Backdate: Iceland May 2024 Day 2

30/5/24 Thurs: Got up at 7.15am and because it was summer in Iceland, there was probably not a moment of “darkness” while we slept. Ate at 8am and had quite a lot for breakfast at the hotel in the half an hour and they’ve got oatmeal too!

At 10.30am, we walked over to the Flybus at the arrival halls of the airport and was directed outside to the Flybus where the drivers took attendance and departed at 11am. *SGD 1 was Icelandic Krona 103* Saw the erupting volcanoes from afar as we drove past towards BSI bus terminal for transfer to another van that took us to Fosshotel Baron.

We arrived at 12+pm for an early check-in and while the receptionist gave us room 305, we walked over to realise the beds were not even made and so, she changed it to a much bigger deluxe room on the second floor for us. Their toilets also showed facts about Iceland's natural water. Cold water comes from underground springs and good for drinking while hot water is geothermal water from deep boreholes so they have slight sulphuric smell and is used for bathing and washing. It can tarnish silver jewelleries too. I'm somewhat bothered by the sulphuric smell though.

As the car for our self-drive tour package with Iceland Road Trip will only be available from 30 May, (S$11,987 for two pax), we went on a three-hour Reykjavik Foodie Tour, that was included in the package and bought for us by Hordur from the tour agency. We walked over to Harpa Concert Hall to wait for our guide and the tour which will start at 1.30pm.

Our guide was Stephen and he’s very tall and humourous. The way he’d explained the Icelandic culture, history, economy and way of life was entertaining haha. *Icelandic words are so hard to pronounce that a journalist came up with “E-15” to describe Eyjafjallajökull that erupted in 2010. He said “trust me the way he pronounced it, you might as well just try to pronounce the first three syllabus in Icelandic words and go “la la la” from there on” lol!* There were 14 of us in the group and they were all from the US except for us.

We walked as Stephen briefed us on Iceland. At one point, we saw the only “train” in Iceland. Because of the geography and frequent eruptions and earthquakes, trains don’t exactly suit the country. We also saw some locals doing acrobatics in the middle of the streets and Stephen said the second guy from the left was his acrobatics teacher!

We reached the first stop on our foodie tour at Fjallkonan (the mountain lady in the falcon building). It was where we had the the slow-cooked lamb shoulder (tartar) on top of the smoked lamb from the West jords along with the lightly-cured Arctic char on a chickpea blini starters. *Ooh羊骚味quite obvious but I preferred that!*

At our second stop, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, which was the original place that featured the famous Icelandic national dish - burger, there was a long queue so Stephen gave us our vouchers and we came back later ourselves. *There was a weird ache in my right knee the whole day which was on and off. Probably also slightly twisted my right ankle yesterday and it also ached today.*

Continued our tour in Reykjavik town and we saw the Icelandic parliament building which was the oldest in the world and built in 1881. We also walked past their Prime Minister’s Office and Stephen joked there’s a lack of security from outside it seemed, so people could go and chat her up haha!

For our third stop, we came to Messinn (The Messhall), a restaurant that looked like it’s family-run business. We tried their Arctic Char, that belonged to the trout family and is similar to salmon, fried in butter and honey glaze and served with greenhouse grown tomatoes, spinach and ruccola. This was so good and Potato said he wanted to try and make it at home haha. We also ate the "Plokkfiskur", traditional creamed fish stew with mashed potatoes and rye bread… nice too!

At the Íslenski Barinn (The Icelandic Bar), We drank the Viking Gylltur Icelandic beer. *Stephen joked every place turns into a bar at night in Iceland lol!* The Kjötsúpa or lamb meat soup was okay and who could forget we tried the rotten fermented shark meat! The smell was not pleasant but it’s soft and tasted like anchovies. It was not that bad but not that I would want another serving either. Also spoke with a few of them and there were a few retirees and a doctor among the Americans.

We walked the street towards Kaffi Loki café, our final stop on the foodie tour. *They painted the walkway in rainbow colour in support of the LGBT community. I liked how open-minded they are.* Also saw Hallgrimskirkja Church, the tallest building in the city just diagonally across the road from the café. Ended with delicious Rye Bread with vanilla ice-cream and caramel which was too sweet though. He also explained how Icelandic citizens can look up on their genealogical database on Íslendingagbók and check for their ancestries etc before they get married to someone else, in case they were somehow related haha!

PotaTOHs went into Hallgrimskirkja Church after the foodie tour ended. *Stephen joked this Christian church was built here because it wanted to be taller than another Catholic church in town.* The interior was nice.

We went back to Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur at 5.15pm to claim our free lamb hotdog with fried and fresh onions, ketchup, remúlaði and mustard! The crispy bits in it was enjoyable, but otherwise, it was just a hotdog haha. *touched a few pet cats and their fur were very soft~*

We walked to Perlan museum (S$83.11 for two pax) after a day of eating and it was nice that the sun came out! Got there at 6pm after climbing up slopes and it was a very informative place. Saw the interactive displays on volcanic eruptions and it was quite terrifying. *There’s an interesting smell of Earth from the samples on display.*

Caught the Planetarium show at 7pm. No photos were allowed during the 20 minutes’ film. Some scenes were so intense as they panned fast, so I was a bit overwhelmed and had to look away or close my eyes because I was giddy. We’re not the kind to chase Northern Lights but they do look cool in the show. Went into a 100m cave which was so cool… literally COOL! It was -15 degrees Celsius inside.

One can feel the ice melting and we saw a clever reflection in one corner too. Some parts were narrow. There was a slab of ice in a corner which was in memory of Ok glacier that was “pronounced dead” and a reminder to people of the consequences of global warming. *I sat on a ice chair woo~ cold!*

There were interactive displays in the museum to help visitors understand the natural landscape and how global warming etc was affecting them. The spinning globe showed how the glaciers are predicted to be gone in 200 years’ time haiz.

We went up to the 360 degrees observatory deck at 8+pm and it was still bright and cloudy. Walked back at 8.45pm and saw a supermart near our hotel selling rotten shark meat too.