Island!

Well, my grand world tour has finally come to an end...or at least a temporary end, with my final stopping point being the amazingly beautiful country of Iceland (Island in the local language, can be confusing :) )

I flew into Reykjavik, the world's most Northern Capital city, in the late evening, after over an hour and a half delay in Heathrow....seriously, I hate Heathrow, as their teleprompters just kept saying that the gate would be announced soon, and continued to do so for over an hour (after scheduled departure time) before finally announcing what gate it was leaving from, as boarding was commencing...this is the second time I've had to deal with that issue in Heathrow....but anyway, I flew into Iceland in the late evening, and wow....this picture gives you an idea of what I was in for. Keep in mind this is around 11:30 pm...

So yeah, needless to say, first impression is that damn, there's a lot of light here in the summertime...so much so that it never gets dark...pretty cool! After quickly passing through immigration (no mention of the fact that I'm out of blank passport pages, just a simple "how long are you here for" question), I was through to grab my bags and sort out a way into town to my hostel. After sorting out the Flybus system, which is a pretty handy system, where they ensure there are buses showing up at the airport for all incoming and outgoing flights to accommodate passengers, I was on the 45 minute ride from Keflavik to Reykjavik, passing through some amazing old lava fields, and enjoying some lovely views of the nearby sea.

After being dropped off at the main station, and then put into a mini van which dropped me off at the hostel door, I was ready to check in, but so were 9 others. Fortunately I was near the front of the line, but unfortunately the girl working that night was the only one there, and became quite flustered when the American guy in front of me was having issues getting his booking sorted out, as it apparently wasn't all showing up in the system, so it took about 20 minutes to sort out his booking, and hilariously enough, I soon found out that the reason it wasn't showing up was that his last name was Cohen, and the girl was pulling up my reservation for him, and ended up giving him my room and told him to come sort it out in the morning. So when I went to check in, she had to go running after him to get my actual room key back, and informed me she wasn't able to refund him, as she didn't have authorization, so my room was already paid for, but I would have to come and sort things out in the morning....I almost considered not bothering, and just enjoying having the free room, but of course I'm too honest for that! I found my room, and saw that my room key said bed number 1 on it, so I hopped into that bed, even though it had sheets and blankets on it already, and the girl said my bed wouldn't have any and she would deliver them....so I was a bit confused, but crawled into the bed and settled in for a sleep. Of course, about 15 minutes later some guy came in, and started looking at me weird, and I asked if I was in his bed, and he confirmed I was...ha ha damnit! So I had to move over to a different bed that didn't appear to be occupied, but was never brought any sheets, so it was a bit chilly that night.

The next morning I was able to touch base with an Israeli guy I had contacted through couchsurfing, who was renting a vehicle the next day, and was interested in having another person hop in since they only had two people. His partner and him decided to pop by the hostel for a meet and greet, since they were in the area, so I just hung out waiting around for them. They showed up a short time later and we sat down over a cup of coffee and had a nice little chat, getting to know each other. They were busy that day just wandering around Reykjavik a bit, and were going to be heading to the large swimming pool that afternoon, since Reykjavik is actually quite small and there isn't a whole lot to see there. I decided to wander around a bit myself, and then figured I would join them at the pool later that afternoon, so we said goodbye, and they were off. I went for a 2 hour walk around the city, and enjoyed the nice views of the smallish downtown core, while also trying to find a tshirt for my sister of some Icelandic band called Sigur Ros, but surprisingly, the one main tshirt store in town said they hadn't carried any of their shirts in 4 years...apparently once a band becomes popular worldwide, it loses its lustre in their home country!

