October 14 - 16: Iceland to Norway

On October 13th after using the internet, Anton and I browsed a photography exhibit at the library. Then we walked around town for a while and ended up feeding some swans at the pond before walking back to the room with the cheapest alcohol we could find, which was 790 kronur, about $14 or so. We hung out the rest of the night just drinking and talking.

The next morning, the 14th, we woke up early and rented a Toyota Yaris (everyone here drives tiny cars!) Then we drove about an hour south to the Blue Lagoon, which is a natural hot springs that has been turned into a really nice spa. We each paid $40, and got entry to go a huge, shallow lake of hot spring water that was thick and murky and very salty. It was really beautiful. There was steam rising off the top of the bright blue water, which created a stark contrast to the mountains of black molten lava and moss that surrounded the water and stretched for miles. There was also a waterfall and a steam room and we were able to shower there, which was nice. After finally leaving the Blue Lagoon, we drove back to Reykjavik, stopping along the way at a little historical Viking town that looked like it was straight out of a children´s storybook. We got back to our room and ate some food, then headed out for a 100 km drive to the north-east, to see the first Geysir (in the town of Geysir!) and a huge waterfall called Gulfoss. On the way to Gulfoss we saw a hitchiker on the side of the road and picked him up. His name was Jon Philipe and he was a really friendly French aspiring rap artist who was just kicking his way around Iceland for a couple weeks. We talked about music and travel and had a really fun time giving him a ride. He came with us to Gulfoss, then back to Reykjavik as well. After we got home, we fell asleep very quickly- at about 8pm.

This morning we woke up at 5am and drove the rented Yaris to the airport. After waiting in line for a long time we found out that our flight wasn´t even scheduled for today! Apparently we weren´t supposed to leave until Wednesday the 17th. So we rescheduled it for today and were able to make our flight out at 7:50am. The flight to Oslo took about 2 hours and was really nice. We got into town and took a train to the City Center, where Gry met us. She walked us over to her house, and we met her roommate Anett. They are letting us stay at their place and are both very friendly and hospitable (Iæm using Annet´s computer to write this right now!)

We are about to eat now, so I will write more later.