Puffins and Fresh Fish

I woke up yesterday wrapped in a cozy quilt, with the sound of rain pattering outside the slightly opened window above my bed. Only a gleam of gray daylight shown under the curtains that keep the room dark during the long summer nights here. Though my intention had been to get up around 9, the sound of the rain and the quiet of the house around me was all the convincing I needed to go back to sleep.

In the afternoon, after a lazy morning, Bogga and I went with her sister Thorhildur and her son Eiður Logi to the new French Museum and hotel. I went to the French museum in 2011 when I was here for Snorri, but at that time it was located in a different house in town. Now that they have the hotel renovated and running, they attached it to another renovated building and beefed up the museum contents. It was pretty cool. Pretty pricey and small, but nice. The wax figures gave me the creeps.

 

In the afternoon we stopped at a family/friend's house to say hello to her (I've met her a few times on the last couple of visits) and meet her 6 month old baby. I made fast friends with both the baby and the dog, and even talked to the grown-ups a little bit too. You know, so I didn't come across as rude.

Right after that it was off to Thorhildur's house for reindeer burgers! Her family had invited me to dinner, so I had a lovely evening with them. I had reindeer steaks last time I was here, and they were delicious. Reindeer burgers just taste like a really good, lean burger. Makes me hungry again just thinking about it.

Today the weather was a bit improved, but still foggy and rainy off and on, so we went to chase the sun.

 

 Elvar, Bogga and I drove to Borgafjörður Estri, a town north of here by about an hour and a half. Elvar used his police driving skills (he is a detective) and got us back and forth in record time. I just sat back and pretended I was in a car chase.

We didn't have long to spend in Borgafjöður Estri today, but had a good look at the puffins that nest near the harbor there. After my experience with the puffin hunters on Drangey during Snorri, I have a fondness for the little fellas. They helped bring me closer to my almost puffin hunter husband. I do admit that they are cuter alive than dead though. You'll have to look back at my Snorri entry about the puffin island if you don't know what I'm talking about.

We also climbed up the Elf Town hill near town. The Elf Queen's name in the old stories is Borghildur, so I had a personal tour by Bogga, the queen herself today.

The mountains around the town were gorgeous. This is a town I will be putting on my Return To list. I have unfinished business with some of the hiking trails there.

We had to be back by 3pm for Stefan Alex's soccer (football) game. They won! Woo!

I made a blueberry pie this afternoon and we had a nice dinner of "Chinese" food. The nearest Chinese restaurant is across the country in Reykjavik, but we had some good heat up in the oven egg rolls and rice, etc. My pie looks nice enough, but we haven't tasted it yet. Judgement day will be tomorrow.

I went on a solo hike this evening, not set on many particular destination. One of the waterfalls on the mountain north of town caught my eye and I thought, "Sure, I can do that." So I did. It was a really foggy, misty sort of night, and I had the best time up there on that mountain all alone. It was one of the nicest couple of hours I have had. My only company was a sheep at the top, near the waterfall that watched me climbing for ages. Most of them run away at the first hint of people getting close, but this one seemed braver and maybe a tad aggressive (this is all in my head). All I could think was how horrible it would be if they found my bloody corpse on the mountain, having been beaten to death by a sheep. Luckily he lost interest and I was safe to finish my climb.

 

I finished my hike, with super soggy hiking boots, but feeling pretty accomplished. Back at the house, Bogga and Elvar were finishing up a visit with some friends. As soon as the friends left we hopped in the car (10:30 at night, mind you) and drove down to the harbor. A huge amount of fish had come in this afternoon and evening on several different ships, which means the fish factory was working like crazy. Elvar showed me around the outside, and then to my surprise, got me inside where I talked to the man in the control room and got to see a lot of the rest of the operation. It's a complicated, expensive process.

  

Tomorrow we are going to visit a couple of other nearby towns that I haven't been to yet.