Reykjavík
Iceland is pretty small when compared to the U.S. Of its approximately 300,000 citizens, something like 70% live in the city of Reykjavík. One of the coolest facts I learned during my research was this: Of all the magma that has surfaced on the planet in the last 500 years, ONE THIRD of it has emerged in Iceland. Awesome. But this page is about Reykjavík, not liquid hot magma.
Downtown Reykjavík, as seen from a big domed restaurant that slowly rotates. I read in the airline magazine that Reykjavík is on par with any modern European city, but since it’s the only European city I’ve visited, I can’t really offer an opinion on that. I did think it was quite nice.
We went out to this lighthouse late in the evening on our first night in Iceland. I was jet-lagged and disoriented, but this was still a pretty stunning scene.
I took this photo of the Reyjkavík shorline on my last day in Iceland. I had stopped at a bakery and gotten a little loaf of warm bread (yum) and sat on a bench enjoying the city’s commotion and calm. What you can’t tell from this photo, though, is that it’s rather cold and very windy, so after sitting on the bench and following the adventures of Ari and Ása for about 40 minutes, I had to go back to my tent at the youth hostel to thaw out.