Our last day in Reykjavik was a long one. KMJ, JaSON, Frank and I started the day on a free bike tour of the city while Ambrose and his Mom went on a boat tour. The bike tour was pretty awesome. A couple started the business just this past July. They pick you up at your hotel, shuttle you to the bikes, take you to less travelled tourist destinations in Reykjavik and then shuttle you back to your hotel – all for free! Of course we pay what we feel appropriate at the end, but technically, it’s free. We enjoyed the tour and our guide very much learning why Reykjavik is named “Smokey Bay”, riding by Bjork’s black house and I really felt like we got a more intimate taste of what it’s like to live a life in Reykjavik.
After our bike tour, it was time for lunch and we hadn’t had hot dogs from Baejarins Beztu yet. In English, their name is “The best hot dog in town.” While I’m sure it is the best hot dog in town, I wasn’t a huge fan of the beef, pork and lamb dog. I ate it, of course, and the trip wasn’t a total loss as the woman who is famous for serving Bill Clinton served us too!
We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, checking out things we hadn’t yet (like Hallgrimskirkja, THE church everyone visits because of its unique architecture, but sadly was covered in scaffolding while we were there), shopping and relaxing in preparation for our big night of runtur.
Runtur. Where do I start? Well, at our apartment we started because it’s really expensive to drink (and eat) in Iceland. We had loaded up on beer from our new friends brewery, vodka and wine and pre-funked until our midnight departure to the bars. We were staying on Laugavegur Street, which is where ALL of the action is. It’s a long block, but we were determined to hit as many bars as possible. And we did. Twelve actually. With no covers, it was easy to pop in and out. If we liked it, we stayed, danced for awhile. If we didn’t like it, we left and went to the next one. I hadn’t been out dancing in forever so it was a lot of fun – I made it a point to dance on all of the boxes or stages we could find. The music was good. There were a lot of Ambrose music bars, some hip hop/old school (those were my favorites) and even one indie rock bar, which you NEVER (I mean in the form of a dance bar) see around here. You CAN dance to Kings of Leon and MGMT!
I have two favorite parts of the night. The first is the waffle truck we found at 4am. Most people go for the hot dogs – we got waffles! What a brilliant idea! So cheap and easy – the perfect post boogie, pre-hangover snack. While we waited, KMJ and I bonded with a few guys who watched the Bachelor – instant friends! They were two seasons behind us though so we couldn’t talk about the latest episode with them. We hit a couple more bars, then around 5am decided to call it good. The sun was coming up, after all. At the end of the night as people are headed home and things are winding down, everyone walks down the street with their beer. And when it’s gone, they throw and break their glass. After hearing this tradition, I started hording glass bottles and glasses to take with us and break…most of mine just bounced but I got a couple good ones in. I loved it because it was so peaceful. ANY city in the states that had people out breaking glass, usually leads to fights and drunk idiots doing stupid things. They just kind of tossed their glass and went about their business – it’s just what you do. Ambrose was sad that we weren’t there Saturday to do Runtur Round 2 because Saturday’s are supposedly even more off the hook. I decided there is no way in hell I could do that two nights in a row. There was just no way.
To beat our hangovers and lack of sleep, KMJ, JaSON and I hit the Blue Lagoon one more time on our way to the airport. This is not an uncommon thing to do as they have many accomodating shuttles. It was so refreshing and a great memory to leave Iceland with.
I am positive I slept less on our vacation than I would have if I was at home. The weird thing was, I never really felt super tired. With it being light out so long, it just felt natural to be awake and doing things which was great as it allowed us to see and do that much more. I wonder if people are tired all of the time in the winter when they only have four hours of day light? All in all we had a great trip. Had we had two weeks to explore, we would have seen the north coast too but I feel like we got a really good taste of Iceland. To see our “taste”, click HERE.
