First Monday

Hello from Reykjavik, Iceland!
The land of difficult maps, horrible street signs and illegible, 16 letter words!
No one says hi to you unless you are Icelandic or willing to spend a lot of money.
Who ever said Iceland was really cool and pretty was probably from there!

The good news? Well, we've managed to learn a few words.. Banki=Bank Kaffi=Coffee, and hállo means..hello! :D

Once again, trying to pretend to be "locals" we have rented a car instead of paying for ridiculously expensive tours. A 2004 Peugeot. Stick shift. The first day we took this little bad boy out, we drove it 4.5 hours each way. We saw 2 different waterfalls (Seljalandsfoss and Skògafoss), one which we got to go under, or behind.
We stopped at a small town called Vik, right by the beach and had some Icelandic food which consisted of pan fried fish, potatoes and some veggies.
But at $35.00 for a lunch dish it was not my idea of value. Everything from the food, to the clothes to the vegetables is over priced. We find ourselves struggling to find a good/cheap meal. So Dominos pizza it is!

Aside from the cold weather and cold people, we really loved venturing out in our little car and doing things on our own time. We met a few people along the way and had one too many pizzas but we had fun.
We also got to go to Jökulsárlón, It's a body of water below Iceland's largest glacier. Pieces of ice break off from the glacier (thank you global warming) and then float into the lagoon. There, they pose for photos and then find their way to the sea.

The town of Reykjavik (where we are staying/stayed) is quite interesting; young people walk around with beer and wine in their hands, not a cop in sight. Ever. You can even urinate on the street at no charge! We watched a (presumably) drunk Icelander scale a 20 foot road sign on the one-and-only main drag. His buddies snapped photos with their iPhone, beers in hand.

On our final day, we followed the masses and went to the Blue Lagoon. One of Iceland's crowning jewels (tourism-wise). The "lagoon" looks like another planet; milky, icy blue water, black lava rocks, steam wafting skyward. It's really something to see. We opted for the "Basic" package, so we didn't get to borrow a towel, or get a pair of promotional flip-flops. And it cost us 12 Euros to store our luggage for 3 hours... All that aside, this excursion was one of the most memorable. Wrinkled fingers and wet bathing suits, we headed to the airport. Paris tomorrow! We arrive early to the City of Light. And we can't wait!
Bon Voyage!

-MK

New York served as our springboard into our traveling adventure. New York tops the list as “America’s Favorite City”. And consequently, boasts the highest number of visitors of any city. We were determined to at least appear like we were more than just mere tourists. Our goals this trip are to experience what it is like to actually live in a city, as opposed to just visiting it. So, we enacted “Operation Local”. The only rule? Do as the locals do.

We bought the weekly unlimited MetroCard. Skipped a hotel and opted for an apartment from AirBnB; all 586 glorious square feet of it. We felt like New Yorkers. Well, for a while.

Once rain falls in New York, a few things happen. Obviously it gets wet. But what we don’t know (and the locals do) is that rain in the summer equals humidity like you have never felt (unless you’re a real local, I guess). The Subway system works just like a street-based hot dog cart. Water collects in the tracks and basically steams everything inside. And that smell… I wish for your sake, that postcards had a scratch and sniff option. To be a local, you have to know that smell.

In retrospect, we stuck out like sore thumbs. New Yorkers don’t wear jeans when it’s 85 degrees and raining. And they seldom, if ever, forget their umbrellas. We should have written a note…

Real locals don't take the metro at 10:45 on a Wednesday. They're in the middle of a 60 hour work-week, trying to pay rent for their own 600 square foot slice of the Big Apple.

But we were on that train. And so are the beggars. Shaking coffee cups, grocery bags, once-used Chinese food to-go containers. Anything they can scrape up in a delirious stupor that might hold just enough change for their next fix.

Locals can spot the real junkies. The tourists break out their dollars like frat boys at their first strip club.

As we walked past a park in Alphabet city (near Avenue A of "Rent" fame) I couldn’t help but notice that some of these vagabond "kids" (aka Beggars) were probably younger than me. Clever cardboard signs scrawled in Sharpie proclaim that they are "down on their luck". Or perhaps “just traveling through”. I wouldn't have guessed that this demographic would be prone to carrying iPhones, but the locals do. The locals know it’s the iPhone 5, too (usually in black). My gut feeling was that "dinner" was slightly higher up the priorities list than "data overages", but again, I'm no local.

This week was FULL of contrast, irony and adventure. We had our calm moments with a picnic in Central Park, a paradise of tranquility among the throngs. We had our over-full subway cars; when locals always seem to find space, tourists are left standing on the platform (or taking a sliding door to the shoulder) and bumps, bangs and toe-steps are all just collateral damage in the daily grind of Manhattan.

We did Brooklyn, drank local beer (passing on Stone Brewery’s selections for obvious reasons) and patronized the local boutiques and the flea market.

We ate street food, waffles prepared out of the back of a truck; octopus “balls” made with poached octopus and a sublimely eggy batter with nori and bell peppers worked in. The coffee was incredible, lots of people who really care about crema. And of course, we had our fill of the sights, sounds and consequently the smells that only New York can offer. (see Subway above).

Next week we’ll be in the capital of Iceland. Reykjavik is the world’s northernmost capital. It boasts a population of 200,000. More people take the #6 train in Manhattan every day…

We’ll see you there!

-DH