More Waterfalls, Strange Smells, and Some Sheep

Once we got off the crazy road, we made it to two waterfalls.  (Pics below)  Now because of our delay and the fun road, it was after 8 when we got there.  We spent some time there, then drove toward our hotel.  One the way we stopped to take a few pics then around 10:00 my friend saw some famous tourist spot and decided to pull in.  I was thinking, it's 10:00, we've been up since like 6:30, but then I remembered, we're in Iceland, it's still light out.  So on the way in, we saw people camping and then past a few campers and tents we saw this toilet, not a porta-potty, but a toilet, just sitting there near some campers.  Talk about feeling exposed.  Can you imagine if you think it's clear, you're about to go, and the suddenly some tourist comes driving down the road at 10:00 at night when you think the coast is clear.  Well, we got to the Krafla and it was cool to see, but it smelled nasty.  Something to do with the sulfur I believe.  We held our breath, took some pics, and got out of there quickly in hopes of smelling nice smells again.  As we drove back to the hotel, we got delayed by some sheep that felt no desire to get out of the road.  They just stood there, not a care in the world, taking their time.  Some girls soon pulled up behind us and got out of the car and yelled at the sheep and got them to move along.  We eventually got to our hotel, which was nice and crashed for the evening. 

 

 

You Can't Get There From Here...Well, not easily anyway

After the Christmas House, we drove back to town, drove around a little tiny bit, then got some Icelandic hotdogs (this time I tried one) and then it was off to the airport to go to Grimsey Island.  Grimsey Island is in the Arctic Circle AND is home to puffins so my friend was really excited to go as she wanted to see puffins and set foot in the arctic circle.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature (and the airlines) had other plans.  As they say, the best laid plans...I'll spare you all the details except to say I made quite a bit of progress on one of the books I brought to read.  The plane to Grimsey is small and doesn't do well in the fog.  Apparently, it was foggy in Iceland so we sat around the airport waiting for two hours after the time the plane was supposed to depart, but no luck.  The plane wasn't going anywhere so we rescheduled for Wednesday.  We were a bit annoyed at having wasted time, but what can you do.  We decided to do the things we wanted to do on Tuesday that day, then we could do Wednesday's plans on Tuesday and go to the island on Weds.  So we drove to the town furthest away.  What a ride!  Some of the roads are right along a cliff with NO guard rail.  yikes!  We go to Husavik.  One of the museums we wanted to see had moved to Rek (too bad we didn't realize that when we were still in Rek) so we didn't get to do that, but we went to a museum all about whales, which was interesting.  We also got some info on what else to do in the area and directions for a "shortcut" on a road that was "a little bad" to get there.

 

 

 Now, you know how I was just commenting on the roads with the cliffs, well, that was NOTHING compared to what was coming.  Much of the ride was scenic, but then we had about 20 miles on a road in the middle of nowhere, that wasn't paved and could really only fit one car.  If someone was coming the other way (and it was mostly tourits like us coming the other way) you had to pull over so they could get by or they had to pull over so you could get by.  We had stoppped for food before getting on the road and I couldn't even finish my yogurt concoction because the road was so bumpy.  We didn't tell each other 'til later, but we were both praying the car didn't break down, get a flat, etc.  It was a long (approximately) 20 miles.  I was so glad to be on pavement. 

