Trip update #3: Reflections on Reykjavik

Tonight is our last night in the cold little town of Reykjavik, Iceland. Tomorrow we take a short flight to Oslo, and begin the second leg of our crazy little trip. This first bit was fun. A little rough, but fun. Our main enemy has been jet lag; we lost a few afternoons to some hardcore napping. Other than that, however, we've been pretty darn lucky. Here are a few highlights:

1. The most exciting thing that happened here was the show that we were treated to by the Aurora Borealis. Both Jodi and I had always wanted to see the Northern Lights, and Iceland is a good place to do so. I had my concerns about the weather, though, as it had been forecasted to not only be cloudy, but with a bright, full moon when the skies were clear. It was not an ideal setup. On the 28th, however, our German roommates from Kex Hostel rented a car and offered to take us out with them in search of the Lights. We were going to leave at around 11 that night, but at about 8 someone came ripping through the halls, telling everyone to look outside. We stepped out of the hostel and, despite the bright city lights and the full moon, we were able to get our first glimpse of the Northern Lights; two green fingers stretched across the sky. They lingered for about ten minutes, then faded to a faint blur. We were pretty pumped just to catch that little bit, but what was going on outside city limits was beyond our wildest expectations. The three Germans, Jodi and I drove about half an hour from the hostel and were treated to an epic vision. You know those videos of green, shimmering curtains in the sky? It's pretty much just like that in person, but better. They move. They move fast. We saw them slide and coil ad wave. They whipped right over us, a massive, beautiful storm right above us. It was an awe inspiring dream; we could not believe our luck. It was also freezing. My hands got so cold at one point that my fingers couldn't put the lens cap back on Jodi's camera. Speaking of which, she got an awesome shot:

   

   It was a good night.

    
2. The weather cooperated with us here, which was nice. It was never warm by any stretch of the imagination, but, besides today, the wind and rain mostly held off. This is a breezy little town, and the streets and sidewalks are all covered in about two inches of ice right now (the sand that the city puts out to aid traction is all black volcanic sand, which is kind of neat). Despite that, we found it very walkable, and when the sun shone on us it was almost comfortable!
3. This is where I nerd out: we went to a sporting goods store called Veiðihornið, and it was pretty freaking cool. I love seeing what people in other countries use to fish, and this was. A pretty good place to get a feel for what Iceland calls for. The one thing that really amazed me was how small their flies are. They tie these very pretty little flies for salmon that you can barely see. They also tie flies on double and treble hooks, which seems like it would be a pain (literally!), but they do look neat. 

   

   A Red Frances on a treble hook

   

   A Silver and Blue on a tiny double hook

   

   Some crazy long-tailed fly on a treble hook
   
   
   

   

   Not something you see at Cabelas.

    

So that's what we've been up to. Trying to keep to our budget means nothing crazy happened food-wise. It's a pricey town, but I have a feeling we'll be back someday. Next stop, Norway!

Until then, friends, stay Viking.