September Postcard
Well these postcards are getting fewer and farther between. It is not that I don’t have things to talk about but just that I have been quite busy and lazy when I do have the time. Working at the hotel gave me more time to sit down in front of the computer, so it did have its benefits. I have not been working anymore at Hotel Atlantis; they are renting out most of the rooms for longer periods.
Actually quite a bit happened in September. I started a on a diet in the beginning of the month, it is going pretty good. The weather was pretty bad in the beginning of the month, lots of rain. It doesn’t usually pour rain here but it poured lots. The first weekend in the month I ventured north to Hvammstangi to visit some relatives. I spent a nice and quiet evening with them on the Friday night. Saturday I toured around the Vatnnes peninsula. It was kind of cloudy but at least the rain held off. I was able to finally see Hvítserkur, a weird shaped basalt formation that sticks 15 meters out the ocean. Borgarvirki is also a fascinating sight. It is an old and historic natural rock fortress that is written about in the sagas. I went back to Hvammstangi for lunch and then headed home. On the way I stopped in at the area museum. They have reconstructed the “baðstofa”, living quarters from Syðstahvammur, the farm of my great great grandparents. It was moved in the sixties and set up as it was built in the 1870s around the time that some of my family was moving to Canada.
As I travelled south the weather improved, so I took a detour to Reykholt and Husafell. I stopped at Hraunfoss, the lava waterfall and Barnafoss, the children’s waterfall to photograph. Then I travelled up to Kalidalur and drove in between some glaciers. The weather was fantastic, sunny and clear. I was able to see everything and had a great trip. The road was horrible though. It was so rough that I was shaking a couple days afterwards. I was feeling sorry for my Blazer when don’t I meet a small rent a car, people take rented cars everywhere. This road comes out north of Þingvellir but it was getting too dark to stop there as well. To finish off the night I headed to the Spotlight Bar, I ordered a big glass of draft beer and was handed a small glass and was told it was free, OK. Well it turned out that all liquor was free, yes free from 9 to 12 midnight as it was their anniversary. They even had a munchies table set up. Free alcohol in Iceland, WOW.
September 10th was freshie day at the school, poor kids eating shark, hard fish and everything with whipped cream. The film that I acted in was shown; at least they didn’t use my lines. It was really funny. September 11, there was not much done for the day, I was surprised. There was a church ceremony but it was not advertised at all so there was not many there. September 14th, Magnus Eyolfson came to visit Iceland. I was Hotel to check him in and everything went well. Villy and I headed to the Rettir, sheep sorting at Skeiðum. We took lots of photos and were treated to Kjotsupa, meat soup afterwards. Later that evening we went to a house warming party for Asta and Derrick. Asta Sol is the main person in charge of the Snorri Program in Iceland and Derrick is a South African, related to one of the teachers at the school I work at. There are a couple Canadians renting rooms at their place. Tricia is from Selkirk and Shawn is from BC. Sunday was kind of quiet but I did make it to a Movie. There was a Spanish Movie Celebration for 10 days, I bought a pass for 6 movies and went them through out the week. Most of them were really good, I saw one that was hilarious, and it was called Communidad. It reminded me of A Fish Called Wanda. It was a great movie and probably the best one that I saw. Luckily the movies had English text, as the Spanish was quite hard to understand.
The weather stayed warm for most of the month. I saw that there was frost starting in Canada but mild would be the best description of Icelandic weather for September. On the 21st I travelled east with Shawn, the Canadian student. We took the main road to just past Vik and then hit some mountain trails. We travelled to Eldgja and walked into Öfærafoss, a beautiful waterfall that I saw in 1990. It has changed lots as there used to be a natural bridge across it until 1991,but it is still a beautiful waterfall, as my pictures will attest to. We then travelled to Landmannalaugar. It was a real nice day driving though the rivers, was a blast. We hit some fog and rain toward the end of the day but otherwise the day went well. Sunday I went to jail, yep I went to visit someone at Litla Hraun. It was very interesting and I will be writing more about this separately.
It was pointed out to me on Monday that I didn’t have a front licence plate. I guess I lost it in one of the rivers. $50.00 later I was able to get another one, OUCH. September 24th I made my TV debut in Iceland. It was a pretty short clip but it was the thought that counts. I was on TV again on the 25th and I got bugged about it this time. The question was what do you like about women’s´ breasts. All I was able to say was bara, bara, which means just, just. They cut off the part where I gave a little better answer. On the 25th I also saw Magnus off and got paid for my work at the Hotel, bonus.
Well after a couple quiet days Tricia, a couple teachers and I headed north to Stykkisholmar. We stayed in a fantastic little guesthouse there and even though we were hoping for a little more action we had a great night in Stykkisholmar. The weather was nice on the Saturday and we toured around the Snæfellnes peninsula. We saw Grundafjörður, Olafsvik and everything but glacier. It was a bright day but enough cloud to hide the Snæfell glacier. Arnarstapi and Hellnar were really beautiful spots. We returned to Reykjavik for a fantastic supper at a friends place. Sunday I had to finish off the month with a trip to Þingvellir and Nesavellir with Villy. The weather was getting cooler but it was bright and the fall colours were fantastic.
Until next time,
Kent Lárus