Day 25 (21 July): Rainy Working Day

I woke up around 8 a.m. After breakfast, while TT went swimming again, I continued the making of the tree. Today would be the last working day because I would start a trip tomorrow and return to Reykjavik on the same day as the presentation. It was a rainy day, and not pleasant to walk under the rain anyway. So, today had the kind of weather perfect for working.

Having worked until 4.30 p.m., I finished the sixth set of roots and started the last set. During the working hours, I also packed my stuffs ready for my trip.

Then, I left the residence for the city center. I had an appointment with Helga, a former student of Helena at her place on Vitastigur at 5 p.m. When arriving at her place, my jacket was completely wet. She showed me some of her works and photos of items collected at the Textile Museum in Blönduos in the north of Iceland. I also told Helga about the presentation at SIM on the 29th. She promised that she would come. After about 2 hours, I left her place and was back to the residence and continued working intensively. Meanwhile, I cooked spicy pork salad and rice of which was the last portion, meaning no more rice until we returned to Finland... 

Around 12.45 a.m., I got the roots done...

Then, I tested how to install the tree, which turned to be pretty simple. I just had to find a spot on the ceiling, tie a string around it together with the unknotted strings of the trunk. Only the tips of the root part would touch the floor. I spent only 20 minutes for testing the installation method...

Day 24 (20 July): Walking and Working Day

Waking up around 8 a.m., we had breakfast together. Then, while TT went swimming, I updated the blog. It was still a long way to get it up-to-date...

Around 12.50 p.m., we left the residence for the Tourist Information Center where the free walking tour would start at 1 p.m. The weather wasn't so nice today. The weather forecast promised only clouds and rain.

The guide was a funny man who tried to do the soft-sale of his haunted walk. He said he didn't believe in viking or saga but he believed in ghosts. The tour started by walking along Fisch, a small alley from the Tourist Information Center.

Then, we turned to Mjostraeti where the old center of Reykjavik was located.

The guide said that more than 7 people could live in a small house in the former time.

The picture below shows a house having been for sale for a year. As the owner asked for a very high price (7500000 ISK), no one had been interested in it so far. The guide mentioned a little about the economy in Iceland. He believed that it would soon collapse as it had happened in other countries when people overestimated themselves and took a huge mortgage.

After this old residential area, we continued to Adalstraeti. The first house we visited was the oldest house in Reykjavik on Adalstraeti 10 built in 1762. Today, it was a shop and part of it had a small exhibition showing how old Reykjavik looked like.

Then, we stopped briefly at the Settlement Museum. The guide told the story of how the museum was established in 2001. The construction of Hotel Centrum led to the discovery of a 10th-century viking hall beneath its foundation and a wall experts claimed to date back to AD871 plus or minus 1-2 years. This explained why the logo of this museum used the number 871 +/_ 1-2. The wall was believed to be the oldest manmade structure in Iceland.

Then, we continued to Austurvöllur, the city main square. Domkirkjan known locally as the cathedral is a tiny church. It has a crown representing a Danish king.

Althingishusid (parliament house) also has a crown.

The picture below shows the statue of Icelandic hero of independency Jon Siggurdson, sculpted by Einar Jonsson in 1931, facing the parliament building. Rain started pouring.

Then, the guide brought us to the City Hall to see the giant map of Iceland and had a break in the cafe.

The walking tour ended around 3.15 p.m. We went to grab the best hot dog in Reykjavik at Baejarins Bestu, a small stand by the harbor, with a very queue (220 ISK). Even Bill Clinton has tried the hot dog from this stand.

After this, we walked back to the residence. I warmed the stew left from yesterday and we had it with pasta for dinner. After dinner, I simply continued making the roots of my tree. From around 5 p.m. to 12.40 a.m., I could finish the forth set of roots.

I still extended the night by beginning to make the fifth set of roots. I had to move the trunk a little and place another set of roots on the desk to balance the weight.

I worked until my eyes couldn't focus any longer and went to bed around 1.50 a.m...

Day 23 (19 July): TT Arrival Day

Getting up at the usual hour as if I went to bed at the normal time, I did my morning activities and also laundry. Then, I uploaded photos taken during the Snaefellsnes trip on the blog. Selecting photos from a big collection of photos was a demanding task.

Before continuing the tree around 9 a.m., I realized that I didn't take a photo of the work I had done last night. So, I did it...

I thought that I should do as much as possible everyday before leaving for the trip to the south. I aimed to finish the whole root part of the tree for the presentation on the 29th.

After 3 hours, I could make quite a progress to the tree. Its root part so far has been done more than half way...

During the working hours, I also cooked pork-beer stew for dinner. It needed to be cooked constantly with low heat for a couple of hours. TT messaged me around 2 p.m. that he was about to arrive at Metropolitan Hotel. I stopped working and rushed to the hotel.

In the evening after dinner (for which we had pasta with the stew I had made), we walked to Seltjarnanes peninsula. It was quite windy today. Although the sun was shining strongly, wind made me feel chilly... It was quite a walk to the peninsula. Now, I understood why this part of the city was usually cut from every map.

Grotta, a beach rich of bird life was a part of the end of peninsula. When we arrived there, it was the high tide time, meaning we can see the lighthouse from distance as it was impossible to walk there.

We were quite tired of walking with the wind along the shoreline. So, on the way back, we took the route through a residential area. The house in the picture below was the Medical and Healthcare Museum Nesstofa which we saw from the path. After walking for a while, we noticed a bus stop. And when we were checking the timetable, Bus 13 came. So, we stepped into the bus and counted all coins we had in order to pay the fare. As I expected, we didn't have precisely 560 ISK, the fare for 2 passengers. However, the bus driver was very kind to exchange his own money with ours, so that we could pay the bus fare. This process took very long actually. Luckily, the bus didn't have so many passengers. In Reykjavik, one must pay the exact fare by throwing money into a plexiglas box. The bus driver is responsible only for driving the bus. We were lucky to get a kind driver. We got off the bus near Tjörnin and walked to the residence.

When arriving at the residence, I continued the tree and worked until 1.40 a.m... The root eventually became heavier and heavier, so that letting them all hang from the desk wasn't possible as the trunk would fall as well. I had to tape part of the roots on the desk to balance the weight of the parts on the desk and that of those hanging from the desk.