"Hidden Place"

I have returned from my trip to Iceland. People are asking for details, information, etc. So to make all of my fans happy, I will be writing a few (delayed) blog entries regarding the trip and all of its glorious details. So I told many people I was heading to Iceland, and most found it kinda funny, who goes to Iceland in the Winter, etc? Well I got to say, it really is a hidden place, such a small little gem. Reykjavík itself is a very, very small town. You can walk around and see everything in a day, and if you want to go to some of the museums, leave 1-2 days total for the city - not putting down the city but most of the unique stuff is all within nature outside of the city. But alas, onto the review:

Day 1: Iceland & the City of Reykjavík- A "Hidden Place"

So I took the red eye out there and got to the Klopp Hotel by about 8am. The hotel has a great location, 2-3 minutes to get to the middle of town, but far enough where it is not loud at night when you are trying to go to sleep. I quickly found out nothing in the city opens before 10 or 11am, every day. The hotel luckily had a room ready for me, so I was able to check in and go take a quick nap. For the first day I decided to get my bearings and walk around the city. I made a few key stops, like visiting the famous hot dog stand Bæjarins beztu (get the hot dog with everything!) and then I stopped to see the sights like the government building, some art exhibits, shopping, local architecture, cafes, the bars, etc. Most of the bars are really Irish/British pub types, though there is plenty of local Icelandic Beers of which I mostly enjoyed Egils Premium. Let me tell you, I now know why this city wakes up and starts work at 10am, they party til 5am every morning! I left the bars around 4:30am and there were still lines of people waiting to get into the bars!

So Day 1 was good, had some local hot dogs and beer, saw the sights, and walked around Laugavegur which is the main shopping/restaurant street. I had some Icelandic Lamb at Cafe Paris, met some locals, did some drinking and called it a night.