Day 13 Eat The Menu

We have just a few hours before heading out to the airport, so we squeeze in just a little more walking. First stop: the Penis Museum. We did this one on our last trip, when it was in a far humbler space in Húsavík. Today, we're just hitting the gift shop to see what's new. Highly recommend The Final Member documentary if you cannot make it to this museum. Or even if you can. 

 One of the things we looked at yesterday was the Icelandic Punk Museum, but we make it today. The entire thing is set up in a public toilet, with exhibits in indivudual stalls and every surface. I've been to the Go Go Museum in DC, which is all digital displays and this is far better an experience. The most high tech thing here is headphones playing spcific albums on repeat. A fun, quick stop that has Bill excited to get his Sugar Cubes CDs out of storage. They also have a playlist on YouTube.

Close up of one of the earliest entries in the history captured in the museum.

Icelandic Punk Museum clearly in a bathroom

Our last real stop is a bakery where I get a cardamom bun and he gets one last coffee. This is in the same little complex of buildings as the restaurants we've eaten at both nights here. Solid grouping, would dine again.

 

Bill enjoying one last coffee.

The view from where we wait for the airport shuttle

Then we are off to the airport for a day of mostly sitting. There is a bit of excitement as we somehow forgot all about needing to clear customs and left the lounge later than we should have. The line was insanely long as apparently all the flights to North America leave in the same 30 minute window. It moved fast, and we made it easily after the initial stress. Sad bo be leaving so soon. We'll have to stay longer next time.

The Cruel End and Reflections (Day 13)

Today is dedicated to ending our vacation. Boo. 

Dawn secures us a late checkout so we have the hotel room until we need to catch the bus to the airport. The hotel for our stay in Reykjavik is pretty swank. The kind of place that is always playing some kind of pumping bass in the lobby. The hotel restaurant has a Michelin star and there is a secret speakeasy that I availed myself to the first night we were here. It's one of those places that makes you question if you're cool enough to stay here. Yeah, I guess we are. 

More importantly, our breakfast is included with our stay and they put on a pretty impressive breakfast buffet each morning. So after we eat we spend out last morning in Reykjavik walking around on a Sunday morning. 

Compared to the evening before the street are much calmer, but I'm surprised by how many stores are open before Noon on a Sunday. We decide to pop into a bakery/coffee shop that smells amazing from the street for a coffee and pastry. I have some kind of traditional Icelandic donut that is somewhere between a fried yeasted donut and a baked cake donut. While I don't have a point of reference to compare it to, I enjoy the texture and understand why it is a thing. 

We also manage to squeeze in the Icelandic Punk Museum which happens to be in an old public restroom.  Very cool.

The bus ride back to the airport is uneventful and now we're spending time in the Saga lounge as we wait for our flight back to DC. A couple of reflections from this trip. These are random and not in any particular order.  They are mostly drawn from our experiences in the Faroe Islands: 

1. Nordic doors are build different from American doors. When closed, are doors are completely surrounded by the doorframe, then use weather stripping for insulation and to keep water out. Nordic doors are build such that the outside face of the door is larger than the doorframe so there is an overlap all around the door that naturally keeps water out. 

2. The espresso I've had throughout the trip is better than the average espresso available in the US. I'm not surprised by this because Nordic countries drink a ton of coffee and espresso machines are very common. We saw them everywhere in the Faroes, and more importantly, the people using the machines seem to know how to use them. 

3. While driving in the Faroe Islands I don't think I ever saw a four lane road. Multiple lanes driving in the same direction just do not exist. I think I only saw stoplights in the two largest cities... and then like only one or two of them. Stop signs are also exceedingly rare. The whole country basically relies on the yield sign to determine who has right of way and assumes you'll work it out. 

4. Different from the US is the ample use of pullovers on single-tracked roads. If the road is only a single lane and you encounter someone coming the other way, one of you better find a pullover and figure out who is passing who. 

5. In the Faroes we saw a lot of candles... like a lot of candles burning. Even during the day it was not uncommon to see a lit candle in a cafe or a store. This seems to be inherited from the Danish culture and is intended to make the space more welcoming and calming. 

