旅行は私の人生なのだ

2010.8.9

3 o'clock in the night, there is a roommate who seems to have finished her journey and is ready for going home, she turns on the light in the toilet and  put things into her luggage. Because of her, I wake up, and go to the lounge in the 1st floor, eat my toast, and write the diary.

Not until 4:30, the sky is already getting bright, but the sun don't show up yet.

Before 5:00, I walk to the harbour nearby. It is good that I see the sunrise.

In Iceland, if there is only a few cloud around, you will feel the hot from the sun, just like the sun is very close to you. So the sunglass is necessary item in Iceland.

On the way back to hostel, I see a cute cat playing around a house. I always feel happy when meeting cats or dogs. I try to catch the cat with my camera.

Today, I will take the bus to Bakki harbour and take the ferry to Westman Island. Because there is still a lot of time to spend, I carry my small luggage and walk without any destination. As for the big luggage, that is stored in the hostel for 300 ISK per day.

I walk to the Hlemmur bus station where the buses running around Reykjavik depar from, and there is an old house near here.

　　Here is the house

Walking with a small luggage on my back make me feel a little tired. After watching that old house and the shore, I walk to the BSI before 9:30.

The bus going to Bakki harbour takes about 2 hours. We arrived the harbour at about 12:00 that is half an hour late. For this reason, the ferry also departs later than the scheduled time. The ferry takes 35 minutes to arrived at Westman Island.

In the past, before July 21 this year, the ferry to Westman Island departed from Thorlakshofn where is one-hour driving from Reykjavik, but it took almost three hours to arrive at Westman Island. And the ferry departed twice a day from Thorlakshofn.

After July 21, the ferry departs from Bakki for four schedule times, and take less than one hour to Westman Island. It's good and convenient for people who want to visit Westman Island. But the bus only departs from Reykjavik for two schedule times.

Because I will drive by myself when I return from Westman Island, It's good for me to take the bus and let me get familiar with the roads in Iceland.

When arrived at Westman Island, the scene is very different from the Islands I have seen before.

I don't know how to describe this Island. It is a Green, very green lava Island.

The guesthouse I stay today is about ten minutes walking from the harbour. It has cute paintings on the wall, and there are some baby birds bred near the garden.

I put my luggage in my room and ask the host about the locations for watching puffins. She shows me the locations on a map of Wetsman island, but also tells me that afternoon is not a good time for finding puffins because they might be finding their food on the sea.

Anyway, I am ready for walking a long time and waiting for puffins.

Although Westman Island is very green island, there seems to be no trees here. If you look at the ground, most part of the ground is lava and the green color comes from moss. But in other side, It's very easy to find lava. Many Taiwanese may not see the lava before.

The mountains here are not as high as in main landscape of Iceland, but the mountains with different shapes and colors surrounded by the green ground and blue sky looks pretty nice. If you walk to the shore, you could see the sea and many birds. The people live here really enjoy a good environment.

But I don't see any puffin. It's a pity.

I walk along the shore and take many photos for four hours. There are only a few tourists and cars passing me by, and I could not find any toilet or water fountain around the place I am in now.

The water I bring with me has been empty, but I just walk to the foot of a mountain in the south of Westman Island.

Because I feel tired for walking up to the summit, I find a wooden chair and take a rest there. It's really nice to take a nap under the blue sky, but I prefer to drink some water.

After I reach the summit and make sure that I could not see any puffin around here, I spend another 3 hours walking on the road and back to the guesthouse.

In the guesthouse, I tell the host about that. She tells me that there is actually a food problem for puffins in Westman Island. Because lacking of the food, puffins move to the sea earlier than before, and this may decrease the will of puffins for breading their baby.

By the way, the host has a cat and a dog. Although I don't see any puffin today, it's still a great fun to play with them.

10 o'clock. After I took a bath, it should be the night, but you will never know if you don't look at the clock.

Whatever it is afternoon or night, I am going to sleep. I'm pretty tired today for walking about 8 hours.

My room is warm and home-like, and the price is cheaper than Downtown hostel. I like this guesthouse.

2010.8.10

The room is quite comfortable and warm.

I sleep very well, but I still get up very early in the morning at 5:00.

Because I have make sure that it's hard to find puffins herer and I have walked a lot yesterday, I change my plan to take the ferry in the morning, instead of in the afternoon.

There is an hour for me to take a free walking. Thus, I carry my small luggage and leave the guesthouse.

Today, cloud cover the blue sky and part of the mountains, and I don't see the sun. That is a different scene from that of yesterday.

When closing to the golf course, I see many birds surrounding here, and there is also a camp site near here.

But I don't think that is good to camping in such a cold and cloudy day, and maybe, there will be some bird's poo dropping on your tent or your head.

If walking to the harbour from golf course, you could see a bird cliff, and lots of birds rest there in the morning.

Although I don't see any puffin, it's still good that there is so many birds in Westman Island.

By the way, the camera is very important for taking photos of birds. I bring a focus-changeable Len between 18mm to 200mm. But if you want to take a clear photo of birds, the Len with longer focus is recommended.

