Day 8

June 17, 2018

10:18 PM Iceland Time

 

Today was Iceland‘s National Holiday which commemorates the foundation of The Republic of Iceland on 17 June 1944. We went to the main town square where they had a choir singing, and they had some speeches by the fjallkona (mountain woman). The president of Iceland and other Alþingi members attended. After the performance, we all marched together lead by a marching band to the gravesite of Jón Sigurðsson; who was the leader of the independence movement. They had a little ceremony at the gravesite, and then we all headed to the park by the pond where there was a festival with booths, blow up jumping machines, circus performers, food vendors, and a concert stage. We walked around for a bit, but most of it wasn’t set up just yet, so we went and had lunch at this little soup café called Svarta Kaffið. I had some asparagus soup in a bread bowl, which was AMAZING. It really hit the spot since it was pretty cold and rainy by that point. Then we headed back to the festival for the music concert-regardless of the rain. Icelanders don’t let the rain stop them from doing anything! There were a few acts that we saw; some were dancers others were singers, and some were DJ’s. A few of us Snorris stood out in the crowd because we were dancing pretty crazy! Haha 

 

A few other Snorris and I wanted to try to make it to the pool since we have been every day. All of the pools were closed because of the holiday. We looked it up online, and there was one that looked like it might be open, but they were closing early. We wanted to try to catch the last hour they were open, so we ran in the pouring rain to get there. Turns out it was closed! We were sopping wet, so we went into a little Kaffihus (coffee house) to dry off and get a hot cup of joe. We were pretty tired, but we made it back to the hostel.

After a nice hot shower, we went out to a restaurant that was owned by one of the Snorri’s 

relatives. I had their veggie burger, and it was really good! It’s been an amazing, fun filled week! 

It’s been going so fast and I am pretty tired, but this is one of the best experiences of my life, 

and I am loving every minute of it. I am making good friends and am learning so 

much! Stay tuned for more adventures! Góða nótt! (good night)