Day 2. Buses, boats, old stuff, lights and common people.
I wasn't up as early as I would have liked but it was still
dark. I showered in the best shower ever and dressed for the cold, it was
forecast to be around minus 5 in the city today with lots of snow, apparently
it hasn't snowed this much in ten years ! In the hotel reception I armed myself
with a local map and a "welcome to Reykjavik" card for 2200isk or
about a tenner, this card allows unlimited access to the bus network that
includes a London underground style map that is really easy to navigate and
free entry to all the major museums and galleries, worth the money all day long
and if you ever visit Reykjavik I would urge you to buy one.
I walked into town
along the footpath that leads around the harbour offering amazing views across
to Videy island and the mountains beyond. The town, I keep calling it a town
but it is a city albeit a small one around the size of Exeter, has lots of nice
shops, cafes, bars and eating establishments, shoppers and coffee drinkers
amongst you would be more than happy, remember though that Iceland is almost a
cashless society and cards are king, don't be afraid to spend 500isk on your
card it's not an issue.
My first stop of the day was the national museum less than a
kilometre out of the centre and the other side of a now frozen lake which was
safe to walk on bar the bit the council had broken for the many birds including
geese and swans that gathered there to be fed by tourists. A couple of hours of
pondering the various exhibits in the museum found me a little hungry, so I
headed back into the middle of town to find some food. I found a popular
looking bar along the main street called Lebowski's, not only named after but
completely styled upon the Cohen brother's cult film The Big Lebowski. The food
was good and reasonably priced, the service very friendly and in perfect
English.
After I finished
lunch I headed down to the harbour area, still a working fishing port and dry
dock this is where all the cod and Pollock are landed and processed, it is also
the home of the coastguard vessels that engaged with British fishing and naval
vessels during the "cod wars" in the 1970's when Iceland expanded its
fishing territories from 5 miles to 200 miles causing uproar, the conflicts
were brief but saw boats rammed and fishing nets cut in a bitter row that is
still talked about frequently today. The main reason for the visit to the
harbour was to visit the maritime museum, small but we'll worth the visit. It
was soon time to catch the number 6 bus back to Hlemmur and then the number 12
back to the hotel, less than 24 hours and I was travelling like a local !
The temperature was slightly colder than the day before and
I knew the North-westerly wind persisted so wind chill would be a massive
factor again tonight so I decided to give mother nature both barrels tonight
and wear virtually everything I had brought with me. A thermal base layer, two
pairs of socks, two pairs of trousers, a t-shirt, a micro fleece, my parka, two
pairs of gloves and two hats should do the trick especially if as the local
guide said the wind chill would bring the temperature down to a "real
feel" minus 20. I wasn't getting dressed up like this to go out for an
evening meal, no, it was time to go searching for the lights again. I left at
8pm and after an hours drive found myself in the middle of nowhere again, in
the dark hoping that a troll wasn't about to come and prove its existence !
3 hours went by before anything happened, the sky was much
clearer than last night and there is was. A green glow dancing across the sky,
it wasn't the strongest of displays and faded after about 10 minutes, I was
disappointed to say the least. Another hour of cold and the lights came back
with a vengeance, more green, a lot brighter and a lot bigger, this is what I
had come to see. I know that I don't have the ability to describe such a
phenomenon in words so as ever I thought I would let my camera do the talking.
There was a problem. My camera was refusing to work in the
cold, I almost don't blame it. The last hope was my phone, a good camera in
itself but unfortunately not able to cope with the dark. A four hour drive, 3
hour flight, another 4 hours of travel and a total nearly 9 hours exposed to
some seriously cold weather and I could take a photo of the thing I'd come here
to see, frustrating to say the least but worth it ? You bet your life it was.
I stayed and watched for another hour until the display
faded and the clouds rolled in, time to head back to Reykjavik and celebrate,
after all it would only be 3am by the time I got there.
Reykjavik is famed for its night-life and is home to
"the coolest bar in the world" or so it is claimed. As a fledgling
city Reykjavik loves to name drop and when it comes to bars there is no
exception, this bar in particular, Kaffinbarin, is owned by Daman Albarn of the
band Blur, he apparently came here and loved it so much he bought the bar. My
opinion is that it is small (but most bars here seem to be) pretentious,
needlessly expensive and not all that friendly, I would actually go as far to say
that it was the least "cool" of all the bars I visited but what would
I know.
Dillon's whiskey bar is worth a visit, the owner Toffi is
very friendly, Lebowski's was rammed but great fun and Bravo was an absolute
beauty of a bar, again quite small but amazingly friendly, within a few minutes
of ordering a beer I had been invited to join in a drinking game with a group
of Icelandic girls and guy from the U.
All that was left was the walk home.
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