6. The national sport of the Faroes is rowing Faroese boats. Every evening in every harbor we were near there were teams of people practicing. Apparently the intra-island rowing competition during the summer is THE sporting event of the country. 

7. Building in the Faroese have some much more insulation than American buildings. The temperature was always in the 40's with high humidity, and yet, at no point did a room every feel chilly. The doors and windows are always preposterously thick to our American expectations. 

8. It is so refreshing to walk around a city at night where crime is practically non-existant and people are implicitly trusting. I spent more than one night walking around Torshavn and at no point was I every concerned about my safety and my being there didn't make other pedestrians wary. 

9. Pizza, Burgers and Shawarma.  It's interesting to see there is a kind of takeaway restaurant which is the stable restaurant of the Faroes.  And that is a restaurant that serves pizza, burgers and shawarma.  Many tiny villages have no restaurants at all, or maybe a cafe for tourist.  Once a town gets large enough to have a restaurant for locals, you can bet its a pizza, burgers and shawarma takeaway.

10. Backhoes!  While driving around the islands we have noticed a disproportionate number of backhoes.  They are everywhere in many different sizes.  We have joked many times that there should be a Faroese backhoe calendar.  While driving around I even devised a little ditty that I regaled Dawn with every time I spotted a backhoe. 

11. Traveling with the power squid.  When traveling internationally it's normal to bring a converter so you can plug your American electronics into foreign plugs.  But the different plug prongs are only half of the battle.  You also have to make sure the device your plugging in can handle the different volts and frequency.  This time around I brought a voltage converter that handled all of that so we could just plug our devices in a central unit.  It seemed to work well and was dubbed the power squid for obvious reasons.

 I have profoundly enjoyed my time in the Faroes and would gladly return to spend more time on these islands.

Day 12 Solitude

We only have one full day in Iceland, so we are just going to hang out in the city and see how it's changed since our last visit. My plan for the morning is a self guided tour of street art, and a walk to an art installation that forms a hill with a view back into the city. My phone's plan is "ha ha fuck you, I am no longer a cell phone" which was an interesting choice. I had wifi, but no cellular data so Bill had to figure out the tour on the spot as the only one of us with a working version of the internet. 

It was cold and windy and we were definitely walking through the pedestrian friendly portion of the harbor, not the back sides of warehouses with gates to keep cars out. We did find the hill, and the wind tried it's best to throw us into the harbor while we climbed the narrow stone pathway that was somehow full of small children even though no one else was around. 

It was a good view, but at some point, I just decided I was done being cold and having my plans thwarted so I went back to the hotel to troubleshoot my phone and take a tour of the hotel spa. The fucking phone had turned off my sim card for some reason. Once I was on wifi, this wasn't hard to diagnose. Well, once I was on wifi and had scrolled sufficiently to get past the idiotic AI answer to not my question. I hate technology and want to go back to paper maps. 

The spa was great, steam room, sauna, and a giant hot stone all in the same place and entirely to myself. I did the circuit a few times, then stepped out into their seating area to enjoy tea and snacks. Then did it all again. 

Now properly warmed up and relaxed, I met back up with Bill to wander the more pedestrian friendly part of the city and stick my head into whatever shops looked interesting. We found Orr, a jewelry store I'd gotten a cool necklace at last visit - their current selection isn't my style, but glad to see they are still around. 

This whole area feels like it has way more shops and cafes than we remember. I did not end up purchasing anything other than a belt from Reykjavik Raincoats (I am a small there for future reference). If I had the luggage space for a puzzle, something from Hjarta Reykjavikur would likely also have been purchase. 

Eventually, we wander into another bar, pretty much at random, and get some excellent cocktails and advise on other bars to hit. The bartender is very young, but has his shit together in terms of craft. The owner is apparently a UA grad as well. We also meet some tourists from Colorado who are at the tail end of their first visit to Iceland. 

