Rekyjavik 19 July 2018

Rekyjavik 19 July 2018

We arrive to the usual chaos of taxis and buses.  We book the airport shuttle “direct to your accommodation” but find we have to change buses and then walk the rest of the way.  At $35 each this doesn’t seem much value for service.  I quickly learn that Icelanders don’t know how to smile or give information voluntarily, but they do know how to charge a motes. 

After a confusion of buses we find ourselves on our way through a lava and rock bordered highway. Colourful houses, technic colour green highlighted by the sun and blue sky.

Where to now?  The directions are not clear.    We wander past a concrete church with impressive pillars.  I’m sure I have read about it in Sagalands. 

I’m keen to get a cab but a waiter in a funky little café tells us to turn left and then right and left again… we try to follow but soon realise we should have just turned right, right and left, the opposite of what he told us.  Thankfully we find our place. Colourful building next to a restaurant..

We enter the code… great it works.  We open the cupboard under the stairs where we are to store our luggage and find some sort of construction is happening.  I call the owner Stefan.  ‘I’m here he says and comes thumping down the stairs.’  

‘Ok’ he says, ‘sorry everything’s changed.. You can come in your room now.  We try to get the key from the keybox.  ‘Oh yes,’ he says ‘the code has changed.  Lucky I was here hey?’  

We settle in.  The apartment is small but really well appointed. It even has a balcony.  We look over and see the house opposite has a grass roofed garage and lovely garden.  Our garden however looks like a demolition crew have been in.

We put on sweaters, scarves and coats and head for the city.  We stop and get fish and chips from a stall and eat them next to the “pond” where ducks and seagulls fight noisily for any scraps.   I think I would have enjoyed them even more if I had realised that one serve cost us $35!  




The walk to the harbour is interesting with lots of quirky houses.

We cast our eye out for a cruise ship called the Panorama.  No sign of it, but we do find the Harpa Building, a modern cavernous building made of angled glass.  Huge windows thrust into the harbour.  

A mound of rich green captures our attention and we watch people walk up in a clockwise arc.  Ancient monument we think.  We walk it later and find it is an art installation with a small cabin at the top which houses dried fish!  Love how it celebrates the history of this place.

We sit and watch the rain and an incredible video of how the Harpa was built against the odds of the GFC and ferocious weather.  There is a lunchtime concert tomorrow - we buy tickets, even if it isn't any good it will protect us from the rain.

 We buy wine and retreat to our lovely apartment.  The rain stops, the sun comes out, we drink champagne on our verandah and relish the sunlight. Of course we could do this until 11.30pm, but the sun would be up again at 3.15!