My last breakfast in Finland consisted of the delicious herring and smoked salmon we bought yesterday at the old Helsinki market hall down by the harbor, dark brown bread, coffee, cucumbers and bell pepper, much like the other breakfasts. I´ll miss these. I made sure I packed up my bags, chargers, phone, clothes, books, and A walked me to the bus to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport, rode the bus, sad goodbye, and was off to the duty free.
My flight to Reykjavik was uneventful, sat next to two old ladies on their way back from Helsinki to Minnesota (showed them how to watch a video about Icelandic horses on the display), read a little of Infinite Jest (I expect I will be doing this for a while), slept a little, watched about half of Die Hard (scary movie!). Picked up some wine at the duty free in Reykjavik, made it through customs, and was greeted by Eva at the Keflavik airport for my third visit to Iceland.
It was still a little shocking to be here again -- it is funny to me how much I miss the place every time. I was excited, big party planned for the night, seeing old friends, and of course the familiar taste of the Icelandic hot dog ("hoddog"). Stopped at the Bonus supermarket at the Kringlan mall, picked up some food for dinner, including diet coke (an eastern European guy working at the store attempting to dissuade me from purchasing the diet coke told me that the Germans used Aspartame to kill the Jews -- was he just trying to be helpful or did I look so obviously Jewish??????) Stopped at a hot dog stand for a pylsa (delicious).
Arrived at Eva´s house, said hi to her mom and dad (always good to see them), took a nap (listening to Glenn Gould´s "The Latecomers"). After I woke up, took a shower. The showers in Iceland are universally amazing, and this one especially good. Super hot, high pressure, with a mineral smell that I found slightly disturbing the first time in 2005, but have grown to find comforting.
Around 8:30 p.m., Eva´s friends started to arrive, Audur and her boyfriend Gummi, Sjöfn, Silla, Sandra and others I had not met before. Spent some good time on the balcony laughing and telling old stories about the various visits between the US and Reykjavik, my travels so far and in the future, eating pretzels, drinking red wine. Sky still bright and not really at all old yet.
At around 2 a.m., various groups of us left for downtown. I think the first bar we went to was called 11 on Laugavegur, danced for maybe an hour to Blur, the Pixies, some Icelandic songs I didn´t know, with some of Eva´s friends I didn´t know, Audur and G. The beers I was attempting to drink ended up much on my shirt from being bumped into. Good bar though, and I wish I could remember more of the music being played.
Left to the Celtic Cross, where I think I went once in 2005, only stayed for a bit, but long enough for some sort of green shot.
At this point it was about 4 a.m., the sun completely out, and one of them asks if I feel like keeping on "jamming", which I think is an Icelandic way of saying "do you want to stay out tonight?" I said yes, and I think the next place we were to was Apotek, where one of the girls i was with´s boyfriend was djing. Met some guys from the U.S.A. there for a bachelor party. I think this part of the "night" ended around 6:30, I said goodbye to my Icelandic friends, but instead of going directly home, spent about half an hour emailing from my phone on the street, and people watching.
Despite the hour, and the brightness, the streets downtown were full of people, most not looking so very tired. I picked up a sandwich from a shop and sat down on a chair to eat it, spoke to an Icelandic couple waiting for a taxi about their having 5 kids between them despite being 33 and 35 years old and not fully employed. Whoa. They were impressed with my plan to hike Laugavegurinn on Monday though, which was encouraging.
Shared a cab back to Eva´s with some strangers, and went to sleep at around 7 a.m. Thank Golly she woke up to let me back in. I knew I would feel really bad soon and I did.
**Velvet Underground -- Sunday Morning
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