Ascension Day

I have made it to England and am even conscious now after a full night's sleep. Other than napping here and there I figure I was awake for nearly 36 hours with 24 hours of travel time. 

The 9+ hour layover in Reykjavik, Iceland was a good chunk of that time, which brings me to Ascension Day. It turns out Ascension Day is a national holiday in Iceland on May 18... the day I was there. It also turns out that many things are closed that day, including museums and stores, such as The Handknitting Association of Iceland. The driver of the shuttle bus had mentioned it on the drive from the airport to the city, so I wasn't surprised when I saw this sign on the door of the store.

Which means I missed seeing all the cool and interesting things inside such as this. (Look at the cute little sheep on the bottom at 7 o'clock.

My checkbook is probably significantly happier for it being closed and it's not as though I really needed more yarn.

The weather was in the 50's and drizzling, but I had planned my traveling clothes for less than ideal weather in Reykjavik, so was actually pretty comfortable. Not everything was closed, though. I found a place to get some breakfast and a cup of coffee and all the gift stores for tourists were open. I spent most of my time walking around the city center.

It is such a a manageable city! On the map it looked huge and I was figuring it taking twenty minutes or so to walk from place to place. I could actually cross the whole city center in less than a half hour. So I walked. There are so many picturesque streets.

And I walked by the sea.

There's volcanic rock everywhere, which is not surprising, but along this stretch little cairns had been stacked everywhere.

The perk of Ascension Day is that there was a service featuring an organ concert in the cathedral. I got there accidentally at the perfect time as the concert was just about to begin and I was beginning to wonder if I should buy some more food so I could sit for a bit inside. The organ and organist were pretty amazing.

At the end of the concert it was time to take the bus back to the airport. 

I really liked my time there and would love to go back and actually see the island. A couple of interesting things. Many of the people who were working as bus drivers or food workers were from Eastern Europe. And graffiti was everywhere in Reykjavik. Some of it has clearly been embraced as street art, so I'm thinking there is a different relationship with graffiti, but there was so much I became hyper aware of it.

Today is a resting day and then this weekend is a training weekend. I'll continue to post when I can.