View from in front of the hostel

Wandering around the city centre

Nice lake in the city

After my little walk around, I stopped by a small square in the city, where there was a submarine sandwich stand, so figured I would get one for lunch. They call them "boats" here, and I ordered the spiciest one on their menu, which the guy was surprised by, and told me that no one orders it because it's too spicy...unfortunately, Scandinavians really don't handle spicy food so well, so what they consider to be spicy is very very mild to my palette after several months in Asia. I ordered it anyways, and it wasn't spicy at all...silly Icelanders! After my little lunch, I wandered back to the hostel for a little bit, talked to the staff a little bit about things to see in Iceland in a week (they were so very helpful, highly recommend Kex Hostel, just for the staff alone), and just chilled out for a bit until it was time to walk down to the water park. The water park was pretty packed, as it's apparently the place to go for Reykjavik citizens. I found it a bit funny that they're quite adamant about everyone showering before entering the pool area, to the point where they actually have a man in the change room watching to make sure you shower properly before entering the pool! I arrived in the pool, and didn't see the Israelis anywhere, so I just spent most of my time hanging around the spa, admiring some of the few hot Icelandic girls. My friend Ingo believes that Icelandic women are the most beautiful ever, but I can say they are very hit and miss, as there's a few beautiful ones, but mostly not very attractive....nothing compared to Sweden, Denmark, and Eastern Europe. Anyways, after sitting around for awhile, I finally noticed the Israelis, so they came and joined me. We just sat around chatting, and went down the waterslides a few times, acting like little kids. After about 3 hours at the waterpark, it was time to head off, so we made our way back to our hotels, and agreed on a pickup time for the next day.

I ended up wandering into the kitchen area to grab some water, and started chatting with some Canadian boys who had been in Iceland for 2 weeks, and were on their last night in town. We sat down for awhile, and soon enough, several others joined their group, as they had been at the hostel for  week and had made a group of friends there, including one guy from Malta...yes, Malta....in all my travels I have yet to meet someone from there! Nice enough guy anyway. We ended up playing cards for awhile, and eventually heading out to a pub to check out the Monday nightlife....we found some small underground pub that was rocking, and got inside and found a very rowdy place! They had these light fixtures hanging from the roof, that the bar staff encouraged people to keep swinging, and kept telling people to get up on the bar and get loose...unfortunately, in Iceland, on week nights places are only allowed to serve until 1 am, and then have to kick everyone out, so we only had about 35 minutes to enjoy the wild party....the one Aussie guy was trying pretty hard to find himself an Icelandic girl, and decided to take a crack at one very large one who had an equally large friend...and the poor Malta guy had to wingman with him, but you could tell he wasn't thoroughly enjoying it! Once they punted us all outside, the two guys continued talking to these girls, when some French guys came up to us and were asking where an after party was, but since it was my first night there, I had no idea, and the Canadian boys told them there was absolutely nowhere else to go, but they wouldn't believe us....unless you actually know some Icelandic people to take you to an after party, it's definitely not possible to find an underground or illegal bar past 1 am....and it's such a weird feeling considering it's still light outside, as if it's 8 am or something, even though it's 1 am....so after watching the Aussie guy fail with the big girls, we all just wandered back to the hostel, where we hung out for a bit more in the kitchen with some Quebec guys, before being punted out of there by the girl working the night shift, so I just went back to the room. 

I didn't actually go to sleep right away, as I had hoped to stream one of the ice hockey games, but found my computer to no longer be charging and someone had plugged their iPhone into the wall socket next to my computer...thinking this a bit strange, I checked their phone and found it wasn't charging either, so I just went back to sleep. In the morning though, I did wake up a bit early, since I had to check out, and I checked into charging my computer a bit again, but while trying to plug it in, I knocked off the iPhone and it fell off the bed and onto the lower bed, hitting the person below me, oops! She passed up the phone to the girl in the bed next to me, and we got to chatting. I was kind of late checking out and a bit lazy, so I just hung out in the bed until the staff actually came in and punted me out. I wandered downstairs, and chatted a bit more with the girl from the bed next to me, and found out she was trying to make her way up North towards the Fjords, and I let her know that the Israelis might have a spare spot in the car, so I got a hold of them, and they said they weren't too sure if there was room or not, but she decided to come down to the bus station where I was meeting them, just in case there was room. We walked down there, and met the Israelis shortly afterwards, and found out that there was room in fact, so we all stuffed into the car and began our drive. 

