Our flight to go home was late in the afternoon so we had time to putter around Reykjavik before going to the airport. We checked out of our Guesthouse with time to spare. I paid our bill in cash, with a pile of kroner I’d taken out across two different atm transactions because, apparently, the limit on international withdrawals is really, really low. Paying in cash got us a 5% discount though, so our already absurdly cheap hotel came out even cheaper. Also, I finally got to meet the mysterious voice from the other end of the phone, and initiated into yet more secret-agent codes-to-open-safes-to-open-locked-closets craziness so we didn’t have to haul our luggage all around Reykjavik that morning.
We opted to have lunch at a café we’d passed a dozen times called Mmmmmm. It was, not surprisingly, yummy. Their chocolate cake was also good, as were the sandwiches/wraps we got there. I think the coffee was good but since I didn’t have any I’m just repeating things I vaguely remember somebody else saying while I was distracted with the Icelandic version of a Mexican wrap. (For being a tiny country full of white people, it’s surprisingly easy to eat good ethnic food in Iceland).
Watts wanted to check out a comic book store we’d passed several times that had this great mural with Superman and Rogue painted on the outside. The problem was, we weren’t quite sure where it was that we’d passed it, though we had a vague sense of “over that way.” There was a slight problem wherein I got distracted on the way there. Here’s why.
Look, a mountain
That Wednesday definitely had the chilliest weather of any of the days we spent in Reykjavik, though I don’t think it was as cold as the sleet storm at the Blue Lagoon. The wind was blowing ferociously, and it got worse as we went closer to the water. But, once we got to the water, there was this very cool statue thingie waiting for us.
It’s meant to look like a viking ship
I think it looks a bit like reindeer antlers too.
Watts and Don had faithfully trudged on to the comic book store while Sylvie and I were distracted by the pretty things. it was a further iteration cold-induced male frailty, I think. Sylvie and I missed nothing by braving wind and weather for pretty pictures, however, because we reached the comic book store to find Don and Watts sitting in the parking lot. There were, in fact, several groups of people waiting in the parking lot. None of the stores in the strip were open, and apparently there were many people who wanted to shop in these stores. I took a look at the strip and at the people waiting in the parking lot and decided that the hand bag store must be very popular.
Iceland is so much cooler than the states. The crowd was there for the comic book shop. And this shop was cooler than its state-side ilk. It wasn’t a mere comic book shop, no, it was a den of geek-media. Movies, magazines, books, games, paraphernalia, the whole nine yards. The prices were exorbitant (silly importing things to an Island driving up prices) and I was confused by the part where they had US editions of some things and UK and European versions of others (which is not normally how the publishing world works) but it was all very cool.
From thence we still had time to kill, so we ducked inside Hakrim’s Kirkja, aka Hakrim’s church. It’s one of the most prominent features of Reykjavik’s skyline due to both being one of the tallest buildings, and being on top of a hill. It’s the steeple in the background of the antler photo. It was very plain on the inside, the giant pipe organ by far being the coolest feature inside it.
Cool organ
Outside of Hakrim’s Kirkja is is the only boring statue picture I’m going to inflict on you. It’s a statue of Leif Eriksson, given to Iceland by the US to honor the 800th anniversary of the discovery of “Vineland.” I don’t have a lot to say about this photo other than, damn, Leif Eriksson is portrayed as an attractive man.
See that manly pose
One more picture of Reykjavik, totally gratuitous
We grabbed lunch at a sandwich stand selling “boat” sandwiches. Mine was full of meat and cheese, along with the traditional Icelandic sandwich topping of hard boiled egg which is a really great way of boosting the protein content of a veggie-focused sandwich, should you ever choose to order one. We caught our ride to the airport, and my camera battery finally died, one week and 1000 pictures after the last time I’d charged it. This means you do not have pictures of the first class seats we got bumped to. We were only bumped to the seats, though, not to first class itself, so I got to watch other people eat steak on the way back. Customs consisted of people in uniform yelling at us for inexplicable reasons, but was otherwise painless. And thus concluded the epic trip to the land of saga.
Anaea Lay 