I let myself sleep in again this morning, once again choosing a good night's sleep over the free breakfast. I actually ended up having a quite a good breakfast at Cafe Paris, which is close to my guesthouse. You always find the good restaurants on your last day don't you?
Left with a bit of time to kill I began to wander aimlessly around Reykjavik. I ended up approaching Hallgrimskirkja from the back of the church, and got some shots that show how impressive the structure must be without all the scaffolding on it.
It really is a massive structure. Also, on my first day here I'd just snapped a few photos as I wandered past, so this time I decided to actually poke my head in for a moment. I rather enjoy the fact that in the Viking tradition even their pipe organ looks a bit like a weapon:
After snapping a few more shots of the church I went to catch the bus for my rafting trip. Unfortunately this concludes the portion of the post where I have any pictures to show. My camera is waterproof, but I didn't have a good way of securing it to myself for the rafting ride and I decided that it was just too risky to bring it along. It's a shame too, I could have got some great pictures.
The rafting itself was a blast. Almost everyone on my raft was Canadian, and we all got questioned on why we would have to come to Iceland for rafting when there was certainly perfectly good rafting to be had in Canada. I guess sometimes the things that are close to home just get taken for granted. I've been informed that there's some excellent white water rafting to be had in Ottawa for those of you who don't feel like making the trek to Iceland.
For anyone considering the Hvítá rafting experience here, you should keep in mind that you will get wet, and you will get cold. This is just part of the Icelandic rafting experience, and should be something that you are prepared to deal with. Beyond that it's not really a difficult river and makes for a good first ride. There were plenty of flat stretches where we were just fooling around by playing various games while standing on the side walls, which invariably ended with someone (often me) in the water. It really gets you used to the whole feel of rafting.
Since returning to Reykjavik I've just had time for dinner, and then to get here to my beloved cafe for a blog post. After this it will probably be time for me to call it a night. As I mentioned earlier I'm going to get a wrap-up post up either tomorrow or Friday, so check in for that. Also, as Graydyn pointed out in the comments, I'll be in Montreal the Labour Day long weekend, and I'll hopefully be able to get a post or two in there as well.
Check in soon, more posts to follow! Thanks for reading everyone!
2 comments:
I think you are right about the taking things for granted. I lived in Ottawa for almost a year and didn't really visit any museums, I returned for a week end a few years later and I went to a museum.
If you get this before bed I think one last shot of Brenivin on Icelandic soil is a must.
There's lots of places to do some white water rafting in BC (hint hint).
Ok so you're bringing home some Brennivin from Iceland, what can we get you to bring us back from Quebec?
Have a safe flight home.
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