Wednesday, June 17
The advantage of sleepless travel paired with a busy first day is that you quickly adjust to the new time zone. Other than hearing our hostel "roomates" come in at 4am, we all slept through the night and woke up refreshed. After asking the hostel receptionist for a good local breakfast spot, we walked to the Gray Cat (English translation). It was a hybrid of cafe and book store tucked into a corner of the main street. Breakfast of eggs, bacon, potatoes, tomatoes, and toast was delicious. Toward the end of the meal, I realized I had left my iphone plugged in to charge in the lobby area of our hostel! We walked quickly back and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it still lying there...now fully charged. :)
While we were waiting to use the hostel's phone, we became curious about Icelandic names and decided to choose one for each of us. Yesterday, Stephen had taken a picture with a "strong man" from a strong man competition and kept referring to the man as Sven....so Stephen became Sven. I became Sventa (as his sister), Jamie = Isolde, and Emily = Eli`a.
For the next few hours, we walked around Reykjavik to observe and shop. Jamie didn't quite have the hiking shoes necessary for a rugged terrain, so while we were looking, we happened upon the coolest store ever. To get downstairs, you literally slid down a tube. The stairs also climbed over a pond filled with Koi fish. We also visited a bookstore and a grocery store called Bonus. Before leaving Reykjavik for our roadtrip, we stopped for lunch at a cafe called Roma. The girl behind the till was Camilla..probably around 10 or 11 years old. She was extremely cute and so professional for her age! With soup and wraps to go, we began our drive to circumnavigate Iceland.
Slide down to next level:
Koi Pond below the stairs leading up to level above:
Whinnie the Poo has quite a different sound here:
We found this guy walking into the grocery store...I'm pretty sure it was part if a scavenger hunt. :)
Our first rest stop was in a town called Borgarnes. We climbed a small hill with a random statue at the top and enjoyed the view of snow-capped mountains, clear water, and green fields sprinkled with yellow and purple wildflowers. From here, I relinquished the responsibility of driving to Stephen.
Stephen and I being...ourselves:
One of Jamie's Iceland dreams was to see and pet Icelandic horses. Her dreams have now come true. During our drive, we spotted several horses hanging out near a fence, so we quickly parked nearby and took the opportunity to meet these beautiful strangers. The horses were very friendly, but as I was walking toward a horse in a different corner, a bird started hovering over me and squawking very intensely. It was very unwelcoming. Anytime I started walking closer to the horse, the bird would immediately go on the defensive. It even started to dive toward us and went after the horse when it got too close! That was an authentic Angry Bird.
Angry Bird:
The scenery of our drive changed from rolling hills and fields to dark mountains covered in green foliage. Small waterfalls and streams lined the highway, and we started to look for that night's lodging. At one point, we realized we had driven too far, so we turned around, but the fields were mostly bare except for a few farm houses scattered here and there. Fortunately, two locals were riding their horses past us, so we rolled down our windows and asked them if they knew where the street was. At first they didn't know what we were talking about, but when we showed them the name (I guess we have a little work to do on our pronunciation) they told us we were close and gave us directions. Well, they gave us most of the directions, but their horses were getting skittish from an oncoming truck, so they said they had to go, but if we didn't find it, to go to the nearest house because it was theirs.
We did find the lodge, and it was a simple, wooden lodge, but so comfortable. After a home-cooked meal, we lounged in the outside "hot pot" (as they call them) on the front deck. The view was incredible, and even at 10pm, it was light enough to thoroughly enjoy.
Our view from the Hot Pot:
This was taken past midnight:
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