I booked my trip to Iceland last year after discovering a Game of Thrones Iceland Beyond The Wall tour online, and went from there in regard to booking other things to do while there. Now here I am, in the capital city of Reykjavik after a very long travel day. It started in the early morning with a flight from Calgary to Vancouver (1 hour and a bit in the air), then on to Reykjavik via Icelandair roughly 7 hours in the air which was not the most comfortable of flights. There were blankets and small pillows on every seat which was real nice; my pillow promptly went behind my lower back. My back started hurting not long into the flight which mostly stopped after figuring out how to recline the seat, but airplanes could really stand to offer more leg room in their seating, and I’m not even that tall. I had an aisle seat which helped a bit in that I could stretch out one leg at a time alongside the seat in front of me.
Icelandair had a menu which offered some Icelandic food, snacks, and beer, and other alcohol too but who cares when there’s beer! Some of the food items are only available when flying from Iceland and not to, so might try one of those items on the trip home. There was complimentary Icelandic bottled water as well.
The service was good, and of course I had to try the beer. They had two kinds, a pale ale called Snæbjört which I tried, and the other was Gull, which I believe is a lager and sounds like a typical Icelandic house beer. I’m sure I’ll try it somewhere in my travels while here or at the very least, on the flight back home. So I had a can of beer and a Chicken Caesar sandwich, this was a fairly basic sandwich. The cost was 2200 Icelandic Kronas (ISK) which was just over $24.00 CAD. I have heard and read numerous times over the past year or so how expensive Iceland is, so I was not shocked. I’m sure this is only the start of learning the value of items while visiting.
When we landed at Keflavík International Airport, it was 6:00 am local time which is 7 hours ahead of Calgary. After checking in with the company that provided me with a ride to my hotel, I then had to go outside and find the bus. The check-in person gave brief directions on where the bus was. Outside it was still dark but it looked a lot like Calgary with bare and dry roads along with minimal amounts of snow elsewhere. The air was cool which felt real nice after being on the plane and in the airport. Everywhere inside was warm. The niceness of the outside air was short lived though. As soon as I walked around the corner of the building, I was met with the strongest and coldest blast of wind right in my face! And that wind did not stop, not on the walk to the bus, not on the 45 minute drive into Reykjavik, and not at my hotel. GUUUUUH!!
I arrived at my hotel, the Reykjavik Natura Icelandair Hotel at around 7:30 am. Check-in wasn’t until noon which I had actually read ahead of time that it wasn’t until 2:00 pm, so I was expecting to not be able to check in when I arrived. I dreaded (a little bit) the thought of having to stay awake until then and find something to do, but fortunately the hotel was able to offer early check-in at a cost of 3000 ISK which is around $34.50 CAD. When you’re dead tired from a flight and from being up way past your bedtime, this was a small price to pay. Still had to wait until 9:30 before my room was available, but dozing off in the lounge was a better thought than finding entertainment elsewhere until noon. Plus it was still dark and windy at the time.
Managed to kind of sleep for a few hours until around 3:00-ish, got up and debated what to do. This was one of the few times I have free time on my trip, but I still felt real tried and not in the mood for much. There is a restaurant at the hotel which I debated trying, but figured I’d attempt walking somewhere, even though the city centre is apparently a 30 minute walk away. It wasn’t as windy as earlier but a bit chilly. I left the hotel but didn’t get very far, as the sidewalks heading away from the hotel were very icy and slippery and I didn’t feel like chancing it, hopefully they aren’t as bad in the city centre when I do venture there in the days to come. Didn’t feel like hopping in a cab or figuring out the transit system either, just wanted to go back to bed!
So I ended up back at the hotel restaurant (Satt Restaurant) to eat something. They had a beer called Borg which I ordered, a pale ale, and I ordered a ravioli without reading the fine print of what was in it. It was completely different than any ravioli I’m used to having! It was good though, it looked very small when it came to my table, but it was filling. The beer was good too. This one and the one on the plane were hoppy!
And I’m going to call it an early night I think, still feeling the need to catch up on sleep! Tomorrow is another day…
