Reykjavik

We had a great start with our ride into Kennedy. Our driver was a real chatterbox and he loved to rail against all the illegals taking American jobs. Yikes! And then he almost talked himself through two missed turns, the second of which was a full on stomp on the brake and veer left into traffic causing many screeching horns. So we're lucky we arrived safely.

After the 5 hour flight, there was a long bus trip from the airport to Reykjavic – around 45-50 minutes. Our apartment is really nice and I like the city a lot. It's cold here and the sun hardly rises at this latitude but it has a real Scandinavian look and feel to it. Everybody is very nice and speaks English quite well and, true to form, everyone is quiet. Breakfast in the cafe was so quiet it was difficult to speak above a wisper without feeling like crazy loudmouths (which we can be). Nap time at noon as we to adjust to the time change a bit!

We walked around the city in the afternoon. There are beautiful, snow capped mountains in the distance. The wind was blowing and the harbor was choppy and bitterly cold. We discovered the concert hall. What a magnificent building! Took lots of photos there as the sun was setting. Beautiful! Then on to the tourist office where we booked the golden circle tour for later today. We'll get to see many of the natural wonders so I'm looking forward to that.

My first impression with Iceland and Reykjavik is that it is a beautifully clean city. The people are very friendly. Though Icelandic is the language everyone speaks English very well. And did I mention that they are very friendly here? They seem to really like everyone! There is clearly a low crime rate and the middle class seems strong. Everyone seems to be doing very well and they all seem quite happy to be here.

On the other hand, the darkness is weird. What with our jet lag and all it's really difficult to get a feel for the time. I can't tell if it's night, morning, afternoon, whatever. It's really confusing. It's 7:30 am as I write this but it's as dark out now as it was at 5pm yesterday. Even when the sun is out it seems to be rising or setting. There is no in between. This would really take some getting used to. Also seems that the Icelanders start their day late because of the darkness. What would be rush hour at home is very quiet here. In fact, it's always quiet here. I think that it's rude to raise your voice here because everyone is quite reserved when speaking. Never loud. It's really different but nice. Well, it's dark as can be but time to get up and start the day so here goes!

Oh, another thing - the water is really smelly; as in it stinks.  Bad.  Showering is actually an unpleasant experience as I hold my nose.  Honestly, the whole bathroom stinks after one takes a shower! This'll take some getting used to.