Roy Sigurd Karlsbakks blogg

I started the day with walking to Reykjavík’s largest shopping centre, Kringlan, in search for a prepaid phone card and found that (+354 615-1763), plus some new shoes. Last night, it was pouring down, and my old shoes didn’t like that took it all out on my feet.I won’t write much about Kringlan apart from that they brag loudly for being the largest shopping centre in Reykjavík, and thus, Iceland. Unfortunately this also makes Kringlan the worst rapist to the Miðbær Reykjavíkur (central Reykjavík) shopping facilities, since the shops all move out of  the city centre and over to Kringlan. No news here, I just hate when shopping centres kill cities like that.

If at a new place, do stray from the path, get lost, and eventually, you’ll know your way around the place. At least, this method is easy to follow, no stupid planning, no guides necessary and above all, it’s fun. Walking around led me to the local “forest” that has been planted around Perlan. Perlan is a view point at the top of Reykjavík with some viking museum in miniature and a rather large restaurant with restaurant-owner-friendly pricing. I wrote “forest” with double quotes, since pine trees are pretty far from native to Iceland, and do not grow very well here. The pine trees are all half dead, there’s not an ant in sight, the (imported?) crowberry and blueberry bushes look ok, but doesn’t seem to bear berries; the forest all looks sick. See the pictures for more.

It seems to me Reykjavík, and perhaps Iceland as a whole, is organised much like US cities. I have only been to the US once, but I get the same feeling. Four-lane roads are all over and even in Laugavegur, the main tourist trap street, there are cars all over. Laugavegur has only one single lane, but in all other European cities I have been, that sort of street would be closed for traffic.

Back in town, I stopped by a café, Prikið, opened up in 1951 and probably hasn’t changed much since. The loudspeakers are newer and the waitress isn’t 80, but apart from that, nothing can have changed much. The music consists of Edit Piaf and others from that era. I ordered a Stóri Djöfull tvöfaldur BBQborgari (Double Devil BBQ burger for the daring) – 1690 krónur after considering their speciality “Big Kahuna Burger & Five Dollar milkshake” (a triple mofo towerburger w/ham, cheese, bacon, pepperone, sause, lettuce, tomatos, onions and french fries) – 2690 krónur. It turned out Stóri Djöfull was a double tower, so I couldn’t even finish that. Even though this place is in the middle of Laugavegur, it doesn’t seem overly populated by tourists. Perhaps the street sign, only in icelandic, scares some. Perhaps the fact that they seem to insist on speaking Icelandic to anyone that comes by scares the rest…

roy