Veronica Baker

Road Trip 5: Vestfirðir and Aldrei fór ég Suður

On Good Friday, we enjoyed the bright sun and lack of precipitation by exploring a few communities in Vestfirðir - the West Fjords. This is shown in purple on the map from the first post about the trip! First thing to note is that they have different electrical outlets than the rest of Iceland. We didn't know what to do until we found a drawer full of converters, thank goodness! Silly Iceland and its surprises.

We started our day by heading to the tourist info centre, where a nice man helped us plan out our next couple of days. We started by heading down to the Ísafjörður harbour. There were lots of cats wandering around, which got loads of attention from us. There were 4 buildings (one of which houses a museum) that make up the oldest building cluster in Iceland.

Then we went to the church in town, which had beautiful wall art of birds flying away, all different from each other! After that, we parked the car and walked around the town for a bit. The buildings all have the date in which they were built on them. There were a lot from 1898, and 1986.

Our first stop was to go to Suðureyri. It is a tiny fishing town, with a population of only 312. We drove around (which took all of three minutes), and noticed that the most common buildings were fish-drying huts. The air smelled very fresh - to me! I love the smell of the ocean and of fish... Kris did not share this opinion. In our brochure, it said that in 1995 an avalanche caused the entire town to be moved 1.5 km, but we couldn't really find any evidence of that. We had an "Icelandic Picnic" (sitting in the car with the windows rolled down far enough to hear the ocean but up high enough to shield us from the wind).

Then we drove to Bolungarvík. This was another fishing village, but with a population of 888. We wandered around the community centre, which was absolutely packed. We saw a huge group of people returning to a farm on horseback. Not sure if it was a group of tourists, or the community out for a sunny Good Friday ride?

Upon our return to Ísafjörður, we went swimming (surprise!). The pool was very small - one pool and one hot pot - and the locker room didn't have lockers, only hooks! It was very relaxing though, as always, and there were lots of balls to play catch with, which was nice since they are usually rare in community pools here. After that we had dinner at a seemingly very popular pizza place.

Friday night was the first night of Aldrei fór ég Suður - I Never Went South, a musical festival held each year to showcase local artists among Icelandic artists who have become more well known. The festival was in a warehouse which had been cleared out, and a stage put up. At first we though it was strange, but then we realized it was probably the most logical place in a small town to hold that many people!

Ísafjörður harbour

Some cute sculptures at the Ísafjörður harbour

Some of the oldest buildings in Iceland

Emily has excellent cat-finding skills

A boat at the Ísafjörður harbour

How to swim in Iceland: wear gloves, shoes, and a hat

Inside the church

Sculpture outside of the church

Ísafjörður

Bubbuhús, built in 1885

Ísafjörður

Fish drying in Suðureyri

Suðureyri

Memorial to Magnús H. Magnússon in Suðureyri

Bolungarvík

The view driving back towards Ísafjörður

Aldrei fór ég Suður

The sky at 11:37pm!

Road Trip 4: Akureyri through Öxnadalsheiði

On the third day of our trip, April 21, we drove from Akureyri to Ísafjörður, as indicated by the yellow line on the map in the first post about our road trip. The drive through the Öxnadalsheiði valley was very pretty, where we stopped at a monument to enjoy the views. The road there is 540 metres above sea level.

Once we got into the West Fjords, the weather changes from lovely spring to complete winter! The road from Hólmavík to Reykjanes was mostly a complete whiteout, so I was glad that Kris was driving. The drifts on the side of the road were taller than me! We passed a type of plow that wasn't clearing the roads, but pushing back the snow on one side to prevent the snowdrifts from overtaking the road. Once we got out of the storm and into Reykjanes, we stopped at a gas pump (which didn't work) that was beside an old pool. Apparently, the pool is still in use, but it was quite run-down looking. I suppose it must be easy for algae to grow in such warm water. There was also a summer motel there, which was also extremely run down. In the right light, the little place would have looked like a scene out of a horror movie!

We finally arrived at our hostel, Korpudalur Hostel. It is about a 20 minute drive from Ísafjörður, on a little farm in a middle of a valley. There are gorgeous views, but when we first showed up, the dirt road was a really tricky drive. However, the next day the weather was fantastic, and there were no problems whatsoever.

A monument by the road in Öxnadalsheiði

Spectacular views

The shoreline

Driftwood piles

One of the many rock formations

The road from Hólmavík to Reykjanes

The old pool at Reykjanes

Road Trip 3: Lake Mývatn and Akureyri

On our second day, we drove from Egilsstaðir to Akureyri, as shown with the blue line on the map in the first post about our trip. We woke up in the morning and went for a swim in the local pool. We were the youngest people swimming by about 50 years, but a couple of laps and a soak in the hot tub was just what we needed to get rid of the kinks that came with sleeping in a car. After the swim (and amazing shower), we got coffee at the local N1 station, which offered free Wi-Fi, and were on our way. I drove for the first part of the day, so not too many scenic pictures got taken on the drive. I did get to drive over a haunted bridge, though! Apparently there is a monster living underneath who sometimes feasts on travelers - but we got lucky.

Our plan was to go to Dettifoss - the most powerful waterfall in Europe - but the road was closed due to poor driving conditions. There was a second road option we could have taken, but our car was not insured for it. Our main attraction of the day was the Mývatn area, which is a community around a large but shallow lake. We drove around the lake and went for a little hike to enjoy this beautiful spot.

Beautiful view along the drive to Mývatn

Sulfur on the ground at Mývatn

Geothermal waters at Mývatn

Mývatn

The Mývatn geothermal area

Lake Mývatn

After driving around the lake, we continued on to Húsavík, on road 87. In this town there is a Phallological museum, the only one in the world, but the curator was out of town on the day we were there. We wandered around the town for a bit, and then continued back to route 1.

The Icelandic Phallus Museum

Húsavík

The Whale Museum was expensive, so we decided we already knew enough about whales!

Heading towards our final destination of the day, Akureyri, we stopped at Goðafoss ("The Waterfall of the Gods"). This is the waterfall at the end of the river Skjálfandafljót, and it is 12 metres high and 30 metres wide. In the year 1000, when Christianity became the official religion of Iceland. statues of Norse gods were thrown into the waterfall.

Goðafoss

The river beneath Goðafoss

Goðafoss

Finally, we reached Akureyri. The first stop was, of course, the Christmas House, or Jólagarðurinn. Anyone who had known me through at least one Christmas knows of my obsession with candy canes, so driving 20 minutes out of the way to get the delicious candy shouldn't surprise anyone! In Akureyri we went swimming and worked up our appetites by goofing off in the pool and on the water slide for a couple of hours. I had the most amazing discovery when getting dressed after the pool - tan lines! I didn't think it was possibly in Iceland. They've completely faded by now of course, but they were nice while they lasted! We finished the day with a delicious meal at Bautinn, which was celebrating its 40th birthday.