The Last Stops - Akureyri, Siglufjörður

Saturday started off with a driving tour of Akureyri. It's the most populated city after Reykjavik but it's still home to only about 18,000 people. I think that's how many people live on my street in London!

We then set off on a very long drive to visit Siglufjörður, a small fishing town not too far away. We stopped at some scenic viewpoints, but we spent most of the time driving through various tunnels.

When we finally arrived, J and I went straight to the coffee shop.



We had gotten in the habit of having a swiss mocha (J) and a hot chocolate (me) every day, and we needed our fix. J also took the opportunity to check his Blackberry.

I wasn't happy about the Blackberry's umpteenth appearance, and I gave J the side-eye of his life. Life lesson, kids: don't be a lawyer!



We walked around the very, very small town, and checked out the sights.

The harbour first, since it is a fishing town...



I noticed that every single town we visited, no matter how big or small, always had a church. I thought it a bit odd, since Herdis mentioned that most people go to church only for Easter and Christmas.

I love turf houses, but I have no idea who can fit through that narrow ass front door!



We still had some time to kill so we thought about checking out the herring museum. Yup, a herring museum. But we quickly changed our minds when I figured out that they were charging admission. Um, no thanks, I'd rather go check out the National Gallery or the V&A Museum for free than pay to look at herring.



It was finally time to leave (not soon enough, in my opinion), and we started our drive back to Akureyri. First, we stopped at the bird sanctuary at Húsabakkar next to Dalvík, but I quickly lost interest as I didn't see a single bird while we were there. I guess the birds didn't get the memo about the sanctuary.

Anyway, I was anxious to get back to Akureyri so I could walk around and see the town on foot. It reminded me a lot of Reykjavik.

The same painted corrugated iron covered the buildings...



A sculpture hearkening back to Iceland's Viking past...

It had similar graffiti...



But it also had its own quirks, like a two-headed sheep sculpture.

And a pair of trolls hanging around downtown. J swears he wasn't responsible for the woman's hand falling off.



Downtown was small enough that we finished exploring much more quickly than I anticipated. We regrouped at the meeting point, and it wasn't long before we were saying goodbye to Herdis and boarding our plane  for the short flight back to Reykjavik.

The tour was a lot of fun, but I was more than ready for it to end. Keeping in close quarters with strangers can be a bit of a strain, and the smallness of our group forced intimacy. I was looking forward to spending some alone time with J without having to socialise with others (yes, I'm an anti-social hermit), and doing things according to whatever we felt like at the moment.

Chasing Waterfalls - Litlifoss, Dettifoss, Godafoss, Jökulsárgljúfur, Asbyrgi

Our first visit of the day was to the underground bakery by Lake Myvatn where they make Icelandic rye bread aka "thunder bread" due to the noises that you would make if you eat too much of it! Too funny. It's made of molasses and rye flour and baked in the heated ground for many hours.

We took a peek into several of the pits, but alas, there were no buns in the oven. Sad.

It turned out that we were going to see a slew of waterfalls that day. After seeing Gullfoss, I was really excited to see Dettifoss, Europe's most powerful waterfall. But first, we stopped by Litlifoss, a much smaller waterfall that's in close proximity to Dettifoss. I guess it was like a waterfall appetiser.

I made J more than a little nervous by sitting on the cliff edge, but it was worth it since I got a great view of the black sand beach below.

We walked along the alien landscape to get to Dettifoss.

I'm sorry to say, but I wasn't that impressed. I thought Gullfoss was much more impressive - it's cleaner looking and easy to get close to.

The landscape got even weirder when we drove to Jökulsárgljúfur canyon to explore the rock formations there. There were more elf churches...

And the most amazing geometric rock formations that looked manmade!

We moved on to the Asbyrgi oasis, where we could see a beautiful calm lake where it's possible to see a variety of birds. There's even a purpose-built viewing platform, and the canyons provide amazing acoustics. Our guide told us about rock concerts they would hold nearby, and J and I had fun yodeling into the rocks.