Riding in a vehicle with people from other countries is always one of my favourite events, as you get a feel for how people drive in their native countries, and the Israeli guy was pretty terrible ha ha....it took about 15 minutes before I had to tell him about the cruise control, as he would start to speed and suddenly hit the brakes and slow down abruptly to get his speed in check. Then, when we would be approaching curves in the road, he would hit the brakes hard and go around the corners doing 30 km/h or so, rather than continuing his normal cruising speed...almost as if there's no curved roads in Israel or something ha ha....then, if he saw something or his partner saw something they wanted a picture of, he would just hit the brakes real hard and suddenly stop and park on the side of the road...it was quite hilarious, but a bit harrowing at times! We made several stops to take photos of the amazing scenery, as seen here: 

Lovely countryside

Fairly diverse landscape, flatlands surrounded by mountains

Can also become a bit dreary

Old lava field

Near Grundarfjordur

We did stop at a rather small town halfway towards our destination of Grundarfjordur, as the Israelis had read about some museum that had a great cafe with a tasty lunch, but I had already had my lunch at the bus station, not knowing we would be stopping, so I didn't have a chance to try out the buffet that they had. After finishing up at the museum, we wandered around the city a bit more, and then hit the road, stopping at an old crater, to contemplate climbing into it, but then it was raining and quite windy and cold, so we opted against it and just continued on towards Grundarfjordur, while I was still having a laugh over the Israeli driving, including getting our little car briefly stuck in some volcanic rock while pulling over to the side of the road for some more photos. Eventually we made it into Grundarfjordur, and after some time, we were able to find the hostel that the guys had booked a room for. I had looked online that day, but it said there were no availabilities, so I wasn't too sure what I would do, and the American girl happened to have a tent, but not an extra sleeping bag. We got into the hostel, and found that they happened to have two free beds in the dorm room, and the guy suggested that camping wouldn't be a great idea, as it was going to be about -5 that night according to the forecasts, so we just grabbed those two free beds. It was already a bit later in the evening, but the guys wanted to go hike around this hill near the city, so we agreed to head over there at 7 pm, since it's light outside all day, you can pretty much go hiking whenever you want. So I was ready a bit earlier than the others and wandered over to the supermarket to pick up some dinner (the ready made sandwiches in Iceland are probably the best I've ever had!), and just hung out waiting for the guys. 

They eventually showed up, and we were on our way to the hill, but the guys stopped at one spot of the hill that looked more like a farmer's land, and I didn't really want to trespass, so I convinced them to go over to another side of the hill where there were at least some buildings that might have someone to provide some information. We did find some signs for hiking, although I don't think it was the actual hill the guys wanted to hike on, as their information had said there were guided hikes for the hill, and there certainly wasn't anyone nearby to offer guided hikes...we wandered over to some farmhouse to see if anyone was there and to make sure we could actually hike through their farmland, but weren't able to find anyone. Eventually some man drove up and said he owned the land and that we could hike through it if we wanted to, but I still had this feeling that we weren't at the hill the guys actually wanted to hike, but we stuck around this area anyway. We began hiking, and I wanted to go up high, whereas the Israelis wanted to stay on the low ground, so myself and the American girl hiked upwards, but the slope was fairly high and I didn't have the greatest footwear, so I didn't push it too much. Here's some views of the hike. 

Starting our hike

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A small inlet

The top of the hill, which we didn't make

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View of Grundarfjordur from the hill

This is around 11 pm at night...

