Rotten Eggs...

are my new favourite thing! Ok, maybe not the actual egg. The smell however? Yup I could get to like it. You fill find out why in a little while.

So work on the farm is going well,  we're starting to bale up the hay. Now the mower is working at least (keep those fingers crossed), we've only really got until Friday to get it all done as the weather is forecasting rain from Friday till the end of next week! I think they look pretty naked...

The veg garden is starting to look good too, and I'm getting pretty handy on the weeding side of things. Now all I have to do is get the technique right for connecting the water hoses and avoid the cold morning showers!

So on Monday one of the couchsurfers that's currently traveling around Iceland, stopped by in Akureyri. I met up with Jens on Monday evening and gave a mini tour of the town before having some of the best blueberry ice cream I've had, and a top notch apple sorbet! The colours were almost neon but the flavourings were all natural. I'll definitely be checking out the other flavours soon!

Then late Tuesday afternoon, Jens decided to head out of town for a while and kindly took me with him. It was such a lovely thing to do as he took me the Myvatn area - Google Map of Myvatn It's east of Akureyri and takes about an hour by car to get there. It's absolutely beautiful, a huge shallow lake on a massive plain, surrounded by volcanoes and pseudocraters. There are tonnes of birds (even more than usual) and also tonnes of midges (My (midge) vatn (lake)) luckily only one type really bite - you can bet I'll find them pretty quickly when I start hiking there!

Jens took me up to the northern side of Myvatn where the Krafla volcano and drill fields for the geothermally heated water.

The landscape changes so quickly there, one minute lake and blue green vistas, the next minute...

huge reddish mountains! The contrast when you're there is just fantastic. There's also a viti crater a little further in that we saw.

You can actually walk all around the crater rim, although swimming isn't recommended, the water is really cold and you're likely to freeze. Still on the walk you can get a really good view of the Myvatn area.

Oh I nearly forgot, in order to up to the crater you drive straight through the power station and drill fields for the geothermally heated water. Whilst we were driving we spotted this mini volcano!

We think its an upcapped drill hole. It's really noisy, but its cool when you can see the mini whirlwinds it creates in the steam! It's also one of the areas that smells really, REALLY strongly of rotten eggs. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's definitely worth braving it as the sights you see are just awesome.

Talking of awesome sights, Námafjall is right near by and a truly beautiful (if again, smelly) area of hot mudpools. Not the kind you could give yourself a facial with as it's got way to much sulphur in it!
Still its worth going just to see this kind of thing...

It's extremely hard not to take more photos than you really need!

We then stopped for a bite to eat at the Cowshed Cafe (actually the signs say Vogafjós cafe), which is on  the shores of Myvatn. It's called the Cowshed because the cows are kept in sheds just next to the cafe. They make their own mozzarella style cheese, feta and other cheese. In fact most of the food is sourced locally and they bake bread in little earth ovens, just using the heat from the water. All I know is the Goulash soup I had with dark lava bread was bloody excellent as was the rhubarb tart! Its well worth a stop off for a bite,  although don't expect a cheap eat. The soup was only 2000kr but most of the main courses were 3,500 to 5,000kr.

Feck! I'm completely out of sync now, I was meant to tell you about the waterfall at the beginning. Oh well, here we go. On the way to the Myvatn area, from Akureyri you go by Go∂afoss (Waterfall of the Gods) it's about 12m high and 30m's across.

and just like the others I've been too, you can get as close as you like to them. Both and Jens and I were wondering how long it would be, before they had to stop allowing you to take responsibility for yourself and start putting up 'safety' fences. I hope its a never as its really enjoyable to just wander around and not feel like you're at a 'tourist' attraction! It also allows you to get pretty good shots, without the need for an expensive zoom lens...

So thanks to Jens I had an excellent day and got to see a lot of the stuff I've been hoping to see. It also gives me more time to just hike when I start exploring again! Couchsurfers rock!

Thinking with my stomach....

Whoa! Where does the time go? It feels like 5 minute, not a week since I last waffled at you. In which case I'd make myself comfortable and grab a cup of tea. Dark Chocolate McVites are optional... well for some anyway!

