Iceland 1999 - It's a long way to Akureyri
From Worldtraveller
We arrived in Iceland at about 1.30am. It's a pretty foolish time to arrive in a country, really, but it was the only way we could travel on the dates we wanted to. With scary efficiency, though, we were off the plane, out of the airport and on our way to Reykjavik within half an hour.
After a very surreal couple of hours in the city centre (screaming women, very drunk men, and a talking statue. No, really), we found our way to the campsite. After a few hours kip, we were up and about, preparing for the first leg of the journey.
We paid BSÍ, the Icelandic bus service, a call to buy all our bus tickets, and then went to a supermarket, to encounter for the first time the abject horror of having to pay £2 for a loaf of bread. Fresh fruit turned out to be considerably beyond our means, although caviare, bizarrely, was not. So after a frankly ludicrous dinner of caviare on toast, we went to bed, ready to be on our way at 6am the next day.
The weather on our day in Reykjavík had been nothing less than utterly miserable. Imagine the grimmest of grim British winter days, and it was a bit worse than that. It was with heartfelt relief, then, that within half an hour of our bus leaving Reykjavík on day 2, we noted that the clouds were breaking up, and blue sky was visible for the first time. By the time we were an hour out of Reykjavík, it was a sunny, if a little cool, day.
The scenery on the road to Akureyri was amazing. We became acquainted with at least 30 waterfalls, many dramatic mountains, and the Arctic coast of Iceland. By the time we reached Akureyri, six hours from Reykjavík, it was a pleasant and sunny 22°C.
We whiled away the five and a half hours before our onward connection came by basking in the pleasant sunshine and throwing stones into the Arctic Ocean. I know I said that Iceland has a grim climate, but thankfully the north and east of the country, while they suffer from the worst winters, are often sunny in summer. So despite being only 50 miles south of the Arctic Circle, we slapped on the sun block and enjoyed it while it lasted.
Our bus from Akureyri to Reykjahlíð took us past some more great scenery, and an amazing sunset made it all the more memorable. We were all in really great moods by the time we got to Mývatn. They didn't last...
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Main page / The participants / Acknowledgements / About this site / FAQ / Links / Contact / A map of Iceland |
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Introduction / It's a long way to Akureyri / Midges... / I Lose My Hat / Where? / Back at the lake / Onward... / Mad viking berserker driver / Blowing hot and cold / A spot of intense rigour / Dodgy geysers / A spring in my step / The road to Hella / Goin' down south / Red hill over yonder / Above the streets & houses / Quite high / Homeward bound / Epilogue |