So after our little hiking adventure, we were back in town for a sleep, as we had an early morning the next day. After trying to make some breakfast in the hostel, which provided no condiments or oil or anything for cooking, making for a tough time to make eggs, we had a breakfast and were on the road to Snæfellsjökull which is probably the most famous glacier in Iceland, as it was the entrance point to the centre of the universe in Jules Verne's famous novel. Daniel, the one Israeli had found a place where you could take a snowmobile to the top of the mountain, but it was $200 for that trip, so we tagged along, figuring we could hike around the area or something. We arrived at the place where he was meant to take the trip from, but they informed Daniel that visibility was about 2 m so it wasn't going to be a great idea to take the trip when you couldn't see anything, so we settled for a hike around the area for a few hours, providing some more gorgeous views. 

Snaefellsjokull in the distance

After the 2 hours of hiking around, and becoming fairly cold from the strong wind and chilly seaside climate, we stopped by a local restaurant that supposedly served some amazing fish soup, so we popped in there, and it was quite delightful. They also had a tourist info booth, so we stopped in there to ask if there was anything else in the area worth seeing, and they informed us about a beached whale that had been spotted recently, and sent us that way. While hanging out in the info centre, I spotted a newspaper that reviewed all the pubs in Reykjavik, and was curious about one bar that my Norwegian friend Kjetil had recommended I go check out...upon reading the review, I had to laugh pretty hard when they had this to mention about the place...

yup...neutral and unexciting...thanks for the recommendation Kjetil ha ha

So we hopped in the car and were on our way again, for more crazy Israeli driving. We found the spot with the whale, and parked the car and wandered over to the beach and found this beast! Initially looking at it from the back, I thought it was a flipper, but then realized it was the thing's penis...damn what a massive thing! To make matters more funny, it was a sperm whale. So being a goof, I decided to get a classic photo while touching the whale's dork (word for a whale penis apparently), and everyone had a laugh and decided to follow my lead and have their own photos taken touching it. 

it's a fin...no wait!

he he he he

After hanging out by the whale, which surprisingly didn't smell at all...wondering if it's because of the cold weather that it wasn't really rotting, or if there just wasn't any bacteria yet to decompose it, we continued on driving around stopping as we needed to grab some more photos, and to wander down to a lighthouse before heading back towards Reykjavik.

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Been several months since I put down a plank

Upon returning to Reykjavik, after struggling with the gas pump to fill up the car, the boys dropped us off at the hostel, but were interested in meeting up for dinner that night, especially for some Icelandic food. So I checked back into the hostel, and got ready for dinner. Daniel had said he would show up around 6:30 or so, but was a no show until nearly 8 pm, and Yuvel didn't want to come as he was tired. We wandered down to a Spanish tapas restaurant that served both whale and puffin, so we settled in there, and ordered the 7 platter tapas deal for the 3 of us, since it was nearly $50 for the platter. The server seemed to think we would all order one for ourselves, but I'm glad we didn't as it was a lot of food. All 7 platters were quite great, and the puffin was surprisingly good, as it was a fairly dark meat, similar to a duck, quite tasty, considering how cute those little puffins are. The whale wasn't as good I didn't think, but Daniel enjoyed it more than the puffin...different strokes for different folks! After a few drinks and a few hours of chatting, it was time to make our way back towards the hostel, although I decided to stop by a sports bar to watch some of the Stanley Cup finals. Unfortunately, due to the time change, the game started around midnight, and being a week night, the pub had to shut down at 1 am, boo. I watched the first period with the American girl, since she was living in LA and was interested in the Kings, then we just wandered back to the hostel. She had been hoping to couchsurf with someone that night, but hadn't heard back from anyone, so she was just going to hang out in the lobby of the place, and try and sleep on one of the couches, which was totally possible, as the staff there were pretty cool, and didn't really bother people who were sleeping in the lobby area. We arrived back and streamed the rest of the hockey game until about 4:30 am, when I had to finally get to sleep, since I was being picked up at 8 am for a day tour the next day. 

Puffin!

