Daytrip to Goðafoss from Akureyri
Today would be the last night in our Akureyri Airbnb, so we decided to knock out the last few things in northern Iceland today. We slept in a bit and headed out in the late morning.
Goðafoss
This waterfall was, at most, a 40 minute drive away. After 6 hours of straight driving, that was easy. We headed over and oh my god it was windy. The weather was windy. We walked outside and could see people's scarves whipping violently in the wind. My mom let me use these face masks, which are great for keeping your face from having wind damage.
Tam wanted to fly his drone around, but I suggested he wait. Someone else was flying his drone, so we watched his struggle to fly... And then watched him chase after it when it couldn't make its landing.
During a lull, and we were able to get close to the waterfall. The winds picked up again as we were standing on ice; any stronger and it might have knocked us to the ground. From the comforts of our car, we watched some people falling over due to the force of the wind. It died down eventually, so we got out to take more pictures. Goðafoss has two sides, so we drove to the other side and trekked over some more snow to get a different perspective.
After stopping in their rest house we headed back to Akureyri.
Random Note: ð is kind of a "th" sound except it's breathier and your tongue is curved differently on the roof of your mouth.
Akureyri - Nordic Bistro
We decided that we wanted to eat out today for lunch, since today was going to be filled with repacking our stuff for the drive south. Nordic Bistro sits right on the water in Akureyri, and gives you a beautiful view of the mountains. I appreciated the positioning of windows in Icelandic buildings. Each window seems deliberately placed to admire the natural beauty.
I just can't get over it.
This was the first place we had seafood stew. It generally has lobster or langoustine, and some other seafood in it. It has a tomato base, but it's creamy too, with some saltiness from the fish. I thought it was super good! I'm terrible at describing food, but it was well flavored and very satisfying.
I got the lobster/langoustine sandwich, while Tam got the cod with potatoes and a ginger glaze. It was during this meal that I learned some Icelandic foods can be very salty. The sandwich I had was good but I feel like I drank all the water to rehydrate; same with Tam's dish. Maybe I just hadn't eaten sweets in a while, or maybe it was over-seasoned? Who knows?
I don't know if Iceland has lobster or langoustine, since they seem to be used interchangeably in menus. I think it's actually langoustine, but maybe the word in Icelandic is the same for both?
TripAdvisor
Something I'd like to point out is that Yelp is not a big thing outside of the US; TripAdvisor is. Many restaurants, activities, and locations we went to had hundreds of reviews on TripAdvisor. This was a little eye-opening for me, since restaurants often posted their TripAdvisor accolades, or requested a review on the website.
What's nice about TripAdvisor is that you get perspectives of people from other countries. Yelp has a US audience, and is US based, so most of the opinions will be culturally homogenous. It also adds context for why we have people advertising their popularity on TripAdvisor... It isn't for us, it's for tourists who are visiting Hawaii. Hah. Learned something new.
Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?
I sure did! Today was probably the warmed day in Akureyri all week, so the snow was kind of slushy, compared to the stiff cold ice it was previously. So... Today, we built a snowman outside of our Airbnb. I've never built a snowman before, but I'm told we did it wrong. Apparently, you're supposed to roll the snowball so that the snow gets packed on. But... That's impossible when the snow is slowly becoming slush in your hands.
Anyway, after we built the snowman, we dismantled him. Tam and I have weird feelings about personified objects, like dolls and stuff. What if it comes to life? Also, what if our Airbnb neighbors came out and saw the snowman and thought it was a person? I know this is completely illogical but it totally could happen!
The Rest of the Evening
We spent the rest of the evening at home. Our Airbnb neighbors invited us for a drink, but we declined and gave them the alcohol I didn't want anymore.
I'd like to point out that the house had no heating system, but was always a comfortable temperature. Sometimes it was cooler than others but for the most part I think it used some kind of passive heat. Passive heating relies on a combination of different materials to keep the house warm. Other factors can contribute heat. In our Airbnb, the floor was heated; either from the hot water pipes or the fact that Iceland is geothermally heated anyway. In fact, we used the warmed floors to dry up our bathing suits as much as we could before packing them away. This was a pretty good write up in 2008 about passive homes in the US if you want to learn more.
Also, don't drink the hot water from the sinks. It's not good for you, and it smells like sulphur/eggs. The cold water doesn't, and tap water tastes good and comes out ice cold. If you think about it, you're literally drinking glacier water. So delicious!