Ah, Reykjavik. As Iceland’s capital and largest city by far, any visitor to the country will almost certainly pass through here, and will probably stay here. Since we only had a long weekend, we decided to base our visit in a single AirBnB for 3 nights and do daily driving trips from it. Since our WOW Air flight arrived at around 2 p.m. and we didn’t settle in our AirBnB until 3:30, we decided to stick to the city on our first afternoon. We were about a mile from the downtown area, so we just walked there. One notable discovery on the way was the museum of, er… phalluses. Phalli? Anyway, the downtown area is pretty compact, and features just a couple of parallel streets that are lined with commercial shops and cafes. Despite it being a Friday afternoon, traffic was extremely light and there weren’t many groups walking around. I guess Iceland’s tourist season still hadn’t kicked off in earnest, even in late April. What struck us the most walking around though, were the prices being charged. Especially for food. A Subway footlong sandwich was $15, and it was hard to find anything at all under $10. 

On our way back was the famous Icelandic church of Hallgrimskirkja. It’s famous for its sloping, pillar-esque design. It evokes the country’s mountainous landscape and its volcanic hexagonal pillars of stone. It’s definitely the most picturesque structure in Reykjavik, compared to the drab, concrete buildings that line the suburbs. At certain times you can even venture inside and climb to the top of the church. But that option wasn’t available during our visit, so we settled for photos outside. 

To be honest, after this we went back to our AirBnB and napped for a couple hours due to jetlag. Even as early as April though, the daylight hours stretched pretty far and the sun didn’t set until past 10 p.m. This meant most restaurants were open until at least then, and it was no problem to find a restaurant at 7 p.m. when we got going again. Since it was our first day, we decided to go to a restaurant with some local Icelandic specialties. The three we ended up trying were, dried whale meat, fermented shark, and puffin steak. The fermented shark in particular carried an odor, but Joel and I didn’t mind that much. It was tough and chewy, and I can’t say it had much flavor. The whale was pretty unmemorable as well, and it was chewy without as much of the toughness. The puffin, however, was really delicious. It was like a mouth-watering rare steak. Unfortunately, we found upon returning to our AirBnB that puffin is actually an endangered species… sorry about that! The last highlight for me was some local Icelandic beer, a porter for me. It came fittingly branded in a Viking cup.

Because we were driving around the island during the day, it was only for breakfast and dinner mealtimes that we spent any more time in Reykjavik. One breakfast was at the downtown Dunkin’ Donuts, where we found that Icelandic flag donut. The other two were at a modern cafe and a Joe and the Juice, which served up fresh juices in addition to breakfast sandwiches. We really enjoyed our juices at Joe’s, but they were pricey like everything else. Unfortunately, that turned out to be one business where the prices were not inflated compared to other countries. 

Our next two dinners were a lot less good, however. Our first night’s Icelandic meal was great, but also more expensive than we were willing to do for the next couple days. For our second night, we found a hot dog cart that the Clintons had apparently been to, so we went there. It was barely above freezing and drizzling rain on our walk there, so we were already downcast when we arrived. But the hot dogs were cold, flavorless, and just overall miserable. We ended up going to a local market and buying pasta and sauce for that night and the next. Had we stayed for longer, that probably would’ve been the norm for us. 

So, what was our impression of Reykjavik? We wouldn’t recommend stopping for any longer than you absolutely have to here. Since most of the lodging options are here though, we’d recommend staying here if you’re going to stick to the southwest part of the island. It’s also going to be the best spot to pick up groceries and the breakfast options weren’t too expensive relative to everything else, so we found it a great spot to get started in the morning as well. That’s about all the endorsement we have for the Icelandic capital, though.