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