Iceland Adventures - Part 2
Day Three
Woke up again with a fever, but we were off to Húsavík at about 8am by local bus. The sun rises at about 10.30am in Iceland so this was still hovering about 'dawn' even though it was almost 10, and we got some spectacular views as the sun rose slowly.
We went to the Whale Museum first, after asking for directions to the tourist information center and not finding it anyway :P
It was pretty darn cool, and is probably the only museum dedicated to whales. This sleepy town is a center for whale watching - in summer it will be packed with tourists, but when we went we were the only crazy duo wandering around in mid-winter. :D
This church was where Styrmir was baptised in, according to his mom. Haha. It's pretty nice and really different from the one we saw in Reykjavik.
This is the best ever place, ever! The true highlight of Húsavík...the Icelandic Phallological Museum. It contains penises from every single mammal in Iceland, whale included, and a bit more (the hidden people specimen was in a jar of pure Artic water and was, as you would have guessed, invisible.)
Awesome place :P
Had lunch at a popular restaurant, which serves puffin in summer but not in winter (I was sorely, sorely disappointed ;A;) The cod I had was pretty awesome, though, cooked in scallops and some really nice sauce I know not what. Then because my fever was spiking again, we decided to hitchhike back at about 1pm.
Yeah, we do these stupid things XD
Standing in the cold is not fun. But it was worth it in the end - we managed to get a couple (who were picking their son up from uni) to take us to Akureyri after spending 15 mins trying to thumb a car down. We got loads of bemused faces, some even frowning in consternation at stupid tourists like us XD A group of passing Icelandic boys even tried to imitate us, it was quite amusing..
According to Nick, he even hitchhiked in Morocco. How that was managed, I have no idea.
We arrived back at Akureyri and wandered around a bit - the temperature had dipped to -3 degrees Celcius, and it was really quite cold and still snowing :( Nick tried to go get an ice cream (FUCKING INSANE) but of course they weren't selling any in that freezing weather :P
We went into a really cool shop called Dogma, which had the T-shirts Baldvin absolutely insisted I had to buy. They consisted of stuff like:
Helvitis Fokking Fokk (Damn Fucking Fuck XD)
Ég Tala Ekki Íslensku (I don't speak Icelandic)
And "Hver á að borga Icesave? Essasú?" which roughly translates into Who shall pay Icesave? Is it you? after a wildly famous Vodaphone commercial that lisped Essasú (the subject of another Facebook cult, a Malaysian girl whose name is Essasa Sue and now has over 6000 Icelandic friends/fans because of her name). Essasú is ér Þetta þu in Icelandic, pronounced in a strange kidlike way.
Randomly, I have yet to get used to being able to switch quickly from Icelandic keyboards to English keyboards to type the above. Haha.
I didn't buy them just yet, because I had hopes that the boys would get them for me :P hahaha. So we headed back home through the snow and roads sloping upwards (pretty steep, the whole place was built at the foot of a mountain range).
This is Akureyrarkirkja church, designed by the same person who made the one in Reykjavik - see the resemblance?
That night we spent lazing at home, really - Styrmir and co. went out to hang out with their friends last minute and ended up drinking through the night again. We were supposed to get back to go to a Northern Lights tour at 8pm, and Björn drove us there (the youngest brother) -- but it started snowing so there was practically a 0% chance of ever being able to see it again.
Ever.
Apparently the night before (see the drinking beer night we had on Day 2) had a brilliantly clear display. XD
..Where was I?
...In a frickin' pub :P
But it's okay, I love these people to bits <333 Didn't quite mind not seeing the Northern Lights that much, haha.
Björn was really nice and drove us around most of the time, because he's the responsible kid in the family that doesn't drink with his brothers XD so he's normally the only sober one. He waited with us in the snow while we were waiting for news of the Northern Lights tour status, and then drove us back afterwards.
I still can't get enough of how much these people took care of us throughout our stay. I mean, we're a bunch of Asian tourists gatecrashing your home just before Christmas who are Facebook friends of your sons. Lol. Their parents, Rúnar and Arna, were one of the best parents I've had the chance to meet in a while. More on that later.
So, back at home, we sort of just slept while the boys were out - I took the opportunity to read some stuff that Baldvin's bookshelves had, and play some of Styrmir's guitar.
OH I forgot to add - Styrmir's room had a little shelf on which he displays empty bottles of alcohol that mean much to him :P (this is oh so cute!). There was the first vodka bottle they had ever drank and got drunk with in Denmark, and a huge absinthe one. They added the gift I brought for them to the collection the day before - a bottle of this:
And they were all really excited over it - "OMG ISN'T THIS SO COOL?!" "Look it's a real scorpion! That is fucking awesome!"
