Iceland Day One – The morning was a bit of a write-off, but the afternoon was good

Late-arriving guy turned out to also be early-rising guy, which seems like being a glutton for punishment.
There’s a reason for that, but I only found out later.

The Travel Hangover (note: Find a better name for that) was in the mid-phase, so I … stayed in bed and chatted with people as they went about their morning prep, and waited for the painkiller to take hold.
Woman-from-Wales was renting a car to go wandering around Iceland in a strictly on-road capacity, and we nattered about travel places & misc. local oddness while she packed up her stuff.

Eventually, I got up.
I’d well and truly missed the window for hostel breakfast (1550isk), but the free baskets provided me with some ‘instant’ oatmeal, which did the job nicely.

Took a short wander around the Reykjavik Downtown, just so that I could say that I’d left the hostel.
There are many shops who are happy to sell me souvenirs, many cafes and bars and restaurants where the prices are eye-watering at first glance, until you remember that the króna is worth maybe 1.2 NZ cents.
Then you feel better about the prices.
Then you convert the price, and your eyes water again.

christmas-tree-costume-selfie

Spent the afternoon doing podcast things, which was an oddly useful task to have.
Not a huge amount of concentration required, and it let me sit in the lobby/cafe and soak in the Icelandicness.

Late-arriving-guy turns out to be from Mexico, and is volunteering at the hostel in return for bed & breakfast.
5 hours a day for five days gets him a week, which … I’m not sure whether it’s a good deal or not. I worked out a rough pay rate, and it’s not too bad as an hourly pay.

By the time I got hungry again it was late enough that I really didn’t feel like wandering out, so the ‘abandoned stuff’ boxes provided me with dinner.

The room picked up another room-mate; A French teacher (of mathematics) who picked up a cheap flight deal.
This led to a discussion of cheap flights which elicited a ‘damnit’ from the guy from San Francisco.
The teacher is doing a Golden Circle day tour tomorrow, so I’m going to hold off on booking mine until I hear his report; If there’s something he regrets doing, or missing, it’d be worth knowing.