It's been a funny old six months. After my last trip to Iceland back in Feb (blog still to be done...) the world has changed, and we've been living in an odd state of limbo, wondering how it would all turn out. Of course we don't know yet, as we're still in the middle of it.
In June regulations about travelling abroad from the UK were lifted for some countries, and at the same time Iceland began allowing visitors again. I had still hoped to visit Iceland for my usual September trip, but conversations with a couple of friends made me think it might be more sensible to go asap, while the window of opportunity was open (who knew what might happen over the next couple of months). And so in early July I booked my flights for the end of the month, knowing that the possibility of quarantine was there, but also excited by the prospect of visiting in the summer, when usually the crowds keep me away. I had to be flexible, so didn't lock myself in to accommodation bookings with no cancellation/changes allowed, and left the car rental booking until the last minute. The plan also involved taking my work laptop with me, in case I was quarantined, so at least I could work remotely from Reykjavík in that instance.
The journey to Reykjavík was certainly different from usual - not the post-work tube to Heathrow, fish and chips in the Heston Blumenthal restaurant at T2, arriving in darkness, picking up the car for the long, dark, usually-rainy drive to Álftanes in the early hours. Instead, all masked-up, a Bolt cab picked me up outside my flat at about 10am, followed by a fairly empty but efficient trip through Terminal 2, a sandwich bought in WH Smith to eat on the plane, a nice half-empty plane-ride with one guy two seats away (yay! no quarantine likely), the weird experience of having a cotton bud inserted way further than I thought it could go inside my nasal passage on arrival, a disappointing lack of beer at duty free, and a long wait for the bus into downtown Reykjavík, annoyed that everyone else on the bus thought it okay to remove their masks now. I arrived at the downtown bus station in beautiful afternoon sunshine and walked up past Hallgrímskirkja to my studio apartment for two nights, Alfred's Studios (which I'd managed to get a good deal on, having been told about the "tilboð" (offer) section on their website by a friend). The church, as always, looking stunning.
I was still required to keep away from people until I'd got a negative result, so I'd planned for two nights in the city, before picking up my car and heading off on my adventure. It made a change to have time in the city, as usually I stop for about an hour to pop into Orr to get some new silver, and Brauð & Co to pick up a cinnamon roll! Instead I had time to explore and enjoy the place. I had a nice long wander, first walking past beautiful Harpa - I just love the angles and patterns; the architectural design is just superb.
From there I continued along the main road towards the harbour area, which I hadn't explored before, passing some wonderful murals, and many building sites.
On the way back towards the centre I passed a striking church (Cathedral of Christ the King), before heading to get a hotdog for my supper (at the famous Bæjarins Betzu Pylsur (BBP) hotdog stand). I had two, with all the extras. Tasty, cheap, and easy to transact at a decent social distance!
I've only been to Iceland once in summer before, so it was a bit of a revelation to see people sitting outside cafés and restaurants and lying in parks, enjoying the sun. It also felt surprisingly normal, covid-19-wise, as they'd got very few cases (at that point) and few regulations were in place. It's such a pretty little city, and I love the mix of old and new architecture.
I got back to my apartment and had the wonderful surprise of a text message at around 9.20pm (6 hours after my test) telling me that I had a negative result on the Covid-19 test. I went into the app and got the same message. I'd had little doubt that I'd be negative, as I'd been extremely careful (have been all along) but there's always that creeping suspicion... To celebrate I headed out to Sólfar, a few minutes away down the hill, armed with camera to photograph the sculpture at sunset a little later on. It was a glorious evening, and the sky looked beautiful. I was surprised to see about 20 people there, many fishing, and the others were family members, with unsightly prams and bags everywhere! There were a few drunk young tourists too.
Fortunately a few metres east along the shore I noticed some birds flitting around in the golden hour light. I took a few photos before heading back to get the 100-400mm lens and my beanie - it was chilly! The birds were mainly arctic terns, fishing, and I soon remembered how painful I find bird photography - partly the pain of holding the heavy lens, but mostly because I really struggle to focus on moving birds which move around so quickly (need more practise, but that's not happening any time soon!). I took a lot of photos, and a good proportion had a little orange blur of a half-out-of-the-frame out-of-focus tern in the golden light! I managed a couple in focus, thankfully.
I popped back once more to change the long lens for a more manageable one, and came back to find a few clouds had attracted some wonderful dusk colours. As I still had to share the sculpture with the drunk tourists and fishermen I took a few detail shots instead of wider views.
And then to bed, utterly relieved that I'd made it to Reykjavík with no major dramas, and that I'd got a negative test result. The following day I had a full day to explore Reykjavík ahead of me, with another day of sunshine forecast. Yay, summer in Iceland!!
Click here for my blog from Day 2: Relaxing in Reykjavík
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