"Ones destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things" -Henry Miller
That's been the theme of the last couple of days, we have been wandering without any real destination in mind other than to see things. We've all been battling with what I assume is jet lag. Yesterday we didn't wake up until nearly noon (almost six am back home) so by the time we dragged the kids out of their beds, ate a little bit of breakfast and figured out the bus, it was around 1:30 by the time we got out. We took the bus to downtown Reykjavik and found our way to the tourist information building, booking a car for the next three days (everything we want to see is rural) the car will cost us four hundred for the next three days but will save us the two hundred the cab cost us to get to our apartment! Trust me, I've looked into this, the fly us would cost us nearly that as well, we might save twenty five dollars but would have to ride bus through city as it picks up/drops off and it was extra charge because we aren't in hotel. Anyway, it's saving us in the long run and Iceland is not too bad for getting around, the right of ways could be tricky in heavy traffic but aren't too terrible so far. Kelsey and I didn't even fight today over the driving, must be the gps... Anyway, after booking the car we wandered around downtown, found a sweet little cafe Babalú for lunch and made our way up to the big church, Kelsey and Amber rode up to the top while the boys and I hung out by the Leif Erickson statue. We wandered more and in the shops we noticed a large amount of wool products, I even found yarn spun in Iceland...lots of it! We decided to go to the phallic museum, curiosity and humor took us there, it wasn't so good, it was odd but we were in and out fairly quickly, however now we can say we saw it, it's the only one we were told!

Today we had to get up again and take a half hour walk to the city hostel where budget picked us up and took us to the car rental office. We got our teeny tiny car, don't ask me how we will fit us and backpacks in it for the ride to the airport! It's red and powerful though and we zip around like nobody's business! We drove to Porlákshön, and Eyrarbakki, where we bought some cookies and a bag of Doritos "cool American" flavoured tortilla chips. Amber needed the washroom and had to pay 50kronos (nearly fifty cents Canadian) From there we went to Kleifarvati and saw some hot mud bubbling, smelled the sulphur in the air and watched the streams boil. It was chilly and it looked inviting but we didn't dive in. We were really hungry and took off to Grindavik for lunch, we ate at Bruin and wondered why it was so quiet, then we realized we were eating lunch at three...jet lag again! We wanted to check out the blue lagoon, Bláa Lónid so we found it and went up to the gates, it was swarming with buses full of people, when we went in we found out it was €35.00 around fifty bucks a person, more euros if you want a towel. The pool backs onto a factory of some sort and looks a bit radioactive, anyway we decided it was too crowded and not worth the money, so Sheldon snapped a couple pictures and we took off again.

We were reading a small tourist guide and it indicated that there was an old stone fence and an ancient burial ground, we stopped where the map indicated and found a man closing up his shop, he took the time to explain to us that these were not places but that rocks from the fence could be found and that if you were lucky or unlucky, depending on how you felt about it, you could find bones and skeletons in the area, and pointed off in the direction of a house. We drove to the house and found people living there, there were loads of rock formations which appeared to us to be old buildings. Very cool but we didn't get out and poke around. Anyway, we saw a lot of land, it's so black and mossy and you find these little wee forests here and there, and loads of sheep and goats, the boys said there are more goats than people here, I'm not sure, seems pretty populated to me.

It's really pretty here and tomorrow we are going to take Sheldon out to some mountain he has been wanting to see for months (unfortunately the other site he wants to see is about eight hours away, more than we are up to I'm afraid.)  So we will see more of this beautiful place tomorrow.