Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless City               

I arrived in Reykjavik, Iceland, at 4 pm on May 22.  I had until 7:45 am the next day to experience as much of the city as possible.  So I did the only logical thing and stayed up all night.  I was helped out by the fact that it's never really night there in summer because it's so far north.  I wasn't helped out by the fact that Iceland is really, really, really cold, and I'd packed clothes thinking about southern Spain.

8 - 8:30 pm: I explore the outskirts of the city

7:57 pm: I've decided to present this pictures chronologically and give the times, because later on it'll matter	7:58 pm: You can think of it like an episode of '24', but much more exciting	8:00 pm: Oh, so this was the first building I came across in the city.  I don't know what it is, but I liked it	8:02 pm: A lake with a church in the background
8:03 pm: I'm completely mystified by the Icelandic language. How can you have "Pjodminjasafn" and "Information" on the same sign?	8:09 pm: I've walked to a bridge across the lake and I'm looking back at where I can from	8:12 pm: A view down a street with some big masts visible in the background.  More on those later	8:19 pm: Some Icelandic apartments
8:23 pm: I came to this absolutely enormous church	8:24 pm: That's a statue of Leif Ericson in front of the church	8:24 pm: The back of the statue says it was a gift from the US	8:25 pm: In the courtyard in front of the church there were these statues of people just standing there
8:26 pm: Closer to one of the statues, with another one sitting on a bench	8:27 pm: They kinda creeped me out.  More on that later	8:38 pm: I walked toward the coast and passed by a main street in town

8:45 - 10 pm: I check out the coast and buildings nearby

8:44 pm: The frigid Atlantic, with some mountains in the distance	8:44 pm: A path along the water.  It reminds me of the Bay Trail	8:50 pm: A Viking boat sculpture next to the water	8:51 pm: Some French guys from Grenoble took my picture next to the sculpture
9:06 pm: A big sculpture of a...umm, arrow.	9:16 pm: The masts I mentioned before belonged to this huge boat	9:17 pm: I don't think it was normally there because I saw Icelandic people get out of their cars to take pictures of it	9:22 pm: A strange-looking hamburger restaurant
9:27 pm: Some ships next to the coast	9:29 pm: A rare non-pristine building - I guess it was an abandoned factory	9:29 pm: It was getting really chilly as the evening progressed, so I sympathized with whoever drew this	9:33 pm: Oil storage off in the distance
9:34 pm: A view of the coastline	10:06 pm: A colorful series of buildings; note how much light there is at 10 pm

11:08 pm: As advertised, this was "The Main Shopping Street"	11:09: The sun is finally setting, but it never gets far below the horizon	11:15 pm: I think I've finally figured out the language -- it's exactly like English, only backwards

12:14 am: Another big church; this one was Catholic.  It looks cool in the twilight with the full moon behind	12:16 am: There were more of those creepy statues next to this church.  They were even scarier at night	12:19 am: The back of the church	12:24 am: A street in the twilight
12:30 am: An arc of streetlights; I like this one	12:43 am: I return to the coast to check out the sunset/sunrise	12:46 am: Self-portrait.  I really was wearing everything I could get my hands on	12:47 am: I decided I didn't need to worry about crime because I looked like a terrorist
1:15 am: I walked out onto a peninsula and looked back onto the city	1:32 am: Another view of the city in the distance.  I like this one a lot	1:42 am: The full moon setting.  Another one of my favorites	1:49 am: I reached a lighthouse at the end of the peninsula
1:49 am: The lighthouse again	1:58 am: This is about as dark as it got	3:12 am: After the long, frigid walk back to the city, I found that the sun was rising again	3:25 am: I walked back to my hostel to go to the airport, and the sun definitely was on its way up