ég skil ekki: Mai 2012

johanna and me, tired in húsavík

it started with a sign saying norður and a ride to borgarnes by friends of us. then waiting. at the gasstation. people looking confused at our sign or laughing at us, some waved friendly. well, the sun was shining and we were feeling happily relaxed as our only goal was: going north, akureyri and being back two days later as we don't wanna miss friday night in reykjavík. as simple as it sounds! johanna checked us our first ride which brought us directly to akureyri with a stop in hvammstangi (a wool faktory and, much more important for me, finally a toilett) where we enjoyed a piece of toast bread with cheese and the last bits of red wine our drivers had in the trunk. so, sitting on the ground, sun shining in our face, bread, wine and cheese, a majestic meal! luckily the couple that picked us up was adorably nice, no painful smalltalk about the weather, rather life-story-sharing which we were really thankful for.
so, akureyri it was. picturesque town in the north of iceland, the self-described capital of the north. we found it nice to walk around, I found it particularly nice to take portraits of houses, we could get the receptionist to give us the cheapest price for accomodation (sleeping bag price, even though johanna didn't have one, what we got was a double room in the city center with super-cozy bedlinen for 3000ISK each, hehehe). basically we've been just walking around the town, spend some time in a nice second hand shop where I forgot the name and went to have a beer. or more. met clem and joe again and arranged that they are going to take us with them the next morning to húsavík.
finishing our short romance with akureyri we went to húsavík early in the morning of the next day. the travel guides and postcards don't lie, húsavík is really adorable, a small town further north, famous for whale watching tours but locals told us that you can usually even see whales from the shore, so no use spending money on such a tour. coffee at our beloved N1 gas station, a persistent company in travelling around iceland. next stop: mývatn. how to get there? hmm. first a girl who will be writing her final exams in school later that day gave us a lift to the end of the town/village. then two guys who were on the way to collect lava stones took us to the next bigger crossing. the first car that passed by stopped and took us further to mývatn. apparently it was two guys from RÚV (the icelandic national television/radio) who were going to film or report about the chinese guy who wants to buy land in grímstaðir to build a hotel and a golf court. somehow this story sounds familiar to me, iceland selling land to someone, I should read Atomstöðin again..
we found ourselves at mývatn, had a lunchbreak at the lakeside, were wondering if we get to see marimo-balls (see the latest fm belfast record to find out what that is), but didn't get to see any. it was cloudy but nice and we decided to hike to a cave filled with hot water called grjótagjá. accompanied by lavafields on both sides we found the cave (thanks to signs everywhere haha) but found it dissapointinly too hot to take a bath. shame. so we had to decide what's up next. going back? boring. continue further east? exciting! so we wrote EGILSSTAÐIR on the back of our sign and tried our luck on the road again. Rt1, so many cars passing, no one caring about stopping for us. our longest waiting time up to that. but fate was grateful again and an old icelandic guy took us with him in his mercedes benz. fancy. I was enjoying (more or less) a long icelandic conversation with him, and know a lot about all the mountains on the way to egilsstaðir as he apparently knew all their names. at some point I fell asleep and he dropped us off at a gasstation right before the bridge to egilsstaðir. and there was the nicest bookshop/café close to it. bókakaffi hlöðum, I can warmly recomend that. we spend some time there refreshing ourselves with some cups of coffee, some food and a beer before we decided not to stay in egilsstaðir but to continue further south-east. a shame we didn't get to see the east fjords but we made it down to berunes on the same day thanks to a fisherman who took us with him over the mountain pass öxl and - changing to a huuuge truck on rt 1 - drove us the last kilometers to berunes where we spotted a youth hostel to spend the night. beautifully located in a fjord in the south-eastern part of iceland, dinner on the beach consisting of toast with cheese, cucumber, creamcheese and chips. watching the sunset, though it never really gets dark nowadays.
a well deserved bed, waking up early, getting ready to hitchhike all the way back to reykjavík, more than 650km lying ahead of us. brightest blue-skies and sun, waiting. waiting. waiting. no cars. a fisher-truck driving in the other directions, greating us, maybe it was the guy from yesterday? me playing with grass, johanna lying next to the street, us dancing on rt 1, us playing baywatch, us dancing to queen, us being a bit restless because time passed and no cars were coming that way, neither the other direction. after two hours of waiting, singing, dancing, knitting we got picked up. finally. it was the 3rd car that came that way in two hours. so, on the road again, seeing rendeers on both sides of the streets, being on the way to vík. the french-canadian couple that picked us up were parents of another exchange student here, funny coincidence. various stop to eat, drink, have a cigarette, straighten our back and spot some beautiful icelandic nature and finally finally in vík. N1 gas station, coffee, the first one on this day. and a guy at the parking lot willing to take us all the way to reykjavík. I was grateful that he was a local and didn't feel the urge to stop at every foss (waterfall) on the way back home. getting off the car in mjódd, somewhere on the outskirts of reykjavík I almost locked myself in the toilet of a pizza place, but managed to get out due to someone kicking the door from the outside, we got home tired and happy and full of impressions and stories and could celebrate the beginning of johanna's last weekend in reykjavík. mission accomplished, I'd say! and hitchhiking around iceland in 3 days is possible and fun and if I get the chance (meaning rather time) I'd do it again.

photographic impressions

on the way - HVAMMSTANGI