Day 32 (28 July): Marathon Lava Field Hiking Day:

Today's blog will be photograph-free post due to the rainy condition that wasn't proper for my camera....

It was a truly  rainy day today. However, we thought that we could still do something. So, we decided that we could rent a car or otherwise take a local bus to a neighboring town. TT called the 4th Floor Hotel to ask about a rental car. They said that they might have a car at 2 p.m. After lunch, we started to walk to the city, planning to first check at the hotel and continue to the bus station in Hiemmur to take a bus to Hafnarfjördur. Unfortunately (or fortunately in terms of money), the hotel didn't have a car. So, we walked to the bus station. Bus 1 was about to leave at 2.12 p.m. I went to ask the bus driver to wait for us as TT was still queueing to buy the one-day passes. A bit more than half an hour later, we arrived at Hafnarfjördur together with the rain... We then had to figure out what to do and how to get to some attractions for example, the hot spring and lava-field hiking trails. We went to the town tourist information center to find out information. The man at the tourist info was nice and tried to suggest us who came to the town without a car. The hot spring was too far to walk and no bus goes there. So, we decided to take Bus 33 to go as close as possible to a hiking trail. Before leaving the tourist info, the kind man told us to take free coffee and bottled water. The town seemed to be wealthy although too little tourists. Before taking the bus, we stopped very briefly at Hafnarborg, Institute of Culture and Fine Art. There were 2 exhibitions: "Wavelength" showed the drawings of the American artist Creighton Michel and the exhibition showed pottery from Nicaragua.  

After the bus ride, we had to walk through the new residential area which was still under construction and then along the main road. TT tried to hitchhike with the hope to get to the hot spring, but there was no luck as only trucks were passing by. Having walked already more than half an hour under the rain, we reached the starting point of the trail. 

The lava field looked interesting because of its various formations of lava rocks slowly cooled. There were also many small caves under the ground. We basically just walked and walked, following a hiking map we got from the tourist info.  

Walking along the trial until it ended, we continued along a small road and then a larger one until we returned to the town at the bus station. We walked (under the rain) altogether perhaps 12 kilometers. What a marathon! I was so happy to see the bus station, because it meant that the hike was ending. Having checked the bus schedule at the bus stop and found that there was still 10 minute time, we went to a hotdog stand nearby and ordered 2 hotdogs (230 ISK each, more expensive than the best one in Reykjavik. The hotdog was good and gave me some energy to continue the day.

We caught bus at 7.52 p.m. back to Reykjavik. We thought that we could take Bus 13 from Laekjatorg to as near as possible the residence. When we arrived at the Laekjatorg stop, we misunderstood that we had to wait 10 minutes for the next bus. So, we went to 10-11 on Austurstraeti to get rid of coins. We ended up buying a yogurt and sliced bread. TT gave the rest of the coins he had to the cashier. The getting-rid-of-coins process took us less than 5 minutes. However, while walking to the bus stop, we saw Bus 13 departing. Then, we realized that we misunderstood the bus schedule. As we didn't want to wait any more, we walked to the residence.

We dropped by at Noutun, a supermarket nearby, to buy food before returning to the residence. I took shower and prepared dinner... After dinner, I started to pack my stuffs...