Iceland - Day 1: Boston to Reykjavik (by airplane and on foot)

Bill, Dana, Sarah, Gina, and i took a red-eye from Boston to Keflavik Airport outside of Reykjavik.

Bill and Sarah waiting at the airport	Gina waiting at the airport	Dana and Bill waiting at the airport
We're off! Flying over Deer Island	You absolutely cannot tell from this terrible photo, but they were setting off fireworks over Nahant, which was a cool view from the plane window	first view of sunrise from the plane
more sunrise as we approach Iceland	land!	more sunrise as we wait to leave the airport
we waited about 40 minutes until our Flybus was ready to leave for downtown Reykjavik	Keflavik airport is guarded by this giant metal bird egg thing	buildings along the water, seen from the bus
more sunrise seen from the bus	more coastline seen from the bus	first view of Reykjavik

While recovering from jetlag, we took a taxi from Hotel Oðinsve to þingvellir National Park, a park which is located at the intersection of two tectonic plates, and was also the site of the Alþing, Iceland's parliament from the 10th-18th centuries.

metal roofs in Reykjavik	dragon art, around the corner from Brauð and Co (not pictured), where we got breakfast for the group	Hallgrimskirkja, the iconic church you can see from basically everywhere in Reykjavik
There was kind of a theme to the street names around the hotel	View down a street in Reykjavik	irrefutable photographic evidence that Scott has now joined the group
in the taxi on the road to þingvellir	fields and water seen from the taxi	starting to get a little mountainous here
field with pointy church, seen from the taxi	Icelandic ponies vs flock of birds	islands in þingvallavatn, seen from the taxi
first view of þingvellir park	another view of the park from above	the crack between the plates
Dana, Sarah, and Scott survey the park	we descend into the crack between the plates	looking down (never look down)
green grass and mossy rocks	exciting curved wear pattern on rocks	directions to Valhalla and other sites of interest
many rocks	view back to the tectonic plate walkway	Iceland is chilly
looking across a river to the site of the Alþing; you can see the raised meeting area to the left of the building	the following currencies may not be exchanged by dropping them into the Atlantic Ocean ridge	a tunnel in the rock
þingvellir Church (also a unit of measurement, as a scale 20 ells in length was marked on the wall of this church)	view of the park	door of þingvellir Church
this is not the tectonic plate divide, you can see the bottom here	path along the water	Sarah, Dana, and Gina along the path
fuzzy plants	rocks in the water under a bridge	view down the water
we cross the river to check out the tectonic plate viewing area	caution: divers crossing	divers waiting to enter the water
this water is probably not shallow	first waterfall!	þú ert hér - a map of the park
another giant wall of rocks	we walk down a path by this river to see the waterfall	so, err, a bunch of women were put to death by drowning at þingvellir in the 17th and 18th centuries, so that's not great
more view along the river	we found this neat insect	the waterfall!
Gina as we wait our turn to climb up to the fall	Scott investigates some rocks near the falls	mountain view along the falls
close-up view of the falls	back in Reykjavik with our friend Hallgrimskirkja	capuccino at Salka Valka
smoked salmon on rye at Salka Valka	mural of leaping cat on the side of a metal building	mural on the wall of Salka Valka, where we had lunch
we had a light early dinner of pita sandwiches from a place called Chickpea	metal building with a cool window cutout	metal building with good colors and a small cartoon mural
a neat slate roof	scooters for rent on the street in Reykjavik (we did not)	mural of a mermaid
mural of a bird-yarn situation	this is not our bicycles, this is a video store	candy display in the video store (spoiler: we tried some, it was mostly inedibly stale)
Kiki Queer Bar	Hallgrimskirkja at night	Bill, Scott, and i got second dinner at Cafe Loki
a reasonable porter at Cafe Loki	rye bread at Cafe Loki, probably with a fish spread of some sort	lamb soup at Cafe Loki
rye bread ice cream at Cafe Loki	Brennivin! (people harsh on Brennivin, but basically it tastes like caraway and alcohol, and if you like that, you'll like it)