I have done soooooo much today!
This morning I got up at 6.30am and watched us smash Gold Coast. Fabulous start to the day!
Then I set off for lots of walking. My first stop was Hallgrímskirkja Church, named after a famous Icelandic poet who wrote the Passion Book which is Iceland's most famous hymn book. It was built from 1945-86 and has lots of columns on the outside representing volcanic rock, and there's a statue of the first European to discover America (Leifur Eiríksson) in front of it. The interior was really plain but that was nice, and the organ from 1992 was being played. I sat and listened for a while and then went up the top of the tower and enjoyed a nice view of the town. I spent ages looking at all the coloured buildings - it's a very quirky town! I unfortunately it was rainy and cloudy today but the view was still good.
I then walked down a few larger streets with cool shops and graffiti. Eventually I ended up in the old harbour area which has lots of shops and museums, some of which I'll go to on Tuesday.
My next stop was the Kolaportið Flea Market. Only on on weekends selling antiques and second hand items. Not much in that section, but I went to the good area and bought some Icelandic specialties - rúgbrauð (geothermally cooked bread) and brauðterta (sandwich cake - layers of bread and mayonnaise with seafood and salad). I had the latter as my lunch and it was yummmm!
Then I went into Harpa - Reykjavik's newest building and its convention centre/opera house. The glass panels on the outside are meant to represent aurora borealis (the northern lights) and I liked the mirrors and the patterns they made on the inside.
Went to the hostel and had a rest, then met Marleen and the two of us headed into town for a free walking tour! We learned so much about the city including some funny facts! We saw main squares, parliament buildings, the rocky village (oldest part of town) and lots more. Our guide Eric was brilliant - very knowledgable and we both agreed he wasn't bad to look at either haha. Really cool Icelandic accent and he liked to pick on me by saying that though Icelanders descend from violent horrible Vikings, at least they aren't convicts. He made up for it by giving me a soft drink to hold in what Icelanders call a 'beer glove' that they use to keep their hand warm while drinking a beer. I told him we were then even!
Here's some facts I picked up on the tour....
- Pre 2008 GFC Iceland was very prosperous and in a great position. Once the GFC hit, import prices shot through the roof and people here really struggled because everything is imported and they're so far from everything! But this was good for tourism as pre 2008 everything would've been double the price for us tourists!
- 17 June 1944 is the day Iceland became independent from Denmark. They don't like Denmark! I told Eric I was a double whammy - a convict and a Danish descendant. Haha. Beer was banned here until 1989 because it was seen as "too Danish" to drink it!
- The volcanic eruption in 2010 that halted air traffic for days on end was one of the best things to ever happen to Iceland - tourism has increased by 30% each year since.
- Icelandic has 17 vowels! 17!!!! Eric showed us a paper that had a sentence on it with four of the same letter in a row. A real sentence! Glad I don't have to learn Icelandic.
- Iceland has 3 miss world winners. There are roughly 150,000 women in Iceland so really every 50,000th woman here is a miss world winner!!
- A few years ago some ice broke off from Greenland with two polar bears on it. It floated to Iceland and melted and the polar bears swam ashore! Unfortunately they were shot :(
- Iceland is one of the most inclusive countries in the world. They had the first openly gay president and every year 60,000 locals (out of 330,000!) attend their gay pride march.
- Because there are so few people here people are often related but don't realise it. There's an app to check how closely related they are!
After the tour we went back to the flea market with two Canadian guys we met on the tour and then had soup in bread for dinner on the way home. Yum!!
Now we are about to head off and watch Eurovision. I am SO excited! I watch every year at home on delay already knowing who has won. Finally get to watch live in a country that loves it! GO GUY SEBASTIAN! I have my Aussie flag ready!!
Love to all
Claire
xoxox
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