Today started like any other, lazy mornings in bed catching up whilst allowing the sleepy city of Reykjavik to wake up. Mid-morning I headed down to the much talked about Saga Museum, this is the story of the Viking's that came to Iceland, this was quite similar to the settlement museum I visited in Borgarnes, Just alot better! At the end of the tour they have a gift shop, i started to collect my souvenir's and also got the opportunity to dress up as a Viking/ Warrior which for me was so exciting!!
From here I headed down along the back streets and enjoyed everything I saw along the way, beautiful churches, amazing graffiti artworks and original Icelandic houses that are so basic but so beautiful at the same time. The bright coloured houses liven up what would normally be a very "dreary" street. Those photo's are yet to come :)
It was time for me to jump in my car and head down to Laugardalsholl, the Ice skating rink to watch a little bit of Ice Hockey :D My excitement levels for this were through the roof. Upon arrival I heard a few Aussie accents and I felt closer to home than I have for the entire time iv been here! These games were free to watch, which absolutely baffled me, a world championships and they aren't even charging you to watch!! I managed to meet people on the Melbourne Ice (who I support) committee and a few others that are quite heavily involved in the clubs. Disappointingly the Aussie's were beaten, but i was still surprised at how big the Aussie presence was in the arena (only about 100 people watching)
As I stepped out of the arena the temperature didn't change as it does when you leave Medibank Icehouse in Melbourne, no warmth over here! I took another 10 minute drive and ended up at Nutholsvik, a geothermal beach! Being (I think) one of two white sand beached in Iceland I can imagine in summer this place would be packed. Today though, not so much. The entire beach was almost my own, the pools were empty, the shops shut up and as I tested the water I worked out it was definitely NOT a geothermal beach!! Luckily for me i wasn't dressed and ready for a swim!
As the rain started to come, I thought the best idea would be to retreat to a few inside activities, by this i mean SHOPPING :) I headed to Kringlan first, Managing to pick up a couple of little things. Then headed over to Smaralind, this being the biggest shopping mall in Iceland. It was probably just under half the size of Chadstone, but i felt I was almost shopping alone as it was no-where near as busy, even with the weather being horrible outside! I stumbled upon a lot of things I could of bought but had to remember I only have so much space in my bag to get these things home. I managed to walk out without doing too much damage to my bank accounts :) Tonight as I arrived back to the hostel, there were three new guests arriving. Tom, Martin and Chris, all from Germany. Whilst I was so wanting to ask them to please say "yoohoo big summer blowout" in there accents, I restrained and just started talking travel :) We got onto the subject of the northern lights. The boys had done some research into it and tonights activity is meant to be high, with a bit of cloud coverage. As they don't have a car and I haven't had company I offered to drive them out of town to try and catch a glimpse, even just for a few minutes! So after a couple of drinks (Coke light for me), I'm heading to bed to get a couple of hours sleep before we head out :) fingers toes and everything thats possible crossed for tonight :) xxx