Woke up to more roommates – magically gifted from the roommate fairy or late-night flight arrivals? Hard to say, but either way, my room is starting to fill up.
Over breakfast, Leena and I set our minds on a massage at Laugardalur, because they are very reasonably priced. We had the hostel front desk call for us, to avoid any mistranslation. 4:15 were set, so we each set off on our days, to meet up later.
I started a self-guided walking tour, then came upon Settlement 851 Museum and went in. It’s the remains of a settlement (from about 851 – haha!) which was found beneath the streets when another building was doing renovations. It was a really cool exhibit. I continued on my walking tour, around The Pond and then wandering the back streets of the town. With its size and easily seen landmarks, it’s hard to get lost, or if you do, to stay lost for very long. Found a new way to Kaffi Loki, and stopped in for coffee and skyr. I really like it, and it is surprisingly filling! It’s similar to greek yoghurt, but next to no fat and high in protein. The guy at the next tar ventured to try fermented shark, and I could smell it from my table. He said it was terrible, as I guessed from the putrid smell wafting from his table.
I left in search of cool yet affordable jewellry, but opted for buying lava rock beads and supplies to make my own (seeing as earrings started at 4500 krona).
All shopping done, I started walking to Laugardalur, and met up with Leena for massages. But when we went to pay, the price was more than double what we expected! After a few minutes of discussion, we left the pissed off spa clerk and headed to the hot tubs instead, saving ourselves 3000 krona from the original massage price and 6500 krona from the surprise price!
After 90 min of soaking up the warmth and sun (outdoor temp -1C), Leena had hit her limit (amateur!) and so we left. The walk back was brutally bitter, although it didn’t really hit me for the first 15 min because of the hot tubs. The thought if BBP hotdogs kept me going, and when we got there, I was not disappointed. It’s crazy how busy that place is, for being a 3m by 3m box! There seems to be a constant stream of people from morning to late evening, eating outside in the cold or on the roadside in their cars. I’m gonna miss it!
Later that night, I went to a comedy history show about Iceland (Let’s Talk). It was above the Dubliner, in a bar / hall called Vikingakrain. It runs every night at 8pm. I tried to get some others to go with me, but in the end I headed out myself. And then watched the show myself. And by “myself” I mean that no one else came to the show that night! Haha! It was just me and the one -woman show. I thought it might by awkward but it was really awesome, and the actor did a bang-up job of the full Icelandic history in an interesting and engaging way! I highly recommend it if you’re ever there.
After my personal show, I hung out in the hostel lounge until midnight-ish, when some of us bundled up and ventured down to the dock, hoping to see the Northern Lights. Sadly, no one told them we were coming and they were a no show 😦 surprisingly, even at half past midnight it wasn’t fully dark! The darkness forecast for the evening was 12:00 – 3:50, with sunrise at 5am.
Hit the sack, with my earplugs in and my night mask on (to block out the early sun).