Good morning! Me waiting for the bus to arrive for today’s adventure is like a puppy waiting for its human to come home. Every time I hear a bus I jump up only to have to sit back down, even though I know it makes much more sense to sit down and wait for the person to come inside and announce themselves.
IT’S HERE!!!! Gosh the roads here are extremely narrow.
Horse riding time! I am all geared up in my warm jumpsuit and met my horse for the morning! There are just three people including myself on the ride, as well as the guide. And in the afternoon, it’s just the guide and me.
We made the horses tölt, which is one of their signature gaits that other horses do not have. The gaits of the Icelandic horse include walk, trot, canter, tölt, and flying speed! The horses here are also pure, and pretty much unchanged since the first settlers brought horses over. If for any reason a horse leaves Iceland, it can never return. This is to preserve the breed from diseases and genetic mixing. The horses here truly are majestic, but it is still kinda sad. Also, horse steak is something that is consumed here in Iceland, so then there’s that, but more on that tomorrow.
My horse had a mind of its own, and didn’t like to stop even when my feet slipped out of the stirrups. I have had enough experiences with horses to be fine and fix the issue, so all is well! It was cold and snowing, but worth it. Oh so worth it.
Everyone on the second ride gets a lunch included, so I ate by myself as I am everyone on the second ride. I took the hard way down to the cafeteria. Apparently there was a path around the building, but my way was shorter. There was slippery ice and snow everywhere, though, and I had to hop the fence to get through the back door that they opened for me. haha oops. My toes are freezing. I am having lamb soup, coffee and snacks. There was bread and butter, this flaky cracker thing, and then a crumbly dissolve-in-your-mouth macaroon thing. Things crumbling/dissolving in your mouth seems to be a recurring food theme here, as is lamb soup for lunch. I liked the first lamb soup better, but mainly because the cooked carrots were smaller and easier to avoid haha!
I always seem to pick the worst times for coffee. By the time this coffee kicks in, I will be on a horse. Then again is there really any good time for coffee poos? I am not waking up early to take care of that before starting my day, and having coffee late enough for coffee poo pre-sleep means you had coffee before bed, which means no sleep. That defeats the purpose. Anywayyy….horses.
It’s hard to get up on the horse with the jumpsuit but worth it because it’s soooo warm! I just have to pull my pants up to wedgy level just to get up on the horse because of course the pant legs are too long for my itty bitty legs. Getting down is a little scary because sometimes you have to land right on the ice. I found a method to gracefully and slowly slide down the side of the horse to land softly on my feet. It almost worked. Almost. Nora (the guide) and I both thought it would work. And it did…until my feet touched the ground and then within half a second I was on my a$$. My feet did not appear to receive the message that they were supposed to stay upright once they hit the ground, not continue sliding forward and out from under me. We had a talk about this later. They apologized.
I liked the second horse ride a lot better. Not only was it just be and the guide, but we went through one of the only forests in Iceland, a hot spring and geyser area, and got the horses to tölt a lot. The trees in this forest were planted in the recent past, and there aren’t many trees due to the Vikings cutting them down for houses and what not. My second horse liked to go even faster, and it felt like flying speed. It was fun, but it wasn’t always expected. I get it though, sometimes you just get a little carried away and want to fly! But dear horsey, please make sure I am ready for it. I eventually just expected in at any moment and everything was all hunky dory. The sky was pelting us in the face with snow, and my scarf was starting to freeze. My headband also like to fall down right in front of my eyes, which would be perfectly fine if I didn’t want to see.
It is really snowing right now! I am going to definitely shower and nap before another lights hunt, that is if they aren’t canceled. Yeah…it was cancelled. That’s okay, I can now rest and book more stuff since the pending charges went through so I can use another chunk of money and put myself in the same situation as before. I always leave some money for food though! Priorities.
I brushed my hair after riding, and it was so awful I almost cried from the pain haha. It was bad enough that I half-jokingly messaged Sheila asking her to bring over some scissors. As always, I persevered and succeeded!
Sheila and I went out to the Lebowski Bar for drinks. Neither of us have seen the movie, but everything from the decor to drink and food options were from the movie. I have never seen so many selections for White Russians. I had a White Chocolate Russian and nachos, and Sheila had a Cosmo and fries. When I say we each had “a” drink, I mean we each had two.
We looked at the menu for where we are eating dinner tomorrow. They have lots of seafood. And horse. So stay tuned for what we actually ended up eating!
