Iceland- Day 2
The wireless connection is being weird and the French and British high school groups have turned the lounge into a rave party, so clearly this is the best possible time for me to write up this entry.
I got up at about 9:45 this morning (but it was only just getting light out!) and, after checking my email and everything that comes with it, I walked down to the same convenience store that I went to yesterday and had a Subway sandwich for brunch. I also found out that my glacier tour ended up being cancelled for the reason, so I'm not going to go on the 31st after all. 8(
I kind of did a ridiculous amount of walking today-- I took the bus from the hostel to near this park area that I don't know the name of, then walked a bit with the vague intention of trying to find the Hallgrímskirkja (a huge Lutheran church-- it's the second tallest building in Reykjavík, so all I really had to do was follow what I saw of the tip of it over everything else). Along the way I came across this little building called Red Rock Cinema that was showing volcano documentaries. The guy running it seemed nice, and so I planned to go back at the next showtime (3:00PM/15:00) and check it out.
Then I found the Hallgrímskirkja! The chapel inside was really pretty, but again, I likely won't be able to share any of my pictures until I come back because of the whole "no USB cord" issue. I ended up staying for quite a while and just sitting up at the top (not the outdoor air part at the very top of the tower, but the heated part just under it) and reading, because it was cold outside and I wanted to warm up.
On the way back out, I was able to find the Red Rock Cinema again (I almost gave up looking, but I came across it like five minutes before the show start), and even though I was the only person there the guy, whose name was Villi Knudson, still ran the video for me. It turns out that the videos he shows ("The Volcano Show") are all ones that he made himself-- his dad was an "eruption-chaser" and he ended up following in his footsteps. There was some video from news broadcasts and the like, but most of it was shot by him or his father. Unfortunately, I ended up having to leave partway through the second one because I was worried about having time to eat dinner and then get back to the hostel in time to find out about the status of tonight's northern lights tour. I pretty much walked back the way I came-- down to the park area, past the bus stop that I had gotten off at, and into this really good Thai restaurant. Then after that I was planning to take a bus back, but it was only a bit after five and I decided that I'd rather spend more time exploring then waiting around, so I abandoned the bus stop. I looked in this volcano gift shop where they sold, among other things, hardened lava-- I was going to get some from Eyjafjallajökull for Jenny if they had any, but they didn't.
It was starting to get dark-ish by then, so I got some cool twilight pictures of Harpa, a conference center/concert hall by the harbor. (I had no idea what it was at the time-- I thought it was a mall.) Then I pretty much got myself lost by walking along the water instead of going back up by the other bus stop-- I entered a really residential area away from the main part of the city, so there were basically no other bus stops anywhere. Some of the houses were pretty cool, but I didn't want to take pictures because I didn't think that many people would appreciate a sketchy American girl photographing their homes. I did take a few of other things, though, which is when my camera did the lovely thing of informing me that my memory card was full, despite the fact that it only had seventy-three pictures on it and I've had way way way more than that on it in the past. I have no idea what's wrong with it, but tomorrow I'm going to see about either trying to find a new USB cord that'll work with it, or getting a memory card reader. I have no idea if the ones they sell here would work with American cameras, but we'll see.
Anyway, I eventually found my way to a bus stop and took it to Hlemmur (one of the main bus terminals in the city where a lot of homeless people hang out; one of them kept asking me if I had any cigarettes), where I knew I could transfer to the bus I needed to get back to the hostel. More reading while I waited. (I finished another book today too, so that's two in two days.) After getting back and finding out that the tour was cancelled again due to bad conditions, I just decided to not go out again-- it was after eight, and I was a little worried about waking up tomorrow with sore legs! So I've just been sitting here, reading more and fooling around on the internet (sup, people I've been tagging). Wheeeeee.
I got up at about 9:45 this morning (but it was only just getting light out!) and, after checking my email and everything that comes with it, I walked down to the same convenience store that I went to yesterday and had a Subway sandwich for brunch. I also found out that my glacier tour ended up being cancelled for the reason, so I'm not going to go on the 31st after all. 8(
I kind of did a ridiculous amount of walking today-- I took the bus from the hostel to near this park area that I don't know the name of, then walked a bit with the vague intention of trying to find the Hallgrímskirkja (a huge Lutheran church-- it's the second tallest building in Reykjavík, so all I really had to do was follow what I saw of the tip of it over everything else). Along the way I came across this little building called Red Rock Cinema that was showing volcano documentaries. The guy running it seemed nice, and so I planned to go back at the next showtime (3:00PM/15:00) and check it out.
Then I found the Hallgrímskirkja! The chapel inside was really pretty, but again, I likely won't be able to share any of my pictures until I come back because of the whole "no USB cord" issue. I ended up staying for quite a while and just sitting up at the top (not the outdoor air part at the very top of the tower, but the heated part just under it) and reading, because it was cold outside and I wanted to warm up.
On the way back out, I was able to find the Red Rock Cinema again (I almost gave up looking, but I came across it like five minutes before the show start), and even though I was the only person there the guy, whose name was Villi Knudson, still ran the video for me. It turns out that the videos he shows ("The Volcano Show") are all ones that he made himself-- his dad was an "eruption-chaser" and he ended up following in his footsteps. There was some video from news broadcasts and the like, but most of it was shot by him or his father. Unfortunately, I ended up having to leave partway through the second one because I was worried about having time to eat dinner and then get back to the hostel in time to find out about the status of tonight's northern lights tour. I pretty much walked back the way I came-- down to the park area, past the bus stop that I had gotten off at, and into this really good Thai restaurant. Then after that I was planning to take a bus back, but it was only a bit after five and I decided that I'd rather spend more time exploring then waiting around, so I abandoned the bus stop. I looked in this volcano gift shop where they sold, among other things, hardened lava-- I was going to get some from Eyjafjallajökull for Jenny if they had any, but they didn't.
It was starting to get dark-ish by then, so I got some cool twilight pictures of Harpa, a conference center/concert hall by the harbor. (I had no idea what it was at the time-- I thought it was a mall.) Then I pretty much got myself lost by walking along the water instead of going back up by the other bus stop-- I entered a really residential area away from the main part of the city, so there were basically no other bus stops anywhere. Some of the houses were pretty cool, but I didn't want to take pictures because I didn't think that many people would appreciate a sketchy American girl photographing their homes. I did take a few of other things, though, which is when my camera did the lovely thing of informing me that my memory card was full, despite the fact that it only had seventy-three pictures on it and I've had way way way more than that on it in the past. I have no idea what's wrong with it, but tomorrow I'm going to see about either trying to find a new USB cord that'll work with it, or getting a memory card reader. I have no idea if the ones they sell here would work with American cameras, but we'll see.
Anyway, I eventually found my way to a bus stop and took it to Hlemmur (one of the main bus terminals in the city where a lot of homeless people hang out; one of them kept asking me if I had any cigarettes), where I knew I could transfer to the bus I needed to get back to the hostel. More reading while I waited. (I finished another book today too, so that's two in two days.) After getting back and finding out that the tour was cancelled again due to bad conditions, I just decided to not go out again-- it was after eight, and I was a little worried about waking up tomorrow with sore legs! So I've just been sitting here, reading more and fooling around on the internet (sup, people I've been tagging). Wheeeeee.