The End of a Grand Adventure

They say all good things must come to an end. I hoped for 6 weeks that that wouldn't be the case, but this past Friday was faced with the reality of the situation. It was time to go back to Minnesota. Saying goodbye to Iceland, my Snorris and all my other new friends was extremely difficult and I didn't manage to do it without shedding more than a few tears. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about my experience with the Snorri Program and would strongly recommend it to any 18 to 28 year old Western Icelanders. Don't even think twice about it, just send in an application. You won't regret it. When I got back on Friday evening and was met at the airport by my parents, my mom asked me, "So you loved it? Every single minute of it?" and I was able to say with complete sincerity that "Yes, I loved every minute. And I wish I was back there right now."
The last week of the trip was magical. Being back with the group and getting to spend time with them seeing such beautiful parts of Iceland was unforgettable. It was enough just to be back together, but the adventures we got to have were amazing.

We traveled around in a 17 passenger van with a sturdy trailer attached to the back to carry all of our luggage. Snorris don't pack light. For some of the more long-legged of the group it was less than comfortable. This was an instance that I was thrilled to be vertically challenged. I had no problem curling up just about anywhere. Our first morning we were all running pretty slow as we had gone out for a final sampling of Reykjavik's nightlife and were working on about 3 hours of sleep. You can sleep when you're dead, right? Or on a van between adventure stops.

That day we went on a seaside hike on the Snaefellsnes peninsula, went deep down into the Vatnshellir caves, spend a couple of beautiful hours on the rocky beach of Djupalonssandur, and even visited the farm where Iceland's famous rotten shark is made. We stayed in Stykkisholmur that first night and I think the highlight for me that day was sitting at the top of the little mountain in the harbor at about midnight, watching the sun "set" with a few of my Snorris. It was a beautiful moment and the perfect way to end a perfect day.
We had more down time on the second day of the tour. We took a ferry to the island of Flatey. There is a church and and an old library building that we toured that are guarded by flocks of kria. Kria are a kind of bird and when they feel that their nests are threatened they dive bomb you. I got clipped in the head by one of them when I wasn't prepared.

Then, we spent the entire afternoon with nothing to do until the ferry came back to bring us on the next leg of the journey. It was a nice day luckily, and we explored the beaches and sat on the cliffs talking and laughing and napping. Though it was a nice afternoon we were all more than thrilled when we got to leave Flatey and move onto the West Fjords. Our van was waiting for us there and we drove onwards, stopping to see the impressive Dynjandi waterfall and a lot of other amazing scenery on our way to the guesthouse in Thingeyri. That night, in the highlight of all highlights, we got to go on a midnight horseback ride through the mountains of the west fjords. I can't think of anything that would be higher on my list of things to do again. It was fabulous.

Day Three was fellow Snorri Theo's birthday, so I whipped up a birthday banner to hang in the bus and when we made a stop in the town of Isafjordur we picked up some little gifts and a card. It was a nice little family party. There was a lot of time in the van on this day (which meant lots of naps for me), so when we finally arrived at our house in Drangsnes we were really excited to see that we had an entire summer house to ourselves. It was beautiful. For dinner that night we had grilled chicken legs and whale steaks. At the risk of offending people, I am just going to go out and say whale is delicious. And for those of you who are horrified by that statement, these whales are not endangered or anything. We weren't eating Free Willy. And I like wildlife as well or better than the next person. After that delicious meal we drove back into town and enjoyed some time in the hot tubs on the beach. It was colder than you know what getting in and out of the tubs, but totally worth it to sit in there and soak up the warm water and the breathtaking views.

I think Day 4 of the tour could be considered the most exciting day. Our main activity was a trip to the island of Drangey, which is a puffin island in the far North of Iceland. The island has sheer cliffs on all sides, with a path of sorts to climb up using ladders and ropes. We took a boat out to the island and up, up, up we went. It was more than we were expecting, though Asta Sol asked us before we left if anyone was afraid of heights. We all reached the top safely and were given a tour of the island (historically it is the site where Icelandic outlaw Grettir went into hiding) by a smoking hot puffin hunter and his dad. Call off the search, I have found my Icelandic husband.