This week has been cool, lots of things to do. The lambs (Guts & Guzzle) are doing really well.  I've been weeding the veg garden and we can now see proper seedlings coming through, not just grass. Hopefully we'll also get the potatoes coming through before I leave too. About half of the sheep are now sheared and in the pens near the mountains just waiting for release.  The lambs have all been tagged (I turned into a bit of a girl and winced when the snipping of ears was going on) and we're now just waiting to get the last few sheep down and sheared before getting them all on to the mountain.

Now don't be fooled by the wording of the above, my sole involvement in the sheep shearing has been to watch Einar (in the photo above) do the actual shearing, then pick up the fleece and other bits of wool. If needed I've been helping to move the sheep around in the paddock/shed. Having said that, picking out sheep and actually getting hold of the ones you want, is a bit like trying to grab a greased chicken that you've just whispered "sage n onion" too. Anyone would think they knew we were just fattening them up for the table...

Still I think they're quite cute really - that's mainly because I haven't been butted or kicked in the face by a manic ball of wool... yet.

I also caught this pretty view when we were rounding them up the other day. The thing that looks like some knackered piece of corrugated iron is actually a sheep shed  that was built in about 1930 and is on the site of something way older. Einar's mentioned that they've found a few old building foundations and skulls around this area when digging waterlines etc. Before the 1900's the piece of land between here and the current farm was very boggy, so it was the logical place for settlers to build.

In between sheep stuff, veg garden stuff and house stuff, we had Inga's birthday on Friday. The perfect excuse for me to indulge a little in one of my new favourite things, Kaldi. It's brewed not far from here and has no preservatives in it. So far I've found 3 varieties and really, really, really like the dark version. It's slightly fizzy like a lager but dark like a good ale. Actually its really hard to describe, other than to say "yes I will definitely have another one!" You should probaby check out this link

http://www.grapevine.is/Food/ReadArticle/Kaldi-The-Coolest-Beer-in-Iceland

Which will not only tell you a bit about the brewery, but will also take you to the Grapevine site. Basically this is the online version of a free paper in Iceland that has all the icelandic news, just in English. Did you realise that they've just voted in a top icelandic comedian as their Mayor of Reykjavik? Bet you didn't and after reading his interviews it was probably a really good move too!

I also indulged the baking urge this week and cooked chocolate chip cookies, ginger cake (a bit heavy on the ginger but ok) and a seriously good giant chocolate brownie as Inga's birthday cake.  Nearly everything has gone now which is good news as the bananas are almost completely black and its going to be banana bread time in the next couple of days. Apparently this traveling lark is meant to make me lose weight?

I've also developed a bit of an obsession, this time for Skyr (pronounced Skeer). It's possibly the yummiest thing I've had to eat in ages and its way to easy to eat a whole large tub of the stuff!

It's a little like Greek yoghurt and completely not at the same time.  It's made from skimmed milk but you'd never know as its really creamy. The plain version is a little more sour than our natural yoghurt and the flavoured versions have proper fruit flavours and vanilla bean in them rather than 'flavourings'. Its probably why their pear version actually tastes of pear and not vaguely like apple/mango. I think the only place that's stocking it in the UK at the minute is Whole Foods in Kensington High Street. I've no idea what price they're selling it at but I'd recommend you get a little one (like the one above) and give it a go.

It's a good thing that there are some good places to walk around here too!  I managed to get down to Kjarnaskógur, on Saturday, it's only a mile or so outside of Akureyri and it's a beautiful place to walk around.

It makes a lie of the standing icelandic joke "What do you do if you get lost in a forest in Iceland" answer? "Stand up" (seriously I hear this from pretty much every Icelander I speak to for more than 20 minutes).

As you can see though, its not quite true here! Bear in mind though that this is a pretty small area, maybe about as big as Hyde Park? Just packed with trees! Anyway it was a great place to walk around and I was there about 4 hours without doing all the trails. I did get some lovely pictures of Akureyri and the surrounding valley from the top of the cliff walk though.

I also found a pretty cool 'viking' circle there too!

Each one has a different face carved into it...

Totally cool and a fun thing to come across in the midst of a tree-fest.

So, I'll leave you with this last little picture of a truly beautiful midnight sun from the other night, sometimes they really take my breath away.

Catch you soon x

Slacker

or at least that's what it feels like now I'm not hoiking my life around in a backpack! I finally made it to Akureyri on Thursday evening, I guess that's a few days worth of catching up to do. I'll try and do it in the one post without sending you to sleep!

