A country without money.

View of the Hallgrmskirkja church from the center

When I arrived at the Keflavik International airport in Iceland, the first thing I did was to go to the exchange office to get some money, to find out they don’t use money. They offered a prepaid card, and they explained that nobody uses money, that everybody pays with their bank card. They have these prepaid cards for tourist to use, so they don’t have to pay their banks fees every time they make a purchase.

Because my bank doesn’t charge for purchases, I did not get the card. So, I spend a week in Iceland without having physical money. It is strange at first to buy everything with a card, even if you only buying a bottle of water or food from a street vendor. Needless to say, after a couple of days, you realized how practical this system is. I did not have to figure out how much money I needed to take out or taking out not enough, or too much, I really like this system. Besides you can see all the locals paying with cards also, actually, nobody carries money.

On a day without a tour, we did the free walking tour and learned that Reykjavík means “Smokey Bay." The way these tours work is that they are free, but at the end, you tip the guide. Obviously, you cannot tip with your credit card; however, they take any kind of currency, so I tip US$ 10. (I only had a 10 or a 100, so 10 it was)

Hallgrímskirkja church.

First stop, Hallgrímskirkja church. It was designed by Guðjón Samúelsson in 1937, who was inspired by the shapes and forms created when lava cools into basalt rock, and by Scandinavian Modernism as he was seeking a distinctive style of “Icelandic architecture”, and it was named after the pastor and poet Hallgrímur Pétursson, author of the Passíusálmar (The Passion Hymns).

There is a viewing platform at the top of the tower where you can see the entire city. The price of admission for adults is ISK 1000 = US$ 9.30, and ISK 100 = US$ 0.93 for children 7 to 16, and free for children under 7.

There is an enormous organ, and they offer concerts all the time.

In my opinion, the inside of the church is very plain, it looks better on the outside.

In front of Hallgrímskirkja church, there is the statue of Leif Eriksson, who discovered North America in the year 1000, more than 500 years before Columbus.

The bay with the Theater in the backgrou

 From there a short walk to the center of town, where all the stores are, the bay, and where the theater is located. OK, this theater is supposed to be an architectural design depicting a whale. After the explanations and exerting myself to really look at it, I could see something that might resemble a whale, maybe…

Then to the lake and some very nice houses on the old part of the city, and then a nice lunch of typical lamb soup, that was excellent.

Lamb soup

We went to the theather to see a stand-up comedy