Iceland Day 9: Into the City

EXPLORING ARNARSTAPI
We had been so exhausted the night before that we didn't bother to explore around our house or the town. The kids were hungry from the time they woke up, so while Josh packed up our stuff I took the kids for a walk down by the shore. AKA out the backyard. Next to the driveway a stone troll-like monument was situated. I think that is what it was. I couldn't read the Icelandic writing. But it didn't look like the Jules Verne statue so I'm going to go with the huge troll-like structure that is supposed to honor the region's guardian spirit, Bardur. I should have told my daughter that last night. We took silly pictures and started walking along a very planned, defined walking trail. The best trail I had seen during the whole trip. We didn't get very far until I realized we were walking towards Hellnar and that was not where we should be going. I was looking for the famous Arch Rock which had to be close by. This village is tiny. Had we had more time we would most certainly have done the thirty minute walk along the shore cliff to Hellnar in back. I'm sure it was gorgeous. Instead, the kids and I found more bird cliffs at an overlook and then after a bit more walking found that infamous arch rock. I threatened them a lot about standing back behind the guard rail so that I could take a few pictures. That is nerve wrecking. At least with two adults, one can take pictures while the other restrains kids. It all worked out and we headed back to the house for our egg breakfast. On the way out of town we wandered down to the harbour where I finally found the lone White House that everyone takes pictures of. I trespassed into some sort of fishing place that was closed for the weekend to get a shot of it down by the water. We saw Maggy again, said our goodbyes and started on our way.

THE MIGRAINE
We were just out of town when my migraine hit. There is no worse feeling than THAT feeling. You know what is coming. The only saving grace? The day before, guess what we found? That toiletry bag. Yes, the one I had left on the plane. I didn't leave it on the plane. It was hidden in the back of the car.... So I now had two sets of saline solution and my very, very expensive migraine pills. They are basically, imitrex, caffeine and large quantities of ibuprofen mixed together. I have taken a lot of mess over the last 26 years for my migraines and this is the only one that has helped. So, finding it the day before I had a migraine was really important. I popped my pill and laid back for the next 2.5 Hours trying not to puke. That's hard enough with a migraine. With a migraine while driving bumping roads, almost impossible. The one stop I'm bummed I missed was the black church at Budir. I made Josh take some pics for me because I had been looking forward to it. Budir was nothing except a black church and Hotel Budir. I had actually tried to book us at Hotel Budir but they wouldn't return my emails. So we didn't. Oh well.

REYKJAVIK
We made it into Reykjavik around lunch time. I still wasn't feeling great, but being in this car wasn't doing me any favors. Both Josh and I had put some of the same places on our list for eating. He was dying to try one of these famous hot dogs so we headed to THE place. Baejarins Beztu Pylsur. It was already drizzling when we drove up and still a huge line. We did some circles around the harbour neighborhood and finally parked. I had no idea what we were ordering but we got seven hot dogs I think, and Coke. Everyone stood in the rain downing their hotdogs. Basically it's a long hotdog over a bed of crunchy fried onions and topped with a sweet mustard/ketchup combo. It looked disgusting but was pretty good. I got a couple bites down but didn't want to push my luck. We then made our way across the street to the Harpa Concert Hall and Cultural Center. The building itself was beautiful. The angles of the exterior glass allow for light to bound and reflect with varying colors and intensities. The interior is equally pretty with stories of open space and glass that invites kids (like ours) to use the stairs as an indoor playground. I was pretty stunned to see such an architectural masterpiece in a place as small as Reykjavik. But then again coming into Reykjavik from the rest of Iceland felt like entering another country itself. Much of the city has the old architecture and charm but is mixed very natural with the modern and cosmopolitan. It's hard to pick a city to compare it to. I joked with Josh that all I could think of is if Venice, California had a love child with Venice, Italy. I love both of those places, so I obviously really liked Reykjavik. If we had direct flights to KEF, like Boston and Baltimore do, I could see coming here for an extended weekend (on miles or super cheap flights obviously). The gift stores in Harpa had a nice selection. There are a few things we might have wished we bought there because we never found elsewhere. But other stuff we did find in some of the other shops. When we were done with Harpa, we walked around town popping into shops and picked up a few things for souvenirs and to add to our travel wall at home. And we even found the famous enough Christmas Store. It looked like the kids would/could break everything in there. So we grabbed a couple ornaments and got out of their as fast as possible. The kids asked us to buy the huge Santa's Mailbox outside but we explained that wouldn't go along with the WOW air carry on limits.

KEX HOSTEL
I'm fairly certain Josh thought I was crazy when I suggested we stay in a hostel. Neither of us have ever stayed in a hostel. Shocking isn't it? I'm pretty shocked we didn't when we were younger and traveling broke. I had found this place early in our research and knew I wanted to go there. It looked like the ACE Hotel of Iceland. And The ACE hotel is my favorite hotel ever. I heard there is one in PIttsburgh now... I've only stayed at the NYC and LA ones. Normally in a hostel you share a room with others. However at Kex you can book smaller rooms. There are actually a few family rooms too. So our room had two twin beds (made like a double) and two bunk beds. That was awesome because both kids got to sleep up top and didn't fight. The room was pretty spacious and functional. I loved the minimalistic field, concrete floors. The hostel is located in an old cookie factory. I think that is what Kex actually means. Their ground floor is a bar, restaurant, living room, everything space that is one of the most happening places in the city despite not being "right" in the center of everything. It's still close. At 6:30 we tried to grab a table to eat dinner and it was already packed. They told us to eat at the bar, so the four of us ate our last Icelandic dinner in one of the trendiest places in Iceland. Fitting. We might have ordered everything on the menu. The fried chicken wings were delicious. They had some sort of ginger soy glaze. The fried rice is actually balls of fried rice. Let's get three orders of that. We ate for a long time. By the time we paid up and headed upstairs, I heard that the kitchen was telling people 30 - 60 minutes to get food orders out. I really liked the feel there. They didn't make us feel out of place at all, although I'm sure no one else was over 30. A huge selling point for the kids (they really should be advertising this) was the self serve juice machines. They were invited to go refill their juice glasses as much as they wanted (or they ran out) at the back counter. They had a huge library space with books, toys for kids, etc. Our kids' favorite spot was the out of work elevator. They turned all the walls of the shaft into a giant magnet board with letters everywhere. And just in case you missed the elevator, there was a set of headphones you could put on to hear elevator music. The details were completely on point at this place. And the bathrooms were what most people worry about. This place was super clean. The bathrooms are 6 or so individual rooms - each with a sink, toilet and huge shower. They clean them quite often. I think I heard Josh say it was his best shower during the trip. My complaint staying here was the noise. Although we were on the top floor (4) I could hear the live music because of the orientation of our room. At some point Josh went and got my water bottle and some earplugs for me. I popped those suckers in, took a sleeping pill (didn't tell Josh) and went to sleep. The kids were each up twice due to too much food and drink... Between my migraine exhaustion, inability to hear anything and sleeping pill - I think Josh was up a bit. Thanks, honey.