Being awaken in the morning at 6 a.m. by the nightlife crowd followed by the cleaning car, I decided not to try to sleep anymore. It was very noisy in the night because of a rock band played in the bar on the opposite of the street. Although I think the band played very well, to sleep with it was impossible! After having breakfast for which I had rice which I cooked for the first time without a rice cooker!
The weather today was not as nice as yesterday, a bit cloudy and extremely windy (32km/h!). So, I changed my mind not to go to the Videy island right way as I had planned, but to wait and see how the weather would be altering during the day (just afraid that wind would blow me away!). Anyway, I was to be out the whole day and survived until Björk concert in the evening (Kristin said yesterday that Björk would have a free concert today).
The second plan then came up with going Höfdi House, constructed in 1909 in Norway and shipped to Reykjavik. Sitting on the waterfront, it was originally build as the residence of the French consul Monsieur Brillouin. He complained that the house was haunted and after living there for 4 years he sold it. Ten different owner followed, the last man was the British Ambassador John Greenway. Later, it was used for a negotiation between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan in 1986 during the Cold War. The opposite of the house has a building with nice architecture design and the name Kaupping written on. (I googled and found a bank with the same name but I am not quite sure if it is really a bank because of its location that is a bit out of the city).
On the way to the house, I thought that I would took the waterfront route, so that I could passed Solfar, a famous sculpture by the the sea. However, because of the wind that really blew me away, I took the inland route. The route brought me to see the National Theater, the Intercultural Center and other residential buildings as well as paintings on them.
Every now and then, the sea attracted me to walk towards it, but I couldn't stand the heavy and cold wind.
After Höfdi House, I decided not to continue to Videy because the wind didn't seem to get milder. So, I changed my mind to go to Reykjavik Art Museum - Kjarvalssdir. On the way, I passed colorful houses, one of which is a hotel with a multi-national flag (very funny idea indeed).
Then, I turned to a smaller road (address Skipholt 1) and suddenly my attention was caught by a colorful wall painting. The wall turned to be a wall of the Department of Design and Architecture of the Icelandic Academy of the Arts. The opposite wall had an even lovelier painting.
A few hundred meters ahead, there situates a church whose name I don't know and isn't mentioned in any maps I have.
Finally, I arrived at the museum. My first impression was that someone should clean the windows! In the museum, there was a permanent exhibition of the Icelandic painter Johannes S. Kjarval and two temporary exhibitions: one was a huge outdoor installation I Hate Nature / 'Aluminati' by the American artist and landscape architect Martha Schwartz, and another titled Dreams of the Sublime and Nowhere in Contemporary Icelandic Art consisted of various works by a group of Icelandic Artists. The architecture of the museum is rather nice, showing the nature of materials and a truthful way of constructing them.
After the museum visit, I became a bit tired. So, nothing would be better than taking a nap. While walking towards the residence, I realized that I forgot to check out two flea markets listed on the Bradt Guidebook. How could I forget flea markets, my favorite place in everywhere I go? They were more or less on the way to the residence anyway. The first one (called Kolaportid) is located in a warehouse on Tryggvagata 19 by the harbor. The market had almost everything, but nothing worth taking back home. The second is actually an antique shop named Frida Franka on Vestugata 3. This one really trapped me. There were loads of nice furniture and stuffs, all of which I could take home (if I don't have to pay). I will definitely go there again and buy something back home. After a bit more than an hour, I could release myself from the trap when I found out that my gloves weren't with me anymore. I couldn't find it anywhere in the shop; this was bad for my hands to be cold and dry. Well, just have to buy a new pair.
On the way to the nap, I noticed many nice buildings' walls, either with paintings or photographs. Reykjavik is such an arty capital city! Every street has its own details.
An hour nap refreshed me. It was only 5 p.m.; I still had 2 hours for a dinner before continuing to the concert. I went to a Thai restaurant which was anyway on the way with a crave of Pad Thai. The taste of the generous portion of Pad Thai just passed but failed to contain authentic ingredients (I expected at least something closer to the authentic ones, not Chinese cabbage!). Maybe, I was too critical.
Having stuffed with noodle, I had energy to walk 2.5 km to Laugardalur where the concert was held. It was easy to find the way there. As everyone seemed to go to the concert, I just followed them without checking the map. I dropped by at Reykjavik Art Museum - Asmundur Sveinsson, just to walk around the building (it was already closed). The massive building was designed by the sculptor Asmundur Sveinsson for housing his own works.
When I arrived at 6.30 p.m. the park was already quite crowded. Although it was extremely cold, I could manage to stay until 10.30 p.m. I enjoyed the concert but I must say that Björk's performance was not that great (her costume was pretty though). As her former fan, I was a bit disappointed. However, Sigur Ros was of great performance. The voice and the music were so perfectly innovative. I am ready to vow to be the band's fan now! To capture to the moments of the concert was difficult. I wished I had a super-zoom lens...
After 45 minutes, I arrived at the residence and started to make this blog...
