I was awe as we landed at 6:30 AM in Kef. International Airport. Iceland is completely different then Canada. For starters there are absolutely no trees.I was expecting some shrubs and quite lot of undergrowth, but it quite literally a cold desert made out of rocks and moss. Also it’s not cold cold. It’s more of a windy cold.
After we got our car from some friendly lads from autocarrental.is we made our way to Iceland’s capital city Reykjavik. Our first stop was the convention center, which I honestly thought was some modern art building.
It wasn’t just the outside that tricked me. Check out the inside too. The wind in Iceland caught me a little off guard. It’s pretty windy in the open areas and if the ground is covered in ice you better be ready for quite the ride. Reykjavik reminds me alot of other European cities. The downtown core and shopping district definitely reminded me of Paris, France. Cobblestone roads and paths with windy little streets similar to Budapest. There is no real grid system for the streets so you really have to pay attention.
We managed to eat at a couple of places downtown. First we stopped at a quaint bakery were I picked up a sandwich and Yve got a danish pastry. I think I got the better one of the two but she thinks otherwise.
Yve was still hungry so we went to a well know hotdog stand. To be honest, I was quite full and couldn’t really eat the hotdog or get into it much but Yve ate two. She was quite disappointed and now will wait for me to order them on the road. Should be noted that hotdogs in Iceland are made from lamb and goat.
For dinner we ate at a Thai restaurant called Noodle Station. Quite popular and the food was quite tasty. We had chicken and beef noodle soup dishes. Noodle Station ranks one of the top Thai places in Reykjavik and it was pretty good in comparison to the hotdogs.
One of the last things we did today was take a spa date at the Blue Lagoon. We had vouchers for 8 PM and we would definitely recommend pre-ordering instead of walking in hoping they have room. I for one did not have high expectations but it was quite nice. Warm water between 20-35°C, free mud masks (so don’t bother upgrading your tickets) and some cool views with steam rolling off the water. I brought my waterproof camera in and the photos turned out so-so. I may post them later with some post production work.
We were pretty tired so I didn’t try and shoot any astro on our way back to the hotel. But I snapped this cool pic just outside of the parking lot of the blue lagoon. 
Day 2 we go to the Golden Circle.
-Dan
P.S. The title photo is a sunset off the coast of Iceland. Yve and I had a small detour on the way to the Blue Lagoon. Yup sunrise to sunset, but tbh it’s 2 AM and I’m now posting this.
YipYip 