Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice

With Eurovision now over, it was time to move onto our next destination. We packed up our stuff and headed to the Copenhagen airport to catch a 12:40pm flight to Reykjavik. And in customary fashion, as we went through security, my carry-on bag was quarantined for inspection. “Dansk, English?”, said the security guy. And when it was clear that Danish wasn’t my first (or even second or third) language, he followed up with “You seemed to have forgotten to remove liquids from your bag”. That’s strange, I’m almost 100% sure that I’d removed anything that might cause a problem. The aim had been for a seamless security check. But this really wasn’t to be. He proceeded to take everything out of my bag, providing commentary along the way. “You’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth, hey” as he opened the bag of chocolates and lollies. With everything strewn across the counter, he came to the conclusion that there was nothing untoward. “Best you pack this yourself” was his departing remarks. Thanks for that!

I went about shoving my stuff back in my bag and then realised I still had another tray of crap to collect. The Lost World instantly hit me in the face. But it wasn’t until I boarded and took my seat that I realised I had lost my special pen for my e-notebook. Add that to the list, along with a few other less significant items.

We were flying budget airline Play, the national carrier of Iceland, and for some reason their computer system didn’t seat accompanying travellers together. Jason was seated against the window in the row in front of me. A girl approached me and asked if I wanted to swap seats so she could sit with her friend. “Sure, no problem”. So I moved to the back of the plane and took what I thought was her seat. I got all the things I needed for the flight and got comfortable, only to find out it was the wrong seat. Maybe she said 46F. So I moved a couple of rows down. But the musical chairs didn’t end there, the music hadn’t yet stopped. Nope, still wrong seat. After reconfirming the correct seat, I was ready for take off, wedged against the window and a big Icelandic man. Oh well, at least it’s only a three-hour flight.

We arrived in Reykjavik around two in the afternoon to a barmy four degrees; and that is in late spring. Because we weren’t seated together and I was at the back of the plane, I was one of the last people off the plane, and Jason was waiting for me at the gate. Immediately, I could tell by the look on his face that he didn’t seem impressed. As we flew into Iceland, we got a great view of the country. The volcanic landscape was clearly visible. And there clearly wasn’t a big metropolis with skyscrapers.

There aren't any rideshare companies in Iceland, and taxis, similar to most countries, are ridiculously expensive or try to rip you off. Luckily, we had planned ahead and had booked the airport bus (which was still not chicken feed).

The trip from Keflavik airport to Reykjavik city centre was about a fifty-minute bus ride through the wide-open spaces of Iceland. We got dropped off at the BSI transport centre and then transported by a smaller shuttle bus. The only problem was the drop-off point was about 800 metres at the bottom of a steady incline.

We traversed the hill with luggage and bags in hand and eventually made it to our destination, Reykjavik Apartments4U. It was a self check-in process with a pin code to enter. But where was the keypad to enter the pin code? Turns out that the keypad was electronic and we needed to touch the door but that wasn’t really clear from the instructions.

One of the first things we did was go to the local supermarket, Konan, to get provisions for the next four days. If we thought the prices of food in Scandinavia was expensive, this was on another level. AU$90 get you a soup and a couple of lamb cutlets, or AU$42 will get you fish and chips.

Later, I went out to explore Reykjavik and on my return locked myself out of the apartment. Three incorrect pin codes and the door locks itself. Unauthorised access, unauthorised access, unauthorised access!!! Luckily, Jason was rugged up inside and was able to open the door. Otherwise I’m not sure how long I would have survived before frost bite would have set in 😂. For some reason, working out how to get into a building seemed more difficult than it should be!Read more