Saturday 15 July
Landed at Keflavik airport a little early and was greeted by a perpetual sunset with gorgeous colours. And to top it off, I got a view of the erupting volcano out of the window! Now that I knew where the volcano was, I knew which seat I wanted for the bus to Reykjavik. The bus ride was absolutely fantastic because I could see the fierce glow of the volcano for more than half the time. What an experience.
I arrived at the bus station at about 1am and it was still bright enough in the twilight to easily walk around. I even saw a guy out walking his dog as if it wasn’t the middle of the night.
Baron’s Hostel is in a good location to walk everywhere in the city, which I am keen to do. The bed, duvet and pillow were incredibly comfortable for a hostel, or for anywhere to be honest!
Sunday 16 July
After a great sleep I went for a good explore around Reykjavik with Anne from the dorm. I wanted to see some of the street art and visit a part of town I hadn’t seen before. Mission Accomplished…
I headed straight for Reykjavik Roasters to see what the coffee scene has to offer and I could have wept with happiness as my flat white was pretty damned special. The coffee and a croissant set me back £8.70. Get used to the prices, I think it may become a theme.
Straight back out to see the sights and I found example after example of beautiful street art. I took us right across town to the Old West Side and past loads of beautiful eateries and cafés.
I stopped off for another coffee (800kr cappuccino) before lunch at Reykjavik Röst which had a gorgeous view over part of the harbour, with mountains behind and then moved on to get lunch at Le Kock. I am soooo glad I didn’t get a £17 sandwich from that cafe! I got a meal deal with a Dirty Harry burger, roast potatoes with parmesan and garlic mayo and a soft drink for 3590kr (£21) and it was to DIE for!!
After lunch I strolled back across the city taking a different route to see some new sights. I saw the black cone monument to civil disobedience, a fairly powerful sight.
And then right by the northern shore of the lovely Lake Tjörnin is the Unknown Bureaucrat, a cryptic monument featuring a suited and booted gentleman carrying a briefcase but totally lacking an identity because his top half is encased in a block of stone.
The lake itself had a great variety of waterbirds and I enjoyed watching ducklings diving down and popping back up.
Next stop was a funny kind of reminiscing – there’s an Icelandic supermarket called Bonus which I remember from each previous trip to Iceland and I absolutely love its mascot – a piggy bank with really wonky eyes. I decided to save at least some money on the trip by sorting my own breakfast. The hostel serves breakfast for €9 (£7.80) and I bought some granola, skyr and an apple to make breakfast for a few days as well as some other snacks for the princely sum of £9.
I headed back to my hostel to pick up a hat as the wind was a bit too chilly for me. I sorted the payment for 7 nights’ accommodation to keep things simple for this part of the trip. The total was £280 which averages £40 per night. Overall not too bad. One thing to note is that it can often be cheaper to book directly with a hostel as they do not add fees onto it which are included by booking sites like Hostelworld.
Kitted out with a hat, buff and gloves, I sauntered around the main shopping area, dipping into almost every souvenir shop or art gallery. It was extremely pleasant. The quality of items available does seem to be higher than average.
I visited the Punk Museum of Iceland in a former public toilet at one end of the main shopping street. It’s a really quirky place, with a huge amount of information packed into a tiny space with punk music blaring out. The walls of the former stalls are plastered with the story of Icelandic punk. I found it a little challenging to take in the information but I enjoyed the experience nonetheless. The internet is out of date on the entry price – it’s 1,500kr (£8.80). Worth a nosey around but it’s not going to take up a huge amount of time.
After grabbing a can of soft drink I headed back to the hostel to sit down and relax for a bit (without forking out any more cash). The kitchen is a beautiful space with huge windows and comfy chairs so I sat for a while enjoying the sun (without the wind), leafing through a couple of “what to do in Iceland” magazines.
The sun setting so late really does mislead and it was about 7pm when I started heading to Hallgrimskirkja, the cathedral. When I arrived the sunlight was beautiful and I heard an organ playing inside, pretty magical. I was drawn in and found myself enjoying an organ concert for the best part of an hour, accompanied by Anne and her friend. I was absolutely blown away by the skill of the organist. I had no idea of the level of complexity involved. I’m so glad to have turned up just at the right time.
After that, we headed for dinner and I took us along the waterfront, along the Sculpture and Shore Walk past the Sun Voyager.
