August 23rd // Hofn, Mývatn Lake & Quick Trip to the WestFjords

Humarhöfnin Veitingahús// Indigenous Foods ●

Langoustine pizza

     We woke up at 7:30 am at the Glacier View Apartments, and left at 8:00 am.  We went to Hofn, a town about an hour and a half away.  Hofn is the second largest town in south east Iceland, and was the nearest place that we could get a hot breakfast, which after so much cold yesterday, we really needed.  
     Alissa got Beech smoked cod-liver, which came with a salad, pine nuts, and sun dried tomatoes.  It smelled surprisingly good for liver--not that I smell liver very often, don't be weird about it.  I got Klettur, a smoked dish of mutton--lamb--which interestingly enough came from Skaftafell National park, where they had grazed.  It had several a delicious side salad, which had basil oil, pomegranate, and blue cheese.  

Sandwich cake

     Taylor got something that I had no idea could even exist.  She got a sandwich cake.  Yes, a sandwich cake.  It is exactly like it sound.  It's all the ingredients in a sandwich in cake form; the bread replaces the sponge cake, cream cheese is used as frosting, and cucumber and parsley is used as decorations.  Strangely enough, it's actually a common Scandinavian food, and can be found in Norway as well.   It was garnished with turnips, cucumber, hard boiled eggs, and shrimp.  Abby was pretty disappointed because she became completely obsessed with the idea of a cake sandwich, but because of her shrimp allergy she couldn't try any.  She glared at Taylor as she ate and she vowed to cook her own sandwich cake when we got back to the US. 
     Abby and Kyndall all shared a Langoustine pizza.  Langoustine is a breed of slim, pink, lobster that originates in Norway, but also lives in Iceland because of their close proximity.  It was a bit of a strange breakfast to say the least, considering that it consisted of lamb and lobster, but it was a nice last breakfast during our road trip. 

Mývatn, Godafoss, & Látrabjarg // Nature ●
     After we finished breakfast we got on the road for five hours to Mývatn lake.  It's full of lava formations because of the nearby  Krafla volcano.  It's a eutrophic lake, meaning that it has a lot of algae and aquatic life because of abnormally high levels of nutrients.  There is a small lava island in the middle of the lake that was formed from a tectonic plate shift th]at resulted in lava being squeezed out.  It's surrounded by vibrant green algae and small fish. The lake was formed during the ice age.  Thirteen spices of ducks inhabit the lake.  
      Mývatn also describes not only the lake itself, but also the surrounding region, so we had a bit of trouble finding it.  Finding the lake wasn't the big issue, once we were there we had the most trouble finding a nice place to put down our picnic blanket.  It was absolutely beautiful there, so there was no way that we couldn't find a pretty spot, but it was a challenge finding a spot that wasn't slimy.  The algae, moss, and other strange green plants covered just about the entirety of the lake. 

 Mývatn

      Taylor really wanted to try and find a way to get to the lava island in the middle of the lake, given that it's only about one foot deep.  As we protested, she took off one of her boots, stripped off her sock, and stuck her foot in.  She immediately slipped on a huge glob of algae, and fell face first into the water.  With her hair hanging from her face like Spanish moss in wet muddy clumps, she looked up and screamed at the top of her lungs when a frog jumped at her face.  I don't think I've ever seen a person move quicker in my entire life.  She sprung up from the water onto the ground and shook like a dog.  
     Kyndall went into the car and grabbed a towel for Taylor.  As we set up for the picnic, all quietly mocking Taylor, Kyndall helped her figure out how to was off the mud--mainly so that we could keep our deposit on the rental car.  
     "Let's try that thing where you take a tarp, poke holes into it, and tie it to a tree.  We have the rope and the and a tarp, plus the extra gallons of water.  I think I saw it in an episode of Hannah Montana forever ago," Kyndall suggested.
     "I don't think that I want to put that much faith in an episode of Hannah Montana with my hair.  But--well--I guess it's better than smelling like fish all day," said Taylor. 
     Kyndall grabbed the supplies out of the car as Taylor fished through her bag for her shampoo and conditioner.  Kyndall and Taylor tried to find a tree, but seeing as Iceland is known as "the country without forests" it didn't work out.  
     Taylor remembered the beach umbrella that we brought for the beaches that we never used.  Kyndall tried to hand the bag up to one of the rods in the underside of the umbrella.  After a few tries it worked out and Taylor was able to wash her hair.  She changed into clean clothes in the car and joined us back at the picnic looking pretty defeated as she looked off into the lake eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  
     "I miss my kitten," Taylor said, "She has cuddles and she only smells like fish, like, 30% of the time."
     Other than that, the picnic was pretty pleasant.  We got back on the road at 5:30 in the evening. 

     Half an hour away is the Godafoss, also known as "the waterfall of the gods".  It got the name because a prominent pagan figure, essentially with the equivalent amount of standing as the Catholic Pope, threw statures of the Norse gods into the waterfall according to legend in the year 1,000.  Though the statues have never been found, the story still symbolizes Iceland's official conversion to Christianity.  Icelandic paganism continued up until 1000 AD when Christianity became law, and their old gods--Thor, Odin, others--and goddesses--Frigg, Ēostre, others--had to be abandoned.  Norse is the old pagan religion and legends of the Scandinavian people, which originated from older Germanic Mythology.  It's actually quite interesting, not only because of the complexity of its legends, but how it also spread through only poetry.  The original way the religion was spread not through scripture or a prophet like most others, but by written poetry.  It's also astounding the impact that it still has now in Iceland.  They may have converted to Christianity over 1,000 years ago, Norse culture is still very much alive.  They still believe in trolls and the language is almost completely unchanged.  
     The Godafoss is about 100 feet wide and 40 feet tall, and is the rock formations around it make it one of the most impressive waterfalls in all of Iceland, despite its not even being on the top ten tallest.  Looking at it I can see why the pagan figure chose to throw them into this waterfall above all others, it makes for a very good dramatic gesture.  I was tempted to stand at the edge of the cliff and dramatically throw something off of it myself, but while it was an act of symbolic change back then, now its called littering.  

Godafoss

     We wanted to at least get a peak of the Westfjords before we left because what they showed us at culture night seemed really cool.  The drive was a grueling seven hours, but by taking an hour and a half long shifts made it bearable.  
     When we finally got to Látrabjarg in the Westfjords around 12:30 at night.  Látrabjarg is the westernmost point in Iceland has a giant cliff that stretches out over the Atlantic ocean out 8.7 miles long and over 1,443 feet up.  On the rocks, puffins nest in the summer.  It was so cool walking all the way to the tip, which took forever, but was totally worth it for the view.     There were little puffin chicks on the rocks that you could see if you crouched down at the tip and bent your head over the edge.  Taylor and I didn't have the stomach for it because of our crippling fear of heights.  Kyndall of course, just sat at the edge of the cliff and leaned farther and father over it until we were all yelling at her for it.  Alissa had thought to bring a loaf of bread with her in a little Nike bag to feed the puffins.  It probably wasn't ethical to feed wild birds white bread, but it sure was fun.  They would toddle right up to your hands, snatch an entire piece, and then hop off. 

     

Látrabjarg

     We had all taken turns carrying the tent up the cliff, and set up camp around 2 am.  We ate the remaining pop-tarts and snacks that we had packed for the road trip.  We were super tired so we unrolled our sleeping bags and went to bed.