We had one more waterfall we had to stop and see, Godafoss, which translates to waterfall of the gods. Legend has it that when Iceland made the official switch to Christianity, they threw the carved Norse gods of old into the falls.

It was a very short hike...

With a very big payoff.

It turned out to be a short day with a lot of driving and a little hiking, which was probably just as well since our feet were taking a beating from the rough terrain. We finally reached Akureyri, the northern counterpart of Reykjavik, where we settled in for the night.

Believe it or not, one of my law school chums was in Akureyri at the same time with his girlfriend. Or I should say fiancee, as they had just gotten engaged that morning! It's the oddest place in the world to run into someone, but I was really happy to be able to congratulate them in person on such a happy occasion. We had drinks at the lounge at Hotel KEA and ended the night with some hot chocolate at the local pub. I wonder where I'll run into them next?

Heading West - Krafla, Namaskard, Lake Myvatn, Hverfjall, Dimmuborgir

Wednesday kicked off with a walk around the brand new (relatively speaking) lava fields of Krafla. I never got such a sense of the earth as a living, changing thing until I walked these fields.



The steam made for some fun photo ops with J. Don't worry moms, we don't smoke in real life!



We had been really lucky with the weather thus far, but then the rain started to really come down. The wind decided to join in on the fun so that the rain came down sideways. Fun. The path, which was already a little muddy, got even more slippery, and we had to be careful not to slip from the path and fall into a nearby boiling vat of sulphuric water.



After our walk at Krafla, we made the short drive to check out the boiling mud pools of Namaskard. And it was super stinky! We tried to stay upwind of the steam coming from the mud to avoid the worst of it, but the smell was pretty overwhelming. I beat a hasty retreat to the car due to the smell combined with the general miserableness of the weather.



The day turned out to be kind of a dud for us with the weather being so bad. It's hard to enjoy the scenery when the rain is going up your nose and your hiking pants and boots are soaked. J and I decided to stay at the hotel while the others made the sojourn to the geothermal pools at Lake Myvatn for a good soak. It was just as well since we had tried out the Blue Lagoon, and we both realised that we are just not bath people.

I woke up Thursday morning with my fingers crossed that the weather had improved during the night. It must have worked since it was nice and dry for our walk around the pseudo craters by Lake Myvatn. The pseudo craters are formed by steam explosions as hot lava travels over a water source.



The view from the top was quite nice, and I could spot some of the farms nearby.



We then drove around the perimeter of the lake and walked down to its banks. The lake is quite beautiful, but one caveat: Lake Myvatn translates to "Midge Lake" and there were loads of them to greet us as soon as we got out of the car.



I have an inexplicable fear of bugs getting in my ears and pulled up my hood while I walked around. The water was remarkably clear, and we could see straight to the bottom.



We continued our hike around the lake, and our guide took us to these amazing rock formations. And yep, we could still see the bottom!



It was a nice and easy hike, other than swatting at the squillions of midges, and it was just a warm up for our steep hike up to the rim of Hverfjall, a massive crater by the lake.

It was a steep climb, but we did manage to huff and puff our way up to the top.

It's hard to grasp the enormous size of the crater - the diameter of the rim is 0.6km!



We walked around the top, and it's true that whatever goes up must come down. The hike down was just as steep and a lot harder than the hike up! It was a series of switch backs, and I got a ton of dirt in my shoes slushing my way in the dirt toward the bottom.



Safe and sound and shoes emptied of rocks and dirt, we left the crater to walk to the nearby lava forest, Dimmuborgir. That's the crater in the background - I told you it was massive!



The forest was filled with curious rock formations, and we had a chance to look around while we picnicked amongst the rocks.



We even got to visit a church for the elves. It's crazy that all of this is naturally occurring!



That was quite enough hiking for the day, and I was grateful to return back to the hotel so I could take off my shoes and socks and get rid of the rest of the dirt, which was no mean feat!

The Great North - Hallormstodur, Hengifoss, Saenautasel, Troll Wall, Modrudalur

Wednesday kicked off with a visit to the nearby arboretum, which was hosting an art exhibit at the time.

