Ísland Diaries, Part 3
Note: Cat's text is in the normal color, Gregg's is in light blue.
Day 3: 28th July
Gregg wanted to check out what the big Reykjavik mall - the Kringlan - was like, so we looked around there a bit, solidifying our knowledge that "Útsala" means sale. We also saw a car with a funny licence plate.
Our friend Rachel
wanted us to find evidence for faery life in Iceland, and how it impacts the Icelandic gestält, but this was the closest we could find. Sadly, though, this stuff is British, and made by Proctor & Gamble... I just thought it was cute, and I liked the wish fulfillment / homoerotic / gender roles overtones.
That evening we were going to be staying way out on a remote peninsula a few hours north of Reykjavik, so we got started on the drive out there, planning a few diversions along the way. We stopped at a lookout at the big national park &Thorn;ingvller (which we would end up seeing two other times) and looked at the huge cracks in the ground that signify the mid-Atlantic ridge - where the European and North American plates meet/separate. We had spiespylsa (spicy Icelandic sausage) and havarti sammiches. Cathy drove the Yaris (a manual, which she'd onoly had a few lessons on before Iceland) for the first time and did pretty well.
We drove on, around a cool fjord, and saw a neato waterfall. We got some gas. This was entertaining, as the directions for said gas are in Íslenksa. So I got the attendant to help me. All was good until it asked for my credit card pin. Do USian cards have pins? Luckily, I was using my TCF card, so it worked. As for prices... 104 Isk / Litre (or $5.39 / gallon). Ouch! Good thing the Yaris gets 40 mpg.
It started to rain. Until the morning we left Iceland.
We finally got to Brekkubaer, an "eco hotel" and our lodging for the night right on the ocean at Hellnar. Our room was cute, like a dorm room with a private bathroom, seperate beds and all. There weren't any whiny rich-kids smoking pot, and no latex eating cats. We splurged on the special organic dinner which is their specialty. In all, it was pretty good, our first Icelandic fish, some good soup and vegetables. That evening we braved the cold and rain and went down to the sea. There were mostly cliffs along the water, but Brekkubaer was over a small inlet with a sea wall for boats. We walked down to the rocky beach and looked at the boats and birds and cliffs and stuff. It was pretty neat. We walked along a path up the cliffs and explored a cave.
We'd passed a tiny building on the way down to the bay, it stood only about 20 meters from the water at the top of the beach and it had a sign saying it was a cafe. As we walked back (at 11:00 pm) we saw lights in the windows and a few people inside and we decided to go in. It was warm and simple and beautiful with the rain and wind outside. There were only four or six small tables, whitewashed walls with some neat small art hanging on them. We had tea and chocolate cake.
The cafe was built partially into the hill, and was the first turf-roof (traditional) building we say in Iceland. The other clients were a group/family composed of an English biddy, her English son (I think), and English kid, and a German lady. I never exactly figured out how they tied together. Like most Icelanders, the proprietress was taciturn.
Note: It was about 11:00 pm when we took this walk, to give you an idea of how light it stays during this time of year in Iceland. It only gets totally dark between about 12:30 and 3:30 in the morning.
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Table of Contents
- Days 0-1: The flight, and our first full day in Iceland.
- Day 2: Reykarnes Peninsula, the Blue Lagoon and pin-up pics.
- Day 3: Snæfellsnes, Brekkubær, Hellnar
- Day 4: Snæfellsjökull, Hvergerði, Skogafoss
- Day 5: The Golden Circle – Þhingvellir, Gulfoss, and Geysír
- Day 6: Reykjavik, Caving, Falafel, and Our Attempts to Party
- Day 7: More Reykjavik, The Harbor, Swimming, and the Return + Helpful links for travellers.
Last Updated:
February 07, 2005 -- 17:19:00.
Time since the wedding: 2197 days 23 hours