First Day in Iceland!

We made it! We're in Iceland now! And it has been a llllooooonnnnngggg first day. It started off with Valerie dropping us off at the airport around 1:30pm yesterday. We checked our bags, grabbed a bite, and waited to get on the plane for our 3:40 flight.

At PDX airport

Our flight was luckily uneventful, and was actually pretty pleasant. We sat next to a very sweet lady named Linda. She was traveling around Europe with her husband for the next 23 days. We talked here and there throughout the flight. In addition to that, we watched a couple movies and read a little bit, but no sleep. We also flew over Greenland, which was a stunning view!

The view of Greenland

We landed in Iceland around 6:15am. Picking up our bags and going through customs was a breeze, and soon enough we were on the bus to Reykjavik. The drive only took about 40 minutes from the airport into the city, and the scenery was absolutely beautiful! Lots of lava fields with grass, beautiful flowers, and cute little houses. Since we couldn't check into our room until 4:00pm, we stored our luggage in a locker and decided to do some exploring around the city, and eat. We ate breakfast at a cute little cafe, walked around downtown, and then decided to visit the Harpa Music Hall. It's open to the public to walk around during the day, and the building is super cool!

All the streets look like this!

Pretty lake with a view of ducks and houses

Harpa Music Hall

The ceiling at Harpa

After visiting the music hall, we noticed a statue of some guy that looked important, so we decided to check it out. Turns out it's a statue of Ingólfr Arnarson - among one of the first settlers in Iceland and the person to name the capital city Reykjavik back in 874.

By this time it was only 11am, so we still had 5 more hours until we were able to check into our room. So we decided to visit the iconic Hallgrímskirkja church. It's a remarkable building, and you can go all the way up to the top to get an entire view of Reykjavik. Since we were running on very little rest, we decided to save the city view for another day. Instead, we sat in a pew and admired the large amount of organs. There was also going to be a 30-minute organ concert, but you had to pay like $15 per person, so we left as it was about to start.

Hallgrímskirkja

European cat #1

After we left, we kept on doing a bit of window shopping, and then stopped at a Danish restaurant for some delicious open-faced sandwiches. By the time we finished lunch we were beyond tired and were feeling delirious, so the struggle-bus was at full-speed! We didn't want to keep walking, so we decided to wait out the last 2 1/2 hours back at the bus terminal, since our bags were stored there. After what seemed like an eternity, we were finally able to check into our room. As soon as we got in, we dropped our bags and took a 3-hour nap (after being awake for 25+ hours). We woke up to grab a delicious burger and Icelandic beer at a nearby restaurant called 73. After that, we stopped by a quick-mart to grab another adapter (Iceland has a weird contraption, so we needed yet another adapter). Surprisingly, Adam was able to use his Apple Watch/Pay for this , so he was VERY excited! The cash register guy...probably not as excited. ;)

Adapter->Converter->Chargers

Now we're back in our room just hanging out. Wide awake. Hopefully we can kick this jet-lag into gear quickly!

-Alyssa