We started off the morning bright and early – well, by bright, I mean it didn’t get light until nearly 8am today, and by early, I mean we didn’t leave the house until nearly 10am! We were heading out first to go searching for a monument… the Eve Online Monument. Eve Online is not technically ‘huge’ in the world of MMORPGs (Did I get that right? I’m am guessing I probably didn’t and by my comment, you are probably guessing correctly that I didn’t care enough to Google it!) with roughly a million die-hard players – but it is huge in Iceland. So big that they have erected an actual physical monument to the in game plaers which is engraved with all the player names on it. We went hunting it out for a friend of ours who plays so we could take a photo of his avatar engraved on the monument…
It’s not exactly easy to find – but there is an online map telling you roughly which area each name is located – and yes, we found Drakey’s avatar! It’s something to do with spaceships and wars in space or something. I dunno. #computergaming #notmycupoftea
After ferreting out the Eve Online Monument, I convinced yale to swing past the Sun Voyager (again) so I could see it in the morning light. This is still such a stunning piece of art. I love it… so evocative, you can imagine it sailing out across the fjord. 🙂 This time fewer tourists were there hogging prime spots – but there’s always one jerk. This time a Kiwi, who stood around while his wife took his pictures and then he went wandering all around the sculpture – if it had been a car, he would have been kicking the tyres – while about 10 people are standing around shivering in the freezing cold waiting for him to fuck off out of our photographs! Urgh!
We were then heading indoors for a while (thankfully!) to the National History Museum, which is quite an impressive building in its own right.
I have started doing up a full post on just the items we saw in the museum – most of them are items I have not seen published in other books and catalogues, so I have done my best to capture them (in the dodgy museum lighting conditions) and to keep their detailed descriptions accessible too. I hope to get this done when I get on a train to Prague day after tomorrow… but we will see! There were lots of wonderful artefacts from the dark ages and medieval periods, and the second floor contained the 17th to 21st centuries – which as per usual, I skimmed through and barely took any notes at all because, well it’s just too modern for my interests. So here is a hint of what is to come in the full musuem post:
Around the corner from the museum is the famous Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran church which I have written about previously in my past travels. It is said to be designed with the volcanic basalt columns as an inspiration and influence. Having seen the columns on the beaches of Iceland now – I can see it a lot more clearly and have a new appreciation for the building. Previously, it just looked like a stark, way too modern, design to be a comforting place of worship – but now it kinda seems like it belongs here.
We did a little poke around the shops here a little – I stooped to buying a t-shirt… which in my defence was only marginally more costly than a tea towel at the end of summer sales. 🙂
So, lunchtime rolls around and we find ourselves hunting for the Bæjarins Bbeztu Pylsur stand, which quite literally means in English: ‘The Best Hot Dog in Town’. We find the little food truck exactly where is supposed to be not far from the Reykjavik harbour and to my surprise, it is surrounded by people standing around in the cold, which is about 3°C but with the wind feels about -1°, eating hot dogs! I’m not so sure about this al fresco dining thing in this weather, but we dutifully line up for a hot dog.
In August 2006, The Guardian newspaper selected Bæjarins Beztu as the Best Hot Dog Stand in Europe – big call. Since then plenty of famous people have come along and tried the now world renown, Bæjarins Beztu hotdogs. Among them are former US President, Bill Clinton, and even cooler, James Hetfield of Metallica fame… and now borys and yale join this illustrious companie of people who have stood around eating hot dogs in sub-zero temperatures.
It was so cold, but the hot dogs were tasty enough, I guess.
Across the road from the hot dog stand is the moorings for the Icelandic Coast Guard. This ship has been here each time I have been in Reykjavik – either that or they have three identical ships (not out of the question). I have kept meaning to take a photo of it – it’s pretty impressive. The Icelandic Coast Guard is primarily responsible for Iceland’s coastal defences and maritime and aeronautical search and rescue processes, but they have also been called upon to do things like bomb disposal?
So… after lunch, we made our way to the famous Icelandic Phallological Museum, aka the Reykjavik Penis Museum or the Reykjavik Dick Museum. *titter titter*.
It was founded in1997 by a now-retired teacher named, Sigurður Hjartarson. It is now run his son Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson. Apparently, the museum grew from what was just a private collection that started when Sigurður was given a cattle whip made from a bull’s penis when he was a kid. He then started collecting penises of Icelandic animals from sources around the country and has dicks in his collection that range from the 170 cm front tip of a blue whale penis to the 2 mm (0.08 in) baculum of a hamster, which is displayed under a magnifying glass.
