Day 16 – 2012/August/13

                It was another slow, rejuvenating day.  

                Breakfast was shared with 2 couple from Lithuania – a guy, his wife, and his parents.  It was fun listening to them talk and laugh with each other in their native tongue, and then swap over to English and talk together for a bit.  I think I have heard more languages spoken over the last couple weeks than I have ever heard before.

Class was a lecture in the morning with a trip to the Reykjavik Water Works in the afternoon.  I gave a little recap on the engineering concepts of heat transfer we had discussed in class to some of the other students.  Mircea and I had planned on cooking dinner – one of Roro’s guests brought her some pasta;  but Roro does not particularly like pasta.  I stopped by the grocery on the way home and bought some bacon (per Mircea’s request) and tomato sauce.

And of course, a spaghetti that is made with bacon is a little hard to despise.  Mircea loved it.  I enjoyed it.  And Roro even liked it as well.

Overall, it was a good way to spend a rainy day in Reykjavik.

Day 17 – 2012/August/14

                The day started off rainy (typical Icelandic weather), which moved Mircea from his adamant stance of taking my climbing rope bouldering today next to the University.  I was pleased since I was not in the mood for climbing today.  Instead, Mircea was bent on going whale-watching.  I gave in to the idea.

                Class was short and I spent some time discussing engineering with Mircea afterwards.  I went for a short time to another session of Icelandic lessons before leaving early and going to the harbor with Mircea.  Mircea had planned on going whale-watching with his friend Emilia (from Romania and moved to Iceland some time ago); but the weather had been bad when they had planned to go before.  Now she was away on vacation herself, but had given Mircea two coupons- one for a free whale-watching tour, the other for a free puffin-watching tour.  Somehow, Mircea had gotten it into his mind that the ticket was good for 2 people.

                I called to make the reservation and Mircea handled the negotiations at the reception kiosk.  “Isn’t this good for two people?”

                “No.”

                “Well, I have this other free ticket for puffin-watching;  could we use it and then split the difference.”

                “Well, the last day for puffin-watching is tomorrow; and it costs less.”

                “Yes- can we split the difference?” Mircea retorted most bluntly.

                “No;  why don’t I just give you 2 tickets for the whale-watching tour?”  8000 ISK saved…

                The weather had turned out to be absolutely gorgeous.  The sun was beginning to hang low in the sky as we set out to sea, leaving some magnificent colors and sun rays pouring out from behind the moderate cloud cover.  We saw several Minke whales (and smelled them, too, where the rhyme “stinky minke” was repeated by our lady tour guide;  which has even more a peculiar ring when spoken with an Icelandic accent) and had a pleasant trip overall.  I went to the lower deck for some hot chocolate (complementary) since the breeze was getting a little chilly.  A girl that was taking pictures on the top deck was now sitting at a table;  she and I had exchanged a few words while scanning the horizon for surfacing whales.  I sat at the table and struck up a conversation.

                Kirstin is from Austria, stopping over in Iceland for several days on her way back from Boulder, Colorado.  She had been attending a summer school course in Boulder, also in Renewable Energy technologies, though it was focused on PV cells.  She is a chemist in Austria working with similar technologies.

                We followed up the tour with a quick bite from a street vendor making the Icelandic version of Philly Cheesesteaks (with a variety of meats and vegetables on the menu); and decided an hour in the nearby swimming pool would be well spent.  And thus we relaxed and lounged in a hot tub with a bunch of Icelandic words for an hour.  Mircea went for a few laps in the pool, and I continued watching over the pool area, listening the kids in the pool screaming at each other perfectly understandable to me, though unintelligible…  though I could imagine some of the meaning:  “Not fair!  Not fair!”

                The Lithuanians left this morning- they were taking a trip around the Ring Road to see the rest of Iceland (they decided their 1.5 days in Reykjavik had been enough to see all they wanted to see).  Tonight (and just a few minutes ago), Siminola and Marcus arrived to Roro’s from Germany.  We have been chatting on and off as I’ve been typing.

                The guest house has been the most pleasant way of traveling, for sure.