In April of 2021, after my birthday trip falling apart because little guy ended up in the hospital (breathing issues but totally okay), Nick and I found a ridiculous deal on a trip to Iceland through TravelZoo for only $600, which included our flights, hotels, a Hop On / Hop Off city tour, a boat trip to see the northern lights, a trip to the geothermal heated Sky Lagoon, and our breakfast each day. The deal was a "Buy Now, Travel Later" thing and we booked for February 18th, 2022 (two days before the promotion ended), hoping by then Covid would be gone and we'd be able to travel again.
The Christmas/January upswing of cases made us nervous and we considered cancelling our trip but decided instead to just be extra cautious. Iceland is only open to vaccinated Americans and masks are still required in most indoor places. Even though the CDC said we did not need to quarantine or test after returning from the trip, we chose to keep the kids at my boyfriends (just like December when we tested positive for Covid) and decided to rapid test multiple times before returning to our house. Getting sick meant that the possibility of getting sick again on vacation is much lower, which eased our concerns even more.
I am so happy we decided to go through with the trip. Again, we had to be vaccinated and prove negative tests before we could get into Iceland. Even their citizens had to follow their expectations before entering the country. We had an "overnight" flight on Friday, leaving Massachusetts for a 5 hour flight, but thanks to the time difference, we arrived at 6 am Saturday am. We pre-booked a shuttle through Gray Line Tours and were in Reykjavik by 8 am. Our hotel room was not ready yet so we set off to explore.
Saturday
Thanks to Iceland's location, the sun didn't rise until 9 am so the quiet walk through the city was very serene. There was a lot of snow and it was cold, but we walked the two miles from our hotel to the Hallgrímskirkja Church and then to the Perlan Museum.
The Perlan Museum is a beautiful museum that teaches the history and nature of Iceland, as well as has a walk through ice cave and the most amazingly gorgeous 360 degree walk around balcony that allows you to see how gorgeous Reykjavik is.
After finishing at the museum, we hopped on the Hop On Hop Off Bus offered around the city. Heads up, the signs say they come every 45 minutes, but we waited much longer for one... we did keep ourselves entertained laughing at everyone getting stuck in the revolving door because they weren't pushing (we were exhausted at this point...). We took the bus to the opposite side of town and got off at the Harbour. In reading other sites, I knew I wanted to find Omnom Chocolate and this seemed like the best way to get to it. On our way down the Harbour, we found Grandi Mathöll and had a quick lunch. I love this place so much. It's like an indoor food truck hall. There was Garlic, a noodle place, a fish and chips place, a storefront that served traditional Icelandic lamb dishes, korean BBQ, and a Gastrotruck that had the most amazing chicken and their fries tasted like McDonalds! I seriously wish we had these in MA because I would host every function in one and people could just grab whatever food they want. We made our way to Omnom and honestly, it was unreal. I'm so thankful it was tucked all the way down the Harbour or we would have gone back every day.
It's going to sound like we ate our way across the city, but we did. As we made our way back to our hotel to see if the room was ready (again, ex-haus-ted), we stopped at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, which is this cult following hot dog stand in Reykjavik. Lamb hot dogs - and yes, they are amazing. So amazing we went back 2 more times!
On our way back, we came across another place I had hoped to see - Skólavörðustígur, aka Rainbow Street. It's absolutely a tourist spot, but I feel like there are so few spaces in this world where people can celebrate who they are and it was an important spot to see. I loved being able to take pictures for couples who wouldn't have been able to get a shot of them together otherwise, especially in a space that's made for them.
We made it back to our hotel, Center Hotels Laugavegur to find out we had been upgraded to a top floor room with a view of the mountains on our balcony. The rooms are small but were perfect size for the two of us. I fell in love with the heated towel racks and have decided I need to have them in my own bathroom. The hotel is in the perfect location, right on one of the main streets in Reykjavik. It made walking to everything super easy.