The museum also houses many other phallic items and artworks. Longtime poet and environmental activist, Danish Sculptor, Pjarne P Ejass (1945 – ) created this “Viagra Phallus” in the form of a scorn pole. The work displays the artist’s contempt for all things that deviate from the normal course of nature, and the work is intended to convey his statement, “Stop Fiddling with Nature,” The artist donated the work to the Icelandic Phallological Museum in the summer of 2004 and it was erected in May 2005.
yale for scale.
A rather painful looking toothpick holder:
Dried sperm whale penis:
Preserved pilot whale penis:
Various penises belonging to different dolphins and porpoises:
And this magnificent specimen – is a Narwhal! Narwhal! Living in the ocean…!
(Only not so much this one anymore, he’s been lopped off and preserved in formaldehyde.)
African bull elephant:
An eland, a dromedary and giraffe penises:
Killer whale penis: yale for scale
An artwork based on the penises of the National Icelandic Handball Team that represented Iceland at the Bejing Olympics in 2008. 😮 
Freyr – Viking God of Fertility:
All up the Phallological Museum was kinda interesting – it seems to be a bit of a ‘must see’ when in Reykjavik, but only because you’re literally not able to see a collection like this anywhere else in the world. The gift shop missed some huge opportunities though – can you imagine the dick related paraphernalia they could be flogging? Instead, there is a handful of magnets and keychains and a few bad taste aprons and knitted elephant penis socks.
While we were leaving – some of the ladies working the reception at Dick Museum were about to have some lovely looking cinnamon scrolls for afternoon tea which smelled just divine. They told me that they were from the food hall across the street, so naturally, we decided to go find some. Fantastic! Cinnamon for me, and liquorice and blueberry for yale… still warm from the oven, perfect for this sort of weather.
From here we did what was probably the first bit of real touristy shopping we have done since we arrive in Iceland. We wandered down the main shopping street which pretty much leads from the Hallgrímskirkja church down towards the waterfront esplanade. I got to stop in the Tuilipop shop this time, which was closed when I was here last – luckily their plush Freds are not very soft or I would have found myself buying a rather expensive and unnecessary plush toy to take home! 
Icelanders have come to have a love/hate relationship with the tourists that saved them from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. They love the income and the jobs that are provided from the huge boost they have seen in tourism over the last decade, but they hate what it is doing to their island. Downtown Reykjavik used to be full of useful shops for locals to go do their shopping and meet with friends, now it is full of what they derisively refer to as The Puffin Shops. Any/all souvenir shops are known as Puffin Shops and for obvious reasons…
There is so much shit here with puffins on it – and because I have been here three times now and have yet to see a single goddamn puffin that isn’t stuffed (like the AUD$450 ones in the top left hand picture!), I flatly refuse to buy so much as a sticker with a puffin on it. I think the puffins here are like the trolls – just some sort of myth.
After a little wander down through the town, we decided to head towards the Perlan which is a landmark building with observation decks and gallery spaces, created from some old water tanks that were high on a hill overlooking the city. Unfortunately, the Perlan was closed from 1 Oct to 14 Oct, so we didn’t get to go in or go up. I guess it’s that time of year – they need to do maintenance before the winter sets in properly, but don’t want to be doing it when it is going to affect too many visitors.
Then it was sadly time to head back to our AirBnB and get packing! Oh no… time to pack to leave Iceland. I am feeling a bit sad about going actually. We have had almost two weeks here and seen soooo many truly beautiful places and things, but I am left feeling like there is so much more we could see and do if we had more time and way more money. I’ve never been in a country more expensive than this place – it really makes you weigh up your travel plans – How long have I got? How much do we think we can see? Can we afford to actually eat once we get here? If we make the trip longer to see more things, can we even afford the extra night’s car hire and accommodation?! It is just nuts.
For our last night in Iceland, we thought we’d go out for one final nice, but predictably, overpriced meal. We ended up at the Geysir Bistro near Ingólfur Square. It was a more relaxed environment that the last two restaurants we went to and the menu looked likewise slightly more modest.
But the food – still fancy AF. 
We toasted our last night with some Brennavin and congratulated ourselves on having only had one shit fight in two weeks in close quarters! 😛 It’s bound to happen – travelling with people is one way to really test the friendship/relationship! All your best and all your worst will eventually come out. 🙂 
So here’s ‘Skål..!’ to Iceland. I have no idea if I will ever be back. I know there is still plenty of wonders here to discover – but there’s so many places I have never been, that doubling back here again seems highly unlikely*
*I said that last time… and look what happened! Hoping the trick works again! 😉
The cave has some wide entrance but narrows down in one area that we traversed… it could be a bit claustrophobic for some, but given I am all of 5′ tall, I was able to just duck my head a little and skooch down the passage. At this tight point, the owners have installed an iron gate in the early 90s to preserve the of the delicate lava formations which tourists and geologist had a habit of souvenir’ing or accidentally destroying.
