ICELAND SAGA: The Last Day

For our last day in Reykjavik we decided to explore a little bit more of the city, low key style--no guided tours, no expensive tickets.  We spent the morning roaming a courtyard of sculptures by Einar Jonsson (one more time for kicks: Einar, son of Jon!), which was waaaay more interesting than I expected.  This man was a talent, as you can see.  I wish I would have photographed the titles of these pieces, as it having been three months since I've seen them I can't really remember.  I wish I could, because the titles are what really provoked me to study the piece I was viewing at the time.

  

 

OK, check out the musculature on this beefy fellow!

Side view of a sculpture.

And the back.

I know this piece is titled Grief.  I think I can confidently say this is my favorite.

Spring? The Birth of Spring? Something like that.

Evolution

This one should be titled Raaaaaaaaar!

This one should be titled Gross Man Acting QUITE Inappropriately with Bull.  As you can see, Joe is shocked.  Disturbing.  Just nasty!

Sparks.  This depicts the birth Aphrodite.

After the Einar Jonsson sculptures, we made our way to a super old cemetery we had seen a week prior while walking home from that joke of a "World's Largest Pub" trip after I tinkled in the trees.  You can see why it caught our attention.  We just had to go back during the day and explore.  Some of the headstones we saw were from the late 1700s.  I love that the cemetery looks like it's in the middle of a forest.  And everything was covered in moss.

OK, here's something we immediately noticed about Reykjavik: there were cats everywhere.  We would be walking along a neighborhood street and encounter three different cats.  Most of them had collars on, so I wasn't worried that they were homeless, and most of them were quite sociable.  They gave us our cat fix while we were away from our Francis and Sherman cats.  This little guy was guarding the cemetery, we figured.

As we left the cemetery it started to rain, so we took shelter at what had become our favorite coffee place of the trip, Babalu.  I loved the eclectic decoration of the cafe.  There was a shelf dedicated to Flintstone paraphernalia, none of the tables matched, and several of the walls were covered in maps or record album sleeves.  I loved it.  I want whoever decorated that place to come to my apartment and do whatever he wants to it.  And the soy lattes were delish!

After the cafe we went to Bjarni Fels Sports Bar to watch a soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester United.  Despite the game being preseason and neither of the teams being from Iceland, there was still quite a turnout at the bar.  It was really fun to be a part of; to be among a group of people that really got riled by the game.  The only other international soccer game I had ever taken the time to watch was between Germany and some other country while Joe, Joe Jovanovich, and I killed time before a wedding while in Wichita, KS.  As you can imagine, the audience wasn't nearly as enthusiastic. I did not take pictures here, because I would have felt like a creepy tourist.

As we walked around the city that evening I began to regret not having taken more pictures of the neighborhoods.  We were having so much fun traveling and vowed to continue on to other countries, and I decided I should do that ever so cliche act of making sure to take pictures of a certain something in each country we go to.  So here are some items to consider repeating in the future:

City Hall.  I want to know why St. Louis' city hall isn't sitting on top of water, because this was so cool.

Residential window.

Pay toilet!  Or, more specifically, Joe about to go into a pay toilet.

The grocery store we often visited to buy more Ramen because there weren't many restaurants with vegan options.  In this case, the local 10/11.

A typical neighborhood street, of course.

This doesn't fit into any category.  I just liked that there was a bird on every post.

An exit sign

The following morning we left for Keflavik airport.

Um, WHY did we carry so much stuff?

The ride home was fairly uneventful.  The lines were long, and, I'll just say it, Customs was a bitch.  Soooo, I guess that's it?  This is the end of the Iceland posts?  Hang on, I'm asking Joe if he has any final thoughts.  He says he was a little put off by how touristy the country was; it felt like Jamaica or something (I agree).  He's really glad we went because he's always been interested in Iceland and wanted to see the country, and it's hard to believe that we actually got to go.  We both know there are definitely some things we learned about ourselves as travelers and as a couple.  Overall, I had a great adventure.  If you followed all the posts you know there was a lot to do and a lot to take in.  There was so much gorgeous scenery and lots of interesting things to do.  So, as my last official sentence on the subject: Iceland was WONDERFUL!

ICELAND SAGA: Revisiting Akureyri's Botanical Garden and Getting Back to Reykjavik

On our last morning in Akureyri we just had to go back to the Botanical Garden and see the bees again--plus, I was going to kick myself if I didn't take some decent pictures of those amazing flowers.  We encountered something I had never seen before.  An overwhelming majority of the busy bees we had seen working away two days before were resting on the flowers.  Do bees do this in the morning?  I was almost sure the first one I saw was dead, but I soon realized there were a ton of bees like this.  I guess they knew I was coming and decided to pose for me to make photographing them easier.

 

I love this picture.  The fence going around the perimeter of the garden was so neat.  This shot was taken from the outside looking into the garden.

Here's a wider shot of the fence.

Our guesthouse here was my least favorite: it was a little far from town, the shower backed up quickly (gross), and worst of all the hot tub was empty--as if we wouldn't notice!

 

Once we made our way back to Reykjavik we were greeted with the tail end of the Gay Pride Festival.  Unfortunately we missed the parade, but we did get to see crowds of people making their way to the city center for a free concert (of music that we could not understand the words to).

That evening we went to the outskirts of the city to take a dip in their once beachy-type geothermal pool.  That long pool of water was nice and warm, but not hot.  I didn't have the guts to walk wet in mid-50 degree weather to the open water.  I was confused as to whether or not that water was chilly, save for that small circle of water marked by those three little poles.  I guess I'll never know.

Joe was determined to, at some point on our trip, go to a "Euro Trash Bar," and he had his eyes set on the bar at Hotel 101 from day one.  We have enough class that we didn't take pictures inside, but that didn't stop us from taking pictures by the sign outside.  Our martinis cost $18 a piece.
 


The next Iceland post will be the last one, folks!  Woo hoo!