Reykjavik, Iceland

I took IcelandAir’s new non-stop service from Toronto to Reykjavik on May 7th and landed safely (if tired) in Keflavik on May 8th. I stepped off the plane into the sparkling new terminal and then walked out into the crisp morning air. The sun was shining brightly and it turned out to be a really fabulous day for walking. After taking the bus into town, I explored the southern part of the city, picked up some groceries and then made dinner.

The next day, I moved to a popular hostel that was completely incredible. It wasn’t especially close to the city, but it was an easy bus trip or a nice walk along the sea wall (the setting a couple of really lovely runs). At the hostel, I met a cool British guy who has been travelling for years on a on-road/off-road motorbike he picked up in Kansas. He’s ridden all through the US, Central and South America and is now on his Europe and Africa trip. He figures that it should take him at least a couple of years.

When I checked into my room at the hostel, I was surprised to find a woman from Deloitte’s London (UK) practice in the bed next to me. Then I saw the Deloitte building in Iceland. Then I saw a Deloitte poster at the airport. I suppose it’s fitting that I’ve been wearing my Impact Day shirts on my trip and providing some IT support to fellow travellers and the hostel. Really, who configures a DHCP server to only hand out 25 IP addresses at a hostel!?! Ha ha.

I took a tour of some of the interesting things around the Reykjavik area: beautiful waterfalls, a volcanic crater lake and one of the national parks where the North American and Eurasian Continental plate meet and are slowly separating.

The day before I left, I met a cool woman from Denver, who was hiking around Iceland with a tent. We ended up playing cards well into the night, drank some of the Black Death (Iceland’s infamous liquor) and traded email addresses before heading in separate directions.