After very little sleep, I was up and out of the place to head on my day tour. Unfortunately, I didn't plan so well, and never had a chance to grab breakfast, so I had to starve for the first few hours of the ride. I was also fairly exhausted so I ended up just falling asleep for the first portion of the drive. Our first stop was a view point of a power generation plant, that used hot springs for their energy source. After admiring the view of the valley there, it was on to the next stop, which was the point where the Mid-Atlantic and North American continental shelves meet, and are being slowly pulled apart. It creates a fairly neat fault line, where crystal clear glacial waters have entered. It's also the point where the Icelandic parliament was initially founded and situated, as it was a meeting point for all the different tribes to meet and discuss their political issues. Reykjavik eventually became the capital in the 1700s, but the old parliament location is still a prominent vacation spot for Icelanders, including the President who has a summer home at the lake.

After the lake, we were on the road again, stopping for a quick lunch, and then off to Iceland's largest waterfall, Gullfoss, which was absolutely incredible, as it has more volume flowing than Niagara Falls, although it's probably not as beautiful as Niagara. After hanging around there, dipping my hands into the glacial waters and taking a few sips of the crisp and chilled glacial water, I wandered over to the gift shop to just hang out and enjoy a coffee and warm up a bit. After the Gullfoss, we were on our way to the tiny town of Geysir, to see the large geyser there. Interestingly enough, the word "geyser" comes from this Icelandic town, and it's pronounced "Gayzer" not "Guyzer" as I had always thought. Learn something new every day hey? The waters there were quite neat, with a beautiful blue colour, and of course the prevalent smell of sulphur was present, from the hot springs in the area. After watching the geyser erupt a few times, I just made my way over to the cafe for another little snack. After the Geysir stop, it was onwards to small church, can't recall the name of it really, and then two more stops, one beautiful iron cauldron and then a stop at the actual Power Generation plant, where we learned about the process to generate the electricity for a large portion of the island, as well as how they use the power generation facility to heat water and ship that heated water to Reykjavik to be used as the city's hot water supply, so that people don't need water heaters in their homes...very cool....the whole process is fairly energy efficient, and for the engineering geek in me, it was quite enjoyable. Eventually the day was nearly finished, and we were on our way back to town, while learning a bit about the "little people" of Iceland. The "little people" refer to Elves, and over 60% of the population of the country believe in Elves. People celebrate them, paint little doors on rocks where they supposedly live, have people who can speak to them, and have had construction projects detoured or shifted because it was passing through supposed Elf territory...yeah it's a bit crazy but kind of neat! Anyway, after the long 10 hour day, we were back to Reykjavik for the night. Here's some more pics and a video of the day

Power generation plant/hot water heating

These Canadians were travelling around in style

The lake above the continental divide

Couldn't help but laugh at this lady...$100 camera with probably a $150 tripod..gotta get the best shots!

location of Iceland's first government

Drowning pool, where they threw supposed witches during the Reformation

Gullfoss

the original Geysir

It's about to blow!

Geysir blowing

Old home

Pretty cauldron

Power generation plant

After arriving back in the city, I just wandered out for a quiet dinner by myself at some Thai restaurant, which was pretty good, and booked a day tour for the next day, then just had a quiet night in, as I was still fairly tired from not sleeping much the night before. The next day I was up quite early, as the tour left at 7:30 am that day, so I felt like I had at least caught up on sleep by going to bed at 10 pm the previous night. I was picked up and dropped off at the main ticket office, grabbed my ticket for the day, as well as some food for breakfast this time and was on the bus. I had my breakfast, and settled in for the long bus ride ahead, as we were going all the way down to the South Eastern part of Iceland, and the day tour was going to take 14 hours. Well, after eating and sitting in my seat for awhile, I soon realized I was actually tired, so I ended up sleeping even more on the bus, until we made our first stop which was only at a service station 1.5 hours out of Reykjavik, where I was able to at least get some coffee to wake me up a bit. We then made our first official sightseeing stop of the day at a waterfall called Skógarfoss, which is situated near our tour guide's favourite Icelandic museum, that some old man started up in the town of Skogar. There was a wide opening to walk up to the falls, so I went straight into that area, to try and get some pictures, which proved to be a bit of a bad idea, as there was so much moisture that my camera became a bit wet (fortunately it didn't break), and I became absolutely drenched from the moisture, but it was still pretty fun. I continued my new Icelandic waterfall tradition of drinking some of the water from the pool, and then getting out of there before I became any more wet and cold. I scaled up an area on the side of the fall, to take a few more lovely photos as seen here. 