I walk to the harbour at 7:00.

The ferry office does not open yet, so I'm the first tourist waiting here.

When waiting until 7:30, the office opened. I change my ticket for 500 ISK, and leave the cloudy Westman Island in the morning.

There is a photo that displays how convenient the credit card could be used. Even the selling machine could accept credit cards.

I arrived at Reykjavik in the noon.

It's a cloudy day today not only in Wedtman Island, but also in Reykjavik.

In another point of view, it's good to taking photos without a big sun above.

From the BSI, I drag my luggage and walk to Trjomin Lake.

I pass the south area of the lake, and there are many ducks resting on the grass.

And, there are alos many ducks' poo....... 

In the meanwhile, the bottom of my left shoe is separated. It means that my left shoe is borken.

Oh, Jesus, I have to spend a lot of money to buy new shoes.

When walking to the place I first visit Trjomin Lake, I see a mother and her little daughter feeding birds with their bread. Lots of ducks, sea gulls, pigeons fly close to them for the food. That is a readlly funny scene.

Sometimes I will choose different route when walking in Reykjavik, and find some nice-looking buildings , just as the building below.

After putting down my luggage in the hostel, I go to the harbour from some information about the tours for  watching puffins. Anyway, I just want to see some puffins.

The sky is not as cloudy as before, and the sun is not so bright. The view of the harbour seems to be in a perfect condition, and makes me fell very comfortable.

There are three booths provide puffin tours. I ask one of the booth for the schedule, the staff tells me that the tour in the morning is recommended because there is only a few puffins around the islands of Reykjavik.

Because I have made a appointment with the car rental company at 9:30, if I want to join the tour, I have to change the time for taking the car. So I go to the Shuttle church first and buy new shoes on the half way in a famous store in Iceland, named North 66 degree.

That shoes is quite expensive for more than 30000 ISK. 

This is second time I visit the church, and the church is opening today.

I go inside the church. The interior decorations is white, bright, simple and elegant. 

I takes photos for a while and then buy the ticket for taking the elevator to the tower of the church.

You could take  a great view of Reykjavik city on the tower. Some postcards also display such scenes.

Because I have made a decision to join the puffin tour tomorrow, I go back to the hostel, make a phone call to the company and change the time to 10 o'clock tomorrow. Then, I come back to the ticket booth and book the tour in the morning tomorrow.

After that, I feel hungry so I find a seafood restaurant which is recommended by Lonely Planet and tourist information in the BSI. They provide grilled fishes, vegetables, lobster soup and etc.

The fishes include Minke Whale....Oh my god......Whale.... 

Yes, that's right. In Iceland, it's legal to eat whale, but...

I order a grilled Blue Ling and a lobster soup. That is delicious and not too expensive.

’

 Sorry, I forget to take a photo of grilled fish before I ate it ~~

After my lunch in the afternoon, I walk to Hlemmur bus station and buy a one-day card for taking the bus No.18 to Perlan. There is still a lot of time before the night. 

The one-day card is 600 ISK. You could take any buses in Reykjavik area in a day as you wish.

One trip of the bus is 200 ISK, so if you will take more three trips in a day, one-day card indeed save your money.

Perlan is a attraction far away from here. If you walk from the BSI, it takes twenty minutes to walk there. So taking the bus would be better.

If you want to take buses in Reykjavik, you could find the information board in Hlemmur bus station, and the bus stop would list a detail information of the stops.

Depending on the route of bus No.18, Perlan is two stops from here.

But, I have to tell you a bad news that the bus will not display where you are and whether you will reach your destination soon. Therefore, I miss my stop and drop off the bus after two stops.

This tells me that I have to tell the bus driver where to drop me off. 

Because I don't want to waste my time to wait the next bus, I spend thirty minutes to walk to the Perlan.

There is a observatory in the 4th floor and a glass dorm in the middle of Perlan. The view is nice there.

Someone said that the lights around the Perlan will be turned on in the night. But in summer, the night comes pretty late.

Another way to observe Perlan is to take the plane from domestic airport, such as the flight to Greenland. You could see the whole view of Perlan in the sky.

After visiting the Perlan, I walk in another direction to the airport hotel where there is also a bus stop nearby.

Unfortunately, the next bus is one hour later. I think it will be quick to walk by myself.

I walk for about twenty minutes to the BSI, and another 20 minutes to Downtown hostel.

In the night, when I ate my dinner, I see a black cat around the guest kitchen. The black cat gets close to me, and let me touch him. Oh, so special.

From tomorrow, I will drive by myself for twelve days.

For the reason that the streets of Reykjavik city are complex for me, I look for the route to drive from Downtown to Road No.36 on Google Map.

And I also hope that I could find puffins in the tour tomorrow.

Except for the tour tomorrow, I change my itinerary and decide to go to Grimsey in my journey where is also a location for watching puffins.

By the way, Grimsey is the only territory of Iceland that is located across the North Arctic Line.

Attachment：Travelling Route Map

A：Reykjavik

B：Bakki Harbour