The ride from the airport took about forty five minutes and the smell of sulfur only got greater during the ride until we hit civilization. The view from the bus was a landscape that could be best described as flat and volcanic with mountains in the distance. Most of the morning was overcast, but eventually gave way to clearer skies.

Björt (the lady whose place we are staying at) picked us up at the city central bus station with her car and brought us back to her apartment so we could drop off our bags and get situated quickly. Shortly after, she drove us around town and showed us some key areas of interest. She seems like a very nice lady. This was her first time renting out her place on airbnb. Actually, they are in the process of renovating the apartment we are staying in and plan on moving into it and calling it their home and we are the first people to stay in it which is cool and says a lot about the type of people they are. The location is great and is steps away from the center of town. I think we’ve walked back and forth three times today.

During her little drive tour, she dropped us off at The Laundromat Cafe where we proceeded to get breakfast. The main serving station was an island in the middle that was made up of color coded bookcases. This was very pleasing to look at. Stien and I got hearty breakfasts while Brian had to settle with four scrambled eggs and fruit. Halfway through our meal, a Ukrainian girl around our age sat down next to us and ordered a beer. It was still about 9:30 in the morning so I was pretty shocked. Because of this, I initiated conversation and found out that she happened to be a singer for a cruise ship that we had seen docked half way between Reykjavik and Keflavik on our way from the airport. Pretty cool stuff. Breakfast was decent, but it was becoming clear Iceland was not going to be cheap as this simple breakfast cost about $14.

After breakfast, we went across the street to the liquor store where my suspicions about the expenses here in Iceland were validated. We got a fifth of locally made vodka that cost us over $45. This was the cheapest option. Wow. After that, we walked home through an old cemetery and then all took naps.

I woke up at 4:45pm to the tune of Brian taking to Björt’s husband. It took me about twenty minutes to get out of bed and eventually I got into the shower. Showering here is interesting. They have not put up a shower curtain yet, so in order to not get the water everywhere, you have to sit in the tub and carefully spray the hose on yourself. I don’t think I’ve ever been so conscientious while taking a shower and as much of a pain in the ass this sounds like, it was actually quite relaxing.

We left the apt around 7 to go adventure and get some dinner. We walked to the tallest church in Iceland, Hallgrímskirkja, and went to the top which offered some great views of downtown and mountains in the distance. After watching the really large organ player play the really large organ, we left and walked down one of the main shopping streets (Skólavörðustígur) and stopped at Cafe Babalú and got some cappuccinos and used the wifi. By the time we left it was 8 o’clock at night and it was still very much light out. In fact the sun was probably the warmest it had been all day at this point. During our little cafe visit, I used Foodspotting to look at foods of restaurants nearby that looked like something I wanted to eat. Stien and I spotted a reindeer burger at a place called The Icelandic Bar which was right near where we went to breakfast earlier in the day. We left and decided to check it out. On our way, we walked down what seemed like a main drag of sorts for cute little shops and bars and such. I noted an ice cream place that I would later come back to. We got the the restaurant around 9 and put in our order not too much long after. Brian got his food pretty quickly (he got smoked puffin and some kind of salmon dish that both came in cool looking jars) and ours didn’t come out. Brian decided to wait for us to eat. He ended up waiting about two hours. I guess our food order didn’t get submitted and after our multiple requests to our idiot waiter, still didn’t get put in. We got our meal at 10:45 and ended up getting it for free which was nice because otherwise they would have been about 20 bucks a piece.

Now we are sitting at the place. It’s 12:32am and it’s still light out. I think we are going to go out since bars don’t close until who knows when.

The following are notes from the rest of the evening.
– Bring a flask to save money.
– It feels like the marina except the tall people are girls.
– Lotta girls wear bobsled pants.

3:04am
Gutter vibrations at Kaffibarinn

3:23am
Just spilled an expensive, watery vodka drink on Brian’s balls. Fail.

3:25am
“Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen is playing.

4:01am
Leaving Kaffibarinn. Shoulda brought sunglasses.

4:14am
At smidjan getting pizza.

5:30am
Going to bed