Iceland is Cool...Literally

I have enjoyed Iceland, I have been taking it easy because I am pretty jet lagged and am running on very little sleep. What I didn't fully think through was the fact that it would be COLD (cold in June?! Unacceptable)! As I type this in the Kex Hostel my fingers are going numb because well this isn't Greece. I definitely packed my bag dreaming about the three weeks I will spend in Greece, about the sparkling ocean, painting outside all day, all in the warm embrace of the sun. You know who hasn't show his face at all? The sun, that jerk. I guess I assumed it would be warmer because Iceland and Greenland are suppose to be opposite of their names...right? I guess I should have done a better job in geography, ok and I should have paid more attention to the weather forecast. My bad! But who can blame me, my mind was clouded with warm thoughts of Greece.

Reykjavík has been pretty great, they have this awesome concert hall, the architecture is crazy! I got some delicious fries (I know not the most Icelandic thing to get, but then again I don't know much about Iceland so maybe these people eat this all the time!). The place was called Reykjavík Chips where they only sold french fries and specialty flavored mayonnaise, it was awesome! Then on day two I did more exploring of the city. I learned the history of Iceland in the National Museum of Iceland and went inside and up to the top of the Hallgrímskirkja, yeah that's a mouthful. It is giant and awesome and has a humongous organ!

I am really catching onto this whole solo traveling thing and I do enjoy it. What is really nice is being able to do whatever I want whenever I want. If I want to sit in a café for an hour then walk aimlessly through the streets for awhile, I can! If I want to only do museums all day, I can! Most importantly I can take as much time taking pictures to feed my photography junkie habit without feeling like I'm slowing anyone down! That being said I am definitely a people person so being alone might begin to bother me later on my journey. Luckily it is easy to make friends or to not make friends at hostels! Now for a confession moment; I could have used a traveling companion earlier when I didn't check the currency exchange rate and blindly withdrew money from the ATM then bought a scarf that I presumed to be $7...let me just tell you it wasn't $7 and I paid a lot more than I would every spend on a scarf...lesson learned, I will ALWAYS check the exchange rate. But a traveling buddy probably would have encouraged me to check to see how much I was withdrawing or how much I was spending.

So here I sit once again on an airport shuttle. It is currently 3:30 AM here, the shuttle picked me up at 2:45 AM. I am Greece bound but not for awhile, I have an overnight layover at the Istanbul airport so it is going to be a long two days.