This was followed by a trip to Jungle Bar, where the cocktails were good, but the bartender was so insistent on boring attractive women with his talk of fluid dynamics simulations that he didn't get around to chatting up the engineer and computer scientist who would actually have engaged on the topic. 

Next we stopped for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant and then it was time for me to laze about some more with a book in the hotel room. Five cocktails and a full belly apparently being some kind of hard limit for me. Here's my street art photos from throughout the day:

Reykjavik-a-go-go (Day 12)

Today is our day to explore Reykjavik. We were here 15 years ago, time to figure out how this town how changed. Our morning mission is to find a piece of land art that didn't exist last time we were here called the pufa. The hill is super obvious from our hotel, but as we walk towards it, it becomes ever more elusive. 

On the way we stop to take in some mural artwork. As we get closer, the environment becomes more and more industrial. There is not a giant hill, until we turn a corner and there is. We climb it, discover is wind dried fishy treats at the top and check our mental checklist. 

Afterwards we explore this part of Reykjavik that wasn't really a touristy portion of the city last time we were here. I can't say we were impressed. This is my best guess on how this played out. The weather in Iceland can be dicey. During the winter it's down-right punishing. What you need is some in-door tourist attractions that can amuse visiting families. Let's install those in our warehouse district. We can have a lava show, a volcano show, a northern light show, a virtual fly over of the island. These are obviously not attractions aimed at us. I kind of find it borderline offensive to fly all the way to an island and then sit in a theater and what a virtual representation of the island. Like, why did you even come here in the first place!?! But, again I feel these attractions are not aimed at me. 

After our morning stroll, Dawn retires to the hotel to take advantage of the spa facilities while I strike out to take advantage of Reykjavik's coffee shops. A couple of hours later we join up and do a bit of window shopping along Reykjavik's pedestrian shopping corridor. Ah, this is more like the Reykjavik I remember. Sure, there are more souvenir shops than I remember, but there are also some interesting Nordic design shops to visit. 

As the afternoon turns into the late afternoon it's time to turn our attention to cocktails. One of the things that has definately changed about Reykjavik is it's cocktail culture. Before cocktails were rare and now there are many-many options. We stop by a random local bar (Einstok) that is advertising happy hours and order a couple of drinks. The bartender turns out to be pretty cool and we asking him about other cocktail options. He points us to Jungle Bar (which was already on my list) and Vedur. 

After Einstok we hunt down an Icelandic hotdog. Their hotdogs are made with lamb and superior to US hotdogs, we are not disappointed. Then we go to Jungle Bar and have a delightful set of cocktails. 

After that we try out a vegetarian restaurant called Mama Reykjavik that had a promising menu. Man, this place smells amazing. The food is good too. I get a West African peanut curry and am very pleased. 

After dinner, Dawn retires to the hotel to read while I make my way to Vedur, where I have another delightful round of cocktails and chat up the local bartenders about working in the industry. As they start to get busy I bow out and make my way back to the room. We've been lucky to have great weather while we're in Iceland. During our layover to the Faroe Island we stopped here for a few hours and it was downright cold. Today the sun has been out and walking around town has been a joy. 

Reykjavik, you've changed, but you're still alright. Thanks for a delightful day.

Day 11 The Long Drive

I woke up stupid early today and enjoyed one last long stretching routine with the harbor view. This morning, we leave Klaksvik and the Faroe Islands, but first we'll do a bit of sight seeing on Vagar, the island we started on. 

We head for Gasadalur for yet more waterfall viewing, and this is the longest drive we've done, taking slightly more than an hour and a half. Google Maps helpfully offers to save us 3 minutes by rerouting us through a ~$50 toll tunnel, but I add a few stops to the route to force the software to actually use the fucking route I fucking selected. We walk out to a scenic view: 

Puffin Island off the coast

We then take a longer walk back that loops through the village before getting back in the car. 

The Drangarnir that's on basically every brochure for the country is off this island. Getting to it involves both boating and hiking so we gave it no serious consideration. Turns out it's visible from the road we're on, so we stop a few times to get different vantage points before hitting a gas station and turning in the rental car. 

