The main thing that happened in the past week was my whale-watching trip! ESN, the Erasmus Student Network, was able to get us discount tickets for a whale-watching tour this weekend, so on Saturday I went to the harbour with three of my friends and we boarded a boat to go see some whales.

I was sceptical about our chances of seeing a whale, and for the first little while, we didn't see anything besides a solitary fishing boat in the distance. Eventually, though, we started to see a couple of whales! The whales were hard to spot. They only surfaced for a few seconds before vanishing back into the water, so if you weren't quick and attentive, you wouldn't catch them. Altogether we saw about 15 or so. I was pleased that we were able to see some, but I wouldn't have paid full price for the tour, because the sightings were so sporadic. Still, I enjoyed seeing some whales.

One other thing I did this week was visit one of the Reykjavik pools for the first time. The city has a number of different pools (all geothermally heated, I believe) and on Thursday I went to one near the Hallgrímskirkja with some friends. The pool was nice, but the best part was the hot tub outside. It's quite a contrast to have the frigid Icelandic air and the warm water, and I liked it a lot. I'm hoping to go back.

Here are a couple of whale pictures. The whales are the black blobs in the water. It was tough to get a good picture!