Fugato

This is the view from Arnarhóll in central Reykjavík, shortly before sunset (about 10:45pm) on the summer solstice a few days ago. Click for a larger version.

[For the uninitiated: yes, that thing on the left edge really is a 20-foot-tall wall mural depicting a sheep. No, I do not know why it is there.]

The sky looked nice. The mountains looked nice. Most of the city center looked nice.

But that big beige-and-turquoise industrial facility in the middle doesn’t look too nice.

Good thing Faxaskáli is being replaced by a stonking big music hall and conference building, supposedly ready three-and-a-half years from now (I’ll bet you a six-pack of Staropramen that it’ll be five years and a budget overrun of, say, 60%). It is government-sponsored, of course, and the inaugural concert will probably feature the wails and moans and tut-tuts of Iceland’s fiscal conservatives as accompaniment.

Assuming the architects know their stuff, the view from Arnarhóll will certainly be nicer afterwards. But the new building will presumably be taller than Faxaskáli, so I’ll have to walk another three minutes and look at the sunset from the other side of the music hall. Life keeps getting harder on me.

Then again, I can always enjoy the sky from my bedroom balcony. Below is that view, captured at approximate geographical midnight (1:35am) on the summer solstice. Click for a larger version. And excuse the overexposure. :)