five thousand screaming seagulls

We started the day with a long walk along the volcanic cliffs in the company of 5000 screaming seagulls. Green and gold and black and white—Coigreach colors, or maybe Natron colors if you factor in the blue of the water and pretend it’s way warmer.

As we paused to enjoy the view, F told us that there used to be a rock ridge leading farther out along the cliff, but as a man was walking along it, the bridge collapsed. “And he died,” F concluded. We all burst out laughing. You have to understand that “and he died” is the ending to so many of F’s stories that it has become a running gag. However, the other tourists gave us odd looks.

We had a brief stop at the Black Church, an authentic Ninth relic, and then we went to a seal viewing site! Getting close enough to the shore to see the seals was a whole thing. The path gave way to a rocky beach, which gave way to boulders that we had to clamber over and around. It was basically the rock park. (Better than Paris.) Many of the boulders were draped in slick seaweed for additional spice. Finally I got to where all the other tourists were standing and I was like, where the seals at? I don’t see them? In fact there were five seals (two gold, three gray), but they were so still most of the time it was hard to distinguish them from the rocks. In three years I bet I’ll look back on these photos and say “why did I take a bunch of photos of random rocks.”

(Well, maybe not. I do intentionally take a lot of photos of random cool rocks.)

We arrived back in Reykjavik at around 4 pm and said goodbye to F, best tour guide ever. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and then it was back to roaming around the city. Aunts arrived too late last Thursday to walk around, and Auntie D wanted to check out EVERY souvenir store.

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edit (8/3): lol they didn’t BUY any souvenirs last night, so today we have to go BACK to the shops for them to buy things. It’s fine. This is just the final half-day before we fly out (them on to England, us back home). Good weather for a stroll. After lunch, when it stopped being good weather for a stroll (Iceland be like that), we returned to the hotel lobby and watched the US vs. Puerto Rico Olympic basketball game together. “Come oooon!” said Mom whenever the US players missed a shot.