They eventually opened it for New Year's Eve partying after I'd left, and said it tasted a bit spicy ^^; . I hope to goodness the scorpion bottle is still on the shelf - it seemed they hadn't actually eaten it yet.
Day Four
The boys were fast, fast asleep when we woke up that morning. I again had a fever (what is with this shit) and Nick went off to the local outdoor heated swimming pool (apparently an attraction, as the water is geothermally-heated) while I slept in a bit more before going upstairs to the kitchen. Baldvin's dad was there, baking some Danish pastries for a trip out into the woods to get their own Christmas tree with his brothers and relatives HOW COOL IS THAT.
I had breakfast while he baked, and we had a nice lazy chat about many things, including his family history, Iceland's economy and public/private ownership, fishing, the boys' obsession with alcohol, and he showed me sailing photos of him teaching little kids in Reykjavik over summer. Rúnar is also a photographer, and he makes his own Christmas cards from his own photographs and sends them out every year! Color me impressed, guys.
I think nothing could have been better than actually listening to an Icelandic person talk about Iceland to learn more about how they feel about the country and their lifestyle. It had a pretty huge impression on me. He was also pretty open about a lot of things, and it made me feel at home. I really, really like this family. When we were hanging around the house for the days that we were there, we also met some of their relatives - Rúnar's brother came to visit once with his kids - he owns the largest mussel farm in Iceland - and asked Arna:
"So, how did you know these kids?"
She gave me a sheepish smile and said, "Let me explain."
She spent the next few mins talking in Icelandic about how we were Facebook friends and RPG friends with her kids. XD I just cracked up inside. It IS quite cool though that she can give an explanation like this with a deadpan expression - I am extremely impressed. <333
Rúnar then let me try my hand at baking some of the Danish pastries myself, and it was pretty cool! It was like kuih bahulu, but a lot spongier and lovely with some of Arna's homemade blackberry jam. Hnn. I miss it T^T
When Nick came back, we tried to attract them to the possibility of coming to Malaysia for a sailing trip sometime in December next year :'D they might just. And if that happens, I probably will try and make it back to Malaysia myself just to host them and repay them for their generosity.
Arna had to wake Baldvin sometime at 1pm so that we could actually get a driven tour around Akureyri properly :P Styrmir had less of a hangover than Baldvin did, so he drove us around. We wanted desperately to taste something unique, so we went to...have...
...whale meat and reindeer meat, at this really nondescript cafe in the middle of a shopping complex.
I present to you a whale steak. :D Can't see much of it, but the meat is red (like beef) and tasted a bit beefy, but with fish muscle texture. I LOVED it.
And this is reindeer burger! Again, can't see the meat - it looks pretty normal but it tasted quite interesting :'D I don't know how to describe it.
Then Styrmir drove us to the ski resort just 10 mins behind their house, in the mountains. The ski resort was under the influence of a massive blizzard thanks to the snow..LOL, but I trust their driving skills. I think.
View outside.
My ninja shot of Styrmir while testing my camera. Baldvin's somewhere in the shadows to the right. Lol.
We got to a lookout spot and climbed - well, attempted to - climb out of the car. The wind was so strong it kept blowing the car door wide wide open the instant I tried! It was pretty scary, I was afraid the door would break off, and I was afraid I would get blown off :P But Baldvin, in his Icelandic woolen sweater and another jacket on top, climbed out, pronounced it alright, and proceeded to watch as I staggered out. Haha.
This can probably give you an idea of how strong the wind was:
Then we drove back down rather quickly and around Akureyri a bit more, before we decided to take a stopover at Andri's house - I was leaving that day, so it seemed appropriate that I went to say goodbye to a very hungover friend of mine who was the root of me actually being there :P
We met him and his mini self (considerably smaller younger brother), and his dad was pretty amused but I think had been informed of my presence he knew I was from Oxford and we chatted for a bit before I had to leave. Andri's bear hug is massively bearish XDDDDDDD
Then Styrmir drove us home to pick up our stuff, and I gave the family a parting thank you gift. Rúnar is inviting me back to Akureyri in summer, I think...and if I manage it, I definitely would go and say hi again. :D I ADORE THIS FAMILY. I do.
We were dropped off at the airport and flew back to Reykjavik, where we explored the town a bit more for dinner. I was pretty sad to go ;A; but this made up a bit for it.
Hehe.
We then crashed the house of our second host, a couple called Gummi and Audur with their six year old daughter. :'D Too cute. They too gave us mattresses in a corner of their living room, and we spent the day exchanging stories before bed.
