Day 8-9: Akureyri, Glaubaer, Husavik, Krafla

Welcome to the bustling metropolis of North Iceland, Akureyri: population about 15,000. As we had the previous several nights, we stayed in a boarding school that is converted to a hotel during the summers. Once outside of Reykjavik, Iceland's population is so sparsely distributed that many kids must board at schools when they are in session. This makes for somewhat of an institutional feel to the summer "hotels" but certainly is an efficient use of the facilities. Unfortunately, in this "hotel" especially, our room was definitely not sized for adults. We couldn't bend over the sink with the bathroom door closed!

One of our hikes in this area took us past an abandoned farm and up to a beautiful lake where we crossed a stream (barefoot). Yes it was cold!  Painfully cold in fact, even just after 30 seconds... Fortunately it didn't last long. We dried off and hiked past the lake and these glorious spires. Shaked also got to do some "nylon skiing" on one of the snow patches. Exciting stuff for a boy from sunny Israel. There were also horses and plenty of sheep along the way to keep us company.

Our tour included a visit to a reconstructed 18th/19th-century farm at Glaubaer. During this time, most buildings were constructed of sod. The construction is surprisingly sturdy and attractive, with walls being built of dense brick-shaped pieces of sod laid out in a herringbone pattern. However, even with the thick sod walls, during the long winters, the farm's family and its workers were forced to spend most of their time in a small set of rooms, as it was too difficult to heat the entire house. Unfortunately, there was not yet the technology to make use of Iceland's extensive geothermal heating capacity.

A whale-watching boat ride from Husavik was next on the agenda. We enjoyed seeing the minke and humpback whales doing their thing, and the sing-song way the spotter said "a minke whale, a minke whale, 11 o'clock" had us repeating the phrase the rest of the trip.

We had a short hike around Krafla, a volcano that last erupted about 20 years ago. It was interesting to put our hands in the cracks of the youngest lava and feel the heat. We don't know whether it was left over from that eruption itself, geothermal water below the surface, or related to the hot magma that still remains under this new land.

Our dinner conversations were sometimes hampered by the fact that only Pete and I were native speakers of English, not to mention the fact that we were often pretty tired by the time we reached the table. One night, though, we started telling jokes in English and were surprised at how well some translated to Icelandic, Hebrew and French. Apparently "blonde jokes" are popular the world over.

Images and text (c) 2005 Pete Zivkov