Iceland- Day 3
Another slow day today! It's Sunday, so the buses were on a reduced schedule. In the morning, I went down to an area called Grandi to Elko Electronics, where I hoped I'd be able to get a memory card reader so I could transfer my pictures to my laptop. And surprise, I got one! It took a while to get back because I couldn't figure out what exactly the Sunday bus schedule was, but I went back into the store and they let me use a computer to check the bus website and figure it out. (Apparently the Sunday schedules are the same as the holiday schedules, but they don't say that on the signs posted near the bus stops or on the brochures.)
Can I just say that I love the Reykjavík public bus system? It's all very well-organized, and even though the route maps and such are all in Icelandic, they're still fairly easy to read and figure out. The drivers I've encountered have also all been very nice and helpful; if I'm not sure what stop I need or what bus to catch, they've always either had an answer for me or been able to radio someone else and ask them.
Anyway, after that, I went back to the hostel to check and see if the memory card reader worked, and it did! So here are my pictures from the past two days before I jump into today.
10/28
Reykjavík City Hostel from the front.
I mentioned going down and sitting on some rocks to read for a while; these were taken then.
Direction signs! Tún, Teigar, and Laugardalur are areas of the city, with Laugardalur being where the hostel I'm staying at is (and the first two are bus stops too). "Rvk" must stand for Reykjavík.
Just a random drawing of a pigeon on the side of a building.
Part of the lounge area (and actually where I'm sitting right now as I write this). The room through the glass doors is where most people eat breakfast, and through the smaller door straight ahead is where there's a TV (and where the French and British kids had their party last night).
This was taken from the closest bus stop that has buses that head to the city center (Laugarásvegur). Most of these stops are named after streets.
These next few were all taken from the bus as I rode around; with some of them you can tell that they were taken through the window.
That tall building is the Hallgrímskirkja, which I went to the top of the next day.
And that's it for Friday's pictures!
10/29
This was taken in the same area as the last picture in the set from 10/28; this day I actually got off the bus there and walked around.
A residential area.
The Hallgrímskirkja again!
These overhead city shots were all taken from the top of the Hallgrímskirkja.
The structure in the center foreground is part of the church.
The domed building is the Perlan, a multipurpose building that used to (and maybe still does?) double as a hot water storage area (that's what the surrounding tanks are/were for). I haven't been there yet, but I hope to go sometime this week.
The Old Harbour.
And this is when I had come down and started walking around again.
Harpa, the concert hall/conference center that I thought was a mall.
I didn't take too many pictures after that because, as I said in that day's entry, I was mostly just around houses and the like. But I did find this:
Aaaaand that's it for old pictures; now I'll keep talking about what I did today.
Taken on the bus ride back from Grandi.
I had hoped to go down to Sundahofn Harbour and take the ferry to Viðey Island, but unfortunately, the times weren't ideal: the boat only went out and returned a couple of times a day (and only on Saturdays and Sundays during the off-season), and by the time I'd finished with my memory card reader adventure it was too late to make it down to catch the last one out.
Instead of taking the bus more, I decided to do some walking around in the Laugardalur area.
The hostel from behind!
There's a public park behind RCH that reminded me a little of parts of Water's Edge Park in Plainsboro, NJ for some reason. I walked for about twenty minutes there, but didn't go too far because I had forgotten my jacket and it was coooooooold!
Some city buildings as seen from the park.
This is the computer room, where I sit a lot of the time when I'm at the hostel (I usually use that gray chair, and then pile my stuff on the chair next to it-- that's why it's turned sideways; I keep forgetting to turn it back!). The bookshelf is for all guests to use, and it's also a book swap-- you can take and keep any of the books as long as you leave one in return.
After a little while I headed out to dinner-- it gets dark at around six here, so it isn't much different from home (it does get light later in the mornings, though).
The building third from the left is the Thai restaurant that I mentioned yesterday; I went there again today, because a) I was too hungry to shop around for different places, and b) it's really, really good. I don't actually know what it's called because the name wasn't prominently displayed anywhere that I could see; the orange strip along the top just says "BAR / TAKE AWAY / THAI CUISINE" and so on.
There's Harpa down at the end there (it's next to the Old Harbour)! I considered walking down and getting some more pictures of it all lit up, but the buses were only coming every hour and I didn't want to risk missing the one I wanted. Instead, I looked at a nearby cafe/visitor's center and saw an Eyjafjallajökull t-shirt that I might buy for Jenny after I pull some cash tomorrow.
