Iceland-ick?

Today was our last day on the self-drive tour! We left our adorable hostel, did breakfast at our new favourite bakery, and then hit the road back to Reykjavik! Made a stop in Akranes to see the famous lighthouses! The little one isn’t in use anymore, but was voted the 6th most beautiful lighthouse in the world. Not sure who’s job it is to travel around and rank them, but I wouldn’t mind!

The man running it was the chattiest person ever, and was very excited that I was from Canada. A friend of his had painted some different country’s flags on some rocks out front in a little rock garden, but the Canadian rock keeps getting stolen (I think it’s the Americans doing it), so they finally moved the current one inside where they could “guard” it. He then went on to tell me that the accoustics inside are amazing, so he encourages people to sing when they are inside. Well, it was just him and me (Mo was napping in the car), and I was like “ok…”, and started to walk away. But he was persistent! “Sing!”, he commanded, and I just stared at him, blinking awkwardly, and then I started to sing really quietly, and he must have realized he’d made a terrible mistake, and was at risk of having his eardrums punctured, so he quickly waved his hand and said “or humming works too…..”. I started to hum, now feeling REALLY self-conscious, and he changed his mind again, and said “I guess clapping is just as good…”, and at that moment some French people came in and distracted him, so I did a quick clap and rushed up the stairs:

I didn’t hear any singing or humming from the French people, so my theory is that my singing was soooo bad, he’s never going to risk asking another stranger to flex their vocal chords.

Next up, we checked out the much-photographed shipwreck Höfrungur.

Well, I checked it out. Mo continued napping, and I came back to the car to find it surrounded by numerous curious shipbuilders, who were trying to watch her without being obvious.

That was our last stop before Reykjavik! We couldn’t check into our hotel till 3pm, so we had some time kill. Now, everyone I know who’s been here has gigglingly told me that I “had” to go to the Phallological Museum here (although no one was as enthusiastic about it as Nicolle!! lol), so we gave in to peer pressure and went in.

Mo decided this was definitely worth skipping a nap for, and it was….interesting? There’s tons of jokes to be made, and a few awkward exhibits, but it was very comprehenssive! Every type of mammal, and even specimens from trolls, and the entire Icelandic National Handball team (silver medal winners in Beijing Olympics) made silver casts of themselves, and donated them to the museum:

After that it was time to check into our fancy hotel, and we wanted to be there right at 3pm to take full advantage! This hotel is next to the famous Blue Lagoon, and has its own lagoon, just for guests. Each room also has a lovely deck surrounded by a giant moss-covered lava field, which is gorgeous!!! Our hotel reservation gave us a premium admission to the big public Blue Lagoon, including a drink of our choice once there. We wandered over to check it out, and drank our free drink, but it was sooooo crowded and busy, we just came back to our own at the hotel, which isn’t much smaller. We spent 2hrs soaking in there, with only 4 other people. It was lovely!

Here’s the public one:

That’s just the lineup for the in-pool bar. The rest of the pool was loud, and crowded and busy and chaotic. In contrast, here’s our hotel pool:

We’re heading back for another soak before bed (it’s open till midnight, yay!), and then tomorrow we check into our airbnb!

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