Sea air and flat light were our first introduction to Iceland, stepping off the plane in the middle of the night. It was damp and smelled like fish, but not too cold, not overly fishy, and not dark. We left a cool rainy France from Lyon airport at 18h, add the flight, time difference, and bus to the city, making it 2:30 before we started the battle against light and noise (from a 10 person hostel bunk) and excitement to sleep. By 07h we couldn't wait any longer to start exploring the city, the only full day we planned to be in Reykjavik.
We wandered around the quiet morning streets, and settled in for a cozy breakfast and coffee at C is for Cookie. Derek ate ham, eggs, and toast, while I sampled the vegan baked goods and indulged in a huge soy latte.
We stopped in design shops along Laugavegur, paused by the quirky graffiti, and stared over the city from the tall tower of the Hallgrímskirkja Church.
We saw Ragnar Axelsson's photography exhibition Mirror of Life at the Reykjavík Museum of Photography and sat to watch a 90 minute video Last Days of the Arctic - a beautiful film and great way to keep off our feet for at least a little while.
Next stop, Sólfar (Sun Voyager), a sculpture by Icelandic artist Jón Gunnar Árnason before making our way along the shore to the race packet pick-up at the sport center.
After a full day of sight-seeing and walking, we were starving and needed to fuel for Saturday's race. We ate heaping plates of vegan (mostly raw) goodness at Gló plus amazing desserts. Since I am always thinking ahead when it comes to food, we took their veggie wraps along with us for lunch tomorrow, and settled in for one more night at the hostel with our heads spinning from the colorful, comfortable day in the city, and the excitement of making our way to the highlands tomorrow.
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| Reykjavik |
