reykjavik, iceland

maybe it's because it's spring, but iceland isn't really all that much ice. lots of rocks, though. and really nice people.

reykjavik was one of the places i memorized as a kid when trying to learn the world capitals so i could beat my mom at jeapordy. so actually being in the city is really cool. a lot more geophysical intrigue than toronto, which is relatively quite flat. there are glacier-like peaks and plateaus in the near horizon and the sea in between. the terrain is fairly hilly - kind of like a much smaller, more rugged version of san francisco. reykjavik has a very quaint feel, with brightly-coloured houses and roofs. weirdly, though, it has public bathrooms that look like something out of doctor who.

we got dropped off at the bus terminal and walked into the city centre. wandered around a bit and ended up venturing into this cute little café with an organic, 'free tibet' kind of feel. (the place is called Hljómalind and there is, in fact, a 'free tibet' poster up on the wall here) we had a coffee and an interesting (in a good way) hot chocolate that was flavoured with a touch of cinnamon. i ate some (most) of the whipped cream to save teresa from a stomach ache later.

after, we left in search of a place for lunch. we ended up walkting through most of the downtown area and realized two things: 1) the food here is quite pricey, and 2) we weren't quite sure what counts as authentic icelandic dishes. we asked the lady at the tourist info centre who confirmed (1) by point us to restaurants even more expensive than the ones we had already come across and clarified (2), apparently fish and lamb. we left the tourist centre no better than we had entered.

we finally just got tired of walking around and were also running out of time, since we had to catch the bus back to the airport. so we settled on this place called prikiđ (the 'đ' is pronounced like 'th' in english). it turned out to be a highlight of our trip as it was just the kind of place we both love - low key, packed with locals, great décor (textured wallpaper; indy, home-made art hanging on the walls - actually b&w photo portraits of staff and patrons that were really well shot) and, to top it off, they were playing jazz on the sound system. it's one of those hidden gem type places that's not pretentious and oozes character. it wasn't expensive (relatively speaking) and had some clever menu items. cas had a lambsteik and teresa had a 'party burger,' a wonderful creation that included blue, camembert and parmesan cheese and also some strawberry jam. "it was delish," says teresa.

on our walk back to the bus terminal, we ran into two cats! they were both black and one had white paws, prompting teresa to name it boots. we were actually able to pet it and snap some pics. it was really cute. unfortunately, our feline encounters caused us to miss our bus. but we got a chance to take a nap and still made it to the airport with time to spare. onward to london!