July 14, 2017

Reykjavík layover

I’m spending 18 hours in Iceland. I took a shuttle from the airport to downtown Reykjavik. Mordor meets USSR vibes. I had my symbolic $5 banana at the airport but couldn’t resolve to try the silly (disgusting) touristy stuff like the fermented shark. The cathedral is cool, I guess. The glassy opera building too. But dang, that a lot of aging concrete and very few trees. The vestiges of the brutality of winter are everywhere. A decent amount of bird poop and moss decorates the concrete edges and cracks. No litter or graffiti, it’s clean. The quiet is also very pleasant. The bustle of downtown San Francisco is gross and loud. The scale and pace of the city felt human. I could literally see the country from the edge of the city.

I can see how such a place creates brilliant art but crushes most regular souls. It’s summer right now. The sun is still up a 11pm. I never experienced this before and I can only imagine how disruptive it is. I walked almost the whole city in 4hours. The weather was nice. The air was crisp. I tried to sleep in the terminal but free WiFi didn’t allow me to. Everyone on my flight planned to go to the blue lagoon, the attraction. I entertained the idea for a moment, lying to myself. I’d never even consider spending $200 for a pool experience if it wasn’t so hyped up, especially on instagram. I preferred to walk the city and get a few photos.

Realistically I won’t come back anytime soon. I’m here because the Wow air flight are super cheap ($500 for SFO - LYS). I’ll probably fantasize about moving this very photogenic and lonely island (is there such a thing as an ugly island?).

---

This post was fished from my email draft almost a decade later