I spent the first day walking around the city and finding out what sort of things there are available. It is a 50 minute walk to get to class… Roro will drive Mircea and I to class tomorrow. We will rent bikes after class.
It was
an overcast day- raining and 55 F when I arrived… at least the drizzle stopped during my nap. The Perlon (English: Pearl) is a large artistic
building on a hill near Reykjavik University (RU). The top of it provided a nice view, as well
as the Stokur geyser next to it- a 60ft-deep well that was drilled by the University
to create their own geyser for tourists.
So it wasn’t REALLY my first geyser…
Geysir will hopefully creep into the travel plans…
I had left Roro a note saying that I would be back to
the house at 6:00 and would like to treat her to dinner (she had offered
earlier to drive me around the city and give me the brief overview and history
she knew). She admitted when I returned
that she had no idea what I had written.
Oh well. I explained… and we left
to go around the city… and drove around much of it, with several stops. It was nice to over to the black sands of the
Atlantic Ocean beach… and then over to
the yellow sand of the Heated Beach (big geothermally warmed tub that leaks
water into a small lagoon hedged in by large stones). The Heater Beach is right next to the
Univeristy- woohoo! Of course, it was “heated”
not so much to the point of being hot.
It was definitely warmer than the rest of the [local] ocean, but wasn’t
the hot tub temperature I was hoping for.
We went to a local pizzeria for dinner. She mentioned that it had been a very long
time since a young man had asked her out to dinner.
The trip around town reminded me that I should have
brought my belt along. I decided I had
nothing to fear- there is a 24/7 supermarket – Hagkaup – just down the road
from Roro’s. So at 9:00 pm at night, I
trundle over to the supermarket (still just as bright as it was when I was
tooling around town at 4:00). I bought
some Skyr (Iceland-only yogurt-like dish, but MUCH thicker. Think, yogurt paste), honey (for tea, of
course), and almost a belt. I looked at
the belts. It was a meager selection to
start with, but I found one that fit (and I need to replace one of my belts,
anyways). But the 3900 kronur price tag
put be to thinking… was I reading that right?
Yes- ~$40 USD for a belt. I think
I will find something else to make it work!
Mircea arrives in a few hours, but I am about to pass
out. It is 10:40 PM after all. Or 6:40 EDT.
I guess I will just have to meet him after I awake in the morning. Shower time and bedtime… class starts early tomorrow!
Good post, Keith.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Where is the frost line there? I remember in Alaska how the vegetation was above the frost line (I think) which limited the root growth and the short growing season made for very skinny trees (pines looked like sticks with brushes on the side). Is it like that in Iceland too?
I can't really say... it's been too cloudy to see the mountains yet. Most of the trees that are around are reasonably short, around 15' - 20' tall. But as we get out, I will try and see. I have noticed that a lot of the terrain is formed by lava flows and generally lacks vegetation from the looks of it- rather, they only have moss growing on it. As we trek closer to the mountains, I will try to learn more.
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