Iceland Part IV

Friday, November 27, 2015

It snowed in earnest as I slept Thursday night and Friday morning. I woke up to a Winter Wonderland. It was beautiful. It wasn’t all brown and muddy as it gets in NYC or even in the suburbs of Connecticut. It appeared they didn’t even plow the streets around me, people just go over the snow with their bad ass snow tires.

There is apparently a beach that has sand from the Atlantic right in Reykjavik. I decided to try to find it. It was an hour and a quarter walk, but again, walking does the body good. So I layered up with my wicking layers and was on my way.

Now mind you, I probably would not be able to see this Atlantic sand due to the snow that had fallen, but I thought it deserved a look at anyway. Well, after trudging through the snow (Thank goodness for my  boots!), I successfully came to….

a condo complex.

For the first time in a long as I can remember my Google Maps app for Android had failed me. I wasn’t upset however. I saw parts of Reykjavik that I would have never seen otherwise. So what did I do? I turned around and headed back home this time taking a longer route that would take me by the harbor as the entire sky was clear blue above me and I thought it would be a beautiful walk. And it was.

I came home and rested for a bit. I was going to head back out in a little while and got myself re-layered up but when I stepped outside the sky had clouded over and the snow was once again falling. I was bummed thinking my Northern Lights tour was probably going to be cancelled again.

I went to the kitchen to make a bite to eat and met an American, a New Yorker. We hit it off right away. A couple of the people he met came around and we all chatted and had a couple beers. This is one of the big plus points to staying in hostels (especially for solo travelers). You get to meet so many more people than you would if you stayed at a hotel. We all agreed to head out that night to check out a weekend night in Reykjavik.

I popped by to see if my Northern Lights tour was happening or not, and to my surprise is was. I told the guys I’d meet them out after and got myself ready to head out to finally try seeing those elusive Northern Lights.

We drove 45 minutes east and all piled out of the bus. The sky was overcast and clouded. We stayed there for about 45 minutes before they had us all get back onto the bus and we drove an additional 45 minutes east. We all got out once again, but all I saw was one of the geysirs that was nearby (I’m honestly not sure which one we were near.).

I was disappointed, but when I saw the weather that night I wasn’t expecting it to go in my favor. The worst part however was now having to drive about an hour and a half west back to Reykjavik and it had already started snowing again, so it was a slow go back. But on a plus note Gray Line allows you to re-sign up at no charge to take the tour again and again if you had an unsuccessful time out. You’re reservation is good for up to 2 years and you can go as many times over that two year period until either you’ve seen them or your two years is up. It’s a smart business model. It brings repeat tourism to the country as the Northern Lights are on a lot of people’s bucketlist and are tricky to see.

By the time I got back to my room it was about a quarter to 2 in the morning. On Fridays and Saturdays last call however is at 4:30 in the morning. I got in touch with the girl I met at Boston Bar that other night as she had gone on a different Northern Lights tour that evening. We agreed to meet at 2:30 in the morning at The English Pub. I tried reaching out to the New Yorker but hadn’t heard back.

Upon arrival I saw how packed it was. I knew I’d never find her if I got too deep in so I stayed near the doorway. A few minutes later I ran into the New Yorker and one of the other guys. They were going next door to American Bar and asked me to join. I dropped a quick note (Thanks WhatsApp?) to the girl I was to meet and went with the guys. (Side note: One of my favorite things about traveling alone is that you aren’t bound to other people’s wishes. If she had really wanted to go to The English Pub than she could have we there would be no hard feelings on either side as we were both solo travelers and have no commitment to one another as far as making compromises goes.) She came over not too long after and we ended up getting a few other people from the hostel myself and the boys were staying at joining our group. And this is when the bar hopping began.

American Bar was packed to the gills. You could not move. People were very pushy there and in every other bar afterwards. There was no saying excuse me it was just someone putting their hands on me and literally physically moving me out of their way like they were pushing a curtain aside to step out of a shower. It was rather annoying. At American Bar it was mainly all American Top 40 music. There seemed to be a lot of tourists and then locals who wanted a chance to pick up tourists.

Some amazing bartenders from Kaffibarinn had made me a list of where to go and when. So I consulted the list and we made our way to Húrra. Húrra was packed as well, had EDM music, and everyone looked like they were rolling face. The stage had mostly men dancing on it and the DJ booth was also on one side of the stage. In America if you aren’t a chick (and a good looking one at that) you probably aren’t going to be allowed up on the stage. This was not America. Myself, and the rest of my group (total 2 girls, 4 guys) jumped right up on there. I don’t necessarily like EDM but I felt like letting loose and moving. And I was on holiday, I won’t see these people again, and if I do run into them before I leave for home, they were all on something so they probably wouldn’t even remember. So I danced. I danced it all out. But remember what I said about people pushing? Well the people rolling face did this as well, only being on a stage it seems like it could be a bit more dangerous. Moral of the story kids? Please, if you ever go, and you’re drunk (or rolling face), don’t stand near the edge. Safety first people!

The rest of the group bailed but my girl (it was her last night in town) and I continued on. We stopped by Paloma. It was not our scene. It wasn’t too crowded and the music was not appealing (my mind is blanking as to what it was) for dancing. So we quickly moved on.

We ended up back at American Bar, then The English Pub, and finally  Hressó Hressingarskálinn in time for closing. When bars stay open until 4:45 AM people tend to not be in the best of shape after 2 AM. Ted Mosby said it, nothing good happens after 2 AM. Through the night the two best things to prove this point were when we saw a guy try to fight a security guard, a security guard from the bar next door came over to help with restraining the guy, when that wasn’t enough one of the guys from one of the bars from across the street also came over. The police were then called while the guy laid face down on the sidewalk being re-strained by the security guys. The second was when we saw a girl get carried out of a bar she tried to bite the security guy. Once she got put outside the bar she went to run a way but tripped and face planted into the snowy street. She got up rather quickly and ran across the street into the 24/7 market. Her entire face was probably bruised and purple in the morning.

I myself was sober and I walked myself the 4 minutes back home, set an alarm for noon as I had to meet a friend at 13:00, and crawled into bed just before 6 AM. I successfully made it through 1 night in downtown Reykjavik!