Monday, July 7th
We got a late start due to the prior nights partying, but it was ok since we weren’t in much of a hurry. We headed down the hill to where there were several shop lined streets next to some apartment areas. I noticed the most prevalent coffee shops in Iceland so far were something called “Te & Kaffi”. We went inside and it was very pleasant and definitely comparable to a casual Starbucks back home. I got a cappuccino like I always do when I am in Europe, and Samantha got a peppermint hot chocolate. Both were delicious. After that, we headed north on the “Ring Road” which is Highway 1. It goes around the entire island. The city we were headed to was directly in the center of the north, and was the second largest city in Iceland. The drive was one breath taking view after another, with mountain range and mini waterfalls dotting the landscape. We passed through a huge tunnel on the coast just north of Reykjavik, I am not sure what people did for traveling north before this tunnel was constructed. It was only about 10 dollars to pay the toll. There were small villages along the way, but we didn’t really see much of what I would consider a town until we got to Borgarnes, which was situated on some water ways. There were enough towns on the route so that we never really worried about running out of gas, and all of them had food and coffee available. Along the way we made our only real mistake of the entire trip, and that was missing the beach rock formation called Troll On Sea. I had gotten the location via Google Maps and we ended up driving about an hour past where I should have left the main highway and driven to the beach. I was pissed because this is one of the most amazing natural rocks that I have ever seen.
I mentioned before that Google Maps printed out the names with several missing characters, so when we arrived in Akureyri, my directions were useless. We ended up driving aimlessly through residential areas before a girl at a gas station was able to direct me to the downtown area, which is where our hostel was. Since it never got dark while we were on our trip, at least it was easy to view all of the signs. I also think this meant restaurants extended their hours, because I am pretty sure we didn’t get to the place we were going for dinner until well after 9:00 PM. We went to a placer called Rub 23, which has several meat and fish offerings with 23 different flavor rubs to try. I got the whale, while Samm had some seafood dish. It was divine. the whale was every gamey and not as chewy as I was expecting. After dinner, we walked down to the fjord, which was like nothing I had seen except parts of the Alaskan coast, then went back to the room to rest up for tomorrows adventures.
Iceland | Day 1: Reykjavik & Suðurnes | Day 2: Akureyri & drive North | Day 3: Mývatn & Goðafoss | Day 4: Dettifoss & drive West to Norðfjörður | Day 5: Eistnaflug | Day 6: Glacier Lagoons & the drive South
