Iceland - Day 1 November 10, 2019

Having left JFK on Saturday night at around 730pm we flew to Keflavik, Iceland on Icelandair, the flight was really good, and the service was a lot better than the airlines in the states, the plane was a very well maintained and clean Boeing 767, leather seats and great entertainment options. The food was great as well. My wife was given a Gin an Tonic and has fallen head over heals in love with Icelandic Gin, so now we are on a mission to find this Gin and bring it home.

Upon arrival at Keflavik, we deplaned and entered the airport, WOW what a difference, we weren't pushed through the customs check the minute you walked in the door like in the states. Instead you were able to walk around a little bit, use the bathroom and get yourself something to drink. The customs check was painless, with the options of going through the EU Passport check (only for those from the EU!) or the other section for those of us that are not from the European Union. They local airport authorities had all of the lines opened and manned to look over our passports and push us through the lines.

Once through this process, we proceeded to get our baggage, BUT before you get to the luggage carousel you get to see this huge Duty Free Store!! Wow it's huge. Didn't get anything in there, although I thought about it. Went over to the luggage carousel and proceeded to wait to get our baggage. It took a few minutes but then we proceeded to load up the cart and head out towards the exit, seeing as we had nothing to declare in our bags we walked through in a few seconds.

A couple of things here that people need to know, if you are renting a car in Keflavik and you are not getting them from Hertz, Avis and a few others, you will have to go outside and follow the signage pointing you towards a bus waiting area and wait for the local transport to pick you up and take you to all of the other Car Rental places, and boy let me tell you there is a ton of them. There is a total of 5 stops on the bus route, and we of course had to be the very last stop, as we rented from Alamo/ Enterprise/ National Car Rentals. The process is pretty simple and straight forward, keep in mind that you should book ahead to get the best deal and also pay attention to what you are renting, most of the vehicle's here in Iceland are Manual Transmission (Stick Shift), that's right you read that right. You can get an automatic transmission at an additional fee, but hey I like driving stick, and the plus side for me is that if my wife gets mad at me she can't drive it (she never learned how to drive stick). On a funny note someone that rented a car just before us came into the rental place and said, hey I can't drive stick. I had to laugh at this poor soul, but realized at how young he was, and just shook my head.

Anyway back to the car rental, be prepared for the unexpected.. Iceland is a beautiful country, but they do have a lot of off road stuff and issue with volcano's and such, so if you don't want to have to pay to get their car fixed pay the extra fee for the insurance, it'll save you in the long run. The cost is about $40.00 per day or so. Check with them when you get the car. Also make sure you get a vehicle that is a 4x4, this was recommended (highly recommended) by an author of a book I read on Photographing Iceland, his name is Martin Schultz (the book is called ironically Photographing Iceland) you can get it on your Amazon Kindle.

Before leaving the car rental place the young lady and gentleman that were working there told us about this nasty storm that was coming in and that it was going to last the entire day and get worse as the day wore on, they recommended not being on the roads if possible. Wait a sec, I'm from Chicago, Illinois and Oxnard, California and I was in the Marine Corps, I can drive in anything. Right!

Okay moving on, now we got the car a nice little Nissan Qasahai we are loaded up and ready to go right? Well kinda, gotta pull out our phone to use the GPS to figure out how to get to the Blue Lagoon Resort which apparently is only 15 minutes away from the Keflavik airport. Okay got the directions up and now we are ready to move. Here WE go. (Note: make sure you pull up the correct information for where you are going, the directions we pulled up was for the Blue Lagoon Office in Reykjavik not the actual place, but after reading information from their website, it said follow the signs on the road that said Blue Lagoon to get there, that made it pretty easy)

Driving in Iceland is pretty much no different than driving in the States, the people here drive on the same side of the road, oh wait, traffic circles!! Where the hell did these come from, they don't teach us about these in Driver's Ed in school.. Oh crap we're going to die. So we get on the road and follow the directions of our GPS (aka Google Maps) and the directions from the Blue Lagoon Website. We arrive in the location around 0730am local time, its dark as hell outside still (sunrise apparently is until a little later in the morning), well what do we do now, place doesn't open until 0800am and its windy as hell and it's raining, the wife says she's hungry. Yeah getting some chow isn't a bad plan, so head back over towards the main road where we passed signage for a local Hotel and Restaurant. The Hotel is called the Northern Light Inn and the Restaurant inside is called Max's Restaurant.

