66 Degrees North

After a South American style bus day (12 hours, not because the distances are far, but because there are so many stops and layovers), we are out of the West Fjords and onto northern Iceland. We arrived in Akureyri (Iceland´s second largest city) at 11pm and pitched a tent and went to bed with the intention of going to Grimsey in the morning.

Grimsey is an island off the northern coast of Iceland, and therefore is the northernmost point of the country. It is also the only point of the country that is inside the arctic circle (which is 66 degrees north of the equator). So we took the ferry in the morning up there, and hiked around. It´s a tiny place, population 90, and about 6km long. There is a small monmument to the arctic circle that of course we had to pose for absurd pictures on. There are also lots of arctic terns, which are birds that like to divebomb people that they perceive as being in their territory, and clearly the entire island is their territory. There was also a pile of rocks that marked the northernmost point in the country. Woohoo! It was fun, and very pretty.

After Grimsey, we headed to Mývatn for some hiking. Mývatn is a lake somewhat inland (we have been on the coast the entire time, weird). Mývatn is surrounded by volcanos, lava flows, and midges. Midges are annoying little bugs that are attracted to carbon dioxide, and therefore swarm your face when you are hiking. We did a nice 6 mile day hike that turned into a 11 mile hike when no one would pick us up to take us back to town.

Today was another bus day, arriving in Höfn just a little bit ago. We are hoping to find a room in a hostel for the night, preparing for three days of hiking and tenting it. As for now, Onward!

Rather steep trail down the mountain

Northernmost point in Iceland

Grimsey Hiking in Mývatn

Puffins on GrimseyThe arctic circle monument
Fjord out the bus window

Didn´t get to put all the pictures in I wanted, I still have a few more to add once I have a computer with an SD reader.

Internet is $24 an hour, I'm going to try to make this quick. Also why there are few updates.

Monday around noon I met Sterling in the Detroit airport on our way to Iceland, via Newark. Everything went off without a hitch except I lost our copy of the Lonely Planet on the DTW-NYC flight. Perfect. Then during check in to the Iceland Express flight the 8 year old girl in line in front of us took a shine to me. She proceeded to harrass me for the 4 hours between check in and boarding. The Iceland Express flight was rather uncomfortable. I had fond memories of Spirit Airlines and public buses. Uncomfortable or not, the plane got us to Reykjavik on time despite an hour delay (how'd they do that?).

Finally in Reykjavik, we try to find our hostel with no map and vague directions. Luckily we stumble into a bookstore, where we purchased a new LP and made our way to the hostel. The hostel was very nice. So nice. Sauna in the basement nice. We spent the first day napping, trying to figure out a plan, and several awesome hours in the municipal hot springs (which will quickly become a trend).

Day two: Tuesday. We buy a bus passport that will take us in a complete circle around the island for $500. Ouch!!!! Turns out Iceland is expensive. Good to find out. We leave at 8am for our first destination, a small town on the western coast called Stykkisholmer. We set up camp (our first campsite!) and go exploring. There's a beautiful little island thing and bay. There's a ferry that takes us up to the desolate West Fjords. We only know they are desolate because the LP tells us so, and because when we get off the ferry at the other side there is nothing. Literally, nothing. 6km away there is a gas station, restaurant, and campground. The next bus leaves in 2.5 days. Oh, crap.

So we're stuck in this podunk junction of the freeway, trying to hitchhike our way north (no success) and it starts to rain. Really?! Okay. So it's raining. And we're camping in basically a truck stop (albeit a pretty one), splitting our time between eating super drawn out meals at the restaurant and somewhat huddling in the bathroom facility at the campsite. The one plus: this town of sorts had an awesome outside hot springs that was basically a rock pool that drained out into the sea. We spent nearly 3 hours in that thing during the rain. And then walked the kilometer back to the campsite in our bathing suits. The image: 50F and raining, I'm walking/running barefoot on the main freeway (I think one car passed us) in a bikini and a rain shell. A spectacle for all of the restaurant patrons, for sure.

Friday, we finally get on a bus. Woohoo! It takes us west before turning around and heading back north, but we don't care. We want out of that God forsaken highway junction. We are dropped off in some random city with four hours to kill. Luckily, as always, there are hot springs. We kill a couple hours soaking and playing pool volleyball (it's still 50 out). The bus picks us up and we are heading through the super desolated but stunningly beautiful (I sound like a LP writer) West Fjords.

Unexpectedly getting stuck changed our plans a little, but that's okay. As for now, onward!

The Plan

Iceland: about the size of Kentucky, a little over 300,000 residents, and more consonants in the language than I am comfortable with (I will learn how to pronounce Eyjafjallajokull by the time I leave, it's my goal). It's time for Sterling's and my annual trip, and this year we picked Iceland (somewhat at random). I'm leaving in a few hours, and we'll have 15 days in Iceland with a 1 day layover in NYC on the way home. I really have no idea what to expect, and no plan per se, but hopefully we'll figure it out on the plane ride over. I do know that about 2/3 of my pack is filled with camping gear since we can't afford to stay in hostels every night (around $35/night).

Time to get dirty.