In true Angela fashion, I proved to be a giant clutz as soon as I got on the plane. When the seatbelt sign turned off, I stood up to retrieve one of my bags from the overhead compartment. Unfortunately, I dislodged someone else's bag, which fell right on the head of the man sitting beneath it. He looked at me like he wanted to take my head right off.
Fortunately, I was able to sneak back into my seat, stretch out on the seat beside me (hooray for an empty row!) and cover myself up to hide from my unintended victim (I thought my jacket and neck pillow made for a pretty clever disguise). Okay, maybe not. But in any case, I fell asleep and was out like a light for the duration of the flight.
The bus drive in from the airport to my tiny (and I mean TINY) hotel was fairly uneventful, especially given that I arrived at 7AM and the sun didn't rise until 11AM! However, I WAS able to notice that there are a ridiculous number of Christmas lights (and Menorahs!) still lit - everything from house lights to publicly displayed Christmas trees and garlands. Good grief, people! We're in mid-January here, let's get a move on!
Once the sun finally did come up, I went exploring. The thing I most wanted to see in the town was the Church of Hallgrimur (The Hallgrímskirkja). It's the tallest building in Reykjavik and the tallest church in Iceland. It can be seen from 20km in any direction (which was a helpful landmark, since my hotel was just down the street from it!) - thus, it's the best place to see a top-down view of the city! From above, the town looked really quaint with lots of colours.
In the afternoon, I went on the Golden Circle tour. This took me to various geothermic and other popular sights around Reykjavik. I saw a huge waterfall called Gullfoss, the original Geysir (after which all other geysers are named), the place where the edges of two techtonic plates meet and have shifted away from each other (forming a valley and massive cracks in the rock), and the covered pipes carrying geothermically heated water in from the surrounding area to the city (it's used to heat homes and swimming pools). All in all, a very informative and interesting tour!
I have to say, the tour guide was a bit dry, and with the jetlag I found myself dozing a couple of times... But he did have one line I remember, which I have to say called into question some of what he told us during the tour. I think I'll be incorporating this philosophy into life: "Never destroy a good story with the truth." Good theory, hey? Still want to read my blog? Still trust that I'm telling the truth? haha!!Unfortunately, the Northern Lights tour I had booked was canceled due to weather conditions (it was really cloudy and we wouldn't have been able to see anything). So that was a bit disappointing. But I still feel like I got my money's worth from Iceland. Glad I did it (and HUGE thanks Jenn for helping me find somewhere to stay! I will be calling upon my personal travel agent again in the near future...Love you!!)
No comments:
Post a Comment