Traveling up the coast...

Soooo... Once dad and I got in our nifty little rental car, we made our way up the western coast of Iceland. Visiting our first destination was not so successful because as we soon found out, the Icelanders don't exactly mark their hiking trails or attractions very well. But no worries! We continued onto our next couple destinations with no further problems. Some of the highlights included more sheep than you can count, birds that attack you if you hike too close to them or their nests, the excitement of off-roading in a two wheel drive economy sized mini car (okay it wasn't exactly off roading but it was definately borderline...), visiting one of Iceland's few forests (it was about 800m wide and 400m deep), eating nothing but PBJs and Skyr (Iceland's equivalent of yogurt), and exploring the countless mountains, fjords, and shorelines.

Our first day up the coast was truely a gift from above. The weather was sunshine and about 60 degrees. We also saw a massive glacier and did some running in the snow. We stayed in a small town called Grundafjord and woke up early the Friday morning to do some sea glass searaching on the nearby beach. We spent the rest of the day sneaking up on sheep, climbing to the tops of waterfalls, and traveling to my hometown Isafjordur. (Pronounced EE-sah-fee-ur-durr) Nice phoenetics huh?

Upon arival I was shown to my flat in town. It is located right on the harbour and I have a beautiful view of the fjords out my bedroom window. There is a slight obstruction that consists of a shrimp factory and some pipes but hey... I can't have my cake and eat it too!

Dad and I spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday exploring the surrounding area. We did some hiking in the rain on Saturday when it was about 38 degrees up in the mountains. Sunday had much nicer weather so we did some exploring in a nearby town called Sudueryi. There, we attempted to climb the face of a fjord but discontinued progress when the incline became too steep and the ground starting to come loose under our feet. Fortuantely, from the view we could see a lake that was hidden behind a glacial morraine and hiked up to that instead. All in all it turned out to be about 3 hours of exploring.

Upon arrival in Isafjordur Sunday afternoon, Dad and I decided to try our luck at fishing. After borrowing a pole and hooks from my neighbor we went over to the harbour (about 50m away) and went fishing. The Landry curse was proven when we failed to catch fish. This may have had something to do with the lack of bait on our hook...

Sooooo... I asked a fellow fisherman what he used for bait and he gave me some frozen shrimp as well as some fish liver. Well let me tell you!... That did the trick. We caught three decently sized cod in about 20 minutes. After getting a magnificent tutorial on fish gutting from Dad, we cooked our filets and ate a wonderful dinner together.

Well that concludes up to Sunday of our trip. I will post more as soon as I can. I miss you all :)