A visit from Leeds: Reykjavik, The Golden Circle (again), and a Hot River

Whilst my visitors were here, we also took the chance to explore Reykjavik. 

I took them to Nautholsvik beach for a bit of Icelandic sea swimming. The water wasn’t the coldest it can be but probably around 2 degrees. At first, the idea of jumping into icy water seemed thoroughly unappealing but it soon became a challenge and we tried to spend longer in the water every time we went in.

Jumping into the sea was balanced out by sitting in this lovely warm hotpot.

I let my friends do most of the exploring themselves, but of course took them to some important places such as the amazing frozen yoghurt place down the road, Yo Yo, and to the best pick and mix place in Reykjavik for half price sweets on Saturday. We also had a lovely meal out and of course I had to show them the Reykjavik night life.

During this week, I also had a visit from my friend Ava from secondary school, as well as her parents and boyfriend, who were visiting Iceland just for the weekend. It was really lovely to meet them and catch up. It was also one of the strangest days of my life spending time with my friend from secondary school, my friends from Leeds and my friends from all over Europe, whilst in Iceland!

On the day before my Leeds friends flew home, they planned to see the Golden Circle. If you’ve read any of this blog before, you will know that I have seen the Golden Circle more than enough times so I thought I’d send them off by themselves. However, I felt sad not to spend their final day with them so agreed to go along and be a tour guide for my fifth Golden Circle trip. Yep, fifth and final time. I could definitely be paid to give tours by now.

I thought we should do something a bit different on the way home so we went to Hveragerdi and hiked to the hot river of Reykjadalur. It was a fun hike and, apart from a few snowy and muddy patches, reasonably easy. 

My friends left early the next morning and it was sad to say goodbye. However, it was great to have them visit and it made me feel excited to go back to Leeds in a few months knowing that I have great friends waiting there for me.

A visit from Leeds: Snaefellsness

Three weeks ago I had a visit from five of my closest friends from university in Leeds. I’ve always spent so much time with them, and have even lived with two of them, so it’s been hard not seeing them every day and of course I was very excited for us to be reunited. 

My first challenge was to pick them all up from Keflavik airport in our hire car. We’d hired a car big enough for six people and, for someone who is used to driving nothing bigger than a Skoda Fabia, the idea of driving a people carrier by myself on the wrong side of the road was a bit daunting. When I got to the car rental office they told me that we’d actually been upgraded and I was shown a huge, four wheel drive SUV. I had a moment of mild panic then realised I had no time to worry so started driving. I think it took about two minutes before I was totally in love and wondering if I would ever be able to afford to buy a Nissan Pathfinder for myself. My friends were very excited too and I think it would be fair to say that we talked an abnormal amount about the Pathfinder for the whole holiday (excellent fuel consumption, beautiful to drive, lots of space for luggage, etc. Yes, geeks.).

'The Beast'

Anyway, enough about the car… I’ll try not to mention it again. On the first day I drove my friends round Reykjanes peninsula, showing them the moon-like landscape and stopping at the Bridge Between Two Continents. We spent the afternoon in the Blue Lagoon which I think they deserved after a very early morning flight. Then it was back to Reykjavik to prepare for our trip the next day.

On Wednesday, we woke up early and left Reykjavik to visit Snaefellsnes Peninsula (but, because my friends found this difficult to say, it also became known as ‘Schnorklemorkle’. I know which name I prefer.). I’ve been before but only for a day trip so it seemed like a great place to show my friends but also to see some new things myself. The weather was awful at first but soon cleared up. It was slightly annoying considering I’d repeatedly emphasised how bitterly cold the wind could be and how important it was that they brought a LOT of layers. They probably thought I was massively overreacting.

Our first stop was my favourite church in Iceland, the black church at Búdir.

Next up was a coastal walk by the village at Arnarstapi. The coast here is beautiful and the best things to see are the shapes formed by the crazy basalt columns. 

We scrambled over rocks to look down this hole into the sea. 

It was quite exciting as the waves were coming higher and higher and flying through the gap. We stood and watched but weren’t quite prepared for the moment the water came up so high we were in the firing line. I say we… my friends seem to have bad luck with the Icelandic sea whilst I manage to stay dry. The others were hit by water and poor Lois got soaked. 

Sorry, Lois!

We travelled further around the coast and visited Djúpalónssandur beach which holds the remains of a shipwreck as well as some ‘lifting stones’. The stones were used to measure the strength of fishermen and weighed up to 154kg. Let’s just say none of us are cut out to be fishermen. It was also on this beach that Lois and Chris got soaked another time as the tide came in very quickly. Very bad luck.

We stopped at the village of Ólafsvík where we saw this church and waterfall.

Then it was on to Grundarfjörður where we stayed for the night. We stayed in a lovely hostel and this was the view from our window.

My friends had brought a lot of duty free alcohol from Manchester and it made sense to have a drink or two at the end of a long day. Somehow this turned into a bottle or two but luckily we all woke up hangover-free the next day. 

A nice start to the morning.

Our first stop was to visit ‘The Shark Man’ which had been recommended to us by some Americans we met the night before. 

The Shark Man runs a museum in Bjarnarhöfn and as we turned up he proudly unveiled a freshly caught dead shark under a tarpaulin in his front garden. He seemed to get great pleasure by seeing how disgusted we all were by it and even made Lois stand on it. 

He spoke almost no English but showed us round his little museum. He realised that I understood a little Icelandic and told me about his family, his Grandfather’s fishing boat and a complicated story (during which I got a little bit lost) about British people travelling to Greenland. It was very frustrating to realise I could understand most of what he said but could only say a few sentences back to him.

He showed us where he hangs up the rotten shark and of course we got the opportunity to try some. I’ve already eaten rotten shark and, although I said I wasn’t hungover, my stomach was maybe slightly more delicate than usual, but I managed to eat some anyway.

Our new best friend.

Next stop was Stykkishólmur, a lovely little town where we walked up to a very tiny lighthouse. It also snowed heavily but only for a few minutes.

Then on to Gerðuberg, a wall of basalt columns, with a bit of a scramble over mud and rocks to reach them. I won’t mention which one of my friends repeatedly fell over.

On the way back from Snaefellsness, I took my friends to see the two waterfalls Hraunfossar and Barnafoss.

Then it was time to go back to Reykjavik. As we drove back, Adam treated us to Dolly Parton’s greatest hits, as well as a series of fun facts about the great woman herself (did you know she once entered a Dolly Parton lookalike contest and lost?).

It was a great two days and I felt like I gave my friends a real taste of the Icelandic countryside.