Day Two: Day One

I woke up this morning far earlier than I wanted. Considering an 11 hour lay over, not getting in until 2 am, and mostly the 11 hour lay over, I was disappointed to have to get up. I had to be at the Grapevine offices at 13:00, so I had a lot of time to kill, and I did it by being extremely nervous to walk in to the offices and eating an organic barley breakfast mix provided by the hostel I'mstaying at (in retrospect, I'm not sure if breakfast was included...but it was still good.)

When, finally, the time came to go, I bought myself a day bus pass (which is worth it if you're going to ride the bus more than twice that day, which I definitely was because I have an appointment to check out an apartment), I got on the bus and thought "...I don't even really know where to go once I get off this bus." Magically, though, I ended up in front of Hafnarstraeti 15, and was met with this:

Hornið Restaurant. Immediate panic. Did my editor-

in-chief give me the wrong address? Was this all a joke? Did I even really have an INTERNSHIP?! Then, I remembered from looking on the map that the tourist information center was very near by

.

Less than a minute later, I walk in to the Tourist center and ask them about it. They have no idea what I'm talking about. I start getting hot with embarrassment. The kind lady pulls up the webpage looks through it and laughs "Ah! This explains it. The offices are the door NEXT to the restaurant. Same building, different establishment."

...Oh.

I turn back around, and realizing I actually have about an hour to kill, I go into Eymundsson Bookstore and read a little Lord of the Rings before I

make my way up three flights of steps to discover THIS:

I am sure what I felt when I saw this door is comparable to that of a Spirit realizing they've gone to heaven. Yes, I'm going there. I was SO relieved. I get in there, meet a few people, and after about two hours of getting to know the place, Haukur, the editor-in-chief walks in and invites us all out to coffee. Cool.

We head down to Coffee and I realize what we're really doing is having a meeting. After sorting out some logistical things (The Grapevine Card, New e-mail address, etc.) He looks at me and the following conversation takes place:

"Alessio, would you like to go to the Reykjanes peninsu

la and the Blue Lagoon tomorrow at 9 am? You will see: bubbling hot springs, dramatic lava fields, migratory birding cliffs, lonesome lighthouses..."

"...Sure."

"OK. Make sure you're at BSí by 9 am tomorrow. Otherwise...that would be pretty embarrassing for you."

"All right."

He proceeded to explain to me the logistics of writing a Travel article for the Reykjavik Grapevine. So...first assignment: assigned. I get to go see a part of Iceland (where I've actually already partially been) and write about it.

I also found an apartment later that day and after all th

ese activities, I was famished. I stopped at this place:

SNAELAND VIDEO. With ice cream cones on either side and burgers in the window. I was like "...Why would they name a burger place Snaeland video?" Oh, I found out. This place is NOT just a burger joint. For 690 ISK, I got a reasonably sized burger, fries, and a half liter beverage. But I noticed that they also had an ice cream counter. And a video store. AND a candy shop.

This place was four different establishments rolled into one. It was so funny. The burger was decent.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will have pictures from all these places that I am going. Should be legendary. =).