Day 4: You Can't Reverse It and Christmas Comes Early

What a title huh?  So Monday morning of our trip aka day four, we flew to Akureyri, picked up our rental car (if you think rental car prices are expensive, try Iceland.  I thought the nearly $400 my fiance paid for a rental car in July for 9 1/2 days was a lot, well, that's nothing compared to the nearly $500 we paid for 3 days, especially since we were originally quoted a price of $300, but I digress).  I have no idea how to drive a standard so my friend agreed to do all the driving and thank goodness for that, because some of those roads...omg, but we'll get to that in another post.  Anyway, we got the car, went to the tourist info center, took a few pics outside, then it was off to The Christmas House (please don't make me type the Icelandic name for it).  So my friend put the car in reverse and...nothing happened.  Strange.  She tried again.  Nothing.  Eventually, she put the car in neutral and I got out and pushed the car out of the space.  Go me. lol  Apparently, we would not be reversing for the next three days.  So as she drove to the Christmas House, I thumbed through the owner's manual (the English version) and eventually was able to find that to reverse you had to lift something on the shifter thing (I don't know what it's called, like I said I've never driven a manual).  She tried it and it worked, yay!  We could reverse.  Still to be on the safe side for now, we parked in a way that didn't involve reversing.  :-)  The Christmas House was kind of cool.   It housed "the world's largest Advent calendar," and "arguably the world's most festive restroom."  I'm quoting from Frommer's.  It also had decorations, a Christmas themed garden, and a store that sold tons of Christmas ornaments and played Christmas carols, yes, even in August.  Since I LOVE Christmas, I quite enjoyed this place and took many pictures.  I'll only bore you with a few.  Gleđileg jól!  (I believe that'show you say Merry Christmas in Iceland, but if I'm wrong, someone please correct me.) 

 By now the car was able to reverse, but just to be on the safe side, we allowed some room to go forward too.

Hmm, I think Santa left his suit out to dry.

Stone People

 "Santa Cat"

 Above, is said to be the "world's most festive restroom." 

 

In Iceland, if boys and girls are really naughty Gryla comes to get them and takes them her cave.  She also has many sons, that come around in the days leading up to Christmas and do things like slam doors, steal sausage, etc.  There names explain what they do (i.e. Door Slammer slams doors, Sausage Stealer steals sausage, etc). 

A glimpse of the world's largest Advent Calendar

Day 3 Exploring Rek

Day 3 we had nothing specific planned, but still managed to fill the day.  :-)  We ventured to the flea market, where we both got some "famous" Icelandic sweaters.  Then we did a free tour of Reykjavik (which we referred to as Rek whenever we e-mailed each other when planning the trip).  The tour was interesting.  Following the tour, it took some doing, but we managed to find a museum that had a lot of interesting info about Iceland.  Since it was Sunday, the museum wasn't opened very late so we only had about an hour to spend there.  I enjoyed the museum though.  After that we walked around a little bit, then headed to Halgrim's Church. 

We couldn't go into the church part because there was a religious concert of some sort going on, but we were able to go to the top of the church and enjoy some scenic views, which are what you see here. 

After that, my friend made a new friend from the cat family.  Yep, she met a cat as we were headed back toward the hotel and had fun playing with it.  I'm allergic so I didn't have as much fun.
 :-p  We shopped a little, walked around a little, then my friend ordered a "famous" Icelandic hotdog.  Apparently, the place where she got it has the world's second best hotdog (I don't know who has the best).  We walked around a little more then had some dinner.  We even splruged and got fancy-looking desserts.  Then it was back to the hotel as we had an early morning the next day. 

It's Breakfast Time a.k.a. Dish 7

Sorry to break up the Iceland posts, but I'm trying to keep up with my 52 Dishes in 52 Weeks and though I'm on schedule in "real life," I'm behind in "blog life."  So far in my 52 Dishes in 52 Weeks project, I had made some dinners and desserts.  It was time to mix it up.  I decided to go the breakfast route.  I spent some time googling and came up with Pennsylvania Dutch Breakfast Cake.  I had all the ingredients and it wasn't too hard to make.  So I made it for me (which lasted AGES because I'm only one person, I ended up freezing some of it).  Post-Iceland I had plans to go to a friend's lake house in Maine for the weekend and I offered to bring a dessert and breakfast dish so I brought muffins and made the Pennsylvania Dutch Breakfast Cake.  People seemed to like it so I'd call that one a success too. I liked it and I think if I ever host a breakfast/brunch again, it's something I would make. 

Day 2: The Conclusion

Are you ready for me to finish with day two and move on to day 3?  Sorry I'm taking so long to get through it.  So picking up from last time...that day, we got to go see a glacier. We spent a good amount of time there, walking around and taking pictures. That was kind of cool. I'd seen glaciers before, but I think that was the first time I ever got to walk on one.  It was crazy foggy that day.       

   

 

We also stopped at a place where we watched a short movie about how the Eyjafjallajökull (I hope I got that right) volcano erruption affected local people.

