Reykjavik

We landed in Reykjavik yesterday afternoon after a comfortable 3 hour flight from Heathrow. Changed some money and booked a bus for the 45 minute trip into the city – across miles of lava flow, which looked just like old, cracked tarmac road on a huge scale. Checked into our hostel – a private double room in a place not far from the centre of town – and then headed out for a walk to find some supper. We ended up at “the most northerly Pakistani restaurant in the world”, and had a really tasty curry. I figured that we were probably going to struggle to find a decent curry in America over the next few months and we didn’t really get a decent one back in the UK.

I don’t really feel like our travels have started, yet we’ve flown half way around the world and are in a place I’ve never been to before – we’re still due to have a few days at home on the boat in San Francisco before we get going in the van next week at some point.

Plans for the next few days are to hang out around town today then book a 4WD for Monday and Tuesday to explore the island. It feels like the season hasn’t really kicked off here – guidebooks talk about crowds but it feels empty, even last night on a Saturday evening. Maybe we were out too early? Walking back to the hostel at 10pm it was still light as day, and (Rose tells me) it didn’t get dark at all during the night. Her eyelids are really thin (that’s my theory anyway) so she finds it hard to sleep if it’s not fully dark. Here in Iceland we’re just outside the arctic circle and only a few days away from the summer solstice, so we’re going to have to find some eye shades!