Eyjafjallajökull, the famous volcano that disrupted flights in 2010 is just off to the right

Became soaked here

After hearing about the legend behind Skógarfoss, that being that a famous viking hid his treasure somewhere behind the waterfall, and some people once found the chest, but then the handle broke off the chest, and it fell into the waterfall as they were retrieving the treasure, we were on our way to the next stop, which was a distant view of Öræfajökull, where we were told some of the stories about the volcanos on the island erupting and melting glaciers, causing flash flooding. We stopped near one of the destroyed bridges from an eruption in 1996, and then stopped for a lunch at a tiny town nearby. 

The Alaskan Lupin...has totally taken over the landscape

One of the areas where flooding from volcanic eruptions and subsequent melting glaciers resulted in bridge and road destruction

Remains of a bridge destroyed in 1996 by a glacial flood

View from the West of the entrance to the largest glacier in Europe

Nice little restaurant we stopped at for lunch

After lunch we continued on with the long ass ride to the park, where we arrived and waited around for our turn to hop aboard one of the tourist boat/trucks. It was already pretty chilly in the area, and heading out onto the glacier melt water in the cold wind wasn't all that enticing, but then again the views of the mini icebergs and the surrounding area was well worth the freezing boat ride. I had to laugh when we hopped aboard the ship, and I asked the girl working there if I could drive the ship when we were out on the water, and she said no, I have to be qualified, so I started lying to her, telling her that I drove similar vehicles in the Arctic, while working in Canada, which she ended up falling for, and halfway through the drive, she told me that I could drive, as she had cleared it with the Captain...uh oh...fortunately, I decided it was probably not the best idea, considering there were 25 tourists on the boat, and accidentally driving into an iceberg and sinking probably wouldn't have been such an ideal outcome (at least it wouldn't be as bad as the Titanic though right!), so I just told her that I was fine with not driving and enjoying the scenery. After the 20 minute ride around the area, which has hosting filming of several Hollywood movies, including two Bond movies (Die Another Day, and View to a Kill I believe), we were back to the shore and into the local shop to grab some coffee (and rum in my case) to warm up a bit. After hanging out for 15 minutes we were back on the bus again, and off towards Reykjavik.

After the glacier visit, we made a quick drive past Eyjafjallajökull, which was the infamous volcano that erupted in 2010, causing numerous delays in air traffic. You can still see the volcanic debris on some of the surrounding fields. 

Alaskan Lupin

Can still see volcanic debris from the eruption in 2010

Eyjafjallajökull

Eyjafjallajökull

After the 30 minutes or so of driving, we had one last stop of the day, which was probably my most favourite, a waterfall named Seljalandsfoss where you could walk behind it. As per my new custom, I made sure to get down to the pool right at the base of the waterfall and drink some of the refreshing and clean glacial water, while of course getting soaked! Walking behind the waterfall did provide a few great shots as seen here.

Approaching the falls

Starting to walk around and behind the falls

After getting soaked at the falls, we boarded back on the bus and were on our way back to town, arriving fairly late in the evening (around 11 pm). After getting back to the hostel, I wandered into the kitchen to see who was all kicking around, and ended up sitting down and befriending a few Americans and Canadians, who were getting ready to head out on the town. They invited me along, as they were going to try and find some bar where Bjork apparently hangs out, so we set out on the mission to find that. We encountered a bunch of people dressed up as punks, who were walking and asked them for directions, and they pointed us in the direction of the place, but said it was dead and that they had just left there and were going to another place that had some good music and invited us along. Well some of the guys in the group were a bit put off by their outfits, but myself and the one Canadian girl were cool with it, but the rest of the group wanted to continue on to this Bjork bar anyways, so we lost the punks, much to my disappointment. 