We watched my future father-in-law catch puffins and then we rather morbidly played with their little corpses. I know. I'm not saying it wasn't strange. Getting down from the island was even scarier than climbing up, and I had a firm grasp on the ropes all the way down, resulting in a minor case of rope burn. Better than a severe case of broken bones, in my book. We washed away the dust and dirt from the climb by soaking in Grettir's pool, which is a natural hot (super hot) spring on the mainland. We were all lobster red by the time we got out. Our final destination that day was the town of Hofsos where we would be staying for two nights. We had a great dinner and met Nelson Gerrard who is a Canadian of Icelandic ancestry who has made it his life's work to research the Icelandic emigration to North America. He has helped to create many beautiful museum exhibits in Hofsos on Icelanders that left for American and Canada in the late 1800s-early 1900s. There is even a museum dedicated to the North Dakota Icelanders. This was very special to me as there are photos of the church where I was baptized (the oldest Icelandic church in North America) and lots of information on the history of Icelanders in the area where I was born. I felt such a deep connection to Iceland when I saw all of that, it was really amazing.

The next day we had time to see the rest of the museum exhibits and to explore Hofsos. We climbed around on the basalt columns on the beach and skipped rocks until I thought my arm would fall off. Turns out I am not a good rock skipper. We ate several wonderful meals at the restaurant in Hofsos called Solvik. The food there was nothing short of miraculous. There are no words to describe how delicious it was. On the second night in Hofsos we had a Kvoldvaka, which is an Icelandic get-together were you tell stories and entertain each other with tricks or games or songs. It was just the Snorri group as all the locals were out haying, but that was fine. We had a great time. I know that it was constantly a lurking thought for me that we were running out of time together and our journey was fast approaching a close. A few times I would catch the eyes of one of my friends and a sort of understanding seemed to pass through. The idea that this couldn't last forever was tragically obvious to us all.

Our last full day together, Thursday July 21st was spent making our way South, back to Reykjavik where we could pick up the rest of our things from the Snorri Office and then go to the Blue Lagoon for our last night in Iceland. We all changed into nicer clothes than the things we had been wearing on the road for the last week because, as a last minute surprise, we were going to be meeting the President of Iceland. This was an event that had been planned for the first week we were in Iceland, but had fallen through and we had all sort of forgotten about it. We were all very excited about it because all the other Snorri groups have gotten to meet him, and he is a strong supporter of the Snorri Program. He welcomed us into his home, Bessastadir and chatted easily with us about where we all came from and how we liked Iceland. "You come from a strong stock," he told us, telling us how it must have been incredibly difficult for those that chose to leave Iceland for North America. He showed us around his home and into the basement where there is a museum and excavation site of all the homes that have sat on that location for the last 1000 years. Amazing.

Last stop, Northern Lights Inn near the Blue Lagoon. We were shown to our rooms, which were positively 5 star compared to many of the places we had stayed in the past week (all of which were more than fine, just not fancy) and then we rushed to our Graduation Ceremony. This was a very bittersweet time for everyone. We each had to make a presentation about our experience with the Snorri Program and there were speeches from the Chairman and from Asta Sol. We were given certificates and mittens and t-shirts and then we had a really nice meal together.

We had to race over to the Blue Lagoon after dinner so we would have enough time to make an evening of it. I hadn't gotten to go there on my last visit to Iceland and I thought it was really fun, though not at all an accurate picture of what Iceland is really like. We all stayed up as late as we possibly could on that final night, resisting going to sleep because it meant when we woke up we would have to go home.
It will be one of my fondest memories, I think, to look back at that last evening with everyone crammed into one of the hotel rooms, laughing and being ridiculous. I was able to look at each person in that room and think of a hundred wonderful moments that we had shared over the last 6 weeks. We were all so incredibly different, but had been brought together over our common heritage and the traditions that our families had kept alive over the years. I said this in one of my first posts, but wanted to say it again. To me it was so novel and wonderful that I could talk about ammas and kleinur and ponnukokur and have people know what I was talking about. Though we came from all over America and Canada, had grown up in different circumstances, worked and went to school in different fields and had wildly different personalities, we all had this common foundation in our Icelandic heritage and that allowed us to come together and realize that there were many other ways that we were alike.
We had a lazy last morning and by 1pm had to leave for the airport. We had flights between 4:30 and 5:00. We had to say goodbye to Sarah, who was staying in Iceland for another week with family, and to Asta Sol and Kent (our tour van driver/co-leader). It was pretty heartwrenching to say that first goodbye, but with a few tears the remaining 9 of us went into the airport and waited together for our flights. We exchanged our money and made a visit to the duty free store. We ate some lunch and wandered the terminal a little. And then it was time to go. I was the first of the airport group to board my plane, and I hugged them each in turn before having no choice but to leave. I was so thankful that they were all there until the last minute and wished with all my heart that they were coming to Minneapolis with me.

