9/21/2026, Iceland. The Flight and Reykjavik

Iceland. What an interesting place.

you must fly into Keflavik to get to the capital of Reykjavik. The flight was rather long but beautiful. The clouds engulfed everything for the last few hours of my trip and I was able to watch the sunrise through the airplane window, as I was lucky to get a window seat.

the landing was one of the harshest airplane landings I have ever experienced. we did land in the middle of a storm so I have no doubts the pilots did their best, but I got tossed upon impact.

instantly upon landing, I felt as if I had arrived at the edge of the world. geographically, this is not too far off. Iceland is very isolated and also sits just outside the arctic circle.

the airport here is tiny, but very hassle free. My first sign about this place was the entrance duty free store that they make you walk through to exit, with sort of an Ikea-esque layout. There are signs telling you "LAST CHANCE" which I thought was sort of strange. Thinking back, the airplane screens had ads about everything Icelandic, and the videos were some of the most appealing, professional, and convincing ads I have ever experienced in my life.

 

First stop, blue lagoon. the ultimate tourist destination, upon arrival I realized we were at the epitome of a tourist destination. my god, and tickets were $140 USD a person. The waters were a lovely, magical glacier, light blue and with a high silica content that resulted as a byproduct geothermal heating factories nearby. apparently totally safe and even beneficial to your skin.

it was nice but not warm enough. the air was 42 degrees or so, and it even started raining while we were there, not enough to be bothersome, and the water did provide warmth but I think it would have been better slightly hotter.

afterwards, my skin felt like the weirdest combination of smooth, dry, and sticky. the silica bath did indeed do wonders to my skin, and I do not even really pay attention to such things.

 

then we drove to the capital of Reykjavik and went to look for a place to eat. parking anywhere in this city is paid and quite pricy.

I also started instantly noticing how touristy the areas we were in felt. It felt like it was completely catered to visitors.

We looked around, and you could not find a decent meal under $40USD here. That was also the lower range. A nice meal was about $60-$70 (not fine dining though, just general upscale restaurant) and this is just for the entree, no drink. Well, we did hear that Iceland would be expensive before our arrival but being from Los Angeles, I did not expect it to be that much higher. In one way, it does somewhat even out since you are not required at all to tip here.

To our discovery, lamb turned out to be very common here. I typically would never get lamb in the states, and do not enjoy lamb steaks, but slow cooked lamb is to die for.

we then found a place to stay for the night and settled in. for some reason I only recall really experiencing this in areas closer to Reykjavik, but the hot water reeks of sulfur and can fill the surrounding air with a pretty intense smell.

 

I then went for a night walk, in search of night time photos, feeling out the night vibes in the capital, and beer.

I quickly learned that you can not buy alcohol (outside of bars/restaurants where drinks are $15 a beer/$30 a cocktail) except at these government controlled stores, as they have a monopoly on alcohol sales. Apparently they can sell beer up to 2.5%, and I did not realize this until I took my first sip of Icelandic brew and wondered why my beer tasted so strange.

Anyways, I went through my night walk and the city felt dead. I felt alone in this city with so many buildings which felt surreal. Where was everyone? it was cold and mildly raining so maybe this is why? the rain and cold have never bothered me. in fact, I love that it filters people out and I can enjoy walks in peace

so this was night one. 

photo shown is one of the churches here in the capital close to where we stayed.