Erm, so where have I been? Well I cheated and got the bus to Siglufjör∂er on Wednesday,  I was going to try and hitch but I'd been told it was a bit low on traffic. It's a very pretty place even if it's right up at the top of iceland (apparently on the same latitude as Banff Island). I meant to take tonnes of photos but completely forgot and only took a few...

If you get a chance to go there (and you should), I highly recommend the Herring Museum. It was totally awesome (who knew I'd get this excited about fish!) Basically its staged in an old Norwegian herring station, built in the early 1900's. There are 3 parts, the first is a mini quay (with full size boats) that you can wander around, the second is the untouched office and womens lodging for the 'Herring girls' that used to gut and clean the catch. Totally loved this bit, maybe because of all that 50's green? Then the last bit is the actual processing plant which would satisfy any steam punks dreams, although maybe not the wet ones as the brass isn't that shiny... You could quite easily spend a few hours there.

I was meant to catch the bus back very early on Thursday morning, however it turned out to be Independance Day (minus the aliens and possibility of funky spaceships) and the buses weren't running. Joy.  Still at least it gave me a chance to take a walk and actually take some photos that weren't through a bus window.

I'm finding that I really like the empty roads, they make me happy. Although saying that, when they go through mountains and I have to follow, an over active imagination isn't conducive to a sedate passage!

It's about 100km's back to Sau∂árkrókur and although I didn't have to be in Akureyri until Friday I ended up hitching again just to see if I could make it by the end of the day. Two rides later and I'm in Akureyri before 4pm. Hmm this is really starting to have possibilities for the rest of the trip.

I saw more people in Akureyri over one hour than I'd seen in the whole of my trip,  which I guess just illustrates how few people there are here (300,000+).  See...

If anything it made me feel a bit on edge! I'd been getting used to only seeing 5 people at most at one time. Although watching various bands and childrens entertainment helped chill me out. The ska version of "Hallelujah" was... interesting?

So after mooching around Akureyri for a bit I chilled out by the water for awhile and gave Einar and Inga (the lovely people who's farm I'm now staying at) a call.  They live just a few km's outside of Akureyri and raise sheep (as well as a few ducks and chickens), it's a beautiful place with an awesome view of the mountains.

Which is great for me as I've managed to get some lovely pics of the night sun. I won't say Midnight Sun as I keep getting distracted and either catch it just before or way after.

So far I've been getting to know everyone and Einar has been telling me about the farm and sheep, how it works etc. I really like it, hopefully I'll be able to contribute more than questions before long. Although I did get to feed these...

That's less like work and more like a treat (at least to me!). I've seen sheep being shorn and I've wandered through the fields to help find them (is it possible for sheep to be related to Houdini?) Did you know there's only one breed of sheep in Iceland, just like there's only one breed of horse too. Einar has Ledersheep as part of his flock, it's not a different breed, just a line of sheep that are a bit more 'with it' than the others. They help to keep the flock in check and are a kind of like a bunch of matriarchs that rule them.

Einar and Inga have also been great in introducing me to their families and making me a part of their daily lives. Below is a picture of Inga with her children, mum and grandma just before we took part in the a walk to celebrate women gaining the right to vote (19th June 1915). It happens every year with a different charity getting the proceeds each time.

How cool is that, to have four generations of the same family doing something fun in celebration? With a purdy tshirt and a 4km walk in the company of lovely people, it would have been rude not to join in...

Seeing as we've had a weekend since I arrived, we've also been to the swimming pool with the kids (I spent of the time in the hot pot, love it!) and I've had a chilled out day watching the world go by in Akureyri. Oh, Inga and Einar also have a cat (Antonio) who is ridiculously cute and chilled for an unneutured Tom, along with 2 working dogs that I'll get a photo of soon...

Other than that, there's not much to tell. Oh apart from the fact that my Icelandic is truly awful and I panic at the slightest opportunity to speak it, which causes me to promptly forget anything that I know other than Takk (thanks) and ég skill ekki (I don't understand)! I've a plan to improve that though and as long as eveyone keeps talking Icelandic around me, hopefully I'll assimilate some of it a bit like verbal osmosis... or that's the hope anyway!

