Ducking Through Scandinavia

By Tasneem- My friend Amelie and I were discussing our respective travel-bugs and our never-ending competition to visit at least one new country each year. When she suggested that we both travel somewhere, anywhere, together, I whimsically accepted the offer. The conversation went something like this...

"Hey, wanna go to Australia?"
"Yeah!"
[Several months pass]
"Ummmm, Australia is too far and too expensive to fly to. How about Iceland?"
"Yeah!"
[A few more weeks go by]
"Why don't we add Denmark too?"
"Yeah!"

And so, taking advantage of Iceland Air's offer to fly to a European city and – for no extra charge – to stop over in Iceland for three days, we took off from New York and traveled to the northern-most capital in the world and points east.

Day One: The Land of Puffins, Prices, and Popp Rokk

Having flown all night from sweltering New York, we arrived in nippy Reykjavik, Iceland, a.k.a. Break-ya-bank, Priceland. We staggered our way through customs, hit the ATM (Fun Fact: Iceland is one of the most expensive countries in the world, second only to Japan!), and threw our sleep-deprived bodies into the FlyBus shuttle from the Keflavik airport to the capital. We got our first views of the Icelandic landscape which was decidedly lunar with dark lava fields covered lightly in moss. After being dropped off in the heart of Old Reykjavik, we checked into the Salvation Army Guesthouse which was much more pleasant than we expected. Our new home was in a perfect location, just north of Tjörn lake (teeming with waterfowl and children) and west of the street Bankastræti (teeming with shops, cafés, and tourist information centers that employed chilly-demeanored personnel). We dropped off our luggage in our garret-room which was so tiny that you couldn't swing a puffin in there. I could stretch my arm and leg and touch the opposite walls. Trust me; I tried it.

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