Day Nine: Friday 16th August
Journey: Myvatn to Akureyri, Iceland

Hof, the cultural house in Akureyri. The tourist information center is also located here.

We woke up early Friday morning. Linnea went to a bird museum (because you know, she likes birdies…and she will post something about it later too) and we then took the bus. We passed by DimmuBorgir (not the band idiot, the actual gates of Hell) which indeed looked quite unhospitable  and then continued towards Akureyri.

The church in Akureyri is quite imposing up at the top of the hill.

On our way, we passed some seriously evil looking deserts but soon arrived to the Fjords of the North that really reminded us of good old Norway (just with much less trees, and many more sheep). We made it to Akureyri in good time and checked in to the local Backpackers hostel before going out to explore the city.

Yes, you read right, I indeed used the word “City” as, with 17.000 inhabitants (think Narvik for instance) Akureyri is Iceland’s biggest urban area outside the Capital region and it indeed had all the attributes of an actual city! We could for example eat yummy hamburgers at a chic (yet fairly-priced) restaurant, buy useful articles of clothing (considering it was only plus three degrees and I had forgotten my jacket in Tromsø, it came in handy), check out some funny little stores and even, miracle, hang out at an actual library!

Lyonel found some trolls to pose with.

A cool house with slate “scales” as siding.

Another interesting thing to note was the opening time of the local Wine Monopoly (Vinbuð). While its opening hours on weekdays are quite similar to its Norwegian counterpart (11.00-18.00) it surprisingly stays open one more hour (until seven P.M) on Fridays and is again open until six on Saturdays! I guess that is one mark of the Icelandic liberal spirit…

After an afternoon of bohemian peregrination, we came back to the hostel, made some food, and went to bed. We slept a bit too.