We flew in Sunday night, arriving early Monday morning. Reykjavik is at 64°N, so the sun didn't rise until about 930 while we were there. I didn't get much sleep on the plane, so I took a nap and headed out for a hot dog at noon. Iceland uses GMT, so it's the same time as London (+5 from EST).
Apparently this means "town's best" in Icelandic. The lamb hot dog was pretty tasty, with its mysterious brown sauce and crunchy bits
After an Icelandic Viking beer with some NJ colleagues, I wandered around Reykjavik to get a feel for the small city and take in the scenery. 2/3 of Iceland's population of 300,000 live in the city.
One of the highlights of the trip was the food and drink. I ate a lot of seafood while I was there. Cod, halibut, salmon, and some lobster soup were more of the traditional seafood, but I also had smoked puffin, minke whale, and a black seabird. I had opportunity to have reindeer (already had it in Alaska), foal (was gone before I got a chance to try), and fermented shark, but I passed on the shark. The colleagues who tried that one gave reviews of bad sushi and urine.
On Wednesday, after a morning of meetings, we drove about 40 mins south of the city to have an ATV adventure along the coast. We paired up on quads and drove around for about 2 hours. I opted to be passenger the entire time. I was having a blast on the back of the quad - we maxed out at 55 mph. It also gave me time to take in the alien landscape - no trees, all black lava rocks.
On the way back to the airport, we hit the Blue Lagoon, a thermal bath. The water is a really pretty blue color, heated by the outflow of the geothermal power plant - way cooler than it sounds.
I would very much like to get back to Iceland to see the rest of the country - glaciers, hiking, etc. I'm so glad I got an opportunity to see it - and seeing it in the winter wasn't bad at all.
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