I had many hours to kill before meeting Sarah at the bus station, so I wandered aimlessly down little streets and enjoyed the bloomings, fun doors, various forms of personal and public art, and colorful corrugated iron siding.
I eventually ended up sitting by a little lake near the downtown for a while, just watching the birds go about their daily routines. However silly or common they may be, I don't think I will ever tire of things with wings.
(Which one is not like the others?)
This was a statue I came across outside the German consulate. It amused me.(Berlin = 2380 km.)
I went on a free walking tour of the city in the early afternoon, during which a native gave us his perspective of Icelandic history (ie. VIKINGS and the Danish), traditions, the works of "hidden people" and other spirits, and current events, such as the economic crisis. It was well-presented and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has two hours in Reykjavik to kill.
During the tour I learned that most of the architecture in Reykjavik is actually Danish or Norwegian. Many of the original settlers were people from these countries that disassembled their homes, boated the materials north, and rebuilt them here, mostly because there weren't enough trees on the island to be of any use.
Sarah arrived in the late afternoon without a hitch, so we got her settled in and then wandered and dinnered until it was time for our evening whalewatch. The weather that afternoon had improved significantly, so we decided to go on this adventure with hopes of continued sunshine and fabulous sunset action.
"Viking Life-Saving Equipment." Does this concept seem a little oxymoronic to anyone else?
Alas, no fabulous sunset action. And even worse - alas, no whales. We sailed out for several hours through progressively worsening waves (worsening depending on how queasy you were, I suppose) and saw no sign of tail, spout, or dorsal fin. The leader of our trip claimed to have seen a minke whale at one point, but we couldn't find it again after it took a dive. He said it was only the third trip this summer that had failed to find any whales, as they are usually quite abundant in this area and quite active at this time of night. One of his speculations for their MIAedness was that a pod of orcas that comes once a year had arrived, which always vacates all else from the bay.
Regardless of the slim pickin's, we still enjoyed ourselves greatly. The fact that we got to wear awesomely sexy overall parkas may have had something to do with this.
The sun finally set a little while before midnight, saying goodbye in one dramatic and orange Eye-Of-Sauron-Esque blink amongst the layers of blue and gray in the surrounding sky and seas.
After tracking down some silly little puffins, we made our way back to Reykjavik harbor 'round midnight, where they apologetically gave us free passes for another whalewatch and sent us on our way. The passes are good for two years, so who knows, I may yet see some Icelandic whale action.
A somewhat depressing tidbit of info that I learned while on this fine island is that Iceland re-legalized whaling (ie. the actual killing of whales as opposed to shooting at them with cameras) in 2007, allowing for minke whale to appear on the plates of many Icelandic restaurants. There were many signs on the whalewatching boat discouraging the sampling of this traditional delicacy.
We were both tuckered after many hours of boat-bouncing and sea winds, so we tumbled happily into our comfy beds in order to prepare for the increasingly epic portions of our adventure that we had planned for the next day.
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