Day 1, Monday 14th April 2014, in Reykjavic, Iceland.
Everything about this place seems just a little...off. A little strange, but so subtly odd you have to do a double take.
After arriving at the airport, my brother Oli and I masterfully maneuvered ourselves from the airplane back to departure gates before being told we need to go to arrivals. In England of course, the two are so separate that such a mistake isn't even possible.
Once on a transfer to the city, we realised how small the place is. Of an island with 300,000 odd people, the capital hosts 100, 000 of them. This was evident in the bus being able to offer us drop offs at each passenger's hotel. Not a bad thing.
The hotel was comfortable, welcoming and clean. We left it immediately to venture into town, finding a classy steakhouse (which did square burgers), and seeing a variety of very odd architecture. One thing was clear: if there was such a thing as planning permission, the planners either had no clue or didn't give a shit. There seems close to no conformity and...I guess it's charming, unique and varied, but it also looks a bit lame.
After a boozy lunch we ventured further, underestimating the scale on the map and burning through our leathered brogues. Looking smart was a poor substitute for hiking boots.
However we finally found a museum Oli was keen to see and where we got to dress up. Not in drag either. The chain mail was so heavy I needed help dressing, and the head piece left me with possible skull damage!
Finally after a coffee and a bit more mooching, we got a bus back to the hotel. Now, I'll leave it at that, but let's just say we made a massive meal of a simple bus journey!
Two impressions so far:
1) there is an awesome view of snowy mountains nearly wherever you are in the city.
2) the hot water smells so bad of rotten eggs due to the sulphur in the water.