In the rental car parking lot, a very helpful man that we hope actually works for Enterprise checks us in (we got the email receipt about 30 minutes later) and then we are all set to hang out in the tiny airport with all the hotdogs and coffee one could want. We are headed to Reykjvik next, which is also hotdog & coffee country, but I apparently could not wait a few hours. Faroes hotdogs are twice as long as the buns, which are hollowed in the middle, forming a pocket that's only open at one end. Sauce gets sprayed in the hole, then the dog goes in, leaving you with a hand held that isn't trying to fall out the entire time you eat it. 

An uneventful flight later, we were in Iceland, headed for the city via Fly Bus. We're staying at a fancy hotel right on the harbor, so the water views from our windows continue. Between credit card rewards and hotel offers, we have a decent amount of credit to spend on food and drinks at the hotel, so we take the opportunity to get cocktails from the restaurant and ask the bartender for recommendations. We walked around the city a bit, finding the cocktail bar he recommended, Tipsy, which had a DJ and happy hour specials. Bill may have thrown his first cocktail all over both of us, but aside from that, great stop. 

We found the recommended restaurant, but the menu heavily featured cream cheese, so we kept looking, soon happening upon Torfan, which had some great options, including reindeer carpaccio and roasted lamb. I was pretty tired at this point, so I went to bed while Bill checked out the secret bar in the hotel.

Last Morning in the Faroes (Day 11)

Sadly, our time in the Faroes is drawing to a close and today we need to catch a plane to Reykjavik. We're laying over in Iceland for nearly two days to get a chance to visit the city on the backend of this trip. It will be interesting to see how the city has changed since we visited Reykjavik some 15 years ago. 

Even though Klaksvik is in the north-east part of the Faroes and the airport in Sorvagur is in the west part of the islands, the drive is still barely more than an hour. On our way across the islands we're trying to drink in the stunning scenery one last time. 

Since our flight isn't until 2:00 we also have a bit of time to do some sight seeing on Valgar. One of the "must do" sights is a waterfall called Mulafossur in the village of Gasadalur. As promised, the waterfull is amazing and looks like something that would be created for a fantasy village in a movie or video game. 

From Gasadalur we're also able to see one of the Faroe Islands that we're not going to get to visit: Mykines. As far as I can tell this island is synonymous with puffins. The island is basically a big bird sanctuary. It can only be reached by boat and they control how many people can visit the island and require that a guide chaperones you while you're out there. While I'm sure seeing puffins would be cool, there just wasn't time to fit it into this trip. On the way back we hunt for a pullover to try and photograph another popular site of Vagar island, the Drangarnir sea arch.When doing research for our trip we found boat tours offering to take you out to the sea arch and to strategic scenic view points around the sea arch. 

Even from the road this is still a cool site. I bet it is truly impressive as you get closer to it. Lastly, before we head to the airport, we fill up the rental car. After figuring out how the island's gas stations work earlier in the trip this goes smoothly. As does dropping the car off at the airport. 

One intriguing thing is checking your bag for your flight is completely automated at the airport. You can scan your boarding pass to print your luggage tag. Then you put your bag on a conveyor belt and scan the luggage tag and away it goes. No waiting on a person. Which is neat, but as Dawn later noted we were able to get on our plane to Iceland without a single person checking our ID's. As long as you have a valid boarding pass you can scan yourself through the flying process. 

The flight to Iceland is fast and smooth clocking in at an hour and forty minutes. Once we reclaim our bags we need to navigate the bus system to get from the international airport, which is 45 minutes outside of Reykjavik to the city central. Fortunately Dawn has bought us tickets and done the research so I get to mostly follow her around and zone out on buses. The only hiccup is that Dawn's duffle bag was damaged on the flight to Iceland and it's handle will no longer extended... which makes rolling it to the bus and from the bus stop to the hotel a bit of an ordeal. 

Once we get checked into our hotel room I'm able to dissemble the handle enough to get it functional again. Our hotel room as view of the harbor, so we're three-for-three for harbor view on this vacation. This view is probably the least impressive of the set, but I'm glad to know our vacation habit of waking up and winding down with the sea will continue. 

