Iceland Day 1 - Information about Arriving and Reykjavik

I arrived at Keflavik airport early, around 8.30am, after a most uneventful flight on Delta.  Did not eat much plane food as the plane smelled like puke and the food smelled like... well plane food, but I did manage to get a yoghurt in the morning which tasted edible and smelled normal.  The airport has free wifi, and it was pretty easy to sign in by just providing your email address and place of residence.  Yay for hassle free!  The wait at immigration was short and there were no forms to be filled up.  The immigration officer seemed to ask everyone how long they were there for, stamp them and wave them through, and that was it.  Then I walked to find some shops to purchase a SIM card.  The walk was VERY long.  At first I went to the duty-free shop on the same level as the walkway and immigration, but was flagged to go downstairs to the duty-free shop there to get it instead.  Purchased Alterna, which was relatively cheap, about 2500ISKwhich is slightly less than USD$20.  I wanted a nano and a micro since I had a friend who needed one too, and then guy at the shop told me that this one with the "nano" sticker on it had all 3 sizes of SIM card inside, but this was not the case.  So folks, don't get tricked.  I had to walk 30 mins to the actual Alterna store in Reykjavik to switch this out.  :-(  Thankfully I had time today so it wasn't quite the biggest deal in the world.

I took the Flybus Plus which dropped me right outside my hotel.  The bus leaves after every flight, so you will always have a bus to take!  It has free wifi, and depending on which hotel one is staying at, one might need to switch to a smaller bus for the transfer, but it is relatively hassle free.  The whole ordeal took a little over an hour.  It really was a good experience but after the 2 plane rides, a 6+ hour layover, and my kid girl neighbour on the flight from New York to Reykjavik sticking her head and legs halfway into my tiny last row economy seat, it just seemed like unnecessary torture.  So just kidding, and I really do recommend FlyBus.

We chose to stay at CenterHotel Plaza for a  decent (and mind you, decent is all relative, especially in the summer) price and very central location.  It is on a plaza or square which is adjacent to the main shopping street, and also very close to the water.  The wifi network here is very good.  The bed is a bit soft and lumpy.  The shower is my biggest complaint so far - it is designed poorly and after my shower there was a giant pool of water on the bathroom floor.  But no real big complaints.  Breakfast is included, and is at 7-10am.  I'm a big breakfast person, so I'm excited to check it out, though trying not to be too excited.  I hope it is healthy, since my goal is to lose some weight in Iceland due to expensive and probably not-so-exciting-or-good food.  I do hope to be proven wrong, especially on the latter, but weight loss is always a good thing, right?  ;-)

My first meal today was at Sea Baron/Sægreifinn, which is famous for their lobster chowder.  I got that, and it came with a loaf of bread.  I thought it was just OK, the lobster meat was sweet but a bit mushy.  The ambience was nice and relaxed.  They had some fish and vegetable skewers, and whale meat which I wanted to try, but I thought I would wait for my friend the Hog who was arriving tonight.

The other "meal" I had was rice pudding.  Part of the "diet" and also because I've been a bit crazy about trying to find supermarket rice pudding since going to Sweden in April and finding Risifrutti rice pudding in the grocery store.  This one was 134ISK in one store, but I had to buy it at the expensive store closer to town because the store was closed by the time I woke up from my lazy ass nap and got my lazy ass over to the cheaper and further supermarket, it was closed.  I just keep telling myself, good exercise.  When I opened it, the consistency of the white stuff looked like yoghurt, but I fluffed it and it indeed had rice in it.  The choices of topping were caramel and some berry thing which I believe to be raspberry.  The topping was a bit too sweet and tart for me at the same time, so I ended up eating very little of it but I finished the rice pudding which was not bad but does not hold a candle to Risifrutti.  In case anyone is wondering, the diet did not go so well.  I ended up eating a small bag of (healthy) chips and a granola bar, but at least that's probably still healthier and a ton cheaper than eating out.  I'm saving the eating out for tomorrow anyway, and I have places on my list, so I am SUPER excited about that!

Other random sightings today.  MOTUS which is a nickname I recently acquired since I can't be POTUS but I'm bossy (M for Mushroom) and Lee which is my real last name, Iceland is really rooting for me.  Random band performing on the street.  Random people and random giants watching random band performing on the street.  Largest church in Iceland (but the bus driver made sure to tell us it was not THE cathedral of Reykjavik).  View of the water as I walked to the phone company - check out them blue skies.  Chuck Norris grill, isn't he famous in the US?  People painting colour blocks on the street, it's like going to the MOMA but with no entrance fee!