More than a few people asked me why I was going to Iceland, but I didn't have an answer for them. Simply put my logic went like this: Iceland is on the way to Europe and I want to walk El Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.
But really, it was on the way to Europe and who wouldn't want to take a nice dip in a few thermal pools on the way to hike El Camino de Santiago? Our plane left Boston around 7 and arrived at 4 in the morning. The airport security checking our passports looked about as enthusiastic as we did, which was not very due to the early morning and rough nights sleep.
Hi. How long will you be staying? Next.
It was too early to be enthusiastic about hitchhiking so we decided to take the bus into Reykjavik instead which was a good 35 minute drive from the airport. It didn't much look like there'd be anyone to thumb a ride from anyways.
We'd decided to try AirBnB for the first time and we'd landed upon Daniel. He'd offered to pick us up at the bus station in Reykjavik. I thought it astounding considering it would be 7:30 in the morning. What other hotel allows you to check in that early?! The message he had sent us was only one sentence long: "I will have a white dog on my shoulder." He was easy enough to find.
So there we were, sitting in the bus station, when a man with a small white dog on his shoulder stepped out of his car. Turns out chihuahuas made it to Iceland somehow.
Daniel was great. He made us coffee as soon as we got to his place as well as some Icelandic pancakes with rhubarb jam. It was fantastic. Through our brief interactions with Daniel in the early morning we learned a few things about Iceland. Mostly, that polar bears float over on the polar ice and run free in Iceland. Daniel mentioned it mutliple times saying: In 1918, the year my great grandmother was born, nearly 70 polar bears crossed over to Iceland. There were no helicopters or firearms. Can you imagine fighting a polar bear with a pike axe? It was December 31st and my great grandmother was a triplet, if she had been born just 1 hour later she would have been born in a different year than her siblings. My great great grandfather was sharpening his axe at the door during labor in case any polar bears broke in during labor."
Apparently it was very important we know this.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around Reykjavik.
Big Lebowski bar
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After hitting up a couple of the themed bars they had on the main strip, such as the Big Lebowski bar, we ended up in the English bar for a pint of Guiness. Looking up at the wall behind the bar there was a wheel similar to that on wheel of fortune expcept instead of dollar values there were things such as "One beer" or "Two beers". About half of the options were "SORRY" and the two best winnings were "Eight Beers" or "A meter of beer". We were discussing your odds at coming out ahead, because it cost nearly twenty dollars to spin it, and decided the odds weren't bad when a group of young boys came in hollering "Spin the wheel!!" The young girl bartending pulled the wheel back as far as she could and gave it a hard spin. The previously loud and chattering atmosphere in the bar was suddenly hushed a considerable amount as most the patrons turned to watch the the rapid ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ticking of the pointer as it the pegs lining the outside of the wheel spun. She'd given it a good push and it took a moment for it to start to slow down. As it slowed the bar got more and more interested in the wheel. Instead of getting quieter though shouts of encouragment to the wheel started coming out, a lot of "Come on!"s and such until it got really slow. Then evey time it passed something good like the 8 beers or the meter of beer there'd be a short increase in excitment as if it'd help the wheel stop. Until it finally landed upon the "Spin again" and the suspense started all over again. T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tick-tick-tick...tick (COMMON!!!)...tick (YES YES YES!!!)...... tick (WHOA YEAH!!!). And the whole bar let out a triumphent roar as the wheel landed on a meter of beer. The bartenders quickly got to work filling up 10 beers to make the full meter as the guys and everyone celebrated. We just happened to be the ones sitting next to them when they won and we just happened to be finishing our beers. They passed a few our way and so began a hell of a first night in Iceland.
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