Somehow we make every trip about photos and food.

Apparently Pokin wasn’t happy with feeding my bud cold cinnamon buns on his first day here, so we decided to head back to Reykjavík and to Braud again. This time we were hoping to land some fresh hot cinnamon buns.

We were also going to meet up with Anna and Adam, my bud’s sister and her boyfriend who were just getting into town.

We parked right by Hallgrimskirkja, Iceland’s largest church because of the free parking, or as my bud said instead so we could “abuse the good will of the holy house.”

Hallgrímskirkja is one of Iceland’s tallest structures, at 74.5m or 244 feet tall. The church is named after Icelandic poet and clergyman Hallgrímur Pétursson. Construction of the church started in 1945 and ended in 1986, meaning it took 41 years. Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran church, which explains the austerity of the church’s interior and exterior.

Ok enough of the church.

To cinnamon buns. There was a line. Good sign.

Pokin and Adam went inside the store, where they tried to tell her they didn’t have hot cinnamon buns. All the while Pokin said she was staring at an oven full of baking cinnamon buns.

“How long till those are ready?” She asked, pointing to the buns in the oven.

“About a minute.” Was the response.

“I’ll wait,” said Pokin.

“Me too, can I change my order?” said the person right in front of her that had settled for cold cinnamon buns.

So they waited less than a minute and were shortly rewarded with hot cinnamon buns.

I took a sniff. Not bad, but I’m holding up for cocoa.

“What do you think?” Pokin asks eagerly. “Better than before?”

“I guess,” was all my bud would declare.

Then we started wandering through town. We started down the main road from Hallgrímskirkja, which was painted in rainbow colours in honour of Iceland’s annual Gay Pride festival.

We next wove our way past the Prime Minister’s house and the Parliament building before ending up here. Pokin wanted to take my bud and I to a hotdog stand.

Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, meaning “The City’s Best Hotdog” is a popular tourist destination. The stand has been there since 1937, and the recommended way to eat it is eina með öllu, or one with everything.

The “everything” is a lamb sausage, a kind of remoulade, ketchup, mustard, raw onions, and fried onions. Even Bill Clinton has gotten hot dogs from this stand but apparently he only got his with mustard. Blasphemy!

They make them fast!

And my bud ate his hotdog fast!