The colours in the rock formations were simply astounding. 
Unlike the sedimentary type caves we are used to seeing back home when water filters down through the rock into the cave, it doesn’t form sparkling stalactites and stalagmites, instead, it forms ice columns. The water drips down in the same spot each winter and given it is usually around 0° in the cave, the water freezes on top of the last drop making icicle stalagmites that can reach as high as 3m. Each year in the summer, the ice formations are diminished only to return each winter. Normally there are no ice formations in the cave this early in the year – it’s only autumn – but this year has been a ‘really shit summer’ and rather wet, so there were ice formations that hadn’t disappeared since last year.
The cave has recently had quite a bit of construction work done with walkways to protect the delicate lava formations and to make it more accessible to visitors.
The lava tube caves are formed when a low-viscosity lava flow develops a continuous and hard crust as it cools, which then thickens and forms a roof above the molten lava stream. When the eruption subsides, the still-molten lava moving beneath the crust will continue to drain downhill, eventually emptying out and leaving an open lava tube cave. The cave will usually have larger tubes with smaller tubes protruding off from the main caves – Johannes used an analogy of a human body (body metaphors, love it!). The volcano is the heart pumping out the lava/blood, into the major arteries, which also forces the lava into smaller capillaries.
As the lava is dragged along inside the tube with its cooling roof and walls, the level/height of the lava flow is evidenced in layers on the walls, leaving a texture and coloured rock that looks like chocolate cake.
There is approximately 80-90 steps to traverse to get into the lava cave – and the same again on the way back out.
At the end of this section of lava tube is a collapsed roof which marks the end of the ‘amateur’ spelunking tour. For people with a bit more experience, you can go much deeper into the cavers, but apparently, that takes things like, fitness, agility and strength.
There is a large platform at this point in the cave and Johannes had us all turn off our headlamps before turning off the cavern lights. It is totally pitch black. You can open and close your eyes and not tell any difference, you can wave a hand in front of your face and not see a thing. Johannes said to us, ‘Now you don’t have to come to Iceland in the winter, this is what it’s like.’ Yep, he was a bit of a funny bugger.
The cave opening forms a bit of a love heart if you stop at the right place on the way out… awww. 
Back above ground the light is way too bright, even though normally the light quality this far north has a wonderful soft feel about it (compared to the harsh Australian light, I guess everything does though!).
The natural arch went across the rocks in the top of this image – you can see how dangersous this woud be the water volume is incredible.
Icelandic goats are also known as the ‘settlement goat’. They are an ancient breed of Norweigan domestic goat that were imported to Iceland over 1100 years ago. This breed was nearly extinct by the late 19th century, but recovered around World War II, only to then see numbers drop off again. A census in 2003 saw only 348 goats in 48 flocks throughout the entire country. A concerted effort to increase their numbers has seen that number improve to 849 in 2012. Because the breed has been isolated for centuries, the Icelandic populations are highly inbred. 
Even though the Icelandic goat has a coat of high-quality cashmere fibre, they tend to be kept more as pets, and are currently of limited economic value – so the Icelandic government subsidizes farmers to ensure the survival of the species.
Not long after we left the goat farm, we found ourselves stopping on the side of the road to take more photos of yet more stunning scenery and when we went to drive off, we heard a rather disconcerting scraping noise under the car – it sounded like something metal stuck behind the read drivers side wheel. 
The nicest thing I can say about our brewery stop is they had a gorgeous little farm dog hanging around – she had the softest fur and such a sweet face. The beers – were interesting? Unusual? Too bloody hipster? Trying too hard? All of the above? Shudder. Traumatised.
Every corner. I swear you drive around a corner, a mountain, you cut back on the road you were on to look behind you and were greeted by an entirely different vista.
We went through the Hvalfjarðargöng tunnel, which takes drivers directly under the fjord in 7 minutes saving what used to be an hour drive.
And before we knew it, we were heading back into Reykjavik.
Harpa Concert Hall in the afternoon sun:
It was lovely and steamy, and the water was just the right amount of hot. After our soak, we had a dinner reservation at the Blue Lagoon Lava Restaurant. When looking at the place from home, we were shocked at how overpriced it was… thought it must have been tourist central prices. But now we have been here a while, we realise, it’s not really – it’s just Iceland prices. So we made a dinner booking. The Lava restaurant is lovely, it caters to the spa clients and you can turn up in your bathrobe at lunchtime if you so desire.
