Day 12 Solitude

We only have one full day in Iceland, so we are just going to hang out in the city and see how it's changed since our last visit. My plan for the morning is a self guided tour of street art, and a walk to an art installation that forms a hill with a view back into the city. My phone's plan is "ha ha fuck you, I am no longer a cell phone" which was an interesting choice. I had wifi, but no cellular data so Bill had to figure out the tour on the spot as the only one of us with a working version of the internet. 

It was cold and windy and we were definitely walking through the pedestrian friendly portion of the harbor, not the back sides of warehouses with gates to keep cars out. We did find the hill, and the wind tried it's best to throw us into the harbor while we climbed the narrow stone pathway that was somehow full of small children even though no one else was around. 

It was a good view, but at some point, I just decided I was done being cold and having my plans thwarted so I went back to the hotel to troubleshoot my phone and take a tour of the hotel spa. The fucking phone had turned off my sim card for some reason. Once I was on wifi, this wasn't hard to diagnose. Well, once I was on wifi and had scrolled sufficiently to get past the idiotic AI answer to not my question. I hate technology and want to go back to paper maps. 

The spa was great, steam room, sauna, and a giant hot stone all in the same place and entirely to myself. I did the circuit a few times, then stepped out into their seating area to enjoy tea and snacks. Then did it all again. 

Now properly warmed up and relaxed, I met back up with Bill to wander the more pedestrian friendly part of the city and stick my head into whatever shops looked interesting. We found Orr, a jewelry store I'd gotten a cool necklace at last visit - their current selection isn't my style, but glad to see they are still around. 

This whole area feels like it has way more shops and cafes than we remember. I did not end up purchasing anything other than a belt from Reykjavik Raincoats (I am a small there for future reference). If I had the luggage space for a puzzle, something from Hjarta Reykjavikur would likely also have been purchase. 

Eventually, we wander into another bar, pretty much at random, and get some excellent cocktails and advise on other bars to hit. The bartender is very young, but has his shit together in terms of craft. The owner is apparently a UA grad as well. We also meet some tourists from Colorado who are at the tail end of their first visit to Iceland. 

This was followed by a trip to Jungle Bar, where the cocktails were good, but the bartender was so insistent on boring attractive women with his talk of fluid dynamics simulations that he didn't get around to chatting up the engineer and computer scientist who would actually have engaged on the topic. 

Next we stopped for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant and then it was time for me to laze about some more with a book in the hotel room. Five cocktails and a full belly apparently being some kind of hard limit for me. Here's my street art photos from throughout the day: