Iceland - Part 4

29 Dec 2015 . category: Travel . Comments
#Iceland

Day 4: Eastern Fjords

In the morning, we drove through a bunch of small eastern fjord towns, some of which ended up being more industrial and sad than cute. I imagine they’re substantially different for the summer tourist season? And the snow which turned into a whiteout blizzard certainly didn’t help.

We then drove to Egilsstadir, where we spent the day. Highlights there included a folk museum that opened just for us (given lack of tourists they probably kept lights off by default). Here’s me clowning around there:

We also briefly drove around a geothermal power plant. I had been looking for one all week, as Iceland is so famous for them. Aaron pointed that we looked pretty sketchy driving around in the fog, with me pointing my camera out to snap pictures. Thankfully no one branded us as terrorists.

Finally, out of the sad Icelandic wilderness came an oasis of cheap and wonderful food with a beautiful logo too, a supermarket named Bonus!

Of course, we realized after that actually, all the food was basically normal American prices, so darn. We took the opportunity to buy gifts for friends back home, and were advised to buy licorice by a store associate - everyone in Iceland seems obsessed with licorice. Sadly my friends and I both ended up thinking the stuff totally vile, so most of my licorice went to Aaron who strangely likes it.

The dinner we made that day was better than average, as we bought meat for the first time at Bonus! Also, another guest staying at the hostel offered us some vegetable stew, which while a bit sketchy looking, we graciously accepted. I was really missing vegetables at that point (pasta and PB&J is not a great diet). We then made an attempt to drink the schnapps we purchased at the airport, but unfortunately found it no more palatable than the brandy…needing to chase with peanut butter (classy, I know).

That night we watched Kick Ass, and before turning in, danced, prayed, and sacrificed for good weather the next day, as the next stretch of road was extremely iffy. The Icelandic road service has a real time map of road conditions, and the upcoming leg to Lake Myvatn was more often than not impassable to vehicles like ours in the month prior. In hindsight, this probably should’ve made us more wary of driving all of Route 1, but I think at the time we just decided that we would drive back around (clockwise) if this part stayed impassable.

Other sights: Skrioklaustur (monastery ruins), Lagarfljot (lake), and Hallormsstaoaskogur (forest).

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