I'm sure many of those people who paid good money to ride around in those monster trucks felt awfully silly being followed by a Kia compact hatchback to many of the locations.
We saw turf-roofed buildings, a place where the country is moving apart at a rate of a few centimeters a year, Icelandic ruins, and Hekla. I scooped up some volcanic rocks to bring back. Figure why not. Hekla rocks.
The absolute weirdest part of this loop was passing through what I'm sure is "cottage country" in Iceland. Or at least for the people of Reykjavik. There is an area about an hour out of the city with barren hills and a lake - surrounded by cottage-like buildings. Literally - surrounded. And I could not understand why, in this magnificient country - that you would build your cottage within plain view of your neighbours, facing a recreational lake, atop barren land. Just drive another hour and build it where there is no one else, with a waterfall, a river and maybe a mountain nearby.
After the loop we continued along the south coast on as yet un-mapped roads and contemplated the Blue Lagoon - but since flights between LHR and KEF had resumed - the Britons had arrived. The place was literally 10x more crowded than it was 10 days ago, when we first arrived.
Decided to ditch the Lagoon - but my cousin would come back on her own later. Did not help that the Aussie had misplaced her swim suit somewhere.
We saw more bubbling mud amid sulphur stench and a beautiful blue crater-shaped lake before continuing into Reykjavik for dinner and wandered into the city. Decided to walk into town because we'd been sitting on our asses all day and it was only about 2km from the hostel to the city. I refused to navigate the walk this time. Of course I didn't tell anyone else I was refuising to navigate. I just wanted to feel what it was like to be a passenger on this trip :)
We found some good Thai food and then to the Dillon Music club for a night of live music. Of course, after dinner, we passed by a restaurant that advertised "Puffin Dinner" and the one travel mate went on (and on) about how she wished we'd seen that first, how she wanted to try Puffin. How she would have paid more. I told her to get over it.
We heard a few bands in the bar and I realized that my travel mates were intent on drinking it up that night. I ditched them after midnight and 7 drinks each - and speed-walked the 2.5km back to the hostel solo. It is a beautiful city at that time. Although a bit sketchy in some parts.
Glad I had my WenDo.
Fell asleep just after 2:30am after sending a brief message to my cousin's Blackberry, hoping they were still alive.
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