Reykjavik - The tiny capital with a big bohemian heart
Monday, Day 11
So the time had come to start our very last day in this beautiful country. We were the first ones to wake up at our camping site (usually we're not the first ones to wake up ever, anywhere), and the weather was really cold. The Varmaland camping site had been pretty good actually, much more quiet and less crowded. Without showers though. So we made our last camping breakfast: coffee, oatmeal and the pastries that had cost us a fortune the night before, and got on the road. We made one more "horse-stop", which was basically me stopping in the middle of the road after yelling "HORSES!!" just so I could have one last time greeting these thick-haired creatures. And it was definitely worth the stop. Always is.
Off to the Big City
Once we were getting closer to Reykjavik it felt like for the first time we were actually in any other "normal" country with traffic and people. Even traffic lights, which we hadn't seen nearly at all during these 11 days. The weather also started to get better again, so we were off to a very good start.
We parked our car, and a little tip about this: do not park your car on a P3 zone, instead look for P1 or at least P2 zone. As the numbers go up, so does the price. Just saying. Wish we had known this.
A mecca for hipsters
We started to walk around the center and noticed very elaborate murals and graffitis everywhere. It immediately gave the city a very bohemian vibe, and of course this made me fall in love with it. The center is also full of colourful wooden houses, which made it feel very cozy and organic. The city was definitely very hipster friendly, with vegan restaurants, second hand clothing shops and amazing coffee shops everywhere you go.
After this we went to check out the famous Hallgrimskirkja (church), a lake area inside the city and then the old town area, which was our favourite. Here especially you can find a lot of nice shops and cafes, which are not cheap at all though. We found one Café called "Stofan's Cafe" which was really cool so we decided to stay and have a coffee, a tea and one piece of cake. This three items cost 16€ all together. Yup. Not cheap.
Hot Dogs and Lobster soup
We continued walking around the old town area, checked out some shops, but for me the best part was just to enjoy the feeling of this city. I really really enjoyed it. We also went to see the old harbour area which everyone recommended but to be honest we didn't really see the big deal about it. It's not exactly pretty nor really old looking (in a good way), so basically we just went around it and moved on. In this area there is Reykjavik's best ice-cream place though, called Valdi's Ice cream. But there was a huge line to it, so we skipped it. Instead we went to have some local hot dogs, which is also one of the must-do's in this country. There is one hot dog stand in particular, that is the most famous one in Reykjavik, so we decided to check it out. The stand is called Baejarins Beztu Pylsur, and the hot dogs are made of lamb meat, and the bun comes with onions, dried onions, mustard, ketchup and mayo. They were good but did not blow my mind in any way. Nothing different from any other hot dogs I've had.
There are a lot of museums in Reykjavik, which we would have both loved to go to if we had had more time, but sadly we didn't. We went to see the Music House of Reykjavik, which is one of their architectural beauties, the Sun Voyager monument, which is a viking boat symbol near the shore, and then Perlan which is a restaurant / cafe / viewing point of the whole city. And since we skipped Valdi's we found another more organic Ice-cream place called Joylato, where they make your ice-cream from scratch right there and then. There are not so many flavours or toppings but it was still very good and recommendable. After this it was already dinner time so the plan was to eat something and then head out towards Grindavik. We found a recommended lobster soup place called Saegreifinn, which also wasn't that expensive. It was also by the harbour and you could sit outside, which was great because the weather continued to be really sunny. I ordered the classic lobster soup and some bread and my boyfriend got some fried fish skewers, I don't remember which ones. While we were ordering I did notice that the place was also selling minke whale meat, which made me wanna change restaurants immediately, because I didn't want to support this in any way. But in the future I'll remember to check this before hand. The food was good anyway, not very big though but the price was also around 13€ which is cheap in Icelandic standards.
So glad we saw this city
I have to say that I didn't really expect that much out of Reykjavik, I thought it was something I want to see for sure but I figured it was just another city among others. And that after all the amazing nature we had seen, it would take a lot from a city to get me as excited. But it definitely surprised me. There is a lot to see and experience in Reykjavik even though it's not a big city in European standards. There are also a lot of tours you can do from Reykjavik too, even whale or puffin watching and like I mentioned, tons of museums. Now it was time to drive to Grindavik, our very first campsite where we were going to drop off some extra foods and fuel for other campers to use and also pack our stuff properly. After doing this it was time for our last stop in Iceland: the Blue Lagoon.
Moonlight swimming
Once we got there the parking lot was FULL of cars and there were a lot of people arriving all the time. So it wasn't exactly empty at 9 PM either. The entrance building was very fancy and modern which confirmed that this really was the main attraction in this country. We got our towels and bracelets with which you lock and unlock your locker and also buy drinks etc at the bar by the pool if you want. After this you take a shower and get into the pool. After getting used to wearing five layers all the time for the past 11 days, that very short walk from the building to the pool in just a bikini, at night time, was freezing with a capital F. But of course that just made the warm lagoon feel even more heavenly. The place is very beautiful for sure, the lagoon is huge and to be honest I think it might have even been a better choice to go at night time. We had a full moon and slightly less people, and most definitely less kids at this hour. One thing we should have done more is drink enough water while you're in the lagoon because you can get very dehydrated and both of us did feel kind of lightheaded after getting out. We did drink some water but apparently not enough.We stayed in the lagoon almost until 1 o'clock and enjoyed our silica mud masks, and time just went by really fast. I still do think the place is a little over priced (our tickets cost about 60€ each), and because of that I'm not sure if it's a must do in Iceland, but it was a very nice and relaxing experience for sure. After the swimming I took a very long and hot shower (they were rare during our trip) and got ready to leave.
11 Days, 2529 kilometres
We went to return our car, and found out that all together we had driven 2529 kilometres! So approximately 230km / day. We had one mark on the windshield of the car but luckily we had taken the windshield insurance like they recommended. After this we went to the airport, checked in our backpacks and found a bench to sit / sleep on.
Once we got into the plane I fell asleep right away and slept the whole way, which was about 3,5 hours. In Stockholm the temperature was about 21 Celcius, so it was time to take off all those five thousand layers we had been wearing.
Back to civilisation
I'm so glad I had a random idea to go on a camping trip around Iceland. And I'm so glad my boyfriend agreed on this idea. It was like nothing I've ever experienced and though it can be tiring constantly moving from place to place and sleeping in a tent etc, for me it was exactly the kind of adventure that makes me want to travel more and more. Iceland is pure magic, and for any nature and scenery lover it is an absolute paradise.
Go. Experince. Be amazed.
I guarantee it won't let you down.
...And now, it's time to start planning where to go next. ;)
<3
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