-to be continued-
Woke up again with a fever, but we were off to Húsavík at about 8am by local bus. The sun rises at about 10.30am in Iceland so this was still hovering about 'dawn' even though it was almost 10, and we got some spectacular views as the sun rose slowly.
We went to the Whale Museum first, after asking for directions to the tourist information center and not finding it anyway :P
It was pretty darn cool, and is probably the only museum dedicated to whales. This sleepy town is a center for whale watching - in summer it will be packed with tourists, but when we went we were the only crazy duo wandering around in mid-winter. :D
This church was where Styrmir was baptised in, according to his mom. Haha. It's pretty nice and really different from the one we saw in Reykjavik.
This is the best ever place, ever! The true highlight of Húsavík...the Icelandic Phallological Museum. It contains penises from every single mammal in Iceland, whale included, and a bit more (the hidden people specimen was in a jar of pure Artic water and was, as you would have guessed, invisible.)
Awesome place :P
Had lunch at a popular restaurant, which serves puffin in summer but not in winter (I was sorely, sorely disappointed ;A;) The cod I had was pretty awesome, though, cooked in scallops and some really nice sauce I know not what. Then because my fever was spiking again, we decided to hitchhike back at about 1pm.
Yeah, we do these stupid things XD
Standing in the cold is not fun. But it was worth it in the end - we managed to get a couple (who were picking their son up from uni) to take us to Akureyri after spending 15 mins trying to thumb a car down. We got loads of bemused faces, some even frowning in consternation at stupid tourists like us XD A group of passing Icelandic boys even tried to imitate us, it was quite amusing..
According to Nick, he even hitchhiked in Morocco. How that was managed, I have no idea.
We arrived back at Akureyri and wandered around a bit - the temperature had dipped to -3 degrees Celcius, and it was really quite cold and still snowing :( Nick tried to go get an ice cream (FUCKING INSANE) but of course they weren't selling any in that freezing weather :P
We went into a really cool shop called Dogma, which had the T-shirts Baldvin absolutely insisted I had to buy. They consisted of stuff like:
Helvitis Fokking Fokk (Damn Fucking Fuck XD)
Ég Tala Ekki Íslensku (I don't speak Icelandic)
And "Hver á að borga Icesave? Essasú?" which roughly translates into Who shall pay Icesave? Is it you? after a wildly famous Vodaphone commercial that lisped Essasú (the subject of another Facebook cult, a Malaysian girl whose name is Essasa Sue and now has over 6000 Icelandic friends/fans because of her name). Essasú is ér Þetta þu in Icelandic, pronounced in a strange kidlike way.
Randomly, I have yet to get used to being able to switch quickly from Icelandic keyboards to English keyboards to type the above. Haha.
I didn't buy them just yet, because I had hopes that the boys would get them for me :P hahaha. So we headed back home through the snow and roads sloping upwards (pretty steep, the whole place was built at the foot of a mountain range).
This is Akureyrarkirkja church, designed by the same person who made the one in Reykjavik - see the resemblance?
That night we spent lazing at home, really - Styrmir and co. went out to hang out with their friends last minute and ended up drinking through the night again. We were supposed to get back to go to a Northern Lights tour at 8pm, and Björn drove us there (the youngest brother) -- but it started snowing so there was practically a 0% chance of ever being able to see it again.
Ever.
Apparently the night before (see the drinking beer night we had on Day 2) had a brilliantly clear display. XD
..Where was I?
...In a frickin' pub :P
But it's okay, I love these people to bits <333 Didn't quite mind not seeing the Northern Lights that much, haha.
Björn was really nice and drove us around most of the time, because he's the responsible kid in the family that doesn't drink with his brothers XD so he's normally the only sober one. He waited with us in the snow while we were waiting for news of the Northern Lights tour status, and then drove us back afterwards.
I still can't get enough of how much these people took care of us throughout our stay. I mean, we're a bunch of Asian tourists gatecrashing your home just before Christmas who are Facebook friends of your sons. Lol. Their parents, Rúnar and Arna, were one of the best parents I've had the chance to meet in a while. More on that later.
So, back at home, we sort of just slept while the boys were out - I took the opportunity to read some stuff that Baldvin's bookshelves had, and play some of Styrmir's guitar.
OH I forgot to add - Styrmir's room had a little shelf on which he displays empty bottles of alcohol that mean much to him :P (this is oh so cute!). There was the first vodka bottle they had ever drank and got drunk with in Denmark, and a huge absinthe one. They added the gift I brought for them to the collection the day before - a bottle of this:
And they were all really excited over it - "OMG ISN'T THIS SO COOL?!" "Look it's a real scorpion! That is fucking awesome!"
