Heimasíða Finns og Hrefnu - 2001b | Forsíða |
Downtown
December 19th 2001 (HMG) - [Put online December 20th 2001]
It's better to have all your papers in order when trying to get back to the US, so today I went to the US Embassy in Reykjavík, Iceland to apply for a renewal of our visas. The Embassy is located downtown, in the oldest part of Reykjavík, where many houses are made of wood, and the streets are narrow and many of them are one-way streets. If you don't know where you're going and how to get there, you can easily wander around lost for hours, like I did when I was 10 years old and looking for the public library that used to be around there. And I was on foot! Anyway, after the September 11th attacks, they've closed one end of the street where the Embassy is, and parked a police car at the other end 24/7.
The police car at the entrance of Laufásvegur, where the US Embassy is.
I didn't dare take a picture of the Embassy in case they would confiscate my camera so the description will have to do... Inside there is a guard next to a metal-detector gate, and after I'd passed him, I submitted our applications to the clerk inside a bullet-proof glass cage. There are no guns in sight, but I've been told that behind some door there is an army guy on duty with his gun, so it's better to be on one's best behavior. This security business is totally foreign to most Icelanders since after all, nothing ever happens here!! After my short stint at the Embassy, I wandered back to my car and drove off to meet Finnur's sister, Steinunn, to go to the mall. Before I got to the car I shot a couple of pictures though...
A highly common sight in Reykjavík, children sleeping
outside in their buggies with no adult in sight. It's thought
to be better for them to sleep outside than inside at some point...
My favorite house in this part of town. I have no idea what goes
on in there, but it used to be my guide when finding the old library.
Later that day we went to an advance screening of the Fellowship of the Ring. It was AWESOME!! Go see it NOW!! :)