We walked inside the hotel without getting blown over by the wind and found the restaurant, for $20.00 per person you got an okay Continental Breakfast, it wasn't very much to be honest with you but we were hungry and didn't really care. During this meal, my wife looks at me and says, I'm tired and just want to sleep can we not go to the Blue Lagoon this morning and try again later in the week. Of course me being me, said let's see if we can change our reservation, thinking in the back of my head there's not a chance we can get this changed.

Now for those of you who want to go to the Blue Lagoon, be prepared to pay at least $95.00 per person for the basic entrance fee for getting into this place. The price goes up as you try too book for other package deals, some include food, some include massages etc... But pay close attention to the information provide via the Blue Lagoon web site (https://www.bluelagoon.com/).

We arrive at the Blue Lagoon resort and the wind is blowing (did I already mention that? LOL) we get out of the car and start to walk up to an area, well the first building area you come to, is where you can store your baggage if you are just getting in and haven't checked into hotels and such, so if you go off to the right a little bit you will see a dimly lit path you walk on to get to the main entrance of the complex and access to the Blue Lagoon Itself. Once inside you will be placed into the appropriate lines based on the package you purchased, and most of us picking the least expensive option, end up cueing up in the cheap seats.. Once we are at the counter to check in, my wife does one hell of a job pleading her case of not being able to use the reservation today and asks if we can change it. OF COURSE you can, just call our main office at 0900am and they'll take care of you... OUTSTANDING NEWS.

We leave the building and once again, walk the dimly lit path heading back to our vehicle and some warmth.

We get in the car and now we need to figure out how to get to Reykjavik and our hotel called CenterHotel Midgardur.

GPS UP!!! Okay programed and now we are off yet again.

As we head away from the Blue Lagoon and out to Reykjavik, the sky is still pitch black and it's pushing 0900am, where you at Sun? Oh yeah, it's raining... Dummy... We proceed back down the road and eventually end up on the Icelandic version of a freeway and push our way toward Reykjavik on route 41.

The drive isn't really all that bad, and you see a lot of civilization here and there, buildings, houses, apartment blocks, local grocery stores, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell; wait what the hell I'm home right? nope your not, but apparently they have KFC, Taco Bell, Subway, Domino's, Pizza Hut and Quiznos. NO there isn't a Starbucks on this island and thank god for that, as I will have to figure out a way to go there and get my wife her Starbucks cup to bring home and add to an ever growing collection.

Okay back to the drive, like I said, the drive isn't bad, just make sure you pay close attention to the directions and you'll be alright.

We finally arrive at our hotel for the next week the CenterHotel Midgardur just after 0900am (Note: Vehicle parking is on the backside of the hotel, there isn't much there so first come first serve. However you can park in the adjacent spots after certain hours until 0900am before you get a ticket. Per the hotel). Keep in mind that check in for the hotel isn't until 1400 (2pm), my wife and I are slightly more exhausted than what we were will to admit too, so we took a stab at checking in early. We talked with the desk clerk (Pedro) and he indicated that they had been full the night before and that he might have something shortly and to check back with him in about 30 to 45 minutes.

We found a place to sit tight and wait, it was in the bar area, which was open for breakfast, so cup of tea and hot chocolate it is.. We sat down at a table and ended up talking to a couple that were visiting from Pennsylvania. The told us about the local Music Festival that was ending that day, but also recommended that we go to a town on the South Coast called Vik. I looked up the information and saw that the town was about 100 miles away, an easy drive. Hmmm

My wife patiently waited out the 30 minutes before going back to the desk clerk and asking about a room. I glanced over the local version of the Ventura Reader to only see information about the local Music Festival and then stumble across an article about a new discount airline that is replace the now defunct WOW airline. FYI this one will be called "PLAY" and the planes will be painted all in red..

