Incredible Iceland

Before I visited Iceland, I read up on it extensively. Descriptions in Frommer's, Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other travel books and sites described Iceland as "hauntingly beautiful", "like no other country in the world", and praised its cosmopolitan capitol city, Reykjavik, as being chic but still walkable and full of friendly residents. I went to Iceland with high expectations, and this little country exceeded all of them.
We arrived at Keflavik Airport around 6:30 AM last Monday morning, July 27th. Adjusting to the time change (it felt like it was 2:30 AM to us) was probably the most difficult part of the trip, but the owner of the apartment we rented made things easier for us by allowing us to check in early. By the way, if you ever visit Iceland, renting an apartment is the way to go. You save lots of money on food because you can cook your own meals (it is very easy to spend $50-$60 per person for dinner at a nice restaurant in Reykjavik), and the apartment we rented was owned by the same people who own a small guesthouse, the Baldursbra Guesthouse in the center of the city. The apartment was only about $150 per night, and Evelyne, the owner, actually brought us food to stock the fridge (cheese, fruit, bread, etc.) and cleaned the apartment every day. Despite the increased value of the American dollar in Iceland nowadays - $1 is equal to about 125 Icelandic kronur as I'm writing this - it still felt expensive to me. And to think the dollar was worth only half that about a year ago in Iceland!
The city of Reykjavik reminds me a lot of Madison, Wisconsin, only right on the ocean with a big beautiful port. The city is built around a serene lake, which is home to hundreds of ducks and grey geese, and on a nice day there is about the same amount of people there feeding the birds bread and crumbs. There is a paved running/biking trail around the lake, surrounded by quirky, brightly-colored metal, wood, and cement houses. Construction in Iceland is like nothing I've ever seen before, ranging from utilitarian-looking dark gray cement block houses to metal buildings, painted all different colors. Lots of character!
Reykjavik is a very lively town. I don't think I've ever felt more energized on vacation because of the long summer days here, the sun rose at about 4:30 in the morning and didn't set until almost 11:00 at night. We had no real concept of time the whole trip... we would eat dinner at 9:00 PM because it looked like it was 6:00 outside. I didn't eat anything really crazy like putrefied shark or puffin, but I did try mink whale. It tasted exactly like steak, with a little bit of a fishy aftertaste.
The landscape in the outlying areas is like something directly out of "Lord of the Rings". We rented a car to visit Pingvellir, Gullfoss, the Blue Lagoon, the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, and Geysir, and the books were right, the beautiful wild land outside of Reykjavik is truly hauntingly beautiful. During the drives, I would look to the right and see hundreds of acres of rocky plains, dotted with grazing sheep and Icelandic horses. Just beyond the plains were towering mountains, some topped with mile-long glaciers, and black volcanoes (dormant, at least while we were there!) To the left was the sea, always the sea, and we usually were skirting the precarious cliffs above it. The landscape vaguely reminded me of American national parks out west, but with a more ancient feel. You could actually picture the Vikings braving the rocky shoreline and sailing into the misty coves hundreds of years ago, and medieval Icelanders holding their parliamentary meetings among the dramatic rock formations, fissures, and waterfalls at Pingvellir. That is probably the best word to describe the landscape in Iceland: dramatic! I will never forget the spray Gullfoss put off (we had to wear our raingear just to walk around the top of the falls), the wild gurgling of the geysers right before they erupted into the air, the cries of the seabirds nesting in the cliffs of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, or the luxurious, lazy feeling of swimming in the hot, salty Blue Lagoon with a silica mud treatment on my face.
Like everywhere else, Iceland is having a cooler summer than usual. The temperature was in the high 50's to low 60's (fahrenheit) on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday - I had on my fleece, a puffy down vest, and sometimes my raincoat and still felt chilled - but got back up into the 70's by Thursday and Friday. I think my blood has thinned since moving to the South six-and-a-half years ago, as much as I loved Iceland, I think summer was definitely the best time for me to have visited! Now I understand other tourists' need to buy an Icelandic sweater while they're in the country (although I didn't). You can find amazing woolen goods at any gift shop in Reykjavik, along with other fun gifts that you'll never find anywhere else.
I could go on and on about this amazing country. There were other tourists there, but it is for the most part a pretty undiscovered place. I'm not sure why that is, with all Iceland has to offer: it's an easy 5-hour flight from New York; you can do anything from hiking, boating, snowmobiling on glaciers, horseback riding, and people-watching, to eating at a wide variety of restaurants. It was a wonderful experience... truly a once-in-a-lifetime event!