Gifts made from Rhodocrosite also known as Rosa del Inca or Inca Rose stone. It is the national stone of Argentina and is particualrly stunning for it’s beautfiul red and pink hues.
Back out on the street, even your regular little corner agift store is packed to the gills with merchadise in every nook and cranny. Everyone is a bull on the china here, there’s no avoiding it. They have so much merchandise all crammed into such tiny little stores that you can’t help but knock half the products… which is why they are all secured to shelves using clips and hooks and everything swings and moves as you walk through the store.
And of course, EVERY store has its adults-only upstairs areas (which are sometimes as many as three or more floors bigger than the floor of Dragonball Z toys and Pokemon plush that attracts people into the place! So much porn! When I wondered out loud, ‘Who actually pays for porn in this day and age?’, the Teenager replied, ‘Well, if you want something specific, you have to pay for it.’ 😮 
Gaming and vending machines are everywhere… throw in your yen, and manouvre the dodgy gaming controls for a chance to win an enticing soft yellow squishy thing! 🙂 
Or throw in slightly more yen and get a chance to win this off license Pikachu. 🙂 
Racks and racks of toy dispensing machines line the streets. They usually take between Y200 and Y500 and dispense a random little plastic toy-in-a-ball. They must be profitable, but I can’t help but wonder who is buying all these toy-in-a-balls? They’re obviously designed to be collectable but still…
This one is a corker – there are five plastic wearable badges in this machine, with one of five cute anime girls on each button which you will get at random…
…and on the bottom of the machine are pictures of a man having a sad/tired rough time. We used the Google Translate over the text and basically, it was saying that if you buy this badge, you can escape the drudgery of your everyday life and be happy! Happiness! This little machine is selling escapism and happiness… that’s one helluva badge!
Manga stores everywhere.
Even more floors of porn…
Mr K lost in the back of the porn floors… I didn’t go up, but he said, the higher up the floor the more ‘extreme’ the content gets.
Phew after all that searching through figurines and anime and dodging the porn, we stumbled onto the Mocha Cat Cafe. Now I am not a cat person as many of you will know, but the whole concept intrigues me somewhat.. why would you pay to go hang out in a cafe full of cats?
A lovely lady helped us with some hand sanitiser, slippers and of course, the Rules (rules? for being around cats?!?) and explained the cost – Y200 for every ten minutes you stay, and you must buy a refillable drink for Y350, so a minimum of Y550 per person to go in and ‘relax with cats’.
Inside was a space with a lovely decor, delighfully Japanese’d Christmas Carols playing quietly in the background and a huge anime library where you could sit down and watch some tv while you cuddle some kitties.
The anime library – with a huge selection, no doubt designed to keep you in the kitty cafe as long as possible.
Cats chillin in their weird little hanging birdcage things… very well fed cats btw. You can feed the cats for an additional Y500.
For 1pm on a Wednesday, it was amazing well patronised. There were quite a few people there, even one lady on her laptop who had obviously settled in for quite a while to get some work done.
After, oh I’d say about eight and a half minutes of quality looking-at-cats time (Nope – didn’t pet any, me and cats, meh), we went looking for somewhere for some cheap and cheerful brlunch. It was pretty cold today so we went looking for some small Japanese curry bowls which we thought would fill the bill given we were planning a very late dinner tonight. 
We came across this place down the road from the cat cafe that looked perfect – nothing on the menu but curry. So in we went. From the pictures on the menu, portions looked perfect for lunch and it was chicken, pork or prawn curry… order your curry and biru from the little machine and go take a seat.
We were right about this being a great curry restaurant but not so much on the polite portion sizes. We got huge plates of curry, which I have to admit did not look so appetitisng… but once you tried it, absolutely delicious. Probably the best katsu curry I have ever had. 
The Teenager was very happy with his wash, probably the first meal we’ve had that filled him up!
After I was waiting outside and found out from the signs that this place has prize winning curry in 2015 for some big curry conference/competition – so no wonder it was good. I have no idea what the place was called though. Couldn’t fathom it for love or money.
After lunch, we went for a wander into Shibuya, just because we could – to do a bit of shopping and have a look around.
Oddly, this slick black store is a Disney Store… and no, I didn’t go in. The retail pain of working the Disney Store over Christmas is still altogether too raw.
Then it was back to Shinjuku for our booking at the Robot Restaurant. When we were in Tokyo two years ago, we had booked tickets to take the then, Small Child, to go see the Robot Restaurant as we thought it would be quite the spectacle for a kid. Unhappily at the time, it was closed for renovations the week we were here. Now, we come back and I thought he’d be over it, but unhappily he still wanted to go. So we duly went and bought tickets.
