South Coast
Trolls definitely live in Iceland. I left 2 socks before going to bed and found only one in the morning. It was a warm night and I kept a small window pane open in my room, probably enough for a troll to squeeze in.
On my last day in Iceland, I had a few hours in the morning to explore Reykjavik, world’s most northerly capital. It has the population of a little over 100,000. One can guess that it is not a big city.
In the beginning, Reykjavik was a large farm. In the 18th century, it belonged to the King of Denmark. Then it was donated to a firm that developed Reykjavik into the largest town in the country. In 1801, Reykjavik became the capital of Iceland.
As it is not old as other European cities, Reykjavik does not have the typical center with cozy, narrow streets. The Icelanders lived in turf houses until the 19th century when they switched to building stone houses. In the 1860s, British merchants brought a new material – corrugated iron that became popular in Icelandic harsh conditions.
Reykjavik’s waterfront was a nice place for walk. The views of the Kollafjörður fjord are magnificent and there are also contemporary sculptures along the way to admire.
Reykjavik does not have many museums but one of them is unique. It is the Icelandic Phallological Museum with a collection of penises of all land and sea mammals that can be found in Iceland including Homo Sapiens.The museum is not about what comes to mind first. It is rather educational. Where else one can see horse penises flavored with salt, sage, thyme, dill, nutmeg, rosemary, oregano and marjoram? The largest specimen is an elephant penis that can weigh more than 30 kg (60 pounds) when erect. An elephant has high motion control over it and can use it to scratch places that otherwise are hard to reach.
Iceland was the last stop of my summer trip to Europe during which I also visited Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Russia and Bulgaria. I flew home on Icelandair, a budget airline that has direct flights to Denver. It was the first time I was flying with them and I am happy to say that I liked their service.