Vigur

Today I went to the island of Vigur. It was about a 30 minutes boat ride from Ísafjörður (I figured out how to make my keyboard Icelandic so that I can properly type Icelandic words). The views from the island were spectacular. Some of the things I saw included puffins and other icelandic birds, the only windmill in Iceland, and the smallest post office in Europe. Enjoy the pictures! Most of them are taken from the island itself, not of the island. The ones with the houses, flag, and windmill are from the island itself.

Barn Party

The barn party was so much fun!! I got to watch the sun go down over the coast of Iceland, and then I saw it come back up 4 hours later! The locals were so friendly, the music was great, and I had a wonderful time. The party officially lasted until 6:00 in the morning but I only made it until 3:45. Still, a definite personal record.

I went for the most wonderful run this morning. Sleeping in was great because I've been getting up around 7:00 for the last week and it's making me tired. Friends and family want to skype with me at home and I have to wait until 10:00 or 11:00 for them to be ready. I just got back from the liquor store and it was a madhouse. There is only one place in town that you can buy alcohol and the store is the size of my kitchen. So, imagine a town of 4,000 Icelanders buying their booze for the Saturday night festivals in a kitchen sized store between the hours of 12:00 and 2:00. INSANITY!!

I'm working on getting all my photographs from my trip online and will be emailing everyone soon with a link.

I'm going to a 'barn party' tonight in Nupur. All the surrounding towns are invited and the party lasts from 6:00 pm until 6:00 am. I'm going to try to make it through the whole night but this is highly unlikely. I will let you know how it goes!

Also, I am enjoying reading all of your comments on my page. Please keep them coming!

My first week alone...

Some of the things I have learned since being in Iceland:

1. The Icelandic word for taco sauce looks similar to the English word for Salsa but is most definitely not the same substance as I found out when I slathered taco sauce on my fried egg sandwich.

2. "Dumpster Picking" is exactly what it sounds like. You go to the dumpster out back of the local grocery store and bring home all the food that was thrown out but is still edible by whichever standards you set for yourself.

3. Sheep are often times suicidal and jump in front of your moving vehicle unexpectedly.

4. When you put bananas from "dumpster picking" in a pot with stolen rhubarb and cook it with some water and sugar... it makes a pretty decent desert.

5. If you don't haul ass bagging your own groceries at the checkout line, you will quite litterally be run over by the locals.

6. No matter how many times I clean the house, fridge, and kitchen... my apartment will always smell like fish.

7. My washing machine is in German and apparantly, cycle B gets my clothes suffeciently clean.

8. When you put your clothes on the line to dry, you must first look out the window every five minutes to make sure that it didn't start raining, and secondly... accept the fact that your clothes will smell like fish when they are dried.

Until next time... :)

My apartment, Dad's last few days in Iceland, and language classes

Dad and I woke up bright and early on Monday with the goal of climbing to the top of a fjord. Although it was cold and raining that day, we set out and drove to the start of the hiking trail. By "trail" I mean a sign with an arrow that points in an arbitrary direction with no further indication of where you are supposed to go. Because there are no trees here, hiking trails are not defined and worn in paths. So, we set out with the wind and rain in our faces and made it about 100 meters before heading back to the car. HAHAHA. The conditions were miserable and the fog was so thick that we decided it would have been both dangerous and miserable. Being the crafty fisherman that we are, we returned to Isafjordur and caught dinner out of the harbour. On the way back to Isafjordur we found a very old but handily crafted hut. The pictures show how run-down it was but as you can see, someone obviously put a lot of work into it. It was difficult to tell how old the hut was or what its purpose had been but was definately a neat find. Our last night together was tough knowing that Dad was leaving early the next morning. I just tried to keep in mind that we'd just had a once in a lifetime experience together and that made parting much easier for me.

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 :)

Finally in Iceland!

Wow! There is so much to tell and I'm pretty sure it will take me a few days to write about my adventures so far.

To start, the flight to Keflavik, Iceland was wonderful. It was about 4 hrs and 45 min and the time flew by. We were flying at about 39,000 feet and even the clouds looked small. We met a man named David who sat with us. He was on his 24th trip to Iceland. He said that it was his favorite country. He had purchased a bicycle that cost him 20$ (yard sale shopping... we all know aunt aimee would be proud!) and it cost him 40$ to ship it there on the plane with us. Dad and I got into Iceland at about 11:30 at night (iceland time) and got through customs in about 20 minutes. The gentleman that checked my passport looked at my picture, looked at me, and then stamped my book!! To be honest, I was hoping to be interrogated just a little bit... maybe held under a spotlight or something to that effect. Well anyways, we made it onto the FlyBus after stopping at the duty free store and made it into Reykjavik by about 1:30 in the morning. Hauling my luggage around was terrible. We had 3 very large suit cases, 1 framepack, a snowboard carrying case that held my board, boots, and helment, and each of us had a day pack. Trust me, we got our work out.

We arrived at our first hostel at about 2:00 in the morning. Or shall I say... 02:00. haha. Both of us were exhausted and we happily proceeded to our dorm room after dropping all of our bags in a common luggage storage room. Upon entering our room, we heard something similar to the sound of a dying cow. Interesting... Dad and I came to find out that it was one of our roommates snoring. So, from 02:00 until 8:00 in the morning, neither of us fell asleep. Dad likes to describe this man as... "He sounded like each snore would be his last one because his throat was filling up with flem. At times, I had wished it was his last breath. It was terrible. THere were holes in the bottom of his bunk and if I had had a poker, I would have stabbed him." haha sounds just like dad doesn't it?

Our first day in Reykjavik was exciting. We discovered that bathrooms were indicated by a blue sign with a WC on it. It was not until today, one week later that we found out it stood for water closet. Strange? yes. On our second night there, we ate at a very nice restaurant called phrir takkar. THis means three frenchman in Icelandic. The food was divine. Other things we did while in Iceland included exploring the harbour. There were mass amounts of jellyfish! We also visiting the blue lagoon (a very large hotspring pool in the middle of a giant lava field).

Dad and I also explored some beach when the tide was out. We found the jackpot of sea glass. We even found two pieces of red sea glass which is extremely rare!! Our bus driver that took us to the second hostel dropped us off 5 blocks away and we had to cart all of our luggage through the city. We arrived at the second hostel with one broken piece of luggage, a bloody finger, and pit stains from our workout. We met a nice guy from Belgium who helped us carry one bag a block or so, but then he gave up. We ate the famous hot dog that Andrew Zimmerman from the Discovery Channel ate. Best hot dog I've ever had.

The traffic rules here are very different. Basically, they have no stop signs, only yield, and there are only two speed limits. 8o Km/hr on the dirt roads and 90km/hr on the paved. Dad keeps saying that it is the best driving he has ever experienced.

I will write much more later. Enjoy:)