I am going around the Snaefellsnes Peninsula today for twenty hours, then back to the hostel for thirty minutes before leaving again hunt for the Aurora Borealis! I booked things up until Monday, but I can’t do anything more until the pending charges go through. I probably should have thought about the fact that I will have to wait until the next business day. Don’t make large purchases on Fridays, and also take into account the time change. That’s okay though, I will have time to figure out what else I really want to do and when.
The bus picked me up to head to Snaefellsness. It’s dark and I’m sleepy. I met a girl from Colorado who is also here by herself staying at the same hostel. She has been here since Tuesday and hasn’t tried any weird foods yet, so today that will change!
We are driving through a fjord in a 6km long tunnel. I wish we could see where we are going, but when I come back in summer time (not sure what year), I will rent a car and live out of that while traveling around the entire country on the Ring Road.
You can get a sheep’s head and coke at a drive thru. I didn’t do that because the bus didn’t stop there, but that is interesting. We stopped at a gas station for food. For breakfast I am having some sort of bread with cream cheese and smoked salmon. For lunch, I got a ham and cheese sandwich, dried cod fillets (like beef jerky but fish), and chocolate covered licorice. The bread came on a plate that I guess we just take with us? The girl didn’t say anything soooo I just took the plate. Later I found out that you weren’t actually supposed to do that, but oh well! The bread is good! It is not quite cake, and its kinda dry, but in a good way because the whole thing just melts in your mouth.
Our first stop was a black sand beach. There is only one white sand beach in Iceland, but the sand is imported so it doesn’t count. We saw a seal! It blended in with the background though, so I didn’t get a good picture of it.
Who’s up for a swim???
We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch, and I had lamb soup with coffee. They have sugar cubes! It’s the little things in life. And call me weird, but sugar cubes taste much better than normal sugar grains. Sheila had meatballs of some kind of meat, probably lamb. They were good too!
The wind is strong with this one! We were actually being pushed which isn’t shocking because I am so small, but even the taller people were not in full control. Walking up the hill was nice and easy because the wind did the work for us. Sheila and I head butted the wind during our descent but ended up walking backwards and sideways some of the time so the wind doesn’t blow our eyes through the other side of our skulls!
There is one more hour before sunset, and the sun right now is absolutely magnificent! None of my pictures are photo-shopped, but do they really need it when nature looks like this?
Aaand I am hungry again so it is time for a snack. I liked the dried fish, Sheila didn’t. More for me! She liked the chocolate covered licorice. Neither of us are huge licorice fans, but this just goes to show that chocolate fixes everything! What chocolate can’t fix, garlic can!
We are waiting in the bus for the next whatever amount of time, due to some bus troubles? Sheila and I had some frosting-less cinnamon rolls, and they were delicious! Okay the bus is working now and we have one more stop until back to Reykjavik. The driver said we might be able to see the Northern Lights as early as 5ish! So a little over an hour or so. They are never guaranteed due to wind and other weather factors, but fingers crossed! I will keep trying to see them for as long as I am here, but if it happens more than once then I shall be a very happy girl! I know the lights are the main reason I decided to go to Iceland instead of anywhere else for this trip, but honestly even after just one day, I am already enjoying the experience regardless of what happens or doesn’t happen.
We might make a detour to see the lights on the way back to Reykjavik. In the meantime, I will sit here and munch on my fish, and maybe my sandwich. I’m really liking this fish. It’s definitely weird, but good! It tastes better than I can describe it but it has a seaweedy flavor with almost a beef jerky texture. It’s a little more brittle though. Yeah I give up. It’s good. Try it.
Tourism is growing fast here so hurry over before it gets crazy because I definitely can see why it would!
Well we saw a faint sliver of lights tonight but it was too cloudy and windy for more sooo that sucks. Hopefully better luck next time. I am now in bed at 1AM and have 6.5 hours until I get up and ready for horseback riding!
*If you book a Northern Lights Tour that gets cancelled due to weather, or you don’t get as much of a light show as you want, you can reschedule your trip and keep going until your trip ends for free. If you still don’t get to go due to cancellations and your trip has ended, you receive a full refund or a compensated fancy dinner.
**Also notice how different the weather is in each picture. This doesn’t even come close to the variety of weather you get within a single day. Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes.
***More pictures can be viewed on my Facebook Page
The World Unfiltered 