After catching our breath we head down to the hotel lobby and grab a cocktail at the bar. The hotel has giving us a daily credit because we booked with Chase and the lady who checked us in advised that the credit will expire each night, so should find a way to take advantage of it while we can. After our welcome to Iceland cocktail we head out to the streets of Reykjavik. Go to Tipsy bar, where I promptly spill half my drink over Dawn and myself when the bottom of my Nick and Nora glass catches my cellphone. 

For dinner we ultimately settled on Torfan Veitingahus for Nordic cuisine. We got cod tongue and reindeer starters. Dawn got the lamb and I got the fish of the day and both were great. I can't tell if it is my imagination or not, but the city feels like it is buzzing more than last time we were here. Maybe it's the part of town we're in or maybe the city has evolved in the last 15 years.

After Dawn decides to turn in for the evening I sneak down to the hotels speakeasy turned members club.  Access to this bar is included in our stay.  I have to scan my hotel card to make a door open.  I'm rewarded with a bar playing jazz music and a only a single other couple visiting.  After awhile they leave and I have the bar to myself. The bartender is attentive and talkative.  The vibe is very agreeable and I'm at home in a wonderful experience. 

Day 10 It’s Pronounced Teatime

This morning, we didn't set an alarm, but still got up early and went to the hiking trail just above town. The road was of questionable repair, so we parked about a km before the trailhead and just walked a bit further. This trail is far steeper than anything we've done so far, but the views are amazing. 

We managed to get there and back again without getting covered in mud as well. We then walked to a different bakery, which turned out to not actually be open, but pointed us to the grocery store selling their goods. The items at the grocery store looked good but were far to large a portion for use on this, the last full day here. So we walked back to the bakery we've visited previously and got entirely different pastries to take back and relax with coffee and rye bread at the apartment. 

I didn't get any pictures, but the bird watching from our apartment has been pretty great. We've seen several of the ones from the sign we saw in Torshavn. As the tide comes in and out, the come pick at whatever is left on the shore. 

Our next stop is the liquor store, but this time to return bottles. There is a fun machine you feed bottles and cans to with a conveyor belt that automatically sorts and calculates a payment for returning each. Then it shoots out a receipt to take into the store so they can credit your card. Far more fun than I expected from recycling. 

We also hit a different bakery that opened at 1PM and Bill tried on some clothes at a shop full of Danish brands. Our only structured plan for the day was afternoon tea. I'd seen a brochure for this place at the cafe and it sounded like fun. 

The location is a replica of a house built by national hero, Nólsoyar Páll, and named after his wife, Marin Malenu, a Klaksvik woman who got much of the northern island population vaccinated against small pox. The woman running the place also owns the cafe, which is named after Nólsoyar's smuggling ship, which he used to defy Danish officials by bringing Faroes goods to other markets. His entire story is wild, he brought a case to court in England against an Englishman who sank his boat, arguing that just because Denmark was occupied by France, that did not mean the Faroe Islands were allied with the French. He won, got a new ship, and then was lost at sea, likely to a battle with a Norwegian privateer hired by corrupt officials from Torshavn. 

We also got to hear about local building developments, a cooking school, some history from the brewery/distillery in town (and a bad idea of moving it from the waterfront to make room for hotel parking - the town was build around the brewery, why would you then make it move). And also try lamb several different ways, fermented, roasted, as sausage, and testicles. All in all, quite a good stop. 

After that, we went to a local wool spinning club that claimed to have events every Thursday night, but was closed. Instead, we hit the local pub. I asked for a cocktail menu and the bartender assured me that she could make me anything I wanted. I immediately called her bluff, asking for something with aquavit, a nonstarter. Instead we just ordered shots, trying more of the Einar's spirits, including their quite lovely peated whiskey - Islay on the nose with an almost caramel finish. This was the last full day here. Sadly I feel like we're just getting into vacation mode. I guess next time we'll have to take a whole month!