For dinner Saturday night we decided to try out the only restaurant in our guidebook advertised as vegetarian, Glo. They had all kinds of wraps, salads, rice bowls, and other good stuff, plus you could add chicken to any of it. We both liked our meals and it was the most affordable meal we'd had yet so we decided we should probably come back for another meal before we left. Before heading back to the room we stopped a market to get supplies to make breakfast and pack a lunch for the next day. We also picked up milk and hot chocolate mix for a treat later.
Our golden circle tour was scheduled for the Sunday morning so we went to bed early. The weather was a bit stormy and we were concerned that our trip might get cancelled, but I hadn't received an email saying anything one way or the other so we just hoped for the best. The storm got worse overnight as we could hear the wind and snow pelting the windows. Neither of us slept very well that night.
I'd set my alarm early so we could have enough time to cook and pack lunches. Kat made eggs with toast and our purloined butter while I made a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the tour. After cleaning up we packed and headed to the bus stop to catch our shuttle. It was colder than the day before and still windy.
The shuttle arrived as we got to there, but as we were getting on the driver told us both our golden circle and northern lights tours had been cancelled due to inclement weather. I was upset I never got an email letting me know, but there wasn't anything I could do about it at the time so we rode the shuttle to the main bus station and rescheduled our tours for Monday, our last day in Iceland, to try again.
We walked back to the room because it turned out my camera needed to be recharged and I wanted to change out what I was carrying around in my backpack. Unfortunately when we arrived our room was being cleaned, because we thought we were going to be gone all day we'd put the "please clean" sign out. Not wanting to disturb the housekeeper we opted to go get a hot drink somewhere instead. Keep in mind it was still stormy out this whole time and we were bundled up in two jackets and all our warmest stuff.
We found a cafe that was open and tried to plan the rest of our day. We considered an escape room, but it was very expensive for just the two of us. In the end we took the tour company's suggestion and discount coupons to go see the much-hyped ice cave exhibit at the Perlan Museum in town. It didn't look too far on the map so we figured we could just walk there and hunt pokemon as we walked. Unfortunately my phone had been acting funny lately and would randomly shut itself down even with plenty of charge left. I was getting frustrated with it and I will probably need to get the battery replaced when we get back to the states.
Our walk to Perlan was quite a trek with biting wind blowing stinging snow into our faces the entire way. By the time we got there the wind was so strong it was blowing us sideways so we were glad to take shelter inside the museum. It was very busy, probably in part due to the cancelled tours, but also because several school groups seemed to be on field trips as well.
The main exhibit was a replica glacial ice cave preserved by keeping it very cold, about 14 degrees Fahrenheit. I had high hopes, but it turned out to be very small and slightly disappointing. It took us almost no time at all to explore the entire thing and the fake photo-op backgrounds really took me out of the experience. After wandering through the caves and spending some time with the slightly more interesting interactive panoramic maps display we decided we were done.
The weather had only gotten worse since we had been in the cave so there was no way we were going to walk back. Thankfully they offered a free shuttle service that would take us back to Harpa downtown, but we didn't know exactly what we were looking for at first because there were many vans, taxis, tour and school buses coming and going from the parking lot. People were huddling near the entrance but still getting pelted by snow and blown around by the strong winds. We stayed inside until it looked like people were moving toward the shuttle, but because we had hung back we missed out on seats for the first one. It was getting late now, I was hungry, and we didn't want to miss the next bus so we ate a couple of our packed sandwiches and stood outside to be the first on the bus. The next one came about a half hour later and we pushed and shoved our way on board.
It was a short ride back to Harpa, but it was still quite windy out. We both needed a drink and Kat wanted something warm to eat, maybe some soup, so we went looking for a soup place she thought she remembered seeing on one of our walks. I couldn't recall it, but we tromped up and down and around the streets in search of it to no avail. I still think she imagined it. We eventually gave up the search and opted for a pub instead, but the English and Irish pubs were both full to bursting with people watching football, who had had their flights cancelled or were otherwise snowed in. The only option left was the tacky-looking "American Bar". There were plenty of seats available there.
Kat got a Gull and I ordered a Guinness along with some nachos to share. The nachos were close but not quite right, as if someone had described nachos over the phone after having seen them once but never tasted them. The chips were triangular but definitely not tortilla chips and instead of salsa they were covered with something more like tomato paste from a can. In any case we ate it all and were happy to be out of the weather for awhile.
We were both pretty done for the day, even though it was early afternoon, and headed back to the apartment. The wind had died down a bit while we were at the bar so the walk back wasn't so bad. Once we got back I got in bed, watched a little of the Olympics on TV, and then took a long nap. I only woke up long enough for a light snack and to blog. Hopefully our trip doesn't get cancelled for tomorrow.
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