Iceland – Day 5

Today was our lazy day as we had no set plans until the evening.  One of us was up early for coffee & breakfast and the other three trickled down to breakfast at their leisure.  Once everyone was around and ready we walked to the downtown area, which is where we started out our first day.  In addition to shopping, we had a few missions to accomplish.

 

Mission #1 – visit the Phallological Museum.  If you don’t know what this is and the picture doesn’t give it away, well……google it.  We’re keeping things rated G on this blog.  🙂

 

 

 

Mission #2 – Well, not so much a mission but rather a “we’re down this way so let’s go” situation.  We walked down to the bay to see the famous “Sea Voyager” sculpture on the coast.  The wind was significant, so much so that it nearly took away our breath!

 

 

 

Mission #3 – visit the ice bar – Magic Ice.  Going into it we were thinking “ehhh…might be an okay experience”.  Once inside we were saying “Holy crap this is awesome!!!”.  In case you’re not familiar with ice bars let us describe it to you – the temperature is 21 degrees fahrenheit and, as the name suggests everything, with the exception of the floor, is made of ice.  Before entering the bar we were given massive overcoats (think of the coats NFL QBs wear when it’s freezing outside), gloves, and a briefing telling us to not touch anything with our bare skin and to not sit anything on the bar, but rather use the padded areas for glasses and phones as they would otherwise slide off the table. 

 

We were given two drink tickets – one for the welcome drink and one for the drink of our choice.  The welcome drink was amazing!!!  It was something the bartender created using vodka, red currant liquer, and lemonade.  Jay really, really liked this drink (this should shock everyone!!!) so she selected it as her second drink using the extra welcome drink ticket Sondra ended up with.  Since there was an unused ticket for the second round we ordered a shot of Brennevin, the alcohol of Iceland, which is also known as “Black Death”. 

 

Blake and Tim thought it was pretty good and Sondra and Jay thought it was nasty.  To each his own, right?  We should mention that the welcome drink was an unnamed concoction the bartender created so we christened it the “Christine” in her honor.  We will definiltey have this drink at a family function sometime, maybe the next Elliston cousins weekend?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mission #4 – lunch!  We decided to have burgers at Prikid, the oldest restauant/cafe in Iceland.  It’s a diner by day, nightclub at night.  If only that bar top could talk!!  After a nice, relaxing lunch we retreated to our rooms to rest up and prepare for the next mission.

 

 

Mission #5 – Ed Sheeran concert.  The best three hours we’ve ever spent standing in our lives.  Getting into the concert was a breeze.  When we got to the security check we automatically raised our arms for a search.  The security person smiled and said, “we just need to know if you have anything you’re not supposed to have”.  Our guess is they could spot Americans in that line right away!  We skipped the first two acts and arrived as James Bay took the stage.  He was pretty good and we’ll probably start listening to more of his music, and Ed Sheeran was GREAT! 

 

His show is a one man band – no band on stage, no backup dancers, no theatrics….just him singing.  He layers and loops his own backup vocals and then performs live with only his voice and guitar.  So, literally a one man band.  And a really good one at that!  The crowd was absolutely amazing.  We were in standing room only which is the field portion of the outdoor arena.  Oh yeah…did we mention it was outdoors and the windchill was around 40?  Anyway, nobody pushed, nobody crowded up on others.  There were families dancing, laughing, and having a good time.  It was an enjoyable environment.

 

 

(Pictures to come…  technical difficulties right now)

 

 

Day 6 is our last day (well, half day) which we’ll spend doing some last minute exploration near the guesthouse.  We will call this a successful and fun trip, and hope our travel partners say the same!

Stay tuned for the next adventure in November!!