We stopped to see some Icelandic horses.  FYI, Icelandic horses are pure.  You cannot bring horses into Iceland and if you take an Icelandic horse out of Iceland, it is not allowed back in.  Interestingly, when Icelanders go to horse shows, they do not bring their best horses because then they couldn't bring them back into Iceland. 

Aside from a rest stop, we also stopped to walk/jump on a moss field.  Now that was cool.  It feels weird, but cool. 

Got back to our hotel, hung out for a little while, then asked the front desk for suggestions on where to go for dinner.  The man at the desk found us a place, made us a reservation and off we went.  Dinner was good, but expensive, so it better be good.  Neither of us had dessert or alcoholic drinks and it still cost over $80.  My friend got an appetizer, but really for one app and two dinners, $84?  Yikes!  I had "salted cod," which was good, but definitely salty and it came with "cod cheeks," not entirely sure what those were, but they were yummy.  By the time we were done, it was nearly midnight so we called it a day (after getting only a little lost walking by to our hotel).  There ya' go, three blog posts later, I finally finish writing about one day.  :-p 

A More Serious Note

As you probably know from reading my blog, I don't often (maybe ever?) write about "important" things.  I mean much of the stuff I write about is important to me, but in the grand scheme of your life, my trip to Iceland probably isn't too important to you.  There are very few people I will discuss politics, religion, important issues etc with.  Chances are you'll never see my blog about any "big issues" and the only political thing I'll likely blog about is how I am SO SICK of getting political phone calls to vote for this candidate or take a survey sponsored by that candidate.  And it's not because I have extreme views on stuff, if anything, I am obnoxiously indecisive.  Like make a decision all ready Cat!  That and I don't like controversy so I don't want to cause any or get into any disagreements with anyone.  But as I sit here blogging on 9/11, watching the news tributes to 9/11 victims, soldiers, police officers, fire fighters, etc and since I heard "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning" recently, like many others I can't help but stop to think about 9/11 for a minute.  They say our generation will always remember where we were on that date.  I was in a small town in Canada.  I was actually in a class (ironically an American Art class in Canada) and I found out from my friend Mel shortly after that class.   Either I called her or she called me to make lunch plans for that afternoon.  She asked if I'd heard about the plane crash.  I thought she said a plane crashed into a tower or something, but I didn't catch all of what she said.  I said no and didn't think much of it.  She didn't give a lot of details because she didn't have them and I didn't ask.  However, a little later I put on the news and realized this wasn't just any plane crash.  We all know the rest of the story so I don't need to go on, but I will say this, when I think back to that time, I always remember how nice all the Canadians were right after the event.  My new friends--I'd only known these people for about three weeks (from Canada, Australia, and Europe) checked up on me to make sure I was okay and to see if I knew anyone in that area.  I was fine and I didn't know anyone in any of the areas where the planes crashed. Some professors canceled classes for the day, other professors discussed the tragedy in their class to see how people were handling it, and the school had a memorial service to honor those killed in 9/11.  The stores and businesses in town all took several moments of silence one morning to honor the victims.  I was in what would be similiar to our CVS and they just stopped service for a few minutes and asked everyone to take a moment of silence to remember those who died/were injured. 
It was touching to see how kind our neighbors to the north could be.  Anyway, I'm sure everyone has their own stories, memories, etc, but that's one of mine that I remember as I also take a moment to think about the victims of that day.  And thanks to the heros of that day (fire, police, ambulance, soliders, etc). 

Day 2 Continued: More Cool Scenery

So in my last Iceland blog, we had just met the puffins.  We saw the puffins at the black sand beaches.  And yes, the sand was really black (not like Bermuda when they tell you the sand it pink and you foolishly--at least in my case--expect that sand to be completely pink only find out it's just pink specs in the sand).  The weather was cold, foggy, and rainy so there weren't people lounging around on the beach.  The waves were pretty rough too.  Nonetheless, we had fun checking out the puffins, posing for pics near the basalt columns and caves, and in front of the water. 

