I am sitting on a path that follows Akureyri’s fjord with my roommate, Sophie. We decided we would go down to the water to do some silent hanging out.
Everyone here scoffs at the height of these mountains, but to me they are ridiculous. I’m from Milwaukee! Just looking across the fjord I can see the white stream of twelve or more of them, between buildings and zigzagging roads.
Sophie is terrified of birds. Its a sad story of a ruthless neighborboy, and a parakeet, but it makes me laugh anyway. Within two days of her arrival she was swooped in on by one of the striking looking black and white seagulls that live here.
I have the next 4 days off of work, and am trying to come up with activities to fill my time. Scratch that, I’m trying to choose between all of the activities that are possible for me here. One of them is camping near Lake Myvatn with a Dutch workawayer from the cafe named Esther. She didn’t invite me, but I’m sure she wouldn’t object. Hitchhiking as super normal here, and I’m trying to be free with that idea. My mother’s face keeps popping into my head, though, screaming NOOOO. Esther said she got a tent and a mat to sleep on for $50, and I’m thinking of looking into that. It wasn’t exactly warm when I went a week or two ago. (It seems like months)
There is also a car show this weekend in town. But how many car shows have I seen? I think it is just so completely not expected here.. I didn’t think I would see teenagers driving around souped up cars with spoilers and loud exhaust pipes in loops around such a small mountain town. There’s a kid named Oskar at the cafe that isn’t looking forward to it. “A lot of jocks,” he said. “Doing silly stupid crimes.” This intrigues me. However, there are drag races well on into the wee hours of the morning.. It never gets dark here, so they wait until everyone has left the streets, then the engine revving begins. I wish I could be in one of those cars. How can I make that happen for myself, I wonder. Jocks have never been my strongsuit. They are generally not picking up what I am putting down.
UPDATE: I did none of these things. The car show consisted of a thing called BURNOUT, where cars spin out and make those tire marks on the ground. It was cold and it wasn’t free. I would have also had to walk two miles. N’thanks.
Here is one of the silly crimes that Oskar was talking about.
Soap in the town fountain.
I ended up going out for drinks with Olive, Esther, and Sophie. There was also a young kid there named Etty, and another American traveler from Seattle. After I left, Olive fell off a roof and broke her arm. We did not camp the next day.
Everyone here scoffs at the height of these mountains, but to me they are ridiculous. I’m from Milwaukee! Just looking across the fjord I can see the white stream of twelve or more of them, between buildings and zigzagging roads.
Sophie is terrified of birds. Its a sad story of a ruthless neighborboy, and a parakeet, but it makes me laugh anyway. Within two days of her arrival she was swooped in on by one of the striking looking black and white seagulls that live here.
There are two little peach plums of human beings I have met at the cafe that bring so much light.. Agnes and Una. Una is 16 and just a giggle spray of delight.
She would like to come to the US to go shopping. Everything here is so expensive, and there is very little to choose from. Her dream stores are Victoria’s Secret and Sephora. They do not ship to Iceland. Someone write them a letter!!
I’m going to miss her terribly. Agnes, too. Just her delivery, positivity and humour. Love these two.
Una has told me about the dating scene in Iceland.. How there isn’t one, really. “Everyone just sleeps with everyone,” she said. She asked my boss, Thorhildur, if this was always the case in Icelandic. “Always like this.” Viking shit.
Here is Una. It’s obvious why she is my favorite.
And Agnes.
(and me with a crossed eye)
