At the "trailhead"
Taking a short break
We hiked for about one and a half hours to get to the top. The climb wasn't bad at all, the only difficult part was climbing over some boulders towards the very top. It wasn't too strenuous, but was pretty technical so you had to take your time and find your footing. As with the other hike I went on a few weeks ago, there were glacial streams running down the mountain from which we refilled our water bottles along the way. The water is crystal clear, ice cold and quite refreshing. Icelanders like to boast about who pure their water is.
Mountain stream
Almost to the top
At the top of the mountain we took a break for about an hour while we ate lunch (sandwiches we had packed) and rested on the moss growing around the rocks. I actually fell asleep and started snoring apparently.
Our group at the top of the mountain
What a view
You can see our house (tiny white speck above the V in the picture)
Resting in the moss (so soft!)
The top of the mountain was more of a plateau as it was really flat and extended off into the distance. We walked across the plateau for about thirty minutes until we reached the spot that was easiest to start our descent. Going down was rather slow as we had to traverse the jagged boulders for quite some time until we reached the lower grassy parts of the mountain. To my delight we did come across some snow though.
The highest point on the plateau
Our rocky path
Snow!
Finishing our hike we walked down the grassy part of the mountain and came across some small waterfalls and streams that were overgrown with beautiful vibrant green moss. Caitlin had parked her large truck at the foot of the side of the mountain so she drove us home in shifts when we reached the bottom.
At the bottom of the rocky part of the mountain
Waterfall!
Some wild blueberries Rosie found at the bottom of the mountain. They were quite good!
We were all rather tired when we arrived home. I took a shower and then reclined in front of the TV to watch Germany defeat Uruguay in the bronze medal match of the World Cup. After the game we decided to go to Flateyri, a neighboring town to go to a bar to get some dinner and listen to some live music. One of the students, Brenda, was turning 20 today (the drinking age in Iceland), so we wanted to celebrate.
On the way to Flateyri we passed a pond with several toy boat models, which is the collection of a local man, and saw an old recording studio which used to be a whale processing building. It's a cylindrical building with white peeling paint and artists like Sigur Ros have recorded some music there.
In Flateyri we went to Vagninn (wagon) and we all ordered burgers (the only item on the menu) and watched a band by the name of Nora perform. Nora is a band from Reykjavik and they played low key Indie music. It was actually really good and we all enjoyed their set list. Plus they sang happy birthday to Brenda in Icelandic!
Vagninn
The bar had old Icelandic krona bills from the 1950s glued to the ceiling
The poster for Nora
Nora!
A group of locals came in right as they were finishing their set so they played an encore for them. The tables had been cleared so we started dancing and got the party started. By now it was about midnight and when the band finished their encore the ladies at the bar began playing music over the speakers from their iTunes. We danced for probably two and a half hours to ABBA, Michael Jackson and a lot of old disco music. It was so much fun dancing with the locals (most of them at least fifteen years older than us) in a small bar in the middle of nowhere. Westfjords only has about 7,000 residents and Flateyri is home to only a couple hundred.
A little while after the band finished they had a bonfire on the shore of the fjord
Dancing!
We must have left the bar at around 3 am and I was rather tired. Tonight was probably my favorite night in Iceland though and I can't remember myself being this happy.
Now I just need to catch up on sleep!
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