Iceland Pt. 1

french toast for lunch at heathrow before flying out of london, the cute facts about iceland that icelandair have all over the planes, the warm and welcoming common room at my hostel and the really friendly, helpful staff, making friends with a girl on my first afternoon and walking up to the perlan building for a view of the city and then heading into town with her and seeing a rainbow at hallgrimskirkja church, hot chocolate and a gigantic, life-changing cookie sandwich from cafe babalu, not needing a map because it’s so easy to find your way around rekyjavik, the beautiful architecture of harpa concert hall, cute, brightly-painted houses and interesting street art all through the city, super delicious, fresh veggie/vegan food from glo, making friends over dinner in the hostel and going to a super weird art show that involved abstract philosophical monologues and some really interesting accordion music, sticking around to chat and realising there were nine people in the room and only one was a local, skyr – a yoghurt-like whey product that i wish i could get back home, water taken from underground rivers fresh out of the tap, going to a beatles themed bar with some friends from the hostel and watching a local band cover neil young, lou reed and the beatles and making friends with locals in another bar, going up the tower of hallgrimskirkja church for a view of reykjavik, watching the parade for iceland’s gay pride celebrations, the great tour operators who fill the long drives with facts about life in iceland, the history of the landscape and snippets of the icelandic sagas, the golden circle including the fantastic geysir, gullfoss waterfall and thingvellir national park where you can see the rift between the american and eurasian tectonic plates.