Days 5 and 6 - Reykjavik city centre 12 & 13th September 2023

We slept in, packed our bags and Nanna (Siggy’s misso) drove us into town. We put some fuel in the car and she dropped us off right in the guts of the touro world - and what a pretty world it was. There are two pedestrian walking streets - red and rainbow - and hundreds of bars, cafe’s, cool buildings and everything else that cool city centres possess.

We walked back to Fly Over for our return flight and it was even better the second time.

We had coffee and a traditional pastry called a Kleina - that was like a bland, cardamon flavoured donut… pretty ordinary.

We then walked to one of the cities most famous eateries - the Baejarins Betzu Pylsur - the oldest hot dog stand in the city. This joint has been open since the 1930’s and serves thousands of hot dogs everyday. 1 - because they’re cheap compared to other food in town (about $5 AUD for the works), and 2 - because they’re the bomb!

A soft hot dog roll is filled with a layer of chopped raw red onion and crispy fried onions - now I get them - they need to be served with the raw. This is then topped with a lamb hot dog, remoulade (mayo and mustard) and brown mustard (ketchup and mustard.)

Unrool.

We then had a snooze and went for dinner at Loki - which is right near the big main cathedral. We shared lamb and veg soup with black, sweet rye bread, and the lamb shank in root veg. Jen had a red and then tried the rye bread ice cream with whipped cream and a rhubarb sauce. Pretty awesome, but still $100 AUD for two shared meals…

We then waited at the bus stop for the rescheduled Northern Lights tour, but the fuckers forgot us again. Jen rang them and demanded a refund. (Note - they actually saw them this night - double fuckery!!) We packed it at about 10.20 and decided to get pissed.

Siggy had given me a local beer called Thule that was ok and I also tried a Viking Pale Ale on tap. We tried to have a drink at the Lebowski Bar, but it was an overpriced Seppo touro trap (heaps of Septics off cruise ships in town)

We didn’t actually get hammered but had a mini pub crawl and were in bed by midnight.

The next morning saw us tucking in to the Hotel Fron breaky buffet - now we’re talking. All of the standard buffet stuff was there plus Scando stuff - fish hard-boiled eggs, rye bread and crackers etc…

We then joined a 1.30pm walking tour. It was cold but informative. We bailed after an hour but the main takeaways for me was the rule about last names in Iceland. Last names are from the father’s first name. If your dad’s name is Magnus then your last name is Magnusson (male) or Magnusdotter (female) 4 different people in a typical nuclear fam all have different last names.

Also - everyone is related. They have an online registry that details lineage back to the 8th Century! If you want to go on a date with a hottie, you’ve got to check that you’re at least 5 degrees apart!! Classic.

Thomas - our guide - told us that he was 7 degrees from his girlfriend. Wow - what a concept. I also learnt that there are 370K people in Iceland and 240K live in Smoky Bay. (Reykjavik)

Also, mothers leave their babies outside to get the air in their prams when the mum’s meet for coffee. It’s the safest place on the planet and this is simply a custom.

We then got dressed up and went to the very posh “Monkeys” for dinner.

For some reason, Jen-Jen decided to splurge and we went for the tasting menu. This restaurant was Japanese - Peruvian fusion and some of the dishes worked, and the other would have been better if that had have stayed straight Nippon.

I can’t remember all that we had but I will try and insert a link to the menu.

https://monkeys.is/en/monkeys-english/

Needless to say, it was a fitting way to end our Icelandic jaunt.

We’ve learnt so much about the land of the Midnight Sun and enjoyed most of it.

We would have LOVED to have seen the Northern Lights, but the Fly Over experience was unbelievable and we’ve now ticked off another unique, incredible country.

Cheers.