Along with the typical sort of things you expect to see such as trees and flowers, we got a chance to see a few sights that you don't normally see in nature, such as a hot pink tree.

A Hansel and Gretel house, along with the requisite children's trap.

And what I can only guess to be a staircase for squirrels. Not that we saw any.

It was a really relaxing walk, and we returned to the car to drive to the big hike of the day, Hengifoss, a star waterfall of the area.

This is where having a guide really paid off. We took an alternate route to the guided path, which meant that we got some stellar views of another waterfall leading up to Hengifoss, Litlanefoss. The waterfall is surrounded by hexagonal, basalt columns that were created as the lava cooled after an eruption. It's pretty amazing to see!

But the hike was just beginning - we continued on until we caught our first glimpse of our ultimate goal from afar. Hengifoss is really beautiful, even from afar, and the red stripes are caused by oxidised soil.

I wasn't quite sure how far we were going, so we decided to keep pushing on until our guide told us to stop. At this point, our hike had degenerated to jumping from rock to rock and trying to avoid falling in the freezing cold water. J took to it like a regular frog, and I spent half my time hollering at him to be careful. And I just noticed how well he's camouflaged with the landscape!

Luckily, neither of us fell in, and we managed to reach the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. The water looked so inviting that it was tempting to jump in for a quick swim except for the fact that I'd probably die of hypothermia within minutes.

After we all returned to the car, we enjoyed a packed lunch in the car and drove to our next destination.

We reached the highlands and stopped at Saenaustasel, a highland farm. It looked incredibly beautiful from the car, but the wind nearly knocked us over when we got out of the car!

Although we managed to stay upright, the dogs that came bounding from the farm nearly finished the job. We were quick friends, especially since they found a more than willing playmate in J.

The wind was near about killing us, so we went rushing into the farmhouse, which operates as a teahouse/ shop.

We met with the owner, who still lives at the farm with his family, and he gave us his blessings to roam around the farm at our leisure. We bundled up in all our layers and headed back outside.

First things first, I wanted to visit with all of their animals. I don't normally like sheep (they tend to follow me around, which freaks me out), but one on its own wasn't so bad so I stopped to feed him some toast.

We also visited the Icelandic horses, and J went all horse-whisperer on me. They were nibbling at us to see if we had any food, but all they ended up getting was a mouthful of J's windbreaker.

We visited the other building, where the family does their day-to-day living, and I got to see a lovely family of kittens. So cute! I just hope my cat never finds out I was cheating on him during my trip!

Anyway, we went back outside and played with the dogs for a while before heading back to the teashop to warm up. Luckily for us, the owner and his son had built up quite the fire.

Once we were warmed up, we settled down at the table for a meal of traditional Icelandic pancakes known as Pönnukökur. It was an all-you-can-eat pancake fest, and we could either sprinkle a bit of sugar or spread some homemade rhubarb jam on the little cakes. I tried both and washed it all down with lots of hot chocolate - both were delicious!

It was really cosy indoors while the wind was howling outside, and our guide told us more about traditional Icelandic lore on trolls, elves and giants. And more than appropriate since our next stop was the Troll Wall.

We thanked the owner and waved goodbye to the dogs as we got back in the car to drive to the Wall. The landscape got pretty strange pretty quickly - it looked like the surface of another planet!

You could see the Wall in the distance, and it's a natural phenomenon that was likely created by the movement of the glaciers. The other explanation is that trolls built the wall. I had heard so much about the trolls that I could half believe it at that point! And of course, we had to climb the Wall - the view from the top...

It had been a long day, and it was an even longer drive back to the hotel. We made a quick stop at Modrudalur farm to stretch our legs, and I made friends with the farmer's young daughter. I had heard that she kept some baby arctic foxes, and she agreed to try to get them to come see us. We took a large platter of cold bones, and then she taught me how to do an arctic fox call. It was harder than I thought! Unfortunately, the weather was too cold to tempt them out of the warmth of their den, but it was really sweet of her to try. She really was the cutest little girl I've ever seen!

Once we were back at the hotel, we stuffed ourselves at the buffet and took ourselves straight to bed!