What happens when you give an American gay guy, a lesbian, and straight girl an apartment in Reykjavik, Iceland for the week? While it may sound like the premise of a new Fox reality show, it is exactly how I spent my holiday break. After having such an amazing time on my
last trip to Iceland, I knew I had to take some of my friends with me my next time around. This trio was carefully selected to prove that anybody could have fun in the northern capital. OK… we actually all decided to go after one too many cocktails on a hot summer night. The results of this trip though, showed just how encompassing, entertaining, and just plain exciting Reykjavik can be.
If you are going to Reykjavik with a group, save money by renting out an apartment style hotel. Two that I can recommend are located on the main shopping/clubbing street of Laugavegur.
Hotel Frón and
Room With a View are your best bets. Hotel Frón is not the most luxurious, but perfect for a budget-minded group like us. We each got our own room, a small kitchen, and a nice living area. Room With a View offers more luxurious and modern amenities and some rooms even come with an outdoor hot tub.
The three of us chose to go to Reykjavik for the New Year's Eve celebrations, which is a perfect time to experience the magic of the city. The city is still fantastically decorated with Christmas lights (literally every home and apartment has some sort of decoration) and the New Year's fervor is very palpable as locals buy up fireworks to impress their friends. After purchasing a few beers and Champagne, on New Year's Eve we chose to avoid the touristy bonfires and we headed up to see the fireworks from Hallgrímskirkja, the massive church on top of the main hill. Beers in hand, we watched as fireworks encircled us and began to climax at midnight. There is no way to describe exactly how many fireworks go off, but the sky is filled with lights bursting through the smoke. Ashes rain down while hugs are shared with strangers for a good hour after midnight, but the party is far from over. Afterwards, our first stop was a house party, and then an LGBT-party sponsored by the community center
Samtökin '78. The most visible difference between the New York gay scene and the Icelandic gay scene is that LGBT-parties actually mean LGBT.
The next day, still running on high from the night before, we discussed our Viking-style wedding plans at the Blue Lagoon with Kristjan, a tour guide for
Adventure Tours. This company provides custom, private tours. Feel like climbing a glacier, cave exploring, riding a snowmobile? You can. All you need to do is plan an itinerary with the company. It is also a bonus when you see a massive, souped-up super jeep pull up at your hotel to pick you up, while the other tourists load into a tiny van. Kristjan drove off-road around the Reykjanes Peninsula, the area west of Reykjavik. We zoomed through snow-covered roads and up mountainsides catching glimpses of the orange sun rising over the choppy sea. He took us to the beach at Selatangar where we played with lava rocks, huge kelp, and debated whether we'd survive if he left us there. Continuing on to Sultun in Krysuvik, we saw hot springs where sulfur was once mined.
The highlight of the trip was the cave exploring. Kristjan took us to Blafjoll (Blue Mountains) where we went caving in a lava tube called Leidarendi (End of the Journey). Donning our cave-exploring hats, we walked to the opening and discussed the movie
the Decent, fearing cave monsters, we cautiously entered. Once inside, the sun shone through the opening and illuminated the icicles hanging from the ceiling - a truly gorgeous site. This cave exploration,however, is not for the claustrophobic and at some points you'll find yourself on all fours.
By the end of the day, we were exhausted, but we had to take advantage of the notorious weekend nightlife. Now that Q-Bar (a former gay bar) is closed, we went to
Barbara. You can't miss it off Laugavegur with its bright pink facade and rainbow flag. We danced the night away to top-40 music while drinking $10 drinks. We had an amazing time, and even our straight friend found some love.
The next day, it was time for us to leave. We said goodbye to the mountains, goodbye to our new friends, our Viking lovers, and noshed on one last cup of Skyr (yogurt), and with one last puff of a cigarette in the cool Icelandic breeze, vowed to come back in the summer
