"Night" in Reykjavik
6 July 2019
We needed to get the feel for driving our camper around but weren’t really ready to leave the city. Instead, we chose to check out some places on the outskirts, places just a little further than we wanted to walk. It’s a perfect opportunity to see these places and get the hang of our van!
We followed the waterline west to the Grótta Island Lighthouse, the furthest point out to sea on the Reykjavik peninsula. It was unfortunately closed off at the moment; still, we were able to look out over the lighthouse and the sea as we walked along the beach. Despite it being July, the water was much too cold to even think about swimming. The beach itself had enough to capture one’s interest however, as a collection of shells were scattered before us across the dark volcanic sand. We saw really tiny periwinkle shells, a whelk egg casing, a natural sea sponge, and we even found an entire urchin shell!
Along the bottom of the peninsula at the southern end of the city is the Nauthólsvik Geothermal Beach. While swimming in the sea may be a bit too cold as we just found at Grótta, Nauthólsvik is situated along a geothermal area, heating up the water to an easily comfortable level. They brought in beige sand for the typical beach experience, if not necessarily a very Icelandic experience. We weren’t prepared to go swimming just yet so we stood on the lookout area and just took in the scenery. There was a roped off inlet where the water was warm, and they also had a little sitting pool up away from the sea. Seems like a nice spot to go lounge on the beach, you know… in the subarctic. Anyway, we found our eyes following a rather attractive young woman in a bright pink bikini as she waded through the water. She came out and joined a small group of other women at the edge of the beach, where out in the open they proceeded to strip off their bikinis, dry themselves off, and change into their regular clothes. While we were certainly enjoying the view, we couldn’t help but chuckle to ourselves at the way we are constantly reminded on our travels at just how prudish of a society we are in the US. Stripping naked in public like that would have won those girls a ride in the back of a police car back home, even though there was nothing at all crude about it. I do find it rather refreshing to have this type of freedom and openness that we find overseas, and I find it rather ridiculous that we are so closed in and prudish back home. Ah well, guess that’s Puritan based society for ya!
Typically on our travels we like to stop in to the local grocery stores, check out what they have and how different things are, and get a taste of the normal life in that country by doing a rather mundane thing such as grocery shopping. Usually it is just for fun and we only pick up one or two things, but on this trip we have a bit more of a purpose. Part of the appeal of the camper van was that we would have a mobile kitchen to make meals on our own. Sure, getting to taste local flavors at a restaurant is an important way to sample a country's cuisine, but more accurate to the daily life of the people living here would be to shop at a local grocery store and prepare those ingredients myself. So, we set out to find the best of Icelandic food shopping and local ingredients at the Reykjavik Nettó! Our cooler was small, so we didn’t get too many cold items. We did pick up some oat milk packets, a bag of coffee and a small box of sugar, a block of smjör Icelandic butter, a loaf of fresh baked wheat bread, a packet of eggs, pasta and sauce, fruit and veg, muesli, some snacks for the car (including a pack of hearty lamb jerky), and of course a nice tub of skyr. We started with essentials and figured we would get more perishables along the route as needed.
We packed up the van then headed back to Laugavegur for our last stop in the city before venturing out. We were seeking out a craft beer bar called Skál! that was also known for good food (wow, my spell check really doesn’t like the fact there is an exclamation point in the name!) This was our “night” out on the town, an interesting experience as it was after 9 pm and the sun was still shining high in the sky. I can really see how the day/night schedule here can mess with your senses. You are used to hitting the pubs after dark, and well that just isn’t going to happen here; rather it feels more like an afternoon of day drinking... yet it’s 9:30 pm... yet it’s still daylight and will be for a while. It’s weird for sure. Maybe you get used to it, but it would take a while I’d think... just long enough to throw you off again as it swaps to where you only get one hour of sunlight per day!
Skal! was a popular place, crowded with about every seat and table taken, though we did manage to find the last two seats at the end of the bar. “Flaunt it if you got it” seemed to be the name of the game here, and there were a lot of people showing off what they had for sure... we’d do well fitting in to a place like this! Reykjavik seems to have a bit of a hard party edge to it, not surprising considering it’s the only real city in the whole country. I believe the stats are around 90% of the population call the Reykjavik metro area home, so if there is fun to be had, it will be found here! The word skál of course is the Icelandic word for “cheers”, so it’s only fitting we start with a local brew. A double IPA called Skúli Skúli from Borg Brugghús and a hoppy weizen from Sólveg paired well with our goat cheese gratin and pylsur - the famous Icelandic style hot dog!
It was a fun night hanging at Skál! with great drinks, great food, and great people watching. This was one of the earlier closing bars, which was fine by us tonight. Lots of Reykjavik night life going on, but we will see more of that when we get back to the city at the end of our trip. Now it’s time to head off in search of a campground!
