Reykjavik, Iceland

Upon arriving in Reykjavik, I was immediately enthralled with the cute, colorful, and intricate Scandinavian style houses and restaurants.  In my opinion, all the restaurants houses resemble beautifully decorated gingerbread houses or doll houses!  

My favorite street so far is Laugavegur,  which is lined with cute restaurants adorable little shops.  Some are touristy shops, others are just boutiques with neat (and expensive) clothing. One of the first destinations on my list in the city was Hallgrimskirkja, the largest church in Iceland.

My favorite part was going to the top of the church tower to look out over the city.  So pretty with the pops of color and houses with roofs laden with snow! 

So many pretty places.  Although it's a big city, all the shops and cafes are so quaint and cozy.  It kind of reminds me of a setting of a Hallmark movie, because of the places, colors, lights, and happy people walking around shopping.

In Reykjavik, I also wanted to see the Solfar Sun Voyager sculpture, which in my opinion was nothing spectacular, but behind the sculpture lies Mount Esja - the volcanic mountain range.  I was so excited because I've never really seen mountains before!

 And I of course wanted to see what is considered one of the city's most distinguished landmarks - the Harpa concert hall.  (When I was walking to and from here, the wind was so fierce that I literally almost fell over multiple times!) 

Iceland is quite expensive, so I have been eating mostly Clif bars throughout my stay, but I did stop to warm up and eat lunch at a cozy little restaurant called Meze, and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu (besides soup), which was a grilled vegetable tray - and IT WAS DELICIOUS. 10/10 would go back and order the same thing. 

And I don't even like hotdogs, but Iceland is famous for their hotdogs from Baejarins Beztu Pylsur which are made mostly from Icelandic lamb, pork, and beef (which are 100% organic).  The Icelandic way is to get them "with everything," which means it is topped with raw white onions, crispy fried onions, ketchup, sweet brown mustard and remoulade (a sauce made from mayo, capers, mustard, and herbs). It was actually pretty good (and cheap!) 

Reykjavik has been neat, and I feel like I have had more than sufficient time to see and do all that I wanted to in the city.  Next up: a 2 day tour of Iceland's south coast! 

Love,