Around Reykjavik

At 9am I was on the phone with Icelandair who told me that they couldn't get me on a flight until Saturday with the current schedule, but I'd be on a waiting list for Thursday, and they may add flights if everything opens up. I then went up to Email my cousin in Holland to tell her that I wouldn't be coming as soon as we'd hoped. Luckily, I found her online, and she placed a call to the dutch office and since she works for shell and plans many trips for them, managed to get me confirmed on the Thursday flight! :D They just advised her that I had to be very early to the airport, so I'll be on the first bus to the airport thursday morning. :)
With most of a day unplanned, I decided I would try to see most of the museums and galleries in the city. There's a Welcome To Reykjavik card that the tourist info center has been giving away for free to anyone stranded, so I went to get one. It gives you access to all the museums, buses and thermal pools for 72 hours.
The Settlement Museum exhibited the ruins of the oldest building's foundation, found under a modern building while making an addition, and subsequently preserved. It looks like a rock wall in a large oval. 1000 years ago, it had wood posts and trusses carrying a turf roof.
The Culture House exhibited ancient manuscripts and artifacts from around 1260s when writing was introduced to Iceland with the Catholic Church. On another level, they had a large display on contemporary photography showing various lives across the country and another display on Icelandic films which I got very little out of.
The National Gallery had some weird stuff going on. One floor had a rusty car in the middle of a white room, another had posters all over advertising different prostitutes. It was called "the Pretty Women of Paris", finally in the basement, there were ropes and curtains all over the room and a sign saying to "feel free to rearrange the ropes and fabric to create your own flowing art". I was confused and left. :P
At the National Museum I walked through various periods of Icelandic history, from the early Norwegian settlers to the influence of the Danish rulers and present day. It was a fairly good glimpse at the history of Iceland and had some neat artifacts that brought many of the articles to life.
On the University campus, I visited a couple buildings and got the impression that class sizes were very small and the whole experience was quite a personal one to go there. On my bike tour, they had told me that Tuition is only $300 per year, even for foreigners! Perhaps I should get my masters in geothermal energy. :P
I walked a ways into a residential district to find the best ice cream in Iceland. It was extremely good. Very creamy soft-serve and dipped in carmel sauce with skor bits. Soo tasty. :D From there, I took my first bus to the huge chapel above the city. It's a gorgeous church and has a great organ inside it that I was lucky enough to hear playing. That's usually my favourite part of visiting churches, and this was no different.
I took another bus to the Perlan, which is a large domed building on the top of a hill with a rotating restaurant in the top. I ate in the cafeteria there, I had a crepe stuffed with rice, ham, cheese, asparagus and mushrooms and it was delicious!
I took the bus back to the main part of town and walked past the Government's Reception house, which was the setting for the Reykjavik Summit, where Gorbachev and Reagan met to first discuss Nuclear Treaties. There's a large plaque in english, russian and icelandic declaring it the beginning of the end of the cold war. Really a neat looking house, and it served as various ambassadors' homes before its current use.
I walked through the city botanical gardens where the first hot spring and wash house in reykjavik is located. The wash basins are still there, but the pools were removed in the 60s when they built newer ones close by.
The newest pool in reykjavik had an indoor and outdoor olympic pool a kids pool, a waterslide, steamroom, sauna and 7 hot tubs, 6 outdoor. There was one large hot tub outside and then small ones at 38, 40, 42 and 44F as well as one filled with heated seawater. I sat in every one. :) Plus, the waterslide was pretty fun. Outdoor and like -1 outside! For awhile it was even snowing! hehe
Thoroughly relaxed after, I headed back to the hostel and went for beers with a guy from the hostel. This time, I tried Viking, the main Icelandic beer and it was quite like Kokanee. I guess that makes it allright, even though it only has 2.2% alcohol. hehe. It's like American beer!