A quick nap and we were back out looking around the city again. We found another food hall, Hlemmur Food Hall a block away from our hotel and had some tacos from Fuego. We made a quick trip into 10/11, which is a quick shop convenience store and spent more time than I want to admit looking at different foods and figuring out how much foods cost ($10 USD for a single avocado!).
Sunday
The hotel offered a wonderful buffet at their restaurant, Loa and we fueled up before heading out to do more exploring since our only plans were to catch a Northern Lights sightseeing boat at 8:30 pm. We decided to visit the geothermically heated community pool, Sundhöllin. A European community pool is everything I didn't expect it to be... a lot of naked people walking around and me having zero idea of what was culturally respectful. It was overwhelming at first, not understanding what I was doing wrong but after showering and changing into my bathing suit, leaving behind my flip flops and towel, I ventured into the 23* air to jump into those 100* pools. When we were leaving, I overheard another couple asking questions and I inserted myself into the conversation to tell her and her husband everything I wish someone had told me. They ended up being from Delaware and were so thankful for the information.
We left and wandered around a bit, finding two bakeries I hoped to find, Brauð & Co and Sandholt. We bought a pretzel croissant from Brauð & Co and a cinnamon roll at Sandholt. We stopped at Reykjavik Fish Restaurant and tried Icelandic fish and chips and a Fish Platter. I'm so picky about fish living in New England, but this was so good and did not disappoint. We wandered through bookstores and grabbed ice cream from Ísbúðin Valdís. We know how much I love Dole Whip, but their pineapple ice cream blew it out of the water. We found the store called Bonus, which is a super cheap market and we loaded up on candy for the kids - mars bars, Cadbury eggs, Milka bars... the best of the best. After all that walking, we needed another nap.
Our night time adventure to the Northern Lights sightseeing boat included a long walk down to the water side path. We got to see the Sun Voyager statute and Harpa Music Hall. We absolutely stopped and got another hot dog as well.
Our boat trip was sadly, unsuccessful. We did not see the Northern Lights, which was a big part of why we wanted to go, but it's nature and we have no control. We've already been joking about when and where we can travel again to be able to try again to see them. The great thing about Special Tours in Reykjavik is that they have a guarantee and if you don't see the lights, you can go on a return trip for free, so we can go back any time we like!
Monday
Monday the 21st was my actual birthday so we started with another delicious breakfast from Loa and went to the bookstore to mail off our postcards to the kids. We buy a postcard everywhere we go and send it home as a souvenir, complete with postage from where we were. We also had to get Covid tested so we would be allowed back into the US. The Covid testing location was at the main bus station hub so we made our way down there. Unfortunately the weather changed and we ended up walking through snow and sleet so I was not very happy, thinking we'd need to walk back to our hotel where our pick up was planned. I was so happy and thankful when the customer service woman at the bus station said we could wait for the bus in the terminal instead, but also informed us that due to the weather and an incoming storm, the three hour trip we had scheduled to Sky Lagoon, a geothermically heated lagoon, would be cut short because the buses were too tall and top heavy to be out in the winds. We'd be lucky to have an hour in the pool, but we would be welcome to take a taxi home later (on our own dime) if we wanted to stay.
Since we had 40 minutes before the bus was set to leave, we grabbed a quick bite to eat in terminal and waited. As we were cleaning up our trash, I heard a woman yell "Hey there Boston!" and turned to see the couple we had helped at the Community Pool yesterday. They were also heading to the Lagoon and we chatted about how thankful they were that we had shared the information at the pool. They also said they planned to stay later than the buses were leaving so if we wanted to share a taxi, they'd be game. Iceland's very high gas prices lead to very high taxi fares, so this was a great idea for us!
Sky Lagoon was gorgeous. The water was the perfect hot temperature and even with the cold wind and (often pelting) snow, we had an amazing time. We made plans to meet the couple at the indoor bar in couple hours and went off to Sky Lagoon's Seven Step Sky Ritual.
2. Dunk yourself into the glacier fresh (and cold!) tub.