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I made it onto the airplane before bursting into tears, which I consider a small victory. The couple sitting beside me on the plane looked concerned but I was lost in my own personal pity party and paid them no mind. The flight seemed short and before I knew it I was back to overheated Minneapolis/St. Paul and pulling up to my apartment. It felt simultaneously like I hadn't been back here in ages and that I had never left. I wished that I was happier to see it, but my mind was still somewhere on an Icelandic mountaintop. I've been back for a little less than 2 days now, and am not quite readjusted. There are souvenirs and travel supplies strewn hither and yon around my room, and I'm slowly started to put some things in order. I've looked back at my 2500 pictures many times already, and am in my head already planning my next trip to Iceland.
So thank you Snorri Program, thank you Snorris and thank you to my family in Iceland for making me feel like I belonged. If tomorrow there was an opportunity for me to move to Iceland you can bet I wouldn't hesitate to say yes. I had the time of my life.

On the Road Again

Our travels thus far have been amazing. We have seen some truly wonderous things and have been on adventures that are hard to describe in a way that does them justice. I am having a very hard time coping with the fact that it will shortly be coming to an end. Now we are at Hofsos, which is a lovely town in the north of Iceland. This is where the museums dedicated to the Icelanders that left for North America back in the day are located and so we are getting to see a lot of information on our ancestors. There is one exhibit just on North Dakota Icelanders which we are going to see after breakfast this morning. Super pumped. Those are my peeps.
I won 't spend much more time typing away on my Nook about what is happening this morning. I still plan on giving a full account of the week complete with pictures once I get back to MN. For now, I just wanted to let all my loyal readers know that I am loving every minute I am spending here, whether it is spent on a cramped bus with the Snorris or climbing the sheer cliffs of the puffin island Drangey.

Ain´t No Mountain High Enough

Sandfell was my Everest. I climbed it to the very tip top and made if safely back down again, and was I ever proud. I started off the hike feeling pretty rough on Tuesday. I don´t know what it was, but at about 2:30 when we got going I was shaky and weak, and edged on being irrationally weepy for about the first 45 minutes. My blisters from the day before were killing me and I was convinced I couldn´t make it all the way up. Something was off and I didn´t think it was just due to being tired from having gone climbing the day before too. I sat down for a break about an hour in, after feeling miserable and only being able to concentrate on how rotten I felt. I ate a cereal bar and some peanut butter crackers and drank some water, and lo and behold, within 20 minutes more of walking I started to feel like a new woman. I think my blood sugar had crashed or something, because I perked right up after that. I was able to enjoy the amazing beauty of the valley, and look at the mountain as a challenge I could meet rather than one that was going to crush me.

"Sandfell is a cone-shaped, rhyolite mountain on the south side of the fjord, rising to a height of 743 meters. When molten rhyolite lifts older layers of lava, so-called laccolith is formed. Sandfell, about 600 m thick, is a famous example of this and is in fact one of the best visible examples of the Tertiary period in the northern hemisphere." - travelnet.is

Sandfell is not particularly tall compared to other hiking mountains in Iceland, but it is pretty steep. It is also fairly unique in the way it was formed and the kind of mountain that it is. I´ve been told there is only one other one like it in the world and that is in Japan. The hike up to the back of the mountain took maybe 2 and a half hours. On this part of the hike we weaved in and around the valley, working our way closer to the base of Sandfell, climbing ever higher and higher. The ground there in the valley is spongy and takes a lot of effort to walk through, but it is breathtakingly beautiful. We made it to the foot of the "first hill" which is really the first leg of the actual mountain. It is a steep climb up a mix of grass and rocks that I sometimes was tempted to climb on my hands and knees so I didn´t tip backwards and end up bouncing back down to the bottom. We made it to the top of this first summit and had a nice snack break before tackling the main event.
From the first summit to the top of Sandfell there is nothing but large chips of rock that are much more sturdy to stand on than you would think, if climbed with careful attention to your footing. This part took a lot of focus and I admit that I was so concerned about how I was going to get down the mountain after we were done that I didn´t even worry much about climbing up this part. Standing at the top or the bottom it looks like it is almost a completely vertical climb.
At the top we reveled in having met our goal, signed the guestbook and took a bunch of photos. Chock it up to the thin air, or my excitement or whatever, but I wrote the wrong date in the guestbook when I signed my name. I copied the entry before mine like a fool but didn´t realize it until about half way down the mountain.
Now, for getting down from this beast. Bogga kept telling me, "It isn´t dangerous. We´ll just slide right down." These two ideas did not match up in my head. Slide down a 750 meter mountain safely? I don´t think that sounds right. But it turns out it wasn´t bad at all. It was a lot of work to control the way you slide down, but it actually was sort of fun. Slide one foot ahead, balance, let the other foot drag down behind. Repeat. Switch leads occasionally so your legs don´t give out on you. Once I figured out the system it was no problem.
What I had to puzzle over though was the mechanics of the human body during the fall/startle reflex. Why in the world are we designed to toss our hands into the air like we are on a roller coaster when we start to slip, instead of moving them down behind us where they might do some good to catch us or break our fall? Seems to me that something got overlooked in that plan. As much as I tried to change my reaction when I slipped, my arms just kept popping into the air like a spastic puppet. I was glad Bogga and I were the only ones on the mountain and there was not a big audience to watch me slide down.
The whole hike from start to finish took 6 hours and 45 minutes. I was thrilled to see the car when it finally came back into view. I was filthy dirty and a little sunburned, but it had been a great experience. My feet were bruised and blistered and felt like someone had pounded at them with a hammer, but it was totally worth it. When we started out I was convince I wouldn´t make it, but by the time we were done I knew I could do it again if I needed to, though maybe not until I´d had a good night of sleep.


