Iceland Day 10 - Not Surprised

If there's a single theme to this trip, it's undoubtedly that nothing goes according to plan. Between staying up late doing laundry and just plain old insomnia I didn't manage to get to sleep until near sunrise and then in an attempt to keep my schedule as intact as possible I only slept for a few hours. As a result I didn't get my flight rescheduled until much later, and had to move the trip to Ísafjörður back to Wednesday instead of moving the flight to Akureyri up to today (because I had inadvertently scheduled both for the same day). The urge to spend the day lounging around my room or just stumbling to the bookstore coffee shop and planting myself there all day was strong, but I feared the roots of lethargy were starting to take hold and I didn't want to get stuck in a lazy rut. Instead I decided to take advantage of the balmy 33F temps and the initially clear afternoon and hit the western part of the city and Tjörnin lake near city hall, called Ráðhús Reykjavíkur.

Since arriving in Reykjavik I've been constantly overestimating the distance to places. While I won't even pretend that I've seen all of the city, the majority of the points of interest are in a rather compressed, easily walkable area of only a few miles. As a result, I wasn't surprised when I ended up walking at least a mile out of the way before I realized I had obviously passed Tjörnin completely. I made a leisurely circle, something I've gotten used to doing, and tried again and realized I had been about a block away from the lake over a dozen times since I arrived. I also didn't have a clue that the cool, modern looking building perched at the edge of the lake was the city hall – even as I was walking through it to use it as a shortcut to the other side of the lake. During the summer months the stone portions of the building are covered in moss and small round windows, but during the winter it's just covered in ice, much like the lake. The ice didn't seem to deter the birds however, as they swarmed the few liquid areas of the lake. They also swarmed anyone with bread, including a little girl who almost fell backwards in the lake trying to get away.

The weather didn't hold out and as it began snow and by the time I made it back to the safety of my room the wind was whipping and the snow was heavy. On the walk back, all the snow that has melted during the above freezing afternoon was freezing and I lost count of how many times I nearly busted my ass walking on the sidewalks or crossing some of the less trafficked streets. Even now, hours later, the winds are gusting at about 35mph, tossing frozen rain like little pebbles at my window. All this just reaffirms my decision to skip the roadtrip. But as long as nothing else goes wrong I'll be in Akureyri tomorrow night, getting at least a little taste of the rest of Iceland.