We landed in Iceland on July 3rd around 3pm. We didn’t have the smoothest start because we could not find the car rental place. Once we did find our car, there was a light that came on. Turns out I just had the hand brake on (not my finest moment). After we had that minor issue solved we drove into Reykjavik to our apartment we will be staying in for the week. The apartment is very cute and we can see the ocean and mountains from our bedroom window. We all got situated in the apartment before we headed out for dinner.

We walked about 30 mins through the cute town to a diner called, Grillhusid. It is the oldest diner Reykjavik. We had some of the best burgers. We have found that everything here is super expensive, but we are on vacation so that is okay right? After dinner we explored the town a bit. We walked by the Harbor and to a beautiful Lutheran Church called, Hallgrimskirkja. After exploring for a bit we went home to relax, shower, and sleep. It is super strange because the sun does not set until midnight here and it rises at 3am. It’s a good thing our apartment has black-out curtains.

Today (Thursday) was our first full day in Iceland. While it was rainy today, I think we made the most of it. We slept in a bit before heading down to the Harbor to take some pictures in front of the mountains. Unfortunately, pictures do not capture the true beauty of the mountains and water. We then walked to a sculpture of a ship on the water called the Sun Voyager. The ship is supposed to represent hopes and dreams. We got our pictures just in time because it started to pour. We made the decision to get out of the rain and go grocery shopping. This turned out to be very overwhelming because most of the stuff in the store was not in English, so we had to use google translate to figure out what kind of cheese and meat we were buying. We walked our groceries back to the apartment where we made tacos for lunch. It was still raining pretty hard outside, so we used this time to plan our travel routes for the week. By this time the rain had slowed down so we walked back into town to do some souvenir shopping. Along the way we saw some amazing street art. After shopping, we went back to the apartment to plan the rest of our evening.

We decided to try a cute little restaurant on the University of Iceland campus. It was about a 35 minute walk so we stopped at the Lutheran Church again to go up to the top. We were told this had the best view of the city. This proved to be very true. It was so beautiful seeing the water, mountains, and the town below us. We then continued on our way to dinner. The restaurant was very laid back and cozy. They had a movie playing and students were sitting in booths studying. It was a very different environment than we are used to when it comes to restaurants, but it was really cool. After resting in the restaurant for a bit, we walked to the City Pond to explore the water and buildings over there. The homes along the water were so cute. There was a pretty green church on the water as well as some beautiful homes on the hill. It was such a good end to the day just walking around and exploring the town. Tomorrow is another busy day of driving and exploring Iceland and we can’t wait. -SYD & SAM