Departing from New York City on Iceland Air's red-eye flight and arriving early the next morning to Kevlavik international airport, we (a bunch of friends from college) were ready for our trip to begin. With a population of only 280,000, of which two thirds live in the greater Reykjavik area, the airport wasn't bigger than your average Walmart. The shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel, 30 miles away, took less than an hour. Although we wanted to hit the ground running, we decided to take a much needed nap before we set out to explore the city.

Its brightly-colored corrugated houses lining the city streets which seemed to be straight out of a Tim Burton movie, gave Reykjavik a hometown charm. Our first stop, the Pearl, a glass domed restaurant on top of silver, circular hot water tanks, is the pride of Reykjavik's skyline. Next, we visited the ultra-modern Asmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Gallery whose most photographed statue is the nude man in front of the building. We then visited the statue of Leifur Eiriksson by the Hallgrimskirkja church, the geothermally heated pools at Laugardalur, and the half frozen Tjorn Lake in the city center, although the ducks didn't seem to mind.

In the evening, it was an hour's journey to dip in the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal pool rich in silica, salt, and other elements that is also said to have therapeutic qualities.