the drive to the capital, reykjavik, wasn’t too difficult. we made it in about 2 hours. the scenery was beautiful and we drove through a tunnel that spanned a fjord. after exiting the tunnel, the feeling of getting close to the city increased with the traffic’s density. we were in a couple traffic jams, the first ones in 10 days.

the directions to the hotel were a bit spotty but we lucked out by taking an educated guess on the turnoff from the highway. the directions said to take a right on a one way street going the other way, so we had to improvise on how to reach the hotel. a more concerning thought was where to park the car, but that was quickly resolved when we noticed a huge parking lot across the street from the hotel.

after checking in, we scheduled the rental car company to pick up the car, which was a huge bonus cause we didn’t rent the car in the same city.

due to not understanding the parking rules, we got a parking ticket for 1500 krona (12 usd), which diane paid for at the bank. since she paid it so quickly, we got a discount and only paid 500 krona (3 usd). cool! we figured out how to pay for parking and could finally leave the car behind.

ok, let’s explore. after a quick bite, diane, chucky and i decided to follow the guidebook’s walking architecture tour. we passed by the parliament building, a church built in 1847, an (faux) art deco building (the only thing art deco about it was the sign), museums, a school, a beautiful park with swans and ducks in the lake, and we ended up at the national museum of iceland (pics follow list).

the museum had two levels that progressed through icelands history with exhibits from geology to theology. one exhibit displayed pictures of children working with their fathers on the fishing boat. some of the boys started working as early as 4 years old. incredible.

the museum featured free wireless in the cafe so while i waited for the other two, i worked on the site. i had been backlogged already and apparently i’m back logged again by writing on the airplane about the past three days.

anyways, we headed back to the hotel’s vicinty to regroup with john and company. the walk went through a neighborhood that had some beautiful houses and then through another part of downtown. downtown is beautiful. it reminds me a little bit of helsinki with the outdoor cafes, tiny cobblestone streets, european street signs, and intriguing architecture.

we regrouped at cafe paris next to the square with hundreds of other people lounging in the midsummer sun. it was so much fun to hang out and people watch. iceland has some gorgeous women. kind of hard to stay focused on the conversation at hand.

since adrian and i were diving the next day, we didn’t stay out that late. however, we did walk down Laugavegur street, which is the main shopping street according to the overhead sign. in addition, the street has the most bars and is the location of the pub crawl called a ruttur that happens every friday and saturday night. we found a cool coffee bar with outdoor seating. after a few, adrian and jay did some acrobatics. then lydia and adrian showed off their routine. very graceful.

ah, it is good to be back in a city. if it wasn’t for the diving, i would have stayed out much later.