Lindsay wasn't feeling super great, so we skipped on breakfast. Outside the hotel there were a couple horses grazing, so I took the opportunity to pet one. He wanted to eat my shoes.
We got on the road and said farewell to Egilsstaðir. After driving a bit, we stopped at a massive ravine with a tiny footbridge passing over it, just to get out of the car for a minute.
The landscape we passed by was green and hilly for a long while, with nothing super notable catching our attention. It was all very beautiful, of course, and we passed from the more open plains into gradual valleys as we went further from the coast.
Eventually, and almost without warning, we were in a barren, black sand wasteland. I was driving and it snuck on me. Lindsay was looking at the map didn't even notice it happened. She just looked up and was like "What the crap?"
There was nothing green or living anywhere in sight.
Once we reached the next valley, it was a quick trip to Hverir, a large collection of sulfur hot springs. We were told you'd smell it before we saw it, and it was true. It stank.
Man, did it stink. It was kind of funny as we drove up, but when we got out of the car the funk hit hard. We ran around and snapped a couple photos, but he stench was so powerful it made Lindsay sick to her stomach, so we raced away. Gross.
From there it was a short drive to Mývatn. We were looking forward to washing off the smell of sulfur at the Mývatn Nature Baths. As you drive into the Mývatn region, you can see a shimmering, almost glowing turquoise pool. While it looks refreshing, it's actually all that's left from a processing plant that turned single-cell algae skeletons into things like toothpaste and plastics. And it's very, very toxic.
Since we skipped breakfast and drove through a wasteland, we were starving by the time we stopped in Mývatn. So we grabbed some hotdogs at the gas station while trying to figure out how to get to the Mývatn Nature Baths.
From what I can tell, Icelantic people love hotdogs. They are every where, and unlike a gas station in America where they always have hotdogs but you never see anyone eating them, people are always buying hotdogs in Iceland. So we finally got to see what they're all about. We actually didn't like them too much, though.
The Mývatn Nature Baths are a lot like Iceland's famous Blue Lagoon, but smaller. We went smiwwing in the thermal heated pool, and it was nice. It was like a warm bath. The closer you got to a thermal vent, the hotter the water got, but for the most part it was a warm, but not hot, temperature. It was a milky blueish color, and seemed thicker than normal water. It also smelled slightly like sulfur, especially if you got downwind of the steam coming off of a thermal vent.
We made a bee-line straight to Húsavík, because we wanted to go whale watching before it got too late. When we arrived, we booked a tour on a boat, but had a couple hours to explore before it started.
Húsavík is a cute, small little town. I took this from the boat looking back.
With some time to kill, of course the first place we went was the Icelandic Phallological Museum. A small, dark, strange museum displaying tons of wieners from a lot of different animals.
It was actually somehow grosser than we were expecting, most of the peens were in formaldehyde jars and didn't seem particularly well kept. It was 1/2 funny, 1/2 serious and 100% creepy.
Afterward we went to a more reputable museum, the Húsavík Whale Museum. It was cool, I guess, but we were really just ready to see some real whales.
Finally our tour started, and before we knew it we were heading out to sea in a small-ish boat with about 15-20 other people.
The whole trip lasted about 3 hours. We spent the first 45 minutes traveling across the bay. It was rainy when we showed up to Húsavík, but luckily it was dry when we left, and only got sunnier and nicer from there. Unfortunately, the ocean is a windy, freezing place. I had my camera at the ready the entire time, and I didn't notice the cold, but one the way back to shore I realized my fingers were stiff and my hands were icy cold.
We did end up seeing a whale, or maybe a few. It was hard to tell if we kept seeing the same one, or if we got on the trail of a couple different ones. They were feeding, so they'd surface every 3 or 4 minutes, and when they did, it wasn't the majestic leap from the water that people picture when they think of whale watching.
It would just be the back of the whale, bobbing up and down a few times, gathering breath before diving again. I took about 30 pictures of whales, but they all look the exact same. Don't believe me?
Different whale, different time, different place. But really, it was pretty exciting, and even a bit scary. We'd track the whales for as long as we could, and they'd often get pretty close to the boat when they surface. It's a bit eerie knowing there's a massive animal under the boat and not knowing where it's going to come back up.
From the size of the town, I wonder if every citizen has to take their turn driving or guiding a whale watching tour at some point in their lives. Our guide was a nice guy, he's the blond dude in the picture below.
On the way back to town, everyone got cinnomon rolls and hot chocolate. It's amazing how a warm cup of hot chocolate makes you realize just how cold you are.
When we got back to land, it was almost 9 and we had some driving left to do. So we grabbed food at the only place that was open and not packed beyond capacity (all the tours get back roughly at the same time, I guess).
They only had hamburgers and hot dogs, so we opted for hamburgers, for the sake of variety. I looked over the menu and was confused to see the first two options. One said "Cheeseburger with Fries: Comes with Drink" and the other said "Hamburger: Comes with Fries and Drink"...
I remember thinking it odd that they would choose to word it so differently when the only difference was a a slice of cheese. When we got our food, however, we saw just what a difference it was.
Since I had the Hamburger: with Fries and Drink, I was pretty happy. It was actually an amazing burger, but maybe I was just super hungry. Lindsay enjoyed hers too, after picking all the fries off.
With out tummies full we raced to Akureyri, where we had made arrangements at a guesthouse. We knew we wouldn't make it until midnight, which is late to check in when your accommodations are run by a single family. But that didn't stop my from taking a long-exposure shot of Akureyri as we came in from across the bay.
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