Arrival in Reykjavík

Okay this post is long overdue! But I will try to get caught up fairly quickly. I arrived in Iceland the morning of January 2nd after a long day and night of traveling. I spent the first day or two setting up my dorm room in Gamli Garður - the international student residence. The story goes that it is the oldest building on campus. It is used as a hotel in the summertime, but for now us exchange students are taking over!

My room in the residence

Home sweet home for the next 5 months! My room is actually amazing, though: When the sun rises (at about 11:30am when we first arrived) and sets (3:30pm when we arrived) I am given a perfect view out of my window! The sky is absolutely beautiful at all times.

We are only a short walk from downtown Reykjavík, just a pond away! "The Pond" (Tjörnin) is full of ducks and geese. After the first couple of days, the pond froze solid (such that we could walk across), but one end is kept thawed for the duckies

Downtown core in the midday sun

I spent a fair amount of time in the first week exploring the city on my own. I feel like I take too many pictures and would annoy others, so I venture off to play the part of "tourist" alone! The streets here are lined with fabulous houses. Most of them are made of concrete, which is necessary due to the large amount of earthquakes. Walking along you'll notice steam rising out of vents in the street, and it makes me smile to know it is geothermal energy, and completely clean! :)

Also, people rarely use window coverings in the winter, so I can peek inside and see how pretty and modern everything is!

A typical house in downtown Reykjavík

In addition to beautiful houses, Icelanders tend to have great yards and gardens as well. They are all lined with fences and cute gates, and it is pretty obvious that as soon as spring time comes these will be little havens!

Someone's backyard downtown

  I have probably taken 30 pictures of the sky, but here is one typical sunset - absolutely striking!

 

In December and early January the sun does not rise very high - here is the ducks' part of the pond at the brightest time of the day:

Icelanders love to swim! There is a geothermal pool just a couple of blocks away that we have fallen in love with! Several girls in the residence and I have gone a couple of times, and it is just the most relaxing experience in the world! The first time we went, it was a bit of a blizzard out so there was snow swirling all around while we soaked in the "hot pots", which are just like hot tubs (except no chlorine!). There are different temperatures, the hottest of which no one can stand for more than a couple of minutes. There is also a steam room that I had to practice using! At first it was difficult to breathe in such heavy steam, but it quickly became a great experience.

The outdoor pool near the University of Iceland

So there you have it! My first week in Iceland in a nutshell. I will work to get caught up in the next little while.

xo