Cake & Ice Creams

We started our Iceland trip on little to no sleep, sans one travel buddy and kind of uncertain as to what we were doing in the Westfjords as Ambrose was the one who planned this portion of the trip.  Great.

The flight over was a brutal one.  Iceland Air is nice enough but 1. they don’t feed you – anything and 2.  I happened to be in front of a chair kicker/loud talker.  From there, half asleep, we shuttled over to the domestic airport to fly to Isafjordur in the Westfjords.  Our flight was delayed but once on the plane, I got a solid 40 minutes of shut eye!  I missed what was supposed to be a very scenic flight – oops!   Once in Isafjordur we realized the town is really small and we would be just fine.  Ambrose had booked a lovely room at the Gamla Guesthouse and a boat tour to Hesteyri – all we had to do was find them.

Our boat tour to Hesteyri was a four hour tour.  An hour to get there, an hour back and two hours once we were there.  Hesteyri is a village, with only ten houses, now frequented only a couple months out of the year by hikers and old inhabitants and their relations.  There used to be a whaling station which provided income for the 80 residents.  When whaling was banned, they changed it to process herring.  In 1952 it became completely abandoned when the herring disappeared and everyone started seeking work in larger cities.   They have kept Hesteyri the same as much as possible.  It’s nearly impossible to build a house there as one would have to prove their family’s past residence. It’s a really quaint, scenic spot. They wrapped up our tour with an accordion player and pancakes!

Today we had another full day in Isafjordur.  We slept well and woke up to super thick fog which did not excite us as we had a morning kayak trip booked.  Luckily they postponed our kayak trip until most of the fog had lifted.  We wandered the small town in the morning, walking along the water and through the shops and then paddled around the Isafjordur harbor as the sun came out and the fog slowly lifted.  It was quite beautiful to watch the transformation.  We had zero wind so very crisp waters and we were thrilled to be able to see the fjords!

Isafjordur fun fact: There are two months out of the year (Nov-Dec) that they do not see the sun. When I heard this I thought it was dark for two months straight. Not the case, they just don’t see the physical sun because it’s blocked by a mountain. There’s a street called Sun Street (that’s what it is in English) and when the first house is hit with a glimpse of sun, all of the neighbors get together and have a pancake feast!