Right from the front door you get an inkling of what you are in for – more glitter, sequins, neon and mosaic mirror tiles per square inch than you would have thought humanly possible.
We were then welcomed into the Guest Waiting Room whereupon it took my eyes a full ten minutes to recover from the visual assault on the senses. It’s like Versace and Las-Vegas-Fat-Elvis had a litter of tattooed, vajazzled love children, and they vomited all over the place in here.
This is his, ‘somewhat overwhelmed but trying to be blase about it look’. 😉 
Neon ceilings floors and walls, golden seashell glass-topped tables, gilded rose embossed chairs, massive tv screens and oh, so so many mirrors just on every surface.
Even the bathroom was a sight to sore the eyes.
Then the bell went and it was time to descend into the basement of the building for the show itself. We were treated to quite a few Christmas Carols in the waiting area while we sipped on our freebie sake (which tasted nothing like sake…?) and I was getting concerned that we may actually have been stuck with an entire Christmas themed show… I definitely would NOT have signed up to sit through that.
Upon being shown to our seats – the first thing wheeled in front of us? The souvenir cart swiftly followed by a drinks cart. Then it was a few safety rules (keep your hands in, don’t touch the robots, no flash photography) and it would soon be on with the show. 
We then had a fifteen-minute interval where, you guessed it, they tried to sell us more souvenirs and drinks. 🙂 The next vignette appeared to have some sort of post-apocalyptic theme running through it – robots had taken over the earth but the humans were fighting back or some such. It was all a bit obscure, to be honest, and passed in a blur of lights and loud noises.
You may think these photos are out of focus or dodgy, but I like ’em!
And yet, through all this noise and lights and pyrotechnics and craziness… these two beside us slept through the lot!
By the way, if anyone is interested in going to this overpriced tourist trap, err, I mean unique Japanese cultural experience – there is a Tourist Information centre at Shinjuku bus station that has tickets for about Y2,000pp cheaper than you can buy online or at the RR. It’s well worth a couple of bucks on the subway to head down there to pick up discount tickets.
We were headed to the Kachi-kachi Ropeway to go up to view Mt Fuji. 🙂
The Kawagauchiko Ropeway takes travellers up Kachi-kachi Yama, which translates roughly as ‘Fire-crackle Mountain. The ‘kachi-kachi’ bit being an onomatopoetic word for the sound a fire makes, and ‘yama’ meaning mountain. The cute little hiking rabbit and his tanuki (Japanese racoon) companion are a cutesy little theme that run through the complex. 
Lake Kawaguchiko and the town of Fuji-Kawaguchiko.
Mt Fuji. On our last trip, Aunty Mary, Mr K and the Teenager all hiked to the top of Mt Fuji, but this is the first time they have actually seen it! The weather was so poor they climbed the entire mountain in raid and clouds and fog, so they never actually saw the peak of the mountain after their arduous journey.
The Usagi shrine dedicated to the rabbit from the Kachi-kachi Yama myths… must have been one special rabbit!
It is said that if you ring the Bell of Tenjo while watching Mt Fuji and make a wish, your wish will come true.
The rabbit helping the poor, crying tanaki.
No idea what is going on in this one…
The two friends looking off the mountain, farewelling guests.
I couldn’t tell you what they are exactly, but apparently, there are a smattering of references to this myth in Super Mario Sunshine.
At the base of Kachi-kachi Yama is the world famous Fujiyama Cookie shop! Where, you can buy all manner of Fuji styled cookies and candies.
Camembert cheesecake… sounds amazing. Amazingly suspicious!
Also – the widest variety of weird KitKat flavours known to man… Wasabi flavour, Strawberry Cheesecake flavour, Sake flavour, Apple flavour. 
Nearby was the Ide Sake Brewery, unfortunately, we spent too much time up Kachi-kachi and missed the last brewery tours, but we made a mental note to make up for it this evening.
After this, it was back into town for a little shopping and then the bus trip back to Shinjuku bus station, whereupon we did a little more shopping 😉 and then went hunting for dinner.
Saw this on the menu. Obviously, we had to order it to find out what it was… turned out to be a tasty tasty Martian alien octopus thing.
And the most delicious and affordable sushi platter ever, Y990, which at the moment is around AUD$11. Fabulous food in a busy little restaurant – I would highly recommend hunting this place out if you are in Shinjuku.
Another wonderful day in Japan over it was back to our shoebox hotel room for… another soak in the tub. 🙂 This time with extra sake!