Europe, and I made an effort to buy my meals in advance so I won’t need to pay anything more from here on out.

Once I checked into Nordic Hostel (which is insanely cool and I would 100% recommend staying with), the self-guided walking tour commenced. My beaten calves hated me for it, but I managed to explore the Perlan Museum, Hallgrimskirkja Church, the Sun Voyager, two parks, the downtown area full of tourists, a few shops and the grocery store. Is it bad to say I’m almost just hanging out and waiting for bed time? The jet lag has hit in a funky way, and I’m excited for the tour tomorrow.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF REYKJAVIK & ICELAND:

• After coming from America, everyone is driving small cars and it’s weird
• I witnessed two almost car crashes at the same intersection within two minutes
• No one, and I mean NO ONE except tourists wears bright colours! I felt like a highlighted sore thumb in my red jumper
• It’s not super cold, but the locals are rugged up like it’s minus 10
• It feels safe! It’s a different vibe to what I’m used to, but I felt no reason to worry at any point

In hindsight: man that post SOUNDED tired.

DAY TWO – 18th September

My secret life of walter mitty dreams came TRUE! The South Coast Tour started at 8AM, so it was a good excuse to get into the swing of the timezone. I woke up multiple times in that electrifyingly bad way, panicking about whether I’d slept through an alarm. No, I hadn’t, it was only 10PM.

Unfortunately the morning was incredibly foggy. Like, I could only see 100 metres or so past the road. Not great for going to see big waterfalls and mountains. Sleep almost took over for the first part of the journey, and my singular ham, cheese and funky icelandic bacon sandwich was starting to sound REAL good. The reason I mentioned that is it was all I had. Two pieces of white bread slapped together, which will hopefully compensate for a few beers down the track.

In the past, I’ve kind of screwed my nose up at tours and in particular mass tourism. Nothing is worse than being one of 99 getting off a bus amongst 10 others at a well known spot. The smaller tours however, around 20 can be a really good option if you’re limited on transport and want to see the main sights. They’re often way more affordable and time effective than hiring a car, you just have to put up with a few more people. I met some really cool folks on the tour, and have found in the past as well that it is great way to get to know who’s in your area.

MORNING

The first stop was Skógafoss Waterfall. The fog still hadn’t cleared up, and as this was the one I was most looking forward to as a photographer, I was a little disappointed. We didn’t have long here, and usually we would have been able to see it from the road. I had high hopes for the second waterfall.

After visiting Skogafoss, we stopped at Sólheimajökull Glacier. We got SOAKED. I am now aware that my jacket is absolutely water resistant and not waterproof. Oh well, ain’t gonna melt.

Reynisfjara Beach and Vik were the next stop. Reynisfjara is well known for it’s black sand, but it is one of the most dangerous places in Iceland. Five people have died here due to what they called ‘sneaker waves.’ Enormous walls of water erupt over the steep drop off, and appear out of nowhere. You definitely don’t want to get too close.

The black sand was interesting. It was actually a very fine pebble, contrary to the iron black sand of some of the west coast beaches back in New Zealand.

Vik is a little village very close to Reynisfjara, where we got to stop at a little traditional Icelandic church. Fun fact: Icelandic people of old used to build churches on their property and they believed that if you had a family of 15 and only 10 could fit in, you had to pick and choose who could go into heaven. Also, if you had a church on your land you couldn’t have your land seized if you couldn’t pay taxes as it was classified as ‘holy land,’ so naturally everyone built churches and that’s why there are so many around.

AFTERNOON

The last stop once we doubled back was Seljalandsfoss (sel-ya-lands-foss) waterfall. Driving back the same was was incredible. The fog had lifted to a respectable height, and had revealed the beautiful landscapes I’d seen on the internet. This included the entire waterfall.

The cool thing about Seljalandsfoss is that you can walk behind it. Just make sure not to get stuck behind too big of a group or you will be having an involuntary shower trying to scramble up the steps. I’d just dried off – was snow soaked again, but it was so worth it.

We even got to stop over at a little viewpoint for Eyjafjallajökull (I can’t pronounce it either mate) – the volcano featured in the ‘Secret Life of Walter Mitty.’ We couldn’t see all of the way but it made me smile.

I spent the evening chilling out before I went out with two ladies from the tour to the Bookstore Bar, a library during the day and live band at night!

DAY TWO STATS:

• There are only 9 police motorbikes in Iceland total
• Import of horses and large animals is forbidden, therefore all of the Icelandic horses are descended directly from the viking era
• I have ‘slapping the pole like an idiot’ written hastily in my notes, and this is in reference to traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. Just a note of how I hate in different countries that there is no button, sometimes it’s touchless, sometimes there’s nothing at all. In Iceland, sometimes it’s touchless, sometimes there’s an invisible button so you end up groping the damn thing trying to get it to go. Or you stand there for three cycles of the traffic light. Choose your adventure.
• Iceland is the first country where the graffiti is legible. Maybe it’s cool to tag in English.

DAY THREE – 19th September

Today was pretty chill, I didn’t get up to much besides shooting content for Nordic Hostel. I caught a bus at 10.30PM back to Keflavik airport, where I flew out at 1.30AM to Munich, Germany. I’m getting to stay with a friend, Lisa, who I met in New Zealand while she was doing her working holiday over there. She saw my home, now I get to see hers!

Catch up soon!