They eventually opened it for New Year's Eve partying after I'd left, and said it tasted a bit spicy ^^; . I hope to goodness the scorpion bottle is still on the shelf - it seemed they hadn't actually eaten it yet.
Day Four
The boys were fast, fast asleep when we woke up that morning. I again had a fever (what is with this shit) and Nick went off to the local outdoor heated swimming pool (apparently an attraction, as the water is geothermally-heated) while I slept in a bit more before going upstairs to the kitchen. Baldvin's dad was there, baking some Danish pastries for a trip out into the woods to get their own Christmas tree with his brothers and relatives HOW COOL IS THAT.
I had breakfast while he baked, and we had a nice lazy chat about many things, including his family history, Iceland's economy and public/private ownership, fishing, the boys' obsession with alcohol, and he showed me sailing photos of him teaching little kids in Reykjavik over summer. Rúnar is also a photographer, and he makes his own Christmas cards from his own photographs and sends them out every year! Color me impressed, guys.
I think nothing could have been better than actually listening to an Icelandic person talk about Iceland to learn more about how they feel about the country and their lifestyle. It had a pretty huge impression on me. He was also pretty open about a lot of things, and it made me feel at home. I really, really like this family. When we were hanging around the house for the days that we were there, we also met some of their relatives - Rúnar's brother came to visit once with his kids - he owns the largest mussel farm in Iceland - and asked Arna:
"So, how did you know these kids?"
She gave me a sheepish smile and said, "Let me explain."
She spent the next few mins talking in Icelandic about how we were Facebook friends and RPG friends with her kids. XD I just cracked up inside. It IS quite cool though that she can give an explanation like this with a deadpan expression - I am extremely impressed. <333
Rúnar then let me try my hand at baking some of the Danish pastries myself, and it was pretty cool! It was like kuih bahulu, but a lot spongier and lovely with some of Arna's homemade blackberry jam. Hnn. I miss it T^T
When Nick came back, we tried to attract them to the possibility of coming to Malaysia for a sailing trip sometime in December next year :'D they might just. And if that happens, I probably will try and make it back to Malaysia myself just to host them and repay them for their generosity.
Arna had to wake Baldvin sometime at 1pm so that we could actually get a driven tour around Akureyri properly :P Styrmir had less of a hangover than Baldvin did, so he drove us around. We wanted desperately to taste something unique, so we went to...have...
...whale meat and reindeer meat, at this really nondescript cafe in the middle of a shopping complex.
I present to you a whale steak. :D Can't see much of it, but the meat is red (like beef) and tasted a bit beefy, but with fish muscle texture. I LOVED it.
And this is reindeer burger! Again, can't see the meat - it looks pretty normal but it tasted quite interesting :'D I don't know how to describe it.
Then Styrmir drove us to the ski resort just 10 mins behind their house, in the mountains. The ski resort was under the influence of a massive blizzard thanks to the snow..LOL, but I trust their driving skills. I think.
View outside.
My ninja shot of Styrmir while testing my camera. Baldvin's somewhere in the shadows to the right. Lol.
We got to a lookout spot and climbed - well, attempted to - climb out of the car. The wind was so strong it kept blowing the car door wide wide open the instant I tried! It was pretty scary, I was afraid the door would break off, and I was afraid I would get blown off :P But Baldvin, in his Icelandic woolen sweater and another jacket on top, climbed out, pronounced it alright, and proceeded to watch as I staggered out. Haha.
This can probably give you an idea of how strong the wind was:
Then we drove back down rather quickly and around Akureyri a bit more, before we decided to take a stopover at Andri's house - I was leaving that day, so it seemed appropriate that I went to say goodbye to a very hungover friend of mine who was the root of me actually being there :P
We met him and his mini self (considerably smaller younger brother), and his dad was pretty amused but I think had been informed of my presence he knew I was from Oxford and we chatted for a bit before I had to leave. Andri's bear hug is massively bearish XDDDDDDD
Then Styrmir drove us home to pick up our stuff, and I gave the family a parting thank you gift. Rúnar is inviting me back to Akureyri in summer, I think...and if I manage it, I definitely would go and say hi again. :D I ADORE THIS FAMILY. I do.
We were dropped off at the airport and flew back to Reykjavik, where we explored the town a bit more for dinner. I was pretty sad to go ;A; but this made up a bit for it.
Hehe.
We then crashed the house of our second host, a couple called Gummi and Audur with their six year old daughter. :'D Too cute. They too gave us mattresses in a corner of their living room, and we spent the day exchanging stories before bed.
-to be continued-