Roy Sigurd Karlsbakks blogg

Day seven – almost halfway through. Should have had more time and more money and more everything, but I guess I can’t complain much. Walked into town again I went by Grái kötturinn to see if it was open, and though the door was open, the gate in front of it was not – still closed for maintenance. I tried to call, but no-one came, so at least I looked inside to see how it looks, and it really looks nice. There’s even a rainbow flag on the counter. Actually, there are more rainbow flags around in town that I’ve ever seen, so either homosexuality is well accepted, or perhaps they use the flag for some other reason, I don’t know.

For once, I walked by Prikið. I was there last night and around eleven, a guy came in and gave a DVD disc to the lady behind the bar. She turned down the light and put it on and most of the tourists fled. I came to understand that Sunday nights are movie nights, and generally not Hollywood blockbusters. Last night’s movie was The fearless vampire killers. I wouldn’t call it a B movie – you’ll need to move a little further out in the alphabet – but that’s nice. I recommended Himmel og helvete for the next Sunday and promised to find a copy. I don’t think Øyvind Vennerød‘s family is likely to sue me for showing his this hilarious attempt of an anti-drugs-propaganda movie on a bar.

Walking on, I found myself by Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament and a place called Posthúsið Vinbar. While early for wine, their menu looked fine. I ordered a lobster sandwich and got it served with chips. What is it with Iceland and chips anyway? This is almost as bad as Scotland, where I once was served Lasagne with chips and my friend was served Dill with her dessert. No lemon balm, nonono, Dill! That Dill episode was on the most expensive and “luxurious” restaurant at Bowmore Hotel in Bowmore, Islay, Scotland. Don’t go there! If hungry in Bowmore, you should rather go to the café in Lochside Hotel – they don’t serve anything fancy, and you’ll get as much chips you can eat, but it’s OK. And when you get tired of chips, you can try the little Indian restaurant, Taj Mahal in Shore Street. Ask for Madras or stronger, they normally don’t use much peppers. But enough about Scotland. Luckily Iceland isn’t that bad, but still I wonder if they will serve me extra chips if I order chips alone. Now, this food looks well enough, but it tasted less. Not that it was very expensive, about 2000 krónur for food and drinks, but I didn’t like it too much, and I won’t really recommend it. It doesn’t help much that the place smells of scented candles.

Letting my feet steer the way led me westwards through (mostly) narrow streets with the typical Reykjavík houses in all colours imaginable. Near Bárugötu, I even saw this purple one!

Back in miðbær, Peikð was full of people and not so full of empty seats, so I went on 15 meters up Laugavegur to Kofi Tómasar frænda. I first thought that meant “Cousin Thomas’ café”, but as Hildigunnur pointed out, I was quite wrong. The name is taken from the Icelandic translation of the book Uncle Tom’s cabin or, Life Among the Lowly by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

After two Lattes and blogging this went to that other bookshop in Hvervisgötu (number 16). It’s smaller than the one I mentioned the other day, but looks almost as messy. Unfortunately it was closed, so I’ll just try again later.

Thinking about those (probably) American tourists in their heavy winter clothing, I guess shepherding them to the marked to the horse meat department would be nice, just to see their reaction (did you know the last horse slaughterhouse in the USA was closed by court order back in 2007?). For those of you who haven’t tasted horse meat, I’d highly recommend it. I’d put it somewhere in between beef and reindeer – yummy.

Back at Prikið again, I discovered the backyard was painted with nice graffiti. A guy was even working on a piece when I came by. Another thing I haven’t noticed earlier, is that there’s a blackboard for tagging in the toilet. So, even with a place with lots of graffiti artists, the toilet is clean, save for the blackboard.