Day 14. Jan 19th. Oops.

Well, I know I haven't updated in a while, so forgive me. I've been pretty busy.

Things have indeed gotten better; I haven't really done anything spectacularly exciting since that road trip to the South. I've mostly been doing the same things one would do anywhere else. To be honest, Reykjavik isn't terribly exciting. It's quaint, and it's wet, but all the neighborhoods are more or less identical. They all look the same, they all have a fishmonger, a butcher and a bakery, maybe a chain restaurant or two and a pizza place. It's like New England but without all the charm. I don't think there's a single building older than 1960 with maybe the exception of three government type places.

I have met some good people, though. Went to an Indian food party the other night, and watched Slumdog Millionaire, which I would strongly recommend to anyone.

We had one gathering the other night, Friday, that was pretty much an intro to Thorrablot, which is a month long festival of eating bizarre things. We had cod roe, steamed, and then cod liver stuffed inside of a cod stomach, and then tintasomething, which is a fish that has the skin of an eel and white flesh that is very chewy.


Ordinarily these are all things that I would like but to be honest, again, Icelandic food isn't that great and Icelanders don't really seem to know how to cook. I was going to go out to a nice fancy place, but I think I would have been disappointed. I haven't had a single meal that wasn't overcooked, underseasoned or both. I don't think they've even heard of salt here. They've got great ingredients but have no idea how to use them.

For example, the blood sausage has no flavor at all. How do you manage to make something out of the nasty bits of mutton, mutton blood, and a mysterious grain and still manage to have it be bland? I didn't even bother with Indian or Thai food because I figured it'd be sweet and lacking in spices.

Speaking of Asian food, for my last day in Iceland I went out for sushi yesterday.
I'll start by saying the fish was very fresh and the rice well prepared. I'll end by saying that the tataki wasn't a tataki---it was just sashimi, and the sweet shrimp, rather than being raw shrimp, was a cooked prawn with jam on it. They took that one rather literally. The service was friendly as could be, though.

For my last meal in Iceland I am going to eat at the BSI, which is the bus station, but also apparently the best place to get traditional Icelandic dishes. I'll report back later.


I will certainly be glad to go back to the US today, even if it does mean getting on a plane.

In summary, this was a really expensive way for me to figure out that I like staying at home, and I should have done exactly that. I suppose I'll give Iceland another try someday, but it'll definitely be in any season other than winter.