We arrived in Iceland at 6 am and promptly slept until noon. Upon awaking, I had no idea where we were until I looked out the window at the snowy skies and stone streets. I told the guys to throw on their warm clothes (a bit cooler here than in Northern Vermont) because we needed to explore — only 3.5 hours of sunlight remained in the day.   

    

  

  

 
My first sense of Reykjavik came in the scent of fermented fish being eaten by the owner of a groovy record store. But my overall sense of the city is its colorful grayness and warm coolness. Sort of what you’d think but then again not what you’d ever thought. Welcome to
sleepy shy

Caffeinated 
friskyReykjavik. 

 

  

  

 

We strolled the streets and shops. I bought a salmon skin bracelet, (of course). We discovered that Reykjavik is the world’s most northernmost capital city — about 66-degrees latitude. Allan bought a wool cap emblazoned with those coordinates. David got a deck of cards, which we put to good use playing Go Fish while we had fish soup at the Laundromat Cafe. 

Watching all the blondes in wooly sweaters sipping coffee and soup, and listening to “Echo and the Bunnymen” on the café stereo, I decided that Reykjavik feels as if you are living a late eighties music video by Ah-Ha. You know the one where the girl gets sucked into the drawing with the band? I was pretty sure that’s what was happening to me. 

  

 
  

  

  

 It’s night again now and we turned on the tv to postpone sleep. Guess who was on? Allan, as Earl, in “Monlight and Mistletoe,” wearing an Icelandic sweater.