Fire(works) & Ice(land)

After the scuba trip we had a low-key night at home, woke up late, didn’t do much during the day except for a walk.  At night we had a lovely late dinner at Fishmarket.  We got there a little before 10pm, hung out in the lounge and ordered a couple of cocktails.  I did a berry cosmo, and S had a really interesting one, with kiwi, lime, and wasabi.  Sounds weird but somehow worked perfectly.  We shared sashimi as an appetizer and the tuna, salmon, and scallops were perfectly fresh.  We ordered a bottle of wine and I had the tuna steak and S had these awesome grilled monkfish skewers with different purees and salsas.  Everything was so good.  We sat for a long time over wine and even had some chocolate cake, only the menu didn’t mention the center was filled with a peanutbutter filling so I didn’t eat much of that one.  Such a nice meal though.  

After that we hit The Icelandic Bar, sat at the bar and the bartenders were so much fun, very entertaining.  We tried the Icelandic schnapps, Brennevin, which is made of volcano water, fermented potato mash and flavored with carraway seeds.  S hated it, I didn’t love it but didn’t think it was bad enough to be called the “Black Death.”  Eventually we started chatting with some Icelandic guys at the bar and decided to go to a club with them.  The bartender gave us to-go cups for our drinks…I officially love any city that does that!  On our way I saw another club that I wanted to go to so we ditched the group and went to Esja which was awesome.  We closed out the bar sometime after 6 and slept most of the day away.

The next day we tried to see the Northern Lights but it was a total bust, such a bummer because S really wants to see them and the tours were cancelled every single other day we were there due to low visibility!  The day after was New Year’s Eve and we didn’t have any fixed plans, just wanted to go up the hill to the cathedral and watch all the fireworks.  There is no organized show in Reyjkavik, just tons of individuals and families buying fireworks and setting them off.  Apparently all of the proceeds from the firework sales go to the volunteer rescue organization (there are no official or paid paramedics teams, they are all volunteers and this was the same org that came to help the divers.)  Reyjkavik restaurants are really big on reservations, and we hadn’t booked anything in advance, so we set the table looking out onto the square and had a lovely dinner of champagne and cup noodle.  We had drinks and hung out until 11pm, got all bundled up, then headed out:

 

We walked up the hill and it was very festive.  People were already shooting off fireworks, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was not as crazy as I’d imagine hundreds of drunk people setting off fireworks would be.  Overall it was very pretty and fairly organized.  S took some pretty amazing photos:

 

Just before midnight, the fireworks show really picked up and it was really stunning.  And after midnight it kept going!  S was flabbergasted that anyone had any fireworks left, I just think they all bought a huge amount of fireworks.  After a while a few people started doing dumb things like throwing firecrackers to ignite other firecrackers so that was our cue to leave.  On the way back down the hill we popped into Lebowski Bar (yes, based on the movie) but we were just wearing so much clothing it was uncomfortable to move around so we went back down the hill to change before going out.

 

I put on a comfy dress, tights and boots with my big coat and gloves, and we headed out to find a bar that S thought looked cool.  Icelandic people have a tradition of watching an annual broadcast recapping the old year that starts a bit after midnight, so the bars didn’t open until around 1am.  Luckily as we got to the bar they were just re-opening so we went in and actually snagged a sweet table in the packed bar.  We met, talked, and danced with lots of random people – so much fun.

  

We closed out the bar around 7am and started walking home, there were tons of people out and S wanted to take photos of pretty much everyone we interacted with, so lots of funny group shots (I don’t think I was inebriated enough to fully appreciate this):

 
 

Ended the night with surprisingly good pizza at 8am, the line was out the door!

