Slightly Disappointing Day: The 4th Day in Neighborhood of Reykjavik (30 June 2008)

It wasn't so windy today (only 6 km/h). Although the forecasting suggested rain, it didn't rain at all. So, I decided that today should be my first excursion day. I planned that I would go with a one-day bus pass to the open air museum Arbaer and continue to a neighborhood town Akranes  or vice versa, depending on which bus came first.

So, I walked to the bus station in Hlemmur to buy the ticket and to take a bus from there. To the bus station I took the route that passed Laugavegur where all the shops are. I dropped by at one of them and found a pair of orange woolen gloves. My hands will be no more cold, hopefully. I also bought in a supermarket opposite to the station Skyr which I later ate on the bus.

About the buses, to go to the museum, I should take No.19 and to Akranes No.15 and change to No.27 in Haholt. It seemed that my destiny led me to Akranes as Bus 15 came first. The ride to Haholt took about 40 minutes. When I arrived at Haholt Bus 27 was waiting there. The bus route was interesting. I could see Mt. Esja from the window. I actually had a slight thought that I could go there, but another thought warned me that climbing a mountain shouldn't be the choice for someone like me. Perhaps, seeing it from a window like this was the best way. 

After speeding in a very long tunnel, the bus driver safely brought the passengers to the town of Akranes. I got off at the last bus stop, because the bus map mentions that the tourist information center is situated at this stop and I thought it would be a good idea to get a map of the town. However, I couldn't find the information center as I expected. I walked towards the direction of the church; I supposed it should be the town center. Unfortunately, the town seemed to end at the church. Anyway, It wasn't too bad to walk to that direction because of the bright orange house. I love it! The owner must be very brave to paint his or her house like that.

Then, I walked back to where the bus had dropped me. I decided to ask people passing by. Surprisingly, the women whom I asked pointed at the cafe where the bus was waiting to return to Reykjavik and said that "I think it is there". So, I entered the cafe and asked for a map and the girl who seemed to do everything in the cafe (and tourist information center) said that there was only one on the information board. There came an old Icelandic woman who saved me, just because she asked this girl something and I guessed that she asked for a map as well. So, the girl had to try harder to find maps for us and she finally found those in Icelandic. I asked her about the museum area and she said that it wasn't in the center but a few bus stop earlier. The advertisement on the map and the leaflet saying that one should take Bus 27 to the end in order to visit Akranes wasn't quite correct! I shouldn't have believed any info that isn't on my Bradt Guidebook or at least I should have been skeptic about it. The girl suggested me to take the same bus and the driver would let me know when I should be out.

After taking the same bus back to the same direction, I got off at the stop where the sport hall is, then turned to a smaller road and walked for almost 2 km until I saw the Akranes museum Center. 

I was as tired as this wood-carved face when arriving at the museum.

In the museum area, there was a ketch named Sigurfari which was built in England in 1885 and claimed to be the only decked vessel preserved from the former time in Iceland. 

Next to this old vessel were many old smaller boats.

The main building where the ticket was sold (500 ISK) featured several exhibitions. The first one I visited was the exhibition of Iceland's Mineral Kingdom, an extensive collection of Icelandic rocks, minerals and fossils. It was unbelievably a lot! When buying the ticket, I asked the ticket seller about the bus schedule. She didn't know but kindly checked it via the internet for me. The next bus was 3.45 p.m., meaning that I had almost 4 hours here and that I couldn't go anymore to Arbaer Museum today because it is closed at 5 p.m. Four hours were definitely too long!

"In the right direction" was the exhibition of the National Land Survey of Iceland that traces the history of cartography and geodetic surveying in Iceland.

Under the same roof, there was also an exhibition Sport in Iceland, a collection featuring the history of sport in Iceland. The picture below must be imitated feet of an athlete. 

As I knew that I would have to be in the museum area for long time, to kill the time nicely is to fill the stomach. I ordered the soup of the day which was vegetarian. It came with a big basket of warm bread and the assortment of toppings such as pesto and different kinds of cheese. The soup was good, a bit spicy, and the bread seemed to be freshly homemade (or museum-made) which fit very well with pesto. I don't have to say if it was good or not but I emptied the whole basket. Altogether costed only 800 ISK. 

With the full stomach, I continued to the Akranes Folk Museum located in the same area. The museum preserved a large collection of everything used in and around Akranes in the old time. 

There are numerous objects, tool, instruments and materials used in various professions and places, ranging from ship maker, fisherman, sailer, fire fighter, dress maker, shoe maker, carpenter, dentist and many other professions to grocery store, school and other places. All items are presented so livingly.

The fins of a whale that died on a beach was also preserved.

A collection of old houses were also in the museum area. Some of them are still under restoration.

The only house opened today was the Gardar House which is claimed to be the oldest concrete residential house in Iceland (built 1876). The old household items was maintained and exhibited very nicely. The house is not on the photo above but visible on the right of the photo of the museum area.

Having walked and checked the exhibits in a slow motion, I was sure that I saw everything and finished the museum visit at 2.50 p.m. I walked to the bus stop. Still plenty of time to wait, I walked along the sandy beach Langisandur. There were children playing football on the lawn next to the beach.   

I was glad to see Bus 27 coming. On the bus, I was so tired and a bit disappointed that I missed the Arbaer Museum unnecessarily because of the bus schedule and the wrong info. When arriving at the bus station in Hlemmur, I didn't even want to walk anymore. I took Bus 13 back to the residence.  

(Still) Windy Day: The 3rd Day in Reykjavik (29 June 2008)

It was the noise of the wind trying to penetrate through the windows of my room that woke me up, followed by the cleaning car (again). I had Skyr with a banana I bought yesterday as breakfast. Skyr is a quintessential Icelandic dairy product. It tastes like yogurt but much thicker. I like its texture (feel like eating pudding). I must try other flavors.

