Reykjavik

February 2014     Itinerary Link 

We picked the month of February to visit Iceland(population 350,000) because that was supposed be the time of year when the aurora borealis(northern lights) is most active in that region. Pat, myself and my brother flew out of Boston on Iceland Air to Reykjavik, stayed for 4 nights, then continued on to Paris. Of the three places we visited, Iceland was not the coldest: Boston was. The temperature hovered around 32ºF even though it was windy, which added a chill factor. It is the most sparsely populated country in Europe, and there is only one city(the northern coastal city of Akureyri) that has a population of over 10,000 outside of the capital & the airport regions.

Our flight arrived in Keflavik Airport around 6:30 in the morning. We tried to move very slowly because the earliest time our Airbnb host could meet us was at 10 AM. We picked up our rental car and drove 40 minutes to Reykjavik in complete darkness: the sunrise was not till 10 AM. We parked the car and walked around to find the bakery cafe we had read about and had our first sticker shock. A simple and humble breakfast came up to be close to $25 per person!

Our two bedroom Airbnb apartment was near the city center, had a parking lot & a nice bathtub and was quite spacious. Our host apologized for the heat control being out of order in one of the bedrooms so that the room could get too hot! With the geothermal heating system, hot water was cheap and plenty. It was a pure joy filling up the tub each day with hot springs water and just soaking in it after a day of activities.

We checked the aurora forecast website religiously throughout the day. We once slept through a northern lights show near Denali National Park in Alaska, and we could not let that happen again. But it was either raining or cloudy the whole time we were there, and that meant the Aurora would not appear. Very sad!

65% of the population of Iceland resides in Reykjavik, a vibrant city full of things to see and do. The city hall by the lake in the middle of downtown was fun to walk around, and we checked out some art museums nearby. We particularly enjoyed the historic settlement presentation at Reykjavík 871±2. The most famous church in Iceland, Hallgrímskirkja, was worth a visit. There were some decent cafes and restaurants on the streets down the hill from this church.

We, of course, had to check out the Golden Circle. Driving there was pretty easy and straightforward & took under an hour out of Reykjavik. We did the Þingvellir National Park, the Geysir Geothermal Area, and Gullfoss waterfall in about 3-4 hours with a quick lunch stop at the Geysir area. My favorite was Gullfoss Falls, which, in my mind, seemed to be directly connected to the center of raw energy in the deep earth. We barely made it back to the city before the sunset, which was about 5PM.

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Since we didn’t see the northern lights, the highlight of this trip, to me, was the Blue Lagoon. Too touristy? Yes! No locals go there. They can go to public swimming pools filled up with piping hot thermal water in their own neighborhood paying less than 10% of what you’d spend to get into Blue Lagoon. But, of all the hot springs I have ever visited around the globe, Blue Lagoon was very special. I usually get bored after 20-30 minutes in a hot springs pool. Not here. I did not want to come out! (I wish we were able to take pictures, but, we did not have a waterproof camera. So here are some pictures from the internet.) I was surrounded by mysterious mist as I stepped into the hot spring pool, which looked more like a small lake than a pool. The water was quite warm and it relaxed every inch of muscle on my body. I was floating, and time stood still. Nothing in the world mattered at that moment, and I was content.

The morning we left Iceland, the aurora forecast site showed 90% chance that night. Oh, well. We’d have to come back, we thought.

Eating and Drinking: We saw people bringing in liquor bottles and boxes of Dunkin Donuts as we deplaned at KEF airport. Then there were many people buying liquor at the duty-free shop before walking out of the airport. We soon discovered why. Any kind of alcoholic drink is very expensive. A glass of wine at a restaurant could easily be $20. Meals were mostly $20-30 for a sandwich, more for something more substantial. The cheapest meal we ever found in Iceland was at a buffet at a Thai restaurant in Keflavik (a tad under $20). We had dinner one night at Kaffivagninn restaurant by the port in Reykjavik, and it was not too outrageous by Icelandic standards.

We were in Reykjavik again in May 2015, and we still did not get much sun.

But Pat’s brother’s family went to Iceland last month for the first time, and they saw this:

애시당초 2월에 아이슬랜드 여행을 감행한 이유는 연중 그때가 가장 오로라 출현이 활발한 시기라는 이야기를 들었기 때문. 그러나 우리가 체류한 4일간 내내 비가 오거나 흐린 날씨 탓에 오로라는 감감무소식 이었다. 아이슬랜드 인구 34만명의 65%가 거주하는 수도 레이캬빅 지역은 문화예술 활동이 활발하고 멋진 건축물들도 눈에 뜨였다. 대개 단층 또는 2층의 납작한 건물들로 이루어진 시내 풍광 속에 우뚝 솟은 헬그림스커캬 교회는 누구나 한번 가볼만한 곳이다.

골든 서클로 이름 붙여진 세곳, 팅벨러 국립공원, Geyser, Gullfoss 폭포는 레이캬빅에서 한시간 내에  쉽게 운전해서 갈수 있어 좋았다. 이중 특히 굴포스 폭포는 지구 심연 어딘가에서 솟구치는 다듬어지지 않은 에너지의 원천과 직접 연결되어진듯한 느낌을 주었다.

아이슬랜드에서 오로라가 빠진 최고의 경험은 블루 라군 온천이었다. 로컬들은 거의 발길을 들이지 않는 관광지라지만, 나는 개의치 않았다. 신비에 싸인 따스한 연못 이라고나 할까.  발부터 담그고 서서히 온몸을 움직여 김이 솟아나는 구멍 근처로 다가가는 동안 신체 구석구석의 근육이 모두 나긋나긋 해지며 완전 릴렉스가 되었다. 나가기 싫다! 배만 고프지 않았어도 나는 아마 거기서 그렇게 온종일 떠다니고 있었을것 같다.

같이간 남동생과 남편은 무엇보다도 식당 종업원 아가씨들의 늘씬하고 아름다운 자태에 제일 감탄한것 같았다. 그들에게 서비스를 받는것이 황공하기라도 한듯한 태도를 보이더니 한 시골마을 빵집에서 드디어 터져나온 감탄사: “아니, 저 아가씨가 왜 여기서 이러고 있지? 모델을 하던가 영화에 나오던가 그래야 맞는거 아닌가?”

우리가 떠난 날 저녁 레이캬빅 하늘은 오로라로 온통 물들었었다고 한다.

다음해 5월 다시 아이슬랜드에 잠시 들렀을 때에도 비가 왔다. 지난 가을(2017년) 에도 물론 비가 우리를 반겼다. 그런데 금년 초 시동생네 가족이 처음으로 아이슬랜드를 방문해서 위와 같은 사진을 즉각 보내왔다.

Bill’s Journey in July 2019

I left London on a early morning 3-hour flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. The plane was about 1/2 full, so besides having more leg room (I know, I’m not exactly tall), no one was sitting next to me, which is always a bonus.