Day 30 (26 July): Recovery Day

Surprisingly, we didn't get up much later than the usual time... TT left to return the car around 8.30 a.m. without breakfast.

I uploaded photos taken during the last few days while waitng for TT to get back from the city. I thought I would try to take it easy today.

After breakfast, I thought that I could visit a few museums and galleries I hadn't yet been and go for a swim at the swimming pool in Seltjarnanes. So, we left the residence for this plan a bit after noon.

We first visited the ASI Art Museum on Freyjugata 41. It was said to be a "contemporary art" museum, focusing on lesser-known Icelandic artists who were fond of the avant-garde and the proletariat. However, what I experienced was a collection of art in the beginning of the 20th century. The museum was housed in the former studio of sculptor Asmundur Sveinsson.


From the ASI Art Museum, I would like to continue to the Living Art Museum on laugavegur 26. On the way (not far from the ASI) TT noticed a traffic lamp pole which wasn't stand 90 degrees to the ground and took the funny photo below.

The entrance of the Living Art Museum was rather hidden. I was actually on Grettisgata. The museum seemed to be "living" just like its name suggests, because it seemed to be under construction with piles of wood and other things around. The exhibition at the moment was the bookworks from the 1950s to the 1990s of Dieter Roth, a Swiss artist who had an Icelandic wife and had lived a few months in Iceland every year during his life time. All of his books in the exhibition seemed experimental. Some were his notebooks with his handwriting, while some other played with topography. There was a man in rainbow-colour jumper came to explain about the history of the museum as well as Roth's work. He also mentioned that the museum was currently organizing its collection of artworks, all of which were given to the museum by the artists. The museum had never done the system of sorting out artworks before. Basically, they had just put boxes of artworks in the storage. After 30 years, the collection had grown with no record of what artworks were actually there. By the way, we also met Julia there. I thought that she was collection some info of the museum for an article that she would write for a magazine in Germany.

It was around 3 p.m. when we became hungry. We went to a cafe on Skollavörgustigur to eat. The cafe painted a wall very nicely as the photo below.... We sat on the terrace on the second floor. It was somehow nice although there was no nice view... I had soup of the day (vaggie soup with sausages, 750 ISK) and TT had pasta of the day (pasta with weird sweet creamy sauce, 1050 ISK). The cafe was very "retro" (even the waitress dressed like she would have come from the 70s). The atmosphere reminded me of the movie "Pleasantville"


Then, we walked to the swiming pool in Seltjarnanes which we wasn't sure if it really existed, because it wasn't on the list of swimming pools of Reykjavik city. It was really far to walk (the unsure feeling made it even farther). We were happy to see it open. However, the pool wasn't brand new as we supposed. It was just newly renovation but old elements were still visible. We went to different hot pots and the hot steam room.  The pool was quite crowded, perhaps because it was a sunny and rather warm day. We left the swimming pool around 7 p.m.

Having come back to the residence, I cooked eggplant lasagna and started to work again with the tree.

The picture below was taken from the kitchen window at 11.20 p.m. The colors of the sky appeared impressive.  

I extended the height of the tree, so that it became the maximum height that could still fit the box. I worked until 12.10 a.m...