 

  

 

 

 

After that we went to the village of Vik for lunch and time to peek around a wool shop and see and an elf house.  If we'd had more time there and the weather had been a bit better, I guess we could have gotten some scenic photos, but no luck.  This was also around the time my camera started getting tempermental and not working very well so I didn't get any pictures in Vik.  :-( 


After Vik, we got to explore some tufted houses (my camera was still not behaving very well, but I got a few shots.)  I really liked those.  :-) 

 

 

Inside the houses, our tour guided pointed out how small some of the beds were. 

 

 

 

 

Puffins (Before and After)

So on Day 2 of the Iceland trip, it rained, a lot.  We did a lot that day, but I won't make you read through everything in one sitting.  We did the South Coast tour that day, which was fun, despite the rain.  We drove by what they call "moon craters" (apparently, because that's what they look like).  Our first stop was at a little plaza that in addition to shops, a post office, tourist info spot, and a bakery, housed a model of a house that had survived an earthquake and I know I'm going to get this wrong, but a spot where the continental plates meet or something. 

After that, since we were after all in Iceland, it was off to a waterfall.  Don't get me wrong, the waterfalls were cool, but now looking back on the trip, I'm reminded that we saw a lot of waterfalls.  I had to write them down so I didn't forget which one was which.  Anyway, this particular waterfall was pretty cool because you could walk behind it.  It was also a little scary because it was so slippery.  Between the mist from the waterfall and the rain, well, let's just say I was glad I wasn't wearing jeans.  Below it a pic taken when I was standing behind the waterfall.

And of course I needed a pic in front of the waterfall.  Aren't you glad I'm not posting all 500 pictures from the trip? 

  

 

Okay so on to the puffins.  The girl I went to Iceland with (a friend from work) really wanted to see puffins.  That was one of the things she was most excited about doing in Iceland.  In fact part of the reason we went to the Arctic Circle on our trip (which I'm sure will be mentioned in a future blog) was to see puffins.  Well, at one of our stops on the South Coast tour we got to see puffins.  Yay, my friend was happy!  :-)  The puffins were cute and though they didn't get too close, it was fun to see them.  Our tour guide had binoculars so people could check them out.  I'm not really a bird person, but I'll admit I liked the puffins.  You might need a magnifying glass to see them in this picture, but I assure you, they're there. 

Anyway, fast forward to much later that night and we are at dinner talking to our waiter about our South Coast tour.  My friend mentions puffins and our waiter asks if we want to try some.  What?!  You want us to eat a puffin?  I suppose I shouldn't get all worked up about this because like many other people I know, I eat chicken once a week and that's a bird too.  My friend said no, that was okay, we didn't need to try it, BUT the waiter brought us some, not a whole one (thank goodness), just a few small pieces to try.  Please forgive us and don't hate us, but we each tried a small bite. No, it didn't taste like chicken.  It wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't say I liked it either. 

 

So there  ya' go, there's half of day two.  And I finally threw in some pics.  :-) 

 

The Drought is Over aka The Joys of Wet Jeans aka The Golden Circle

Well, I believe that is my longest blog title ever because I couldn't decide between three ideas.  Our first night in Iceland, we did "The Golden Circle" tour.  It's a famous Iceland tour that many tour companies do (you can do it on your own too if you have a car) that includes Thingviller, Sulfoss, and Geysir.  Translation: a national park that is the location of the old parliament, a waterfall, and a geyser.  I enjoyed the tour, but in retrospect doing a tour that started at 7:00pm and went until nearly midnight after all ready being up for 36 hours may not have been the smartest of planning.  Anyway, at our first stopped it was raining pretty hard so we didn't stay too long.  The rain lightened up a bit by the time we got to the waterfall, but of course being close to a waterfall can cause one to get wet anyway, same with the geysir.  The only time I was really cold during the whole vacation was sitting on that bus in wet clothes, no make that SOAKED clothes.  Let's just say trying to change out of wet jeans is not fun (nor is going to the bathroom when you have to put said wet jeans back on).  According to our tour guide, Iceland had a bit of a drought for three months.  Fortunately, for them, but not so fortunate for us, the drought ended around the time we arrived.  So enough with the whining and here are some more pictures from the evening... 

 

 

I couldn't get a picture of the geysir errupting, but I did get a little video of it, which hopefully, will play. So here's the not so good picture, followed by the video...