New Friends From Around the World

Yesterday afternoon, after Lance's nap we chose a funny little soup restaurant that was decorated with an interesting mix of things on the walls. Annnnd a crazy blackface waiter statue in the corner and all of their menus... obviously in the states this probably wouldn't fly, but I suppose Iceland doesn't have the history of race issues we do. Anyway, the soup was really damn good and served in a massive breadbowl, pretty much the perfect way to eat soup.

We then tool a walk down past the lake in the middle of town which boasts a rather impressive crowd of geese and ducks which all congregate on a patch of open water (the lake was mostly frozen over) on the north end by the town hall. Continuing from there we looped around the lake heading for the National Museum. The museum is very nice and well maintained, boasting exhibits from the earliest days of Icelandic settlement through today. As a history nerd I absolutely love stuff like this, seeing thousand year old Viking artifacts is really amazing. That said I really wish the museum had more of Viking age displays, but it fairly quickly changes over to the Christian era and focuses very heavily on religious artifacts. Interesting, to be sure, but quite lot less interesting than other things. The museum does give a pretty good look at how Icelanders have lived throughout the ages and completely worth the 1000isk.

As we left I bought a board game, based on one played by the Vikings. Lance and I played several games and its a pretty fun game, simple and fairly quick to play. Something my board-game playing nerd friends should enjoy next time I make it to game night.

Dinner last night was rather interesting, next to nothing is open on Sundays here and even less is open after 6pm. We basically walked down the street until we found somewhere open, it turned out to be a restaurant specializing in Danish open face sandwiches. It was getting late for a Sunday and the place was nearly empty. We ordered and I was quickly brought my appetizer of Reindeer pate. Erin, of course, kind of turned her nose up, but Lance and I dug in. It was super tasty and we finally got Erin to cave in and try some, she admitted it was pretty awesome. I followed that with a bacon and Camembert sandwich, and I can say that the cheese here is pretty amazing, as is the bacon.

We headed back to backpackers and met up with a few people we had met at the hostel, after a couple of beers there we had assembled a group of 10 people and we headed out to find another bar. Again, being Sunday, most places were closed but we found a quiet little place which would be closing soon but gave us the chance to get to know the group some. Turns out between the 10 people we hailed from 6 different countries, us from USA, a cow milker from England (living in Iceland), a London homicide detective originally from Wales, two bankers who live in New York City but come from Taiwan and Shanghai, a hostel worker from Czech Republic and a quiet Japanese girl. Everyone got along really well and we shared stories about our homes and lives.

That bar closed at 12 so we headed down the street and found a crowded little club playing pretty awesome music. At this point rounds of shots of brennivin and Opal started flowing and pretty soon Lance and Erin were engaging in arm wrestling competitions with some Icelandic fishermen, the lost horribly. It was all goof fun, though. The bars close early Sundays and they kicked us out at 1, probably a relief for Lance who hadn't slept in many hours.

Now, off to the national art gallery. Onward!

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