Urban Backpacker Travels - REYKJAVIK

Our epic Euro-adventure ended with a quick stopover in Reykjavik, Iceland.  A really amazing place to visit if you ever have the opportunity - I know I found myself wishing we had extended our stopover longer than just the 2 days we planned for.

We landed in Iceland on Saturday afternoon and immediately hopped in a cab to the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland's most popular geothermal hot springs.  The first thing we noticed when we arrived was the eggy smell - the whole country is filled with geothermal hot springs, so there is a lot of sulfur in the air.  Then we took in the beauty of this place - steaming aqua-blue water set against dark volcanic rock - a really unique and amazing sight.

Ladies relaxing at the Blue Lagoon

After we were sufficiently pruned and relaxed, we showered and took the bus to Reykjavik, the country's capital.  We found our AirBnB (thanks to a helpful cab driver), which was incredibly cute and very Scandanvian, and then headed out to explore the town.  We grabbed some sushi and then checked out a bar with local beers.  Supposedly the weekend nightlife in Reykjavik is poppin, but we were pretty beat so called it a night early.

Checking out some local brews at Kaldi bar

Sunday I woke up super early (what's new?) so went for a run to see the city by daylight.  I'd read that Sundays were quite in Iceland, which turned out to be very true - I didn't see anyone up at all, except for a few young folks who looked like they were still out from the night before.  Post run I grabbed some goodies from a bakery that our AirBnB host had recommended - a traditional Icelandic donut to share with the girls and some seedy rye bread.

street art

city sights

big church

Once the ladies were up we set out on foot to explore a little and maybe find some coffee.  We stumbled upon a vegetarian cafe that was run by an ex-NYCer (hence by I <3 NYC mug in the picture below), which we ended up going back to later in the day for a delicious lunch of hearty chili, grilled paninis, and chocolate chip cookies the size of my head.  If you ever find yourself in Reykjavik, check out Cafe Babalu, if not for the yummy food than at least for the crazy Star Wars bathroom.

I love NY... in Iceland!

Cafe Babalu

Selfie in the Star Wars bathroom

Since a lot of shops were closed on Sunday, we decided to take a tour of the Golden Circle - Iceland's most popular loop of attractions: National Park, Waterfall, and geysers!  I'm glad we did this because not only did we get to see some of the country, but during our bus ride our tour guide provided us with a lot of history and interesting information about the country.  Our tour guide was actually an author and had written a book about traditional Icelandic foods, so she shared a lot of that information which was very interesting to me.  Since Iceland is such an isolated country, their traditional cuisine is foods which they could produce themselves - fish, seafood, meats, berries, vegetables, and dairy.

Geyser - there she blows!

National Park

Amazing waterfall

We got back to Reykjavik and I convinced the girls to check out a healthy spot I had read about - Glo.  Glo is not strictly vegetarian - there is one chicken dish on the menu, everything else is vegan except the desserts - which made it perfect for us.  This was hands down the best food I had all trip.  I got the large vegetable plate which came with 5 choices of sides (you could also choose to get an entree and sides, but all the sides looked so good I wanted to try as many as I could).  I got salad, roasted potatoes, creamy carrot slaw, orange fennel salad, and a shaved beet and carrot dish.  Plus, they had this ridiculously good mustard dressing which I poured over everything, and homemade hummus which was also amazing.  It was so refreshing to have such an abundant, healthy meal after a trip filled with one (or five) too many baguettes and way too much wine.  I got a second plate of food to go to bring with me on the plane the next day.

Really really ridiculously good eats at Glo

After dinner we hopped around a few bars.  Even though it was Sunday night, there were still quite a few places open and happening.  I tried an Icelandic liquor - Birkir - which is flavored with birch.  Very different, but I liked it!  Sadly, we headed home before too late since we had early flights to catch in the morning.

Flying home we passed over Greenland, which was a truly incredible site - snow covered mountains, glaciers, and no civilization in sight.  Iceland was an amazing end to an amazing trip, and, while I never dreamed of visiting these places before, this trip got me itching to check out more of Scandinavia and beyond.