We had dinner at Reykjavik Fish and Chips, arriving after they had transitioned to take away only but we persuaded them to let us stay as we were immediately ready to order. The food was lovely and I washed it down with a glass of the Viking Lite gluten free beer.
I went out to watch the sunset along the Sculpture and Shore walk. I managed to find a spot where there was an unobstructed view of the sun right down to the water. The golden hour lasted at least three hours and the sunset itself seemed to take five times as long as a normal sunset. It was a gorgeous one.
Monday 17 July
My new Garmin watch told me I slept badly again (last thing I wanted to know when I woke up frankly.
I had been expecting to go on a 20km hike to the active volcano but the Met Office conference at 9am about opening up the trail today was inconclusive and will reconvene at 1pm. So today’s hike is off. I was waiting hopefully at the bus stop when I found out. Sad.
Instead I get another day exploring Reykjavik. The weather is gorgeous, though it varies between t-shirt weather and needing a softshell, hat and buff. But that’s Iceland for you.
I spent some time relaxing in the sun trap garden of Baka Baka bakery and enjoying Reykjavik’s finest cinnamon roll. Then another stroll around the city centre followed by a relaxing time at Austurvöllur park where there are benches with footrests! So fancy.
I went on the Elding Premium Puffin tour, and boy were those puffins premium! The premium tour goes on a speedboat and gets closer to Lundey Island (Lundey meaning puffin). The boat ride itself was phenomenal!! The speed boat had pretty dramatic seats which were heavily spring to allow you to avoid part of the shock from the waves. I sat near the front to get the full experience and it really was like a rollercoaster.
Puffins are much more suited to diving than flying – they are ungainly fliers, flapping 400 times a minute (noticeably fast and chaotic). But they make up for it with cuteness. They’re nesting at the moment so more than half of the world’s population of puffins is on three islands very close to Reykjavik. The pufflings are probably in most nests now as you can see the adults flying back with beakfuls of fish. The pufflings are only supported by their parents for 6 weeks and then they emerge from the burrow looking like a puffin.
My favourite thing was seeing the chubby puffins trying and failing to take off, flapping madly, and then finally giving up and ducking beneath the waves and immediately popping up, calmly facing in a different direction.
The boat ride back across the bay to the harbour was exhilarating!! I absolutely loved it, we had such a roller coaster.
I popped to a restaurant that I’ve been to on previous trips to Iceland and remember fondly. It’s called Svarta Kaffið and it serves soup in huge bread balls. I went for a combo meal and got a meat soup with a 500ml beer for 3600kr (£21.12). Soup on its own is 2650kr (£15.55). It was absolutely delicious!!
I joined the Elding sunset whale watching tour at 2030 and the first thing to say is that the guide Kristine was absolutely fantastic. Really funny. She’s been involved in tourism in Iceland since it became a thing in 2010 when a volcano eruption put Iceland on the map.
The boat headed out into the bay, which is apparently the largest in the world. The bay is 30-40m deep mostly, with areas that are as deep as 60m. This is a strange situation for such a huge bay. Hallgrimskirkja is 74m tall and wouldn’t be submerged. That’s quite something.
We motored out for about 45 minutes to an area of the bay that often has cetaceans and I spotted a puff of spray from a humpback whale in the distance pretty soon but we saw another which was a bit closer and headed towards that. We arrived in time to see the whale dive, bringing its fluke out of the water. And then we settled in to wait for it to resurface which can take more than 5 minutes. We had SUCH a treat when the whale re-emerged – it breached out of the water FIVE times in quick succession, spinning as it went, its huge pectoral fins spinning around out of the water. It was breathtaking. The humpback stayed on the surface for a few minutes, laying on its side, cruising along and slapping its pectoral fin on the water. Then, in another chapter of the encounter, a small pod of dolphins cruised onto the scene making a beeline for the whale and they all appeared to be playing together for a couple of minutes. What a lucky encounter.
On the way back we kept our eyes peeled for minke whales (apparently known as stinky minke by the locals because their breath smells so bad that you can sometimes smell one before you see one..). No luck this time on the minke front but we were surrounded by sea birds including puffins the whole time and were treated to a sunset which kept getting better and better.
It was almost midnight when we docked but I still think that the sunset tour is the one to go for as the sunset would lessen the blow of not seeing a whale.
Next up… Diving..
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