Day 2, Wednesday, January 7th

I am so frigging hungry.

I walked around a lot today, up Laugasvegur, which is a big shopping street. So far, I'm trying really hard not to feel discouraged. It's dark as fuck. I mean, really fucking dark. There's four hours of sunlight a day and it's sucky sunlight, and the sky has been nothing but drippy-ass clouds dripping drops on me and making my hair curl up. I can't have crappy hair in Iceland; everyone here looks great all the time.

Bear with me, I'm almost done bitching.

I feel really short, and I don't know anyone at all. I'm really trying hard to find something awesome about Reykjavik but so far it seems like a cleaner, more Nordic Asheville with more hipsters and fewer weirdos. My host is great but she's too busy to show me much, and she doesn't seem to go out too often. I feel quite alone. Maybe the purpose of this trip is to get me to appreciate all the people that usually annoy the crap out of me back home in Greensboro. I wish I hadn't quit smoking, because at least that'd be something to do.

I don't want any overpriced handicrafts except for one of those lopapeysa everyone looks so awesome in. I can't stand shopping.

I feel incredibly guilty for not knowing Icelandic. Everyone speaks English but it seems like no one REALLY wants to, which is perfectly understandable to me.

No one has been discussing ships or gold or axes so I can't use any of my Icelandic.

On a good note, I went to the National Museum, which was fantastic. Lots of great old Icelandic historical items, and a lot of ecclesiastical artefacts, which are right up my alley. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited so I have no pictures of that. I'll try to take one of the outside.

Tomorrow I'm getting out of town and going on an excursion southwards to see some famous waterfalls, some black sand beaches, and some puffins. So far I've found nothing really worthy to photograph. I mean, a city is a city. And this is a dark ass city.

I went to a small park in Hafnarfjordhur today. No real reason except that I felt like going to a park in Hafnarfjordhur. It was pretty rugged--big rocks and scrubby trees, lots of moss and spent fireworks everywhere (from the last day of Christmas, which was last night). Speaking of which, I was thinking of all the fireworks noise; if that were my neighborhood in Greensboro, I'd think there was a gang war going on. At least Reykjavik is safe.

I'm hoping I didn't pick a really shitty time to come here. I'm determined to enjoy myself. Things will get better. It's just culture shock. I'm fine. Really.