 
We slept in nice and late on New Year’s Day, then did a little walk around town before dinner.  We showed up without a reservation to Fishcompany (different from Fishmarket) but I was betting a lot of people might be staying in after a pretty epic NYE.  The restaurant was actually close to full but we were lucky to snag an adorable table for two near the window.  It started snowing again and the view was really nice.  We did a five course tasting menu with wine pairings.  It was amazing, I kind of wish I’d written down all the courses, but oh well.  Lots of lovely fish in creative combinations and then this crazy dessert involving dry ice smoke and lava.  Usually I don’t find really high-concept cuisine all that delicious, but everything was so good.  Also, even two courses is usually way too much but these were perfect tasting portions so no feeling gross afterwards, just great flavors. Such a great start to the year!  It was snowing like crazy and no one was out so we went home after taking a little walk in the snow.  Outside they had a menu and a “no swimming” sign, so of course I had to get a picture:
 

 
 
The next day we went back to the Blue Lagoon! As part of my Christmas present S had booked a special “romantic package” for us.  This visit was very different – the weather was still cold, but no crazy frigid gale force winds, which was nice.  We also had our own private lounge with our own rainfall shower, robes, slippers, and loads of Blue Lagoon toiletries.  We also got access to the vip lounge which had the most amazing fireplace and separate access to the lagoon.  We hung out a bit there in our robes, but I was jonesing to get back in that water so we didn’t stay there long.  The water felt awesome, and without the huge freezing wind gusts the air was even more pleasant.  After a bit it was time for our in-water massages.  This was pretty wild, the technician started off by putting me face up on a floating massage mat (like a yoga mat) and covering me with a thermal blanket.  Then she put oil on, and gave me a really thorough massage.  It felt great, every so often she’d dunk most of my body and the blanket which kept me really toasty.  After I was done she floated me over to a little corner and I napped a bit until S was done with his.

Both of us were totally blissed out – we had a couple champagnes at the bar, got face masks done, and just floated around the rest of the day.  We hit the waterfall, underwater cave, steam cave, and sauna…everything was just as great the second time around!  It was so nice to just relax and enjoy each other, and I was really bummed when we had to get out a few hours later to make our dinner reservation.  We hung out a bit in our private lounge, which ended up being very romantic, then got ready for dinner.  The Blue Lagoon restaurant, called Lava, was cute, we had a great table with a view of the water.  Food was good but I just wanted to be back in that water!  After dinner we took the bus home and S said we could go again the next day but I thought that might be overkill so we got packed, dropped our stuff at the travel place, and took a last walk by the water.  We grabbed brunch at The Laundromat Cafe, then headed for the airport.  I felt so sad looking back on the beautiful strange terrain, like craters on the moon, but I think I’ll be back.

The flight home was interesting, to say the least.  We hit turbulence, then noticed that a ton of people were coming past us to use the first class toilets (we were in the first row behind the first class cabin.)  I thought that was odd, but didn’t think much about it until we went to the back of plane to use the regular restrooms and passed a guy secured to his seat with green duct tape.  He was restrained and his mouth was taped as well, but he was still thrashing about and making sounds.  Apparently the dude had chugged his duty free vodka, then started acting crazy…spitting at people, trying to grope/choke the woman next to him, and screaming that the plane was going down.  We were in the first row after first class and totally had no idea this had even happened until we passed him.  I guess the story has become quite well known by now.  

The oddest thing is that I have seen passengers on flights go crazy at least three other times before this.  One time this guy kept rushing towards the flightdeck and several passengers stepped up to restrain him, and he spent the rest of the flight in plastic handcuffs.  But usually there is an air marshal on board who restrains them and sit with them the rest of the ride.  This was the only time I’ve ever seen the airline give people their duty-free on the way onto the flight, I bet Icelandair will change that policy after this.  I think the problem is that people take all these pills nowadays…they take antidepressants, then think they have a fear of flying so take a valium or whatever, then they want to sleep on the flight so take a sleeping pill.  Sleeping pill doesn’t work right away so they have a a drink then bam, they’re messed up and acting crazy. 

Anyway, we landed, then they held us on the plane for a while while TSA, risk management and other people came on board, then let everyone off.  Customs was a mess, but luckily the subway ride home was very smooth.  Life back to normal after vacation, bootcamp every morning, french class started up again, work work work.  Happy January!