The World Unfiltered

Goooooood morning! Well I’ve had sounder sleeps but that’s okay. Some guy was speaking Chinese in his sleep, and he was snoring loudly in between phrases.

While waiting to be picked up for Silfra, I had some coffee and talked to the bartender. His name is David and moved here from Czech Republic two years ago just because. I noticed there was chocolate milk and I wanted that instead of coffee but he misunderstood me, thinking I was planning on combining the two. Instead of clarifying, something came over me and I decided to play it off as if I do it all the time. It’s kinda like a mocha. He was like “Oh wow, I have never heard of that!” (you and me both). “I shall try some too,” (oh God). So we both did it and it worked out! It was really good and now I may end up actually doing it all the time. He started raving about it to his coworkers. What can I say? I am a genius! I am going to take this time to recommend it to you all too. Chocolate milk in your coffee…do it. Do it now. Unless you are lactose intolerant, or don’t like coffee and/or chocolate milk. Eh, no, do it anyway!

Today is snorkeling day! I am very sad that I left my scuba certification at home so I can only snorkel, but snorkeling is still cool. Diving is better. Lesson learned. Bring the scuba cards everywhere you go even if you don’t expect to need them. I mean, I knew I needed them. I thought I brought them. I was wrong about this.

Again with the coffee. Why why why. Always the least ideal time to have your stomach being ripped apart…then again it is also not the best week to be a girl so then there is that.

They don’t always check your reservation or verify your ticket. They show up, call your name, you say hi, get on the bus, have fun, then get dropped off where you came from. This whole trust thing is great, and not really experienced often where I’m from. At all. It’s kind of disappointing and depressing. Then again I’ve always kind of felt that way about where I am from. It really is quite nice to experience an alternative way of treating and interacting with people, even while knowing you have a return flight. This time at least…

So they aren’t usually this late for picking people up, so I go to the front desk and call the company. Turns out I am going to Silfra tomorrow. But I am also doing some other activity tomorrow. There is indeed a dilemma here. I just changed the other activity for a later date that I left open anyway. No free days for me! I wrote everything down on a paper rather than fixing everything in my phone notepad. That way I can eliminate simple errors since that was clearly the problem in the first place. What we have here is a failure to communicate between my brain, my hands, and my credit card. At least it’s an easy fix! Everything worked out so I am going to relax in my room for a bit then explore parts Reykjavik that I didn’t get to the first day. Then later this evening we will have yet another Northern Lights attempt. I’ll keep trying until I leave and hope for the best, but if it doesn’t happen this time around, I will be okay. I will see them at some point, just maybe not this time. We will see!

Ugh, I am hungry (always). I want some more of that magical yogurt, but I will get groceries later. Christmas time is nigh so it will probably be impossible to have dinner at a restaurant (the few restaurants that don’t close for Christmas are already mostly filled up with reservations). Plan ahead for food when going here around Christmas time.

Everything happens for a reason. It’s probably a good thing this mix up happened because I am not really feeling the whole swimming while on day 2 of girly time thing. Or being active in general. I’ll walk around and spend some time at the pool (heated) perhaps, then come back and rest. It’s good to have a balance.

There are kaffitar everywhere (a coffee chain) so I should probably check that out. Also there is a sushi place. Sea food is big here so it’s acceptable to get sushi here then, yeah? Maybe? No. I want soup in a bread bowl right now. I saw a place yesterday buuuut I can’t seem to find it now. Boo!!! I’m starving. I’m going back up the street and if I still can’t find it then I am going to the next place I see because my stomach has begun consuming itself.

Okay I found it! Well I found the sign first, but I misinterpreted where the arrow was pointing and ended up going down this short alley to someone’s house. Sorry. Okay now I officially found it. Today’s soup options were mushroom, some other type of soup that I can get anywhere, or reindeer meat soup. I’ll give you four guesses for which one I picked. Sorry kids, no Christmas this year, I just ate Rudolph, or maybe Cupid, or Prancer. Whoever they were, they were delicious.I had Christmas beer as well. It tasted like an amber ale with added spices, and the spices in the soup resembled the spices in the beer. I liked it!

Most restaurants have signs that say something like, “Sorry, no wifi, talk to each other instead.” Don’t apologize for this…this is great and we need more of it everywhere.

I just realized it’s only 2:30 and I’m drinking a beer, and looking around I may be the only one doing so. Oh well, it sounded good so I went with it. Oh I just heard someone shout “IPA!” so I am not drinking alone, so to speak.

The reindeer soup was good. I didn’t like it as much as the horse, but they are hard to compare and I still do like the soup a lot. It was different than anything I’ve ever tasted so it’s also hard to describe. It was thick like gravy, the meat chunks were small, and the taste of spices were almost a little overwhelming. Okay no more notes for now. I am starving and I have beer to drink.

They really give you a lot. They don’t gyp you like they do in other places outside of Iceland. They pull out the bread in the middle but serve it on the side with butter, and they pull out enough of the middle that allows for optimum soup space, plus the top of the bread bowl for more bread and butter.

There’s a security camera here. The first one I’ve noticed since I’ve been in Iceland. That doesn’t mean it’s the only place that has them, but I notice them everywhere around where I live, probably rightfully so. People trust that others will be respectful, and they are.

I almost finished the soup. I couldn’t. Not sure if it was because there was so much (there was) or because the thought of me eating reindeer caught up with me. Either way, I left satisfied.

 

I went back to the hostel to relax for a bit, then went out for a walk once the Christmas parade stopped blocking the front door. It was cool though. People were holding jars with candles inside and caroling, the Icelandic way of course. When the path cleared, I made my way down towards the water again and walked to Harpa music center and hung out in that area for a bit, then walked up to the church to see it at night time. I couldn’t go inside because it was closed. I then started walking back and am now eating dinner at the 100 hotel buffet restaurant.

On the way home I shall stock up on groceries for the next couple days as I will be being active, and dinner will be hard to find since people would have already made reservations. I haven’t really been all that hungry compared to how I normally am. When I do eat, the portions end up being large enough to tide me over until next time I have access to food.

*Although I prefer diving over snorkeling, I will say that it is a better deal to snorkel than dive here. The waters are crystal clear and there is no marine life, so you can see everything from the surface without having to pay the extra who knows how much for dive gear.