My Rey or the Highway - Iceland, Day 3

I woke up to the aftermath of the snow storm, which I found out was a record-breaking 20 inches, the most Iceland has seen since 1937.  It felt like an apocalypse (snowpocalypse?), with huge piles of snow on the streets and covering cars, buildings, traffic lights, everything.  I spent half an hour in the morning helping my hostel mate shovel out his car, something I don't think I've done before.









Walking on the streets felt like a ghost town.  Since barely any cars were on the roads, it felt pointless to abide by the traffic lights.  Also, the unshoveled snow at some areas were so high that it made it difficult to walk around.  Unfortunately, when packing, I didn't have the foresight to bring taller boots.  This made for miserable walking conditions for me that day.

Even this kid was out shoveling snow.

I really wanted to go to the cultural museum (I love those), but it was pretty far away and the buses weren't running in the morning.  Their winter hours are very limited - they only give guided tours at 1pm, so it was clear that I wasn't going to make it.  There was also a chance that, due to the storm, it wouldn't be open.

I ended up meeting up with two of my hostel mates, and we decided to go to Videy Island, the mountain that I see outside my hostel window.  To get there, you have to take a ferry.  So we trudged through the snow piles to the ferry stop, only to learn that it was closed and we'd have to make our way to the other stop, quite a distance away.  We made a long (to me) walk to the bus stop, where we'd ride and get off, then walk again to the ferry station.  I was (am?) too lazy for this trip, so the poor boys heard me struggling.

The ferry stop that wasn't open

Passed by the concert hall.

Look how much snow there is.

Since it'd taken us so long to get to the ferry, there was only one more trip of the day, so our time on the island was limited.  It was only a five minute trip, though.  There were a couple other groups in the ferry with us.

You can see a bit of the ferry on the right.

Since we were on the last ferry drop off, there was also only one more ferry pick up for the day.  So we just had about 45 minutes to explore before having to get picked up.  The snow was so high and it made it difficult to walk around, especially since the snow on the island was largely untreaded.  Somehow I ended up as the first one out of the ferry so everyone else had to follow behind me on the one path up.  I was really slow and turned around and saw an equally slow line behind me - embarrassing. I blame the short legs.  I think one group even turned around right away and took the ferry back without even going anywhere on the island.  I'm imagining it went something like this.  (Takes a glance around.)  "NOPE.  PEACING OUT."



It took a long time to walk, since the snow was so deep and I was either sinking forward or sloshing around, akin to a newborn giraffe.  I kept having to scoop snow out of my boots and after a while, I just gave up and walked with snow-filled boots.  Although there's a few things on the island, including an Imagine Peace tower from Yoko Ono, we only had enough time to walk up to an isthmus and then walk back.  That took about 45 minutes.

So. Much. Snow.

Once we got back from the ferry, it took forever to get to the hostel.  There were three different times of waiting for the buses to stop, only for them to pass by us.  Apparently they weren't running that route on the weekend or something.  Needless to say, with wet, cold socks, I was highly annoyed and feared losing toes to frostbite.  We walked what felt like miles back to the hostel and I couldn't wait to change, shower, and pass out.  Day over!

Rey(kjavik) to Go - Iceland, Day 2

Here's the gist of this blog entry: I went to a lot of museums and here's what I saw.

The day after the wind storm, the weather was great.  Little did I know that this was the most walkable day of my time in Iceland.



When I'm asked what I like to do when traveling, I'm not always sure what to answer, since I'm not a beach person, I'm also not very outdoorsy, and I like cheap food with cheese but am not a foodie.  I realized that I love weird things - that's my favorite.  So I was really excited when I heard that Reykjavik has a penis museum, because that's definitely weird.



To be honest, it's probably the thing I was most excited about seeing in Iceland.  I was warned that it was small, to which my hostelmate quipped, "And no one likes a small.. museum."  It wasn't particularly thrilling - it was various animal parts and memorabilia, like artwork and novelties.

I think this is from a whale.

This shot is blurry because someone was coming behind me and I was embarrassed.

There was also a section of fictional penises.  This is a merman's penis.  The display with an elf penis was empty.

After that was Culture House.  It was standard museum fare, but two pieces stuck out to me for their absurdity.

Sometimes I feel like this.

And this.

After this was the Reykjavik Art Museum, which was much more interesting, since it was modern art.  Some of the stuff was pretty weird but I love that.

I need something like this in my room.  Except that pie needs to be mac 'n cheese.

Or this.  Glorious cheese and food everywhere!











This one was super strange.  A video of women getting covered in frosting and the end result.





It wasn't clear what this was.



After this was the Settlement Museum, which was pretty neat.  In 2001, there were archaeological remains found, so the museum was built around the ruins, which was dedicated to explaining what the original settlement would have looked like.

I didn't get pictures of the main museum, so here's a couple I pulled online.





Since I mostly like fun things, I did take pictures of the kids corner.  I may or may not have put on the helmet and started flinging around the weapon.



After this, I went to the National Museum, but they don't let you take pictures anywhere in there.  It was interesting because it talked about the role of religion and vikings and how it influenced Iceland.  On the way back, I passed by the lake.





Made my way back to the hostel as another storm was starting to head in.



I woke up in the middle of the night during the storm.  The sky was so pretty, it was so orange and I had to take pictures.  You can't really see the sky in these pictures, though.  But as someone who doesn't see snow that often, it felt magical to see a ton of snowball in the middle of the night when everyone else was sleeping.