Veronica Baker: Akureyri Trip, March 4-6

The morning of March 4, 53 ESN (an exchange group) students set off for a weekend of fun in Akureyri. Akureyri is in the north of Iceland, and is the second largest city in the country, with a population of about 17,500. We stopped in Saudarkrokur (population of about 2550) for a break, where some delicious hot dogs (what else?) were devoured. At about 5:00 we stopped at the Kaldi brewery, where we learned the process of brewing some great beer, and - more importantly - got to try many glasses of free beer. The brewery smelled absolutely delicous! Clean air but with a hint of the stereotypical "farm" smell - I was in heaven! We were unaware of how these "tours" work - but the 10 or so Spanish students had it mastered, as they piled back onto the bus with two litre bottles full of free beer - and then proceeded to entertain us with songs until we reached Akureyri.

Sarah enjoying the 5 hour bus ride


The N1 which was surprisingly well equipped to deal with large groups!

Sometimes I think I should be studying clouds instead of accounting?

Sarah & Erika

The bus!

Kaldi Brewery

The Labeller (might have made that name up)

Sarah, me, Emily, Erika

This was right out of one of the machines, before filtration

We were in three different guesthouses along the two main streets of Akureyri. I roomed with Erika, in a room that had the absolute comfiest beds I've encountered in Iceland! Friday night we were treated to a burger buffet. I'm not normally a burger person, but after about 6 hours of traveling, a beer tour, and walking around finding rooms, a table full of cheesy burgers and delicious toppings was heavenly!

Saturday morning Erika and I got up early to find a cafe before skiing. Turns out, nothing opens before 10, so we got a bit of a sneak peek of the most adorable city.

Some of the students at a bar Friday night

Playing with fire...

When the dancing started, we figured it was soon time to leave!

If you're lost in Akureyri, look for the giant snowman!

Everywhere you could want to go is literally just metres away :)

We left for the ski hill at about 10:00. It is the most popular ski resort in the country, but was still not exactly for the roughly 40 students who showed up all at once. Many students had to snowboard instead of ski - but that was okay with me, since I wanted to try something new anyway! The only hill I've really spent any time on is Wentworth, so I will compare Hlíðarfjall to it. They are similar in sizes, but very different. They both have several different types of lifts, and both alpine and nordic skiing. Wentworth is much wider - and has lots of trails in the woods. In Iceland, there aren't really any trees, so the trails were marked more so by the natural areas that snow fell on the mountain. The chair lift went until the mountain got steep, and then a T-bar could take you up the actual mountain, if you wanted to be brave (which I did not).

Since the weather here is usually not predictable at all, it wasn't that much of a surprise when the resort closed early, since you could really not see in front of you! We ended the afternoon by going to the outdoor swimming pool in Akureyri, and spent a couple of hours lounging in hot tubs and frolicking on water slides.

Hlíðarfjall

Erika and Sarah

That's me! Not falling! (At that particular moment)

Just substitute the green grass with white snow!

Saturday evening we had a pizza buffet - Hawaiin, Pepperoni, and the best breadsticks I've ever tasted. And bottomless glasses of coke. After dinner we went to the local 1011 (24 hour convenience stores) and loaded up on gummy candies, and headed back to have a few beers (not a "few beer", as I have been taught!) with the Francophone students.

Church of Akureyri - Akureyrarkirkja

My really attractive friends

Erika, from Washington State and Benoit from Québec

Guillaume from France, and Bruno from Québec

Benoit from Québec, Bob from Czech Republic, and François from Québec

When you spend time with new people, you learn new ways of preventing the spilling of beer

On Sunday, we planned on touring around the city - which was good, as the ski resort remained closed due to inclement weather. We checked out of our guesthouses and grabbed delicous bagels and cappucinos at the Bláa Kannan (The "Blue Kettle"). We wrote out some postcards, and then wandered around to shops in the downtown area. We tried to visit the church, but it was locked. We then went to the botanical gardens, and then walked down to the harbour. We returned to the same cafe for a great lunch of paninis. The bus ended up leaving an hour early, and stopping at the Christmas House for some quick sight-seeing. The visibility was horrible, and the drive back ended up taking nearly 8 hours, including a couple of rest stops.