Penthouses, eggs, and Icelandic TV

We moved up to the penthouse apartment on New Year's Day. It's a bit nice - I'd post a picture but normal USB cables don't fit my camera unfortunately. The guys running the hotel told us they used to live up here until they sold the hotel just before the recession (good timing!).

The water in the shower smells hugely of eggs - we've decided it must be sulphur.. we're blaming volcanic activity. On the bus from the airport we noticed several plumes of steam in the distance which appeared to be coming straight out of the ground. Quite a surreal sight really.. adds to the general feeling I have about Iceland - that it's the last outpost of civilisation before you fall off the world. The darkness here is so total.. no light pollution I suppose. It makes for fantastic views - looking out across the bay from the jacuzzi last night I saw the nearby buildings lit up perfectly, then just nothing beyond. Tremendously geeky reference: it looks like the skybox isn't rendering :)

We got up around 9am this morning - it was as dark outside as it was when we went to bed at 1am of course. Interestingly when Russell turned on the TV there was only a testcard to be found. I'm beginning to think people here are offset by a few hours to get up with the sun at 12 - the road outside was still full of people at 1am, but there was barely a soul at 9..