Catch you all again soon, don't forget to let me know how you're all getting on (either here or on Facebook) x

Waiting for the midnight sun

 The next time you hear me having a minor rant about all those tourists running around with D-SLR's, please remember to take me to one side and give me a sound beating (jealousy is never a pretty thing). I'd give my right arm for a camera with a better zoom and more manual controls! You could even have my Prolite as down payment... until then, "become one with the tripod, grasshopper!"

'Artistic' angst aside it's been a good couple of days, I left Ísafjör∂ur Wednesday morning on yet another bus, this time to Hólmavík. I'm still getting used to this no nighttime lark and for some reason am beginning to find it easier to nap on the buses, than sleep longer than 4-6hrs when I should. Luckily bus drivers in Iceland aren't about to let you miss out on any truly beautiful sights or cool things that occur. Which is why I still got to see the seals that were playing/feeding in the fjord.

There were about 8-10 of them after a while and they were much closer to shore than the photo makes them look! I'm such a child I had serious happy 'clappy' attack and must have looked like a total idiot to the other people in the bus. Frankly I couldn't give a monkeys though, how often will I see something that beautiful in a lifetime?

We also stopped at Reykjanes on the way. Standing next to the broken concrete of the hot water tank, watching Arctic Terns hover and smelling fresh mint (it was growing next to the tank) was refreshing enough to keep me awake for the rest of the bus journey. I could have done with a quick dip in the pool they had there too!

Hólmavík is a another village that relies on the sea, only in this case it seems to be more shrimping than fishing. It's got a really cool exhibition on Witchcraft and Sorcery in a turf roofed structure on the harbour. I found it really interesting, particularly the props they had to explain some of the most commons spells. This is obviously the only reason I found myself studying the intact (and anatomically correct) skinned lower half of a male for a good 20 minutes. Whilst the handy English mp3 guide explained about the sorcerous uses for it. I'm not spoiling the fun, go and see it for yourself...

Anyway, I was also wondering if anyone else thought it was strange that the local church has a Witches hat for a steeple?

2 hours later and we're back on the bus, this time heading for Sta∂arskáli. It's only a two hour journey this time (it was 4.5hrs to Hólmavík) and before I feel asleep (again), all I could see on the shore line was driftwood. Piles of it. Apparently its a lot less than they used to get but it still seemed like a fossilized forest on the shore. When I woke up in Sta∂arskáli we'd completely left the beautiful mountains of the Westfjords behind and were in more of a rolling hills and wide valley area. Not that it wasn't pretty but it all seemed a bit of an anticlimax really. Even more so when we all realised that Sta∂arskáli is actually a petrol station, with about 5 houses in the distance and the Route 1 going by it. That's pretty much it for 40km's or so.

As it was only about 7pm by this point and there were no buses until the following morning, I decided to hitch again. It's easier to do on Route 1 as there's more traffic. This time I managed to hitch a lift within about 30 seconds of sticking my thumb out (I could get to like this). I ended up hitching with Harauldur (at least I think that's the spelling, it sounded more like Hruder to me though) who was on the way back to Akureyri after staying with his girlfriend in Finland. He was great for conversation and told me about his hiking/snowmobile trips near Dalvik, I am definitely going to try a couple of them. At least when I'm on my own no-one can see me blub when I hit the height/drop/splat threshold. If you've got any suggestions on how to stop the panicky tears, let me know. Oh and not doing it, isn't an option!

Whilst you're thinking of some suitably smart retorts, here's a quick peak on the view from the car heading towards Varmahlí∂, where Harauldur dropped me off.

The only reason I didn't got all the way to Akureyri with him, is because I'm determined to see as much of Iceland as possible and risked missing out on another little chunk if I did. So instead, I picked a little spot by the river and pitched up.

That beautiful sunshine you see? 10:30pm. How cool is that? Not so cool was the heavy rainstorm at 3am or the wake up call by some curious swans at 5:30am Still seeing as the scene above had changed only slightly (i.e. a bit wetter) by the time I gave up on sleeping and peaked out the door around 6ish I wasn't that upset. I think it's wrong to be so happy on so little sleep sometimes.

Sitting outside the gas station (why do I feel so american saying that?) waiting for them to open, meant that I managed to see the street theatre involved in moving 3 very large, already built houses, by lorry.

See, and we think we have it bad with caravans...