We continued wandering, and then started to lose people, as people kept ducking into places to go to the bathroom and continuing to ask for directions, but we finally got everyone going again, but we ended up just going back to the main street where most of the pubs are located. We then started to lose people again, as people kept getting distracted and wandering into various establishments, and soon I was left with only 3 of the people from the group that was originally 8, so we stopped in this one bar that was having retro night, and it looked alright, so I ordered a beer while the others went to the toilet and then while sitting at the bar, apparently they just walked past me and left without saying anything, so I was on my own! So after hanging out there, meeting a few people, I wandered off to find some food, since I hadn't eaten dinner yet, and found a pizza place near the bar we had gone to several days earlier, and it was a rocking place again, so after my pizza I wandered in there, and it was again a great time, with people dancing on the bar, lights swinging, and many many drunk Icelanders! 

After hanging out solo for awhile, I started chatting up one of the local dudes, who ended up being a pretty sweet guy, and went around introducing me to people, including one of his g/fs who he wanted to set me up with, but I wasn't so interested. After hanging out there for awhile, he decided to take me on a pub crawl of Reykjavik, and so on we went, stopping at several different places and experiencing Reykjavik nightlife at its finest! It was a pretty awesome time, and I got to see some pretty cool places, and the guy was pretty awesome about buying me drinks since I was a guest of his country. Eventually I ended up meeting a nice Icelandic woman, who was in her late 30s and we got along pretty good, and ended up dancing for awhile, and before I knew it, it was already 6 am so she was on her way home, and I was heading the same way, so I offered to walk her home, and we chatted for quite sometime and walked back with no intentions. It was probably around 8 am by the time I finally decided to say goodbye after our chat and head back to the hostel. Now, I might also add that in Iceland, the sun never really sets during the summer, so it's pretty much day time all throughout the night, which makes for an interesting time, especially when leaving a nightclub at 3 am and expecting it to be dark like back home, but then it's completely light out. Anyway, I got back to the hostel and called it a night er...early morning. 

The next day I didn't have too much planned, other than heading out to the Blue Lagoon, which is this awesome natural hot spring halfway to the airport. I had spoken to the one Canadian girl Jenna, the night before about going there and she was up for it, so I found her in the early afternoon in the hostel, and grabbed a quick lunch with her before grabbing our bus tickets and heading out to the Lagoon. She told me her hilarious night about finding the punk rockers, and getting really out of control with them, and then sleep walking naked in the hostel that night, being woken up by one of the staff members ha ha ha! We rode the bus out to the Lagoon, and got inside and just chilled out in the awesome hot springs. It was pretty cold outside, so the bathroom breaks were tough, as you had to get out and run back inside, but it was definitely worth checking out the place. We had a few beers, met a few people, and even tried the silica mud facial products. After spending a few hours there, we got outside to try and catch the 6 pm bus, and of course got outside at 5:58 pm, and went running towards the bus stop, only to find that the bus was driving off without us, and we would be stuck waiting there until 8 pm for the next bus, damnit! We chatted with one of the other bus companies, with whom I had been taking my tours with, and the driver said he would drive us into town on their bus that left at 6:15 for free, so we lucked out and hopped aboard. 

Interesting collection of flags at the Blue Lagoon, all the Nordic countries except Denmark, and they threw in Netherlands for some reason, no idea why!

