Day 34

July 13, 2018

8:41 PM Iceland Time

So yesterday I didn’t have time to post anything, so I will catch you up! Yesterday was the last day with my host family; which was a bit sad, but they will be meeting me on Sunday while we are camping in Northorfjordur! They have a summer home in Djupavik which is very close to the campground we will be staying at, so they are going to meet up with me then. My “Icelandic parents” were so amazing, and I grew to love them a great deal! I can’t wait to see them again and for them to come visit me in Hawaii in the near future.

Since it was my last day in Kopavogur, Þora and I went to another pool I hadn’t been to in the morning, and we just hung out and talked for the rest of the morning and early afternoon. I had to meet back at the hostel we stayed at during the first two weeks at 3pm, so they took me there and dropped me off. It was so good to see all of my fellow Snorri friends! I missed them a lot. We all chatted and drank coffee while we waited for everyone to arrive from various parts if Iceland.

Once everyone was at the hostel, we all walked down to the harbor to have dinner at a nice restaurant there. It was a cozy restaurant that had a gorgeous view of the harbor! After we ate we all went out for ice cream. It has been so nice, every ice cream shop here has vegan ice cream options, and they have some unique flavors. I got cantaloupe ice cream which was surprisingly really good! Then we headed downtown and stopped at an old pub to hangout and catch up. We got home pretty late; we all had so much to catch up about!

We got up relatively early this morning, ate breakfast and packed up to head out on our tour. The tour bus is pretty fancy; it’s a Mercedes Benz! We started by driving around Hvalfjörður and went to the War and Peace museum that I had gone to last week. Though I had already been there, we got a little tour so I learned a little bit more about their collection. There are quite a few different artifacts there, and the guy who started it has only been collecting items for 6 years! After walking through the museum a bit we stopped and had lunch in the Borgarfjörður area. The landscape is so gorgeous there. I have been trying to take pictures, but they just don´t capture the immense beauty here. The green grass and the moss blanketing all of the lava rocks are so vibrant!

 

After lunch we drove to some beautiful waterfalls- Barnafossar and Hraunfossar. Then we headed to Reykholt and saw Snorri Sturluson´s historical private hot spring! Then we headed to Hotel Husafell where we swam in their pool. Ive been to about 10 pools in Iceland so far, and though it wasn't the nicest pool i´ve been to, its was by far the most beautiful. Surrounding the pool was a little birch forrest, with views of the surrounding vibrant green mountains. There were even waterfalls in the distance! It was magical. The pools were pretty hot, but it started to rain a lot and was really refreshing.

 

 

We took a little detour after the pool and went to the goat farm Nathan from our group stayed at during his work placement. We saw baby goats and newly born kittens! It is the only goat farm in Iceland, and many of the goats there have starred in game of thrones. So you can say I hung out with some local celebrities! Lol. They were so cute! They had a little general store there where they sold some of the products they produce, and I tried some of their goat feta cheeses that were really good.

 

 

Then we drove to Lýsuhóll community center for the night. Lýsuhóll is gorgeous! Well, what in Iceland ISN’T gorgeous? We are going to set up sleeping bags in their gym and have a slumber party! We are going to eat dinner, and it’s been a long day, so stay tuned for more adventures! I will try to post as often as possible!