Big Stupid Grin

Well, I´m sitting here with a big smile on my face, courtesy of the Icelandic horses I just got to pet. I have several new friends and I couldn´t be happier about it.

I spent the afternoon and evening with Bryndís and her husband Gunnar. Bryndís is the sister of Lísa, the cousin I am staying with, which also makes her a cousin (4th cousin to be exact). She made me saltfiskur for dinner, and it is exactly what it sounds like...really, really salty fish. We also had boiled potatoes and rutabaga and brown bread and flat bread. For dessert we had vanilla skyr with cream on it. Soooooo delicious. Earlier in the afternoon, she sat me down for 'coffee' and fed me cheese and crackers, vinarbrauð, grapes, kleinur, bread and rhubarb sauce, etc. Seriously, everytime I turn around someone is setting an incredible meal in front of me. I haven´t been hungry for a moment since I got here. Bryndís had me look through a bunch of old family photes and she pointed out to me who was who. This was 95% in Icelandic mind you, but I think I got most of it. I even managed to string together a fair share of sentences that at least got my message across.

Her husband, Gunnar, handed me a book called Nýja Ísland (New Iceland), which was writted completely in Icelandic about the immigrants that left Iceland for North America at the end of the 19th century. I was looking through it and I found the name of my great great grandfather, Jón Hjálmarsson in the list of people that had left for North America! Amazing! I was pretty fascinated by this book and I sat reading it for almost an hour before setting it down. In my head I was wondering where I could find my own copy when Gunnar handed it to me and said in Icelandic that I should take it with me as a gift. This seemed like a really huge thing to me, and I am less than confident in my ability to understand Icelandic, so I checked with him and Bryndís about a dozen times that "It is a gift? For me? To keep?!" Sooo nice! There was a lot of "Takk fyrir," (thank you) coming from me after that. It truly warmed my heart that he would give me such a thoughtful gift. He told me that he had been given the book by his mother in law, Jona Björg, who was actually my 3rd cousin once removed (Bryndís and Lísa's mother).
So anyway, after dinner she asks me if I want to get in the car and drive out to Kirkjuból, Kolfreyjustaður í Faskrúðsfirði, which is where my great grandfather, Kjartan Sveinsson worked/lived before he moved to America. It is just on the outside of town. I actually got really emotional on the drive there, thinking about how that was the spot where he once spent his time. I feel so lucky to have gotten the chance to stand there myself. It is a beautiful spot at the foot of the mountain. The house that once stood there was destroyed in 1945, but there is a picture of it and the stone foundation can still be seen, although it is mostly covered by grass and flowers.

Gunnar´s sister is the one that owns the horses, so we stopped there on the way home and I got my fix of horses, at least for a little while. I´ve been told that there are plans in the works for early next week to get me out horseback riding. Hurray!