Indeed, the next day (yesterday) I hobbled around like an old woman for the better part of the morning. My feet were furious with me for subjecting them to Sandfell. I did my best to ignore them and by midafternoon they gave up their whining. I helped Stebbi paint some of the light poles and posts around the shop. I got to wear a snazzy uniform too, which made it that much better. You could see me from space I think, (or at least the top of Sandfell) but it kept my clothes from getting speckled with paint. I was glad that I had agreed to wear the jumpsuit because when I was done painting Stebbi looked at me and laughed, saying "You look like a blackbird (Guillemot) egg." In other words, I was speckled from top to bottom with white paint. I spent a long time using WD-40 to get paint spatters out of my hair so I didn´t spend the rest of the day looking like I was going prematurely gray. The bad news was that I looked a little greasy afterwards, but the good news is that I no longer squeak when I turn my head.

Today is my last full day here in Fáskruðsfjörður. Tomorrow I take a flight from Egilsstaðir to Reykjavik at 12:45. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone, or how much I wish I was sticking around for another couple of weeks. There is still so much that I would like to do. I want to do more baking with Lísa, Bogga and Thorhildur, I want to climb more mountains and meet more relatives. I want to see more of the landmarks and old farm sites where my ancestors once lived and worked. The more I´ve done here, the more things I have added to my Want To Do list.
I am, however wildly excited to be back with my Snorris and start our adventure tour. I cannot wait to see them all and compare notes on how we have all spent our last three weeks. We got our itinerary for the tour and it sounds like it is going to be amazing. We are going to be seeing some really wild places all along the Snæfellsnes peninsula and the West Fjords. With the Snorris it wouldn´t matter if we were just sitting together in a small room for 7 days. We would still manage to have a blast, but I think that getting to see and do all these fantastic things with them will be incredible.

I'm not sure what the internet availability will be during the tour, so I may or may not be able to keep everyone updated on what is happening. If I can´t I will be sure to give a solid summary of the adventures when I get back to civilization.
This trip has been all that I had hoped it would be and so much more. I´ve made wonderful friends, met relatives that 6 weeks ago I had no idea even existed, and experienced Iceland in a way I had only dreamed about, and the best is yet to come. Sitting here on this foggy morning in Fáskruðsfjörður my real life seems a million miles away and I am in no hurry to get back to it. I am going to enjoy every last moment that I have and know that the memories I´m making here will be with me for the rest of my life.

Addendum: There was a going away party for me and all 3 of Lísa and Stebbi´s daughters came, along with their families. There was wonderful food and everyone sat around and ate and laughed. I did Perla Sól´s hair (she is 8 years old or so, and the cutest thing you have ever seen) and we took funny pictures of everyone, and I earned some points with the little boy cousins when I brought out my Nook so they could play Angry Birds. It was a wonderful party. I got a very sweet gift from Bogga. I had mentioned to her awhile ago that I am sort of crazy about aprons. I always keep an eye out for cute ones and have a small collection started. So she gave me an awesome apron with a Puffin on it. Also, she gave me an Icelandic spoon with a woman on it to remind me of the strong women who taught me how to cook all sorts of wonderful Icelandic foods, and a really nice keychain as well. When everything was cleaned up and the house was quiet again, Stebbi and Lísa brought out another gift for me. It was 2 beautiful picture books on Iceland. It almost brought tears to my eyes to think that they were the ones who opened their home to me and have fed me and entertained me for three weeks, and yet THEY are giving ME gifts. I should be the one showering them with gifts, and I only wish I could repay their incredible kindness. An evening as wonderful as this is not going to make it any easier to leave tomorrow.