The famous Blue Lagoon

We arrived in town, and I had totally forgotten that the Dutch were starting off their Euro Championships that day, so I wandered into the big room the hostel had created for the football matches, and upon wandering in with my Dutch jersey, several of the Icelanders there started chatting me up and telling me how badly the Dutch had played and lost to the Danes, damn! I hung out with a few of them, and watched the Portugal Germany match, while joining in on the betting going on with the game, without succeeding. After hanging out with a few of the Icelanders, until the end of the game, I went back and found Jenna, who was hanging out with the two French Canadian dudes, so we hung out having a few drinks until Jenna wandered off for a bit, and came back to let me know that she had made some new Icelandic friends who wanted to take her and a friend to some concert that night, so she came and grabbed me, and I met the guys, who were pretty cool dudes. I grabbed a quick shower, and met them outside to head over to their apartment for a little pre-party, where we had a nice time getting to know the locals a bit. After several drinks, and worrying that I broke the doorknob on the bathroom door (to be informed that it was already broken beforehand), we started wandering down to the nightclub where the concert would be played. While on the walk there, we happened to walk past a museum strictly dedicated to the Penis and Penis related arts...interesting?! Before finally making our way to the venue. 

yup, Icelandic Penis Museum

We paid our entry and got inside, and hung out waiting for the bands to start playing. The first band was pretty good and were a good opening act, although they maybe played a bit too long, as the crowd grew a bit restless, waiting for the next act to start. They eventually came on, and I can't remember the names of either bands, but they were pretty fun and the crowd was really into it, and super cool. The venue was quite small, so it was packed shoulder to shoulder, but still quite great. The one Icelandic guy with whom we went to pre party at his house was soooo drunk and kept trying to pick up Jenna, the Nova Scotian girl, to no avail, and then concentrated on several other girls in the vicinity, while spilling his and other people's drinks everywhere...quite the sight! So typical of the Icelanders, in fact, trhat the US State Department once gave a travel warning to their citizens with regards to alcohol consumption in Iceland, and telling people to beware of really drunk Icelanders, hilarious. After all the music finished up, I kind of lost everyone, so I just hung out in the smoking area for awhile, meeting a few new local people. I ended up chilling out with quite a few new people, just having a good time, and even getting a few drinks bought for me by some of the locals. I hung out there until the place was shutting down, and decided to go for a wander to try and find Iceland's most popular restaurant, which happens to be a hot dog stand where most celebrities that come to the country go visit. I finally found it, but unfortunately it was closed! So I went for a walk to find another place to grab something to eat, and was surprised when some girl came running up to me and told me I looked like Johnny Depp, and wanted a photo of me....ha ha haven't heard that one before! So after that photo, I found a late night sandwich shop, grabbed something to eat, and just walked back to the hostel and called it another early morning. 

Icelandic band rocking the Celtics jersey

I don't think I look like Johnny Depp, just a creep! ha ha

So yeah, after 14.5 months on the road, that's what I was looking like....time to clean up eh!

I woke up the next day, and got all my stuff packed up and ready to check out, and hopefully do some last minute shopping, but then the staff told me I would have to leave very shortly for the airport, otherwise I wouldn't make it there in time for my early evening flight, boo! So I had a quick coffee with Jenna, said my goodbyes, and was on my way to the airport, sad to be going home, but also a bit excited. I lingered around the airport for a bit, did some last minute shopping, and was suddenly on a plane, on my way back to the homeland for the first time in a very long time! I arrived in Toronto in the early evening, and had neglected to see if any of my friends were living near the airport, so after clearing customs, which was surprisingly easy, I figured they'd grill me for sure! I was on official Canadian soil, and just found a little bench in the airport to sleep the night away, preparing for my flight back to Saskatchewan. 

And thus came to a bittersweet end, my 14.5 month, 44 country, 3 continent journey....it was a helluva ride, and I've decided that I will continue on with the journey, starting at the end of August, where I will be flying to the Eastern US for a few weeks, then heading down into Mexico, and making my way south throughout the Central American and South American countries.....it will be a huge and exciting new adventure, and I'll of course continue blogging and sharing my ridiculous life adventures with all.....it's been an awesome experience, and I hope I kept you all somewhat entertained. 

Until the next adventures start, 

Rye

PS: Sorry for taking so long to get this last post out!