Best. Day. Ever. (And Climbing a Mountain)

Tuesday morning dawned bright and cloudy, which was a vast improvement over the dark and rainy weather that had been lurking around for ages. The day had some promise and I felt an extra skip in my step during my short walk to the bank. I had a good feeling about the day. Turns out I was right.

(This is the view from my desk at the bank)

I got to help sort the mail at the bank (a real task!) and I got a Groupon offer in my junk mail email account for 70% off a ´make your own photo book´ on some overpriced photo book website. Only 35 dollars for 115 dollars worth of photo books? Yes please. I have adventures to document. I will have no problem filling those pages, and it is much less fussy than scrapbooking, which I don´t think I have the patience for. Thanks, Groupon. Don´t mind if I do.
I got to the store and ate some really tasty fish (no idea what kind, but it was delicious) and was told I either had the choice of going to see an eccentric relative out at one of the farms where my ancestors lived at 3pm, or go horseback riding at 5pm. No time to do both in one day. Now don´t get me wrong. I´m all for visiting historic family sites and meeting more relatives, and this one does sound like a real doozy. Everyone that hears his name sort of shakes their head and mutters something rude sounding in Icelandic- I actually can´t wait to meet this guy. Expectations are high. However, horseback riding takes precedent over pretty much everything else in my world. Especially horseback riding in the mountains of Iceland. Seriously. It´s like being in a movie.
Since the weather was actually nice I immediately voted for taking advantage of the nice weather and going riding, and saving the relative visit for a different day when it didn´t matter if it was rainy or not. There wasn´t much argument. I had several hours to burn, some of which was taken up deciding what to wear. Lísa was especially concerned with how many layers I should wear and making sure they weren´t nice clothes that would be ruined by "hestur lykt" (horse smell). I personally have no problem with hestur lykt, but I decided not to bring that up and get myself labeled as the weird American relative that likes smelling like a horse. Too early in the relationship for that, I think.
Þorhildur and little Eiður brought me out to the farm (Þorhildur´s husband´s brother´s girlfriend´s farm, from what I gathered) and I got to spend 2 glorious hours riding around on a lovely steed named Magnús.

He is a gem. We forded rivers and tölted (a really smooth sort of trot that many of the Icelandic horses can do) down rocky paths and grassy fields. Heaven. We rode deep into the valley where the farm is located, took a little photo session break at one of the waterfalls near the back of the valley, and then rode back home. During all of this, I couldn´t help but notice that that big stupid grin was glued to my face. I could have kept riding around there for ages longer. That is my idea of a great day.

I cleaned up quickly back at the shop and then helped during the late dinner rush for an hour and a half or so before Stebbi brought me home. Awesome day.

Today was pretty sweet too. I went walking up into the mountains with Bogga and Stefán Alex, who was not thrilled to be there after the first 45 minutes or so. You don´t have to speak the language to understand whining 11 year old boy. Lady Hike had nothing on this fella.

I had images of Hobbits dancing in my head as we worked our way up the lovely slopes. It was like something out of Lord of the Rings. We made it a long way up in the 3 hours that we had, with Bogga encouraging Stefán to continue. Distance up there was measured in waterfalls. At one point I heard Stefán say in Icelandic to his mom, "You said we were going to turn around like 3 waterfalls ago!" It was a beautiful day to be hiking, with the sun truly shining for only the second time since I´ve been here. It was a glorious, "warm" day up in the mountain and I was incredibly grateful to get to witness such beauty.

Even now, sitting here at the computer at 9:30 at night, the sun is shining in the window, and making the slopes on the south side of the fjord absolutely glow. The sun is just about to dip below the mountain where it will hover all night, keeping the sky light until the sun pops back over the mountain in the early hours of the morning. Incredible.

These were taken last night around 10pm. Gorgeous pink sky.