Margo's Snorri Adventure: Days 18-21

The past three days I’ve been volunteering at the Akranes Folk Museum for seven hours each day. The flow of people is rather slow so I’ve spent most of my time cleaning the exhibits. The lack of tasks to be done around the museum has given me a lot of time to work on practicing my Icelandic with Sigga – who is super patient with teaching me new phrases and talking to me slowly in Icelandic. She has also given me plenty of recommendations for funny Icelandic TV shows to watch that will help my language skills! After work each day I bike to Þorunn’s house for a post-work snack and then dinner a bit later (usually with one of her driving tours in between the snack and dinner). Then Þorunn and I chat about her family for the rest of the night. These past couple nights, Þorunn has been telling me a lot of stories about her different family members and ancestors that are interesting to hear. She has also been describing the different stops she’d like to make during our trip to Akureyri this weekend.

On Thursday, I went to the Akranes lighthouse with