I started the day by walking on Adalstrati, the street on which several of the oldest wooden houses in town are located. Most of them today functions as restaurants and hotels (the picture below is a restaurant called Fish Market).  

Then, I continued to Kirkjustraeti where the Parliament House is located. The old part of the building is connected to the new part. As can be seen also in many other buildings in the the same square (Austurvöllur), Icelandic architecture seemed to be smart and good at bridging the old and the new.

Around the corner between Kirkjustraeti and Posthusstraeti stands Domkirkjan.

While I was walking and shooting photographs of these buildings, I thought in my mind that if the wind maintained its strength, I would have to postpone my trip to Videy again to some other day. 

Having thought so, I found myself walking to the direction of the Skarfabakki harbor where the boat to Videy leaves.  The harbor was around 4 km from where I was staying, quite a walk again. Wind was as strong as usual. Because of the furry schedule, I thought I would stop at Laugarnes to visit the Sigurjon Olafsson Sculpture Museum which was a modern building situated by the sea.

While approaching to the museum, I saw a couple of nice houses on the bay. On the one hand, I wished I could live there. On the other hand, it might be too windy and too chilly to live there. 

Along the pedestrian path to the museum, there were geese families. Although they were cute, I was a bit afraid of walking towards and passed them. I was told when I was little that geese could be cruel and attack humans when they are afraid that people might harm them. Well, I survived... 

The fact that Sigurjon Olafsson Sculpture Museum is by the sea made the architecture of it even nicer. Every detail in the space is well designed and has a special function. The building used to be Sigurjon Olafsson's studio and is now the museum featuring his non-representational sculptures and works of other contemporary artists. The museum has its own cafe at the glass veranda of the building. It has so great ambience that I had to spend some time to enjoy cake and coffee, and of course the sea and the waves. By the way, the homemade (museum-made) carrot cake with vanilla sauce was really tasty and not even expensive (together with coffee only 550 ISK or around 4.5 Euro). 

When leaving the museum, I noticed that the opposite house is full of funny elements. The owner must be a sculptor, I guessed... 

I continued my way to the harbor. I saw a very long graffiti, quite impressive. 

Finally, I arrived at the harbor which is actually very small. The ticket was 800ISK for a return trip (5 minute ride each way). If the harbor is small, the boat will be called tiny. As I expected to see a real furry boat, I asked the ticket seller a stupid question "where is the boat?". He seemed to wonder why I ask because the tiny boat was already there. Anyway, the boat left at 4.30 p.m. I wasn't alone on the boat. A family with two kids were there as well.

Having been on the wavy sea for 5 minutes, I was on Videy. Videyjarstofa (Videy House) was the first attraction I saw. Built in 1752-1755, the house is one of the oldest buildings in Iceland and is the first building constructed of stone in Iceland. Its first purpose was to be the residence of the treasurer Skuli Magnusson. Videyjarkirkja (Videy Church) was also built for Skuli Magnusson and consecrated in 1774. It was one of the oldest churches in Iceland.

Instead of taking the main route, I took the north path, which was very narrow and sometimes unnoticeable, to the east of the island, which is called Heimaey (Home Island). A lot of various kinds of birds were around. Some were frighten when noticing me walking towards them and seemed to fly as fast as they could with a high speed movement of their wings. 

After about 30 minutes, I arrived at the no-longer-existing village in Sundbakki. The village was once lived by people and their families working for the Million Corporation, a fishing company founded in the early 2oth century. The picture below was a 150 ton water tank the Million Corporation installed for supplying ships in the harbor. In 1970s, Videyingafelagid, the association of former islanders and their descendants, converted this tank into a clubhouse. 

 

I had a seat at the armchair in the picture below for a while and ate the pancake I bought from the market yesterday.

The remainder of the a house. If I remembered right, this house was owned by the manager of the company (as it was the one closest to the sea).

 

As can be seen on the layout plan, there were many houses in the village.

This was the schoolhouse built in 1928.

From the village, I walked on the main path instead of sea-front path.

Standing on Skulaholl, I could see the harbor as well as Videyjarstofa (Videy House) and Videyjarkirkja (videy Church).

I passed the house and the church. I was disappointed to see that the cafe in the house was already closed. A cup of tea would make me survive until the next boat came in 2 hours. Anyway, I did survive without tea. I continued to the west side of the island, which is called Vesturey (West Island). The landscape of this part seemed more dramatic than the side I had walked.

The photo below is Eidid, the narrow neck of land.

Around the neck of the land, there was a salt water pond called Gardstjörn.

Black stone beaches are on both sides of the neck.

Pairs of columnar basalt pillars are the American artist Richard Serra's  work of art Afangar (milestones). Created for the Reykjavik Art Festival in 1999, the aim of this work was to frame the landscape of the island, inviting people to walk around the island. Did it succeed? I can't say but I didn't walk around, just because I was too tired.

The path was interesting in terms of its components; some part was full of flowers while some other was filled with round stones. 

The photo below was taken from Stora Tjörn (Big Pond). It was said to be sometimes drying up completely.

On the boat and the way from the harbor, I met two Americans. We were chatting a bit this and that. After separating from them, I walked along Saebraut, deciding to go seeing the sculpture Solfar. At the intersection between Saebraut and Snorrabraut, I noticed that the stones on the boundary maker of the seashore were rather shinier than the rest at the point where the two street meets. Is this a work of art? I don't know but this was done by intention for sure!

Nice plants grew along the path...

This is the sculpture Solfar or Sun Voyage I wanted to see yesterday but the wind didn't allow me to do so. And I ended my third day sightseeing with this sculpture.