Akureryi

Our final stop in Myvatn was on our way out of town. We stopped at Skutustadgigar, a field filled with pseudocraters. Again, the picture in my mind of what these should look like did not match up with what reality held in store for us. I imagined a barren landscape similar to what we had seen at the sulpher smelling mudpots from the day before with small craters like what you would see on the moon. Instead, these pseudocraters were more like small grassy hills with sheep grazing all around. It is believed that the craters were formed when lava flowed into Lake Myvatn and caused gas explosions. Just like at Dimmuborgir, there are some easy walking trails around the pseudocraters. Some also had stairs leading to the top of them so that you could look down into them. It was a bit underwhelming as a whole just because I was expecting something so foreign looking and what we got ended up looking like grassy hills.

Our next stop was at Godafoss or waterfall of the gods. Its name comes from ancient times. In the year 1000 Iceland was ready for a civil war because the country was divided between practicing Christianity and worshiping pagan gods. The law speaker pondered over the matter for a day and night and decided that the country should adopt Christianity but that pagans should be allowed to practice privately. In making this decree, he helped Iceland avoid civil war. It is said that the law speaker came to Godafoss and threw his statues of pagan gods over the waterfall once Christianity was formally accepted in Iceland. This is why Godafoss has the name waterfall of the gods.

Behind Godafoss, down a gravel road that turns into a 4x4 road at the very end, lies another waterfall called Aldeyarfoss. We checked with some locals at the gas station that the road was okay for our little Hyundai I10 before making the journey out there. We got within 2km of the waterfall before coming on signs that said the rest of the journey was not suitable for anything other than a 4x4. So Scott and I got out and walked up the road to the falls. It was definitely worth the hike through the windswept fields up to the waterfall. The rock surrounding the falls was made up of black basalt columns. They are unique landforms that are amazing to look at. Because it is so far off the main drag and down an unpaved road, there are not many other tourists that make it out to Aldeyarfoss. This made it even more special because there were no tour busses back there with us.

From here, we journeyed on to our stopping point for the evening,

Akureryi (A-ku-rare-i). Our Air BnB host was awesome and gave us some great tips for what to see and some hidden gems around the area that not many people other than locals know about. Scott and I wandered around the ‘city’ center before heading up to the botanical gardens. They aren’t his favorite thing, but he tolerates them because he knows that I enjoy looking at all the different plants and flowers. We did learn that it is illegal to grow opium poppies in Iceland.

For dinner we went to a restaurant that was recommended by both our host and the guidebook. The only things I liked about it was the view of the harbor and the water. We ordered a traditional Icelandic 4 course meal just to try it. When listening to our waiter describe the courses, I thought all but one would sound like something I would like. We started with beef tar tar (which I knew I wouldn’t like) but was game to try. I couldn’t stomach much of mine before we moved onto our next course of smoked Arctic charr. I was looking forward to trying this because so far, I’ve really enjoyed all the different ways I had had Arctic charr. What I didn’t realize was that it was cold smoked. Scott started laughing at me when I was outraged that they had brought us more tar tar. He then informed me that on every other menu it was advertised as cold smoked. I was most definitely not impressed with this cold smoking method. Our main course was lamb with Icelandic potatoes. The lamb had really good flavor but also grossed me out because it was very rare. For dessert, we had a thin pancake with skyr and berries. This was by far the best course but still not as good as some of the other desserts we have had in our time here. This meal made me miss our other bad meal at Gerdi Guesthouse. There, at least my food was fully cooked! LOL

The view heading back into Akureryi.  

After our unsatisfying dinner, Scott and I headed for a small village that our host had told us about. There is an old herring plant located here with a small hot tub right at the edge of the ocean that is free. Upon getting there, we discovered that it was indeed a small hot tub with four people already using it. We walked around the outside of the herring plant in hopes that they were almost finished and we could use it but didn’t have any luck with that. Rather than trying to sit on their laps when we squeezed in there, we headed back to Akureryi to Iceland’s best ice cream shop, Brynjuis. It’s clearly very popular as the line was out the door. We waited and got some delicious ice cream. I ordered a twister, which is comparable to a blizzard. They put the ice cream and toppings into a small plastic pitcher before blending it together and scooping it into your awaiting cup. As they were putting in the ice cream, my eyes got bigger and bigger and bigger at the amount they kept adding. It looked like I was getting an extra large twister rather than a small. Scott went basic and got a dark chocolate dipped chocolate cone. He happily finished off the rest of my twister. In the end, we did end up with some pretty good dessert that day!