So drama over and I thought I'd walk to Sau∂árkrókur, it's only about 20km up from Varmahlí∂. After all I meant to be doing some walking whilst I'm here. Anyway about an hour later, whilst admiring the horses and singing along to my ipod (it was just me the sheeps and horses, no one's going to complain when I hit the odd bum note...) I was offered a lift from Helga who was off visiting her daughter in Sau∂árkrókur. Well I had managed a whole hour...

Sau∂árkrókur is a fairly big town in comparision to some of those I'd been in recently. They have an amazing amount of drying racks filled with fish on the harbour, it stretches for at least a couple of hundred metres.

It's a pretty potent aroma up close too. Pretty church and good views from the cemetary across the fjord (is it still called a fjord when its this wide?)

Other than that, it was pretty sleepy. Well apart from the kids doing general gardening work around the town. It's something I've seen in almost every village/town in Iceland, it seems like a good idea.

Right, I should fill you in on the final leg of my journey to Siglufjör∂er but frankly I'm knackered and the guesthouse I'm staying in favours rooms like caves (Yes, darkness!) so I'm going to get some sleep. There might not be an update until Friday when I get to Akureyri, so catch you all then.
Bless

Time to chill

Gosh, it feels like a bit of a mission writing this blog! Probably because I don't realise how much I want to tell you, until I sit down and start typing away! Just think if we were sitting and talking over a cup of tea, we'd have easily worked our way through a packet of dark chocolate McVites by now. Mmm McVites!
*cough*
Derrrrr, where were we? Oh yes on Flatey. On Saturday.

I had been toying with staying on Flatey Saturday evening but decided that after 6 hours chilling out I was more than ready to get going again. So after a pretty uneventful journey on the ferry (well apart from listening in to a bunch of Americans talking about their grandkids antics and trying not to laugh), I picked up the bus at Brjánslaekur.

Considering it's just a jetty and one small cafe, its a good thing I wasn't having to wait until Monday for the bus. It ended up being just me, the driver (Gunnar) and a german tour guide who was off visiting friends. The scenery is some of the most barren and most weirdly compelling I've seen in ages. Especially considering that the road was just a dirt track up and down, and around the fjords.

There were times when I was having serious stomach churning giggles at how close to the steep side of the mountains we were coming. Obviously Gunnar is really used to it and drives with ease, but I know I'd be crawling around it like some old lady in a buggy if I'd been behind the wheel. I did manage to grab a couple of shots from the window though.

Gunnar was really lovely too and took us to Dynjandi, a majorly impressive waterfall that goes over a 100m high cliff before breaking into 5 small waterfalls. It's at the head of a beautiful fjord.

Seriously noisy and full of flies though. There's a campsite at the bottom if you're a heavy sleeper...

After dropping the German guy off we ended up in Isafjórdur at about 9pm and I was planning on getting a hostel for a good shower and sleep, however they were all closed and didn't open until the start of the season (the following day), thinking that I'd just use the tent again I told Gunnar not to worry (he was ringing around trying to find me somewhere, how sweet is that) and I'd go to the campsite. At which point Gunnar decided that this wasn't good enough and took me home (DON'T PANIC!) where his wife let me use the shower and they decided that I would stay with their granddaughter in a house down the road until at least Sunday.

So to cut an (increasingly) long story short, I've been staying here

since Saturday night with Hildur and her cousin Haukur. It's an awesome house, built by Hildur's great Grandad some time in the 1890's! They've also got that perfect kitchen 'green' that's so hard to find these days. They're totally cool people and have been fab to get to know. Hildur's actually off to London in a month or two to be with her mum. Haukur works for a local adventure company and is well traveled, he's an interesting guy to chat to. I don't think I could have met two nicer people if I'd tried!

I haven't been doing much since then, just a bit of walking and mooching around the village, it's a beautiful place and because the mountains are so high it actually gets a little dusky here after the sun goes behind them. In the winter the sun doesn't make it past the mountains for about 4 months!

Anyway, feast your eyes on yet more pictures, this time from Isafjórdur.

Incidentally, there are tonnes of sculpture pieces all over Iceland, I think they're pretty cool.

this one is more of a rememberance for the fisherman

never could resist a purty flower!

So tomorrow I'm going to be back on the bus again heading for Akureyri and a meet up with Inga and Einar to work on the farm. I'll be there on Friday, in between it might be a bit sketchy on the old interweb connections but I'll update you as soon as I can!

Right off to cook dinner. Hope you're all ok
x