Day 20 (final day in Iceland)

Our final day in Iceland found us reunited with the city where it all began, Reykjavik. We had departed from our prior hostel early that morning and made the two hour drive to make sure that we had the entire day to spend in the capital city. Our first stop was supposed to be at an art exhibit, but we found it to be closed. Instead we went to the hostel, which was the first hostel we had stayed at, and dropped our bags of in the luggage storage room, making sure to only bring what we wished to carry.For me, that was my phone and my wallet. After driving to the central square in one of Reykjavik's most touristy areas, we first ate lunch at a delicious pizza joint, which marks probably the eighth and last time I ate pizza on the trip. After lunch, we were essentially set free in a foreign city to our own devices. Of course immediately the group splintered off into subgroups. The group I was initially with wanted to shop at one of the overpriced tourist shops, and I wasn't having it, so I left with Lettie, Sarina, and Emily R. The only issue was we didn't have a town map, so we took a look at a directory and decided to swing it from there. We knew we were at least headed in the direction of the University of Reykjavik, which was next to our eventual meeting place, the Nordic House. We spent our time mostly at the local beach, collecting stones and talking funny stories and tattoos. We then took a mostly guessing walk to the Nordic House, finding ourselves to be early. We took the opportunity to try some delicious desserts and coffee at the house's cafe. Eventually everyone turned up, and we were given the option to either continue to explore Reykjavik, or go whale watching. It wasn't a very hard decision. Our old friend Thorleifur drove six of us to the harbor and we boarded our vessel. I had never been whale watching before, so I didn't know what to expect. I knew not to expect too much though, because sometimes the whales don't show up. But my skepticism had been squashed by a dream  had the night before in which I had seen 3 whale tails of different sizes, one huge, one a little smaller, and one small, rising out of the ocean. Surely enough, we quickly came upon some white-nosed dolphins numbering about 10. While the dolphins were cool, I wanted more. I wanted a whale. Pretty soon, I got one. A tumult around the ship alerted me to a humpback whale that had surfaced directly in front of the boat. After 10 minutes or so, it surfaced again, and I was awestruck at its size and beauty. It even treated us to a good view of its iconic tail fluke. We pursued the humpback for a while, but eventually it evaded us. Further out we crossed paths with another whale species, the minky whale, a small relative of the blue whale. As quickly as it appeared, it had gone. But in the end, my dream had come true. I had seen 3 whale species of 3 different sizes, representing the 3 differently sized whale tales I saw in my dream. Sailing back towards the harbor with the sun setting at our backs, I remember thinking it was a poetic, satisfying end to an unforgettable adventure.