Mr. Tree lamp by Tulipop. The next time I need a $150 lamp, he's coming home with me. I opted for the $10 key ring instead.
Icelandic rune to aid in seeing ghosts.
Creature art sculptures made of fish bones in a design/home goods store.
Becca and her new pet.
Dead Gallery's signage.
We meet Kate and Molly at the Lebowski Bar, which is a Big Lebowski-themed bar and restaurant. I learn that Icelandic restaurants aren't into having huge menus and aren't big on customization of orders, but the burgers are great as-is and I have the best milkshake of my life.
Lebowski Bar napkins.
We are joined by Renee at Lebowski Bar. She got in on a flight that morning and took the bus straight to meet Kate and Molly at the walking tour. I know she has a lot of international travel experience, but I'm still impressed by how no-big-deal she makes taking multiple busses and navigating weird streets alone. She needs to go to the apartment to drop off her luggage, and the group tries to give her directions, but I'm stressed out listening to them. I decide to be brave and say I will take the bus with Renee to the apartment, drop her off so she can sleep, and pick up my own luggage to take the hostel I'm staying in for the next 4 nights. (The apartment we rented only allows five, so I'll be in my own place until we move.) We each spend about $45 for 3-day city bus passes, which get you unlimited bus rides and discounts at some museums. I'll take the bus exactly twice and make it to only one museum that offers a discount before it expires.
Street art at a bus stop near our apartment.
I take the bus back to the outskirts of downtown. My hostel is on the opposite end, a little under two miles away. I feel very brave and strong as I walk alone with my luggage, navigating street signs that all blend together in a mix of consonants and Swedish Chef-sounding suffixes. My arms and shoulders ache. I run into my four friends about halfway into my walk as they leave a museum, and they offer to walk with me, but I'd rather do it myself. They show me where we're meeting for dinner, and I keep walking to my hostel. The streets confuse me, and I overshoot my destination, but I walk past a great mural on my way back. I check in to my first ever hostel and make a bee-line for an open bottom bunk in the 10-woman dorm. I'll hit my head on the top bunk at least twice a day for the next four days.
Bizarre barfing spaceman mural near my hostel.
I go to the restaurant we're meeting at. Apparently, it doesn't have a name, you just kind of have to know about it. The building has a name, and there are three floors, with a bar on top and food/bar on the main and basement levels. It's beautiful inside, dark and moody. It's also packed. I'm confused, since there's no restaurant name to ask if I'm in the right place, but I find a person on the main level and ask if they can seat 6 for dinner. A man brusquely laughs and says if we don't have a reservation, then no. But he asks a woman if she can squeeze us in, and she seems annoyed but takes me to a table. Once away from him, she's so kind and friendly, and tells me that they don't have space but she'll make space for us if we can eat fast: this table is reserved in an hour for another party. I feel raw anyway, and her kindness makes my eyes water. I wait about 10 minutes for my friends, but we don't have international cell service, so I can't tell them I have a table for us. I check my notes from earlier, and apparently we're supposed to meet on the third floor. I find my nice server lady and tell her that I was wrong, I was supposed to meet my group upstairs and I'm sorry for the trouble. She is still so kind and tells me to have a good evening and I find my group. Apparently, they had come in, been told there was no room for us, and gotten a drink upstairs to wait for me.
Outside, Becca has lost her new bus pass. I can feel her frustration, but Renee insists we just go back to where we purchased them and ask if they can help us. The woman at the desk is so kind, and simply issues Becca a new pass for no additional charge. It feels great to have shop keepers be so trusting, to expect honesty.
We pick a new place for dinner, and it's nice. It's a hipster beer bar attached to a hip-looking hostel, and I think the nation's supply of flannel is packed in this one space. It has a beautiful view of the harbor.
New dinner place. For no particular reason, they have at least two maps of Philadelphia on the walls. They also serve the group's favorite orange soda, Appelsin, which I keep thinking is apple juice because of the name.
Kate in a hole in a sculpture of a rock on the boardwalk by the harbor in a city by the sea.
It's getting dark, and I have to find my way back to my hostel alone. I feel very grown-up and cosmopolitan, navigating a foreign city alone in the dark. I stop by the Harpa, Reykjavik's convention center/concert hall. It's made of glass- these hexagonal, faceted jewels. Each has a neon rod inside of it, and colored lights play across the building at night. It's hard for me to photograph well, but it's beautiful to watch.
The outside of the Harpa at dusk. This is someone's video of the lights from the inside. This is a different video of the lights from the outside.
David Bowie, Session, is currently at the Harpa.
I found a Geocache nearby.
It's quite cold now, and I make my way back to my hostel. There's a sweet couple, walking in front of me. He must be over 6 1/2 feet tall, and she's very tall as well. He must be Nordic, with his build, his huge blonde beard and long hair. They're wearing matching Lopapeysa. I miss Jason so much I want to cry again. My hostel has one bathroom for all 10 of us women, and the water smells sulfurous, like much of the water in Iceland. A new girl arrives every 2 hours from 10PM till 4AM the next morning. I think of all the places they're coming from and all the people they might miss.
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