Saturday, January 1, 2011

Oh hey there Reykjavik

We made it! Some technical delays gave us a reroute through Boston and upgrade to business class (Swanky executive lounges and reclining leather seats? Yes please!) After arriving around 7am, realizing that Reykjavik is actually over 30 miles away from the Keflavik airport, and some adventures in a bus depot and wrong hostel, we finally got to the Reykjavik City Hostel around 10:30 Iceland time. With a 6 hour time difference napping was just about the only thing on our minds. Waking up around 4 we explored the hostel and made friends with some interesting characters including a german/chilean named Lucas who loved American pop culture so much he had read Madonna's autobiography (Madonna has an autobiography... what?)

New years in Iceland was everything we expected an more. Fireworks began circa 11am and didn't stop until at least 1am with the main event at midnight. Everyone and their brother had fireworks (which are sold by the state here to support their emergency medical services that take care of people when they blow their fingers off with all of the fireworks they own) Most of the town was chilling around "bonfires", which in Iceland apparently means nothing smaller than a house or shorter than 25 ft high. We walked to a church up on a hill and watched Reykjavik explode in colored lights with some fellow adventurers we met from New Zealand and Chicago (small world)! The entire city went out to clubs (which open here around 1am) after the show and the festivities didn't stop until the wee hours of the morning. Today was a day for exploring Reykjavik and planning the rest of our adventures for the week which at this point includes renting horses tomorrow, exploring some geothermal pools, visiting Geysir (the original geyser), seeing Gulfoss Falls and taking a car out for a jaunt around the beautiful countryside of Iceland. Pictures of New Years and and adventures to follow but for now we have a Rose Bowl to win! On Wisconsin!

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