Well my wife comes back and tells me we got our room, and must complete the check in process, pretty painless honestly. Just be ready to give them your liver, first born and a copy of your passport. LOL. What's our room number? Five One Seven (517).. Okay here we go.

We grab our stuff from the car and bring it all into the hotel. Now between myself and my wife we both have a carry-on and a suitcase each. Cause I love my wife so much, I'm carrying my camera bag on my back, and hauling both suitcases and my wife has her carry-on. Trying to be a good husband here. We hit the elevator and press button five (5) for the fifth floor.

Ding! The Elevator door opens up and now we have to figure out a way to navigate to find our room. After several moments of the "No This Way" and the "Wait This Way" routine we finally come to our home from home for the next few days.

The room is your basic European hotel room, it has the modern art/ furniture you'd come to expect (IKEA!!!!) but nice. So it will work!! We even have a mini-fridge that is fully stocked.. Yeah don't do it. The prices for the stuff in the room is not worth it in my opinion. For Example:

Red Wine - 1,600kr = $12.82 (one bottle/ glass) and there are two of these in the room.

White Wine - 1,600kr = $12.82 (one bottle/ glass) and there are two of these in the room.

Beer - 950kr = $7.61 (per can) and there are two of these in the room.

Soft Drinks - 400kr = $3.21 (per can) and there are four of these in the room. Coco-Cola

Natural Water - 300kr = $2.40 (per bottle) and there are four of these in the room.

Chips - 600kr = $4.81 (per bag) and there is two of these in the room. Doritos.

Chocolate Candy Bars - 300kr - $2.40 (each) and there are two of these in the room.

Not exactly a cheap thing, but then again keep in mind that pretty much everything you find here in Iceland is imported just like Hawaii and so you are going to pay for it!!

So after looking over the room, time to take a shower and a couple hours of sleep, nope. Ended up sleeping for about seven (7) hours.

We finally wake up later in the early evening and after goofing around, decide "HEY, lets get some chow" (Chow = Food). We talked about the food here in the hotel but soon realize it's slightly pricey, so we look up on line local Pizza joints. And low and behold there is one that is just out side of the hotel. So we get bundled up and head out to what is known as the #3 pizza place in Reykjavik "DeVito's Pizza".

"DeVito's Pizza" is located on the back side of the hotel on the southwest corner. It's a small place and has high top tables along the wall and bar stools to sit one. Now the menu when you go in can be a little confusing, but the local's that work there are more than willing to help you out and make suggestions. My wife got a 12" vegetable pizza and a drink and I got a 12" beef, pepper and onion pizza with a drink, this will set you back about $45.00. They made the pizza's fresh and it wasn't too bad. While we ate, we got to see the local news and the Icelandic version of ESPN, where we saw highlights of the local Basketball games and the men's and woman's handball games. We also enjoyed seeing the influx of both local and tourist coming into get their pizza's. So if you are here in Reykjavik and close to "DeVito's Pizza" you should try it out.

Once we were done with our dinner, we proceeded back to the hotel and took our leftover pizza up to the room and decided to go back down to the bar to get a drink and just hang out.

Now happy hour here at the CenterHotel Midgardur starts at 1600 (4pm) and ends at 1800 (6pm) so we had just missed it, but none the less decided to have a pint and just talk. The Bartender was really great at making recommendations for drinks. I had a local Holiday Beer from Viking Brewing that was really good and my wife had a raspberry coffee drink that she really enjoyed. We took our time drinking these drinks and watched the number of tourist come through to have dinner in the restaurant, its fun to people watch as you can see who the good people are and the bad ones are as far as being respectful/ disrespectful to the locals and other guests.

After a respectful amount of time at the bar and three (3) pints of beer and two (2) raspberry drinks it was time to pay the bill, out the door it was about $50.00 for what we drank, I guess it could have been worse.

With the bill being paid and all, it was time to go back up to the room and try to go back to sleep.