Lobster soup and some hot pots

For lunch today I had lobster soup at Saegreifinn, also known as The Sea Barron. It's a quaint little place by the harbour and everyone sits at little stools along two long narrow tables. At 750 ISK, it's a good deal, but if you want to understand how expensive everything is here, check how many CADs that is! For a bowl of soup! Along with soup, The Sea Barron also has skewers of fish to choose from which they'll cook up fresh for you. Among the choices are minke whale (which I'll try next time I go) and cormorant, which is the darkest, most foreboding meat I've ever seen, and which is also what I'll try next time. Here is a NY Times review of Saegreifinn which describes the cormorant as "resembling squab in taste, color and texture".

Tonight I went swimming for the first time in Reykjavik. I went to a pool nearby called, Vesturbæjarlaug. It has a 25 metre pool and 4 "hot pots" which are hot tubs, without jets (but maybe some hot pots have jets?). Each hot pot is a different temperature, the first being 36-38° C, the next 38 - 40° C and so on. The idea being to start in the least hot and work your way up. It was a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours. At a cool 6° C outside, it felt wonderful to sit in a 40° C hot pot and look up at the stars! These hot pots are supposed to be a big part of Icelandic culture, where people come to socialize before and after work. I'm going to try to visit every pool in Reykjavik!