Iceland, pt 2

28 Oct

We woke up before the sun and took Bus 11 to our destination. We got to see the morning commute of the local school children and some workers. Even the children are beautiful ans sweet, (usually well behaved.)

Our tour bus picked us up at Harpa, a massive, state of the art concert hall. The architecture was perfect. The outside was covered in illuminated glass panel, that shimmered colorfully, and the interior was spacious, friendly, and new.

We were greeted by our tour guide, Anna, and began our bus tour of the "Golden Circle." We were accompanied by a couple Midwest Americans, a Norwegian couple, a Spanish lady, and two couples from Britain: an older couple the south and a younger from the north.  The older couple's accents were deep and difficult to understand, but we all got a kick out of them.  The man solely referred to his wife as "sweetie," but he was a bit obnoxious. He insisted that we had Canadian accents, even though we told him we were from the US. He had some snarky remarks, saying Americans can't stand on their own two feet when we skipped on some mud walking down a sleep decline (for which he stayed in the bus, mind you).  We learned of his idiosyncrasies a bit more when he would request something to be in English instead of Icelandic when it was inappropriate and state that there was something the matter with a place if English is not widely spoken.

The younger couple just smiled and was friendly and laughed at my jokes. I liked them.

Our first stop was a geothermal/hydroelectric powerplant that harnesses the heat and hot water near a volcano to power and heat all of Reykjavik and the surrounding areas.  The society has really benefitted from this clean energy. The roads are geothermally heated, which keeps ice off the roads in the  winter. The hot water also helps power greenhouses that provide the country with fresh produce, like bananas! Most of their food is local and organic, which is impressive and delicious.

Next, we visited some waterfalls, a crater, a geyser, and the national park.  We had a lunch of fish soup and lamb soup, both of which were delicious, but overpriced like most food here.

The sights were amazing. I can't really put it into words, so we'll have to suffice with pictures.

Back in Reykjavik we got some coffee and visited the Phalloligical Museum, which, for decency and the same of my readers, I will spare the details. I will say that it was an interesting and laughable experience.

We found a shoddy little corner store and ordered "hot dogs with everything," which had mustard, fresh onion, and french fried onions (or something similar).  They were actually cheap and surprisingly delicious. We also had ice cream. Iceland had mastered the art of ice cream, tell you what.

When we finished our budget meal, we searched out the Hallgrimskirkja Church and then went home to pack. We leave for Paris at 6:30am.