And that was basically it-- I got back to the hostel a little earlier than usual and just did some stuff here (the northern lights tour was cancelled again!). And now I'm tired so I'm going to finish this up and go to bed.
Can I just say that I love the Reykjavík public bus system? It's all very well-organized, and even though the route maps and such are all in Icelandic, they're still fairly easy to read and figure out. The drivers I've encountered have also all been very nice and helpful; if I'm not sure what stop I need or what bus to catch, they've always either had an answer for me or been able to radio someone else and ask them.
Anyway, after that, I went back to the hostel to check and see if the memory card reader worked, and it did! So here are my pictures from the past two days before I jump into today.
10/28
Reykjavík City Hostel from the front.
I mentioned going down and sitting on some rocks to read for a while; these were taken then.
Direction signs! Tún, Teigar, and Laugardalur are areas of the city, with Laugardalur being where the hostel I'm staying at is (and the first two are bus stops too). "Rvk" must stand for Reykjavík.
Just a random drawing of a pigeon on the side of a building.
Part of the lounge area (and actually where I'm sitting right now as I write this). The room through the glass doors is where most people eat breakfast, and through the smaller door straight ahead is where there's a TV (and where the French and British kids had their party last night).
This was taken from the closest bus stop that has buses that head to the city center (Laugarásvegur). Most of these stops are named after streets.
These next few were all taken from the bus as I rode around; with some of them you can tell that they were taken through the window.
That tall building is the Hallgrímskirkja, which I went to the top of the next day.
And that's it for Friday's pictures!
10/29
This was taken in the same area as the last picture in the set from 10/28; this day I actually got off the bus there and walked around.
A residential area.
The Hallgrímskirkja again!
These overhead city shots were all taken from the top of the Hallgrímskirkja.
The structure in the center foreground is part of the church.
The domed building is the Perlan, a multipurpose building that used to (and maybe still does?) double as a hot water storage area (that's what the surrounding tanks are/were for). I haven't been there yet, but I hope to go sometime this week.
The Old Harbour.
And this is when I had come down and started walking around again.
Harpa, the concert hall/conference center that I thought was a mall.
I didn't take too many pictures after that because, as I said in that day's entry, I was mostly just around houses and the like. But I did find this:
Aaaaand that's it for old pictures; now I'll keep talking about what I did today.
Taken on the bus ride back from Grandi.
I had hoped to go down to Sundahofn Harbour and take the ferry to Viðey Island, but unfortunately, the times weren't ideal: the boat only went out and returned a couple of times a day (and only on Saturdays and Sundays during the off-season), and by the time I'd finished with my memory card reader adventure it was too late to make it down to catch the last one out.
Instead of taking the bus more, I decided to do some walking around in the Laugardalur area.
The hostel from behind!
There's a public park behind RCH that reminded me a little of parts of Water's Edge Park in Plainsboro, NJ for some reason. I walked for about twenty minutes there, but didn't go too far because I had forgotten my jacket and it was coooooooold!
Some city buildings as seen from the park.
This is the computer room, where I sit a lot of the time when I'm at the hostel (I usually use that gray chair, and then pile my stuff on the chair next to it-- that's why it's turned sideways; I keep forgetting to turn it back!). The bookshelf is for all guests to use, and it's also a book swap-- you can take and keep any of the books as long as you leave one in return.
After a little while I headed out to dinner-- it gets dark at around six here, so it isn't much different from home (it does get light later in the mornings, though).
The building third from the left is the Thai restaurant that I mentioned yesterday; I went there again today, because a) I was too hungry to shop around for different places, and b) it's really, really good. I don't actually know what it's called because the name wasn't prominently displayed anywhere that I could see; the orange strip along the top just says "BAR / TAKE AWAY / THAI CUISINE" and so on.
There's Harpa down at the end there (it's next to the Old Harbour)! I considered walking down and getting some more pictures of it all lit up, but the buses were only coming every hour and I didn't want to risk missing the one I wanted. Instead, I looked at a nearby cafe/visitor's center and saw an Eyjafjallajökull t-shirt that I might buy for Jenny after I pull some cash tomorrow.
And that was basically it-- I got back to the hostel a little earlier than usual and just did some stuff here (the northern lights tour was cancelled again!). And now I'm tired so I'm going to finish this up and go to bed.