In the summer of 2024, Mr. BooksandTea and I took a trip to Reykjavik, Iceland, to celebrate my then-upcoming 40th birthday. We had a lovely time, and posted lots of photos and detailed status updates to Facebook.
I’m debating leaving Facebook, but I don’t want to lose those posts, so I’m sharing them here for posterity. The post below is an expanded version of a Facebook post I made on July 30th.
Reykjavik, day 4! (I think? Time has no meaning and I’ve lost count.)
Today was our first big nature excursion: PUFFIN WATCHING!
We bought tickets for a puffin boat tour and rode out to one of the islands in Faxaflói Bay to see them on their nesting grounds. Mating\chick season is the only time they stay on land, and they’ll start leaving in a few weeks, so we got to see them just in time.
In addition to puffins, these nesting grounds are host to lots of other birds, including gulls, cormorants, skuas and terns. We saw them all as they clustered on the rocks and in the water, flying, diving, hunting and stealing from each other. I tried to take pictures of them, but they’re so small and fast. I’m just grateful that I didn’t drop my phone into the ocean!
You know something important I learned in all of this? Gravol FUCKS ME UP. I swear that I was starting to fall asleep on my feet *while we were walking to the harbour* at 9 in the morning. I felt logy for the rest of the day, and alternated between fighting off the urge to take a nap, feeling overheated, and feeling like my mouth had gone dry. I didn’t get seasick, though. Small mercies.
Lunch was at a burger place that was profiled in a food travel show on Netflix. Then more walking around the waterfront and downtown core.
We also finally bought the much-hyped cinnamon buns from Braud & Co bakery. I don’t know if I would say that they’re the best cinnamon buns in the world, since my North American palate has been corrupted by Cinnabon, but they were pretty darn good. If anything, they felt like grown-up pastries, somehow? The flavor was rich and subtle and nuanced — like it was wearing the perfect little black dress.
After a quick pit stop at our hotel (in which I was sorely tempted to take a nap), we went back out and viewed both an art gallery and the maritime museum. Admission to both was free because of the transit pass\city card we purchased a few days ago. We continued walking down the waterfront afterwards, until we reached an area that was clearly more industrial and less touristy.
We called it a day after that, and walked back to the hotel. Instead of eating in a restaurant, we cooked some of the groceries that the hotel purchased for us. Nice and cheap, but I missed not having my usual kitchen to cook with.
Tomorrow, we’re going to buy another city pass since our current one expires soon. It’s an excellent program, and one that I think Toronto should try out.
Leave a Reply