Ryan's Journal

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?" — David Mitchell

The Skipper is Lonely

Posted from Thingvellir National Park, Iceland at 12:05 am, June 30th, 2008

The wind was still howling at 6:00 AM this morning so the Skipper and I packed up and started making a leisurely journey back south. We arrived in Reykjavik around noon and played tourist, visiting the national cathedral, taking the obligatory pictures of the giant Leifur Eriksson statue, and then heading to the national museum. Amidst thousand-year-old relics and other archaelogical treasures the hidden gem within the museum is a room in which you can try on a Viking helmet, sword, and shield, and the Skipper was truly menacing once armored up. From the museum we walked down towards the harbor, and along the way discovered a pond that has every single bird we’ve been stalking for weeks swimming up to people looking for bread – it was a vast difference from a week ago when it took fifteen minutes to get within thirty yards of two whooper swans. I refrained from taking pictures, but will loudly object should my dad try to pass any of his photos as being truly wild birds.

From there we ate dinner, and then it was sadly time for the Skipper’s trip to come to an end. I drove him to Keflavik, we hung out for a bit longer, and then I was off for the solo part of this journey. It’s sad to see everyone go, but at the same time I haven’t spent anytime alone and away from everything in a long time, and it will be a good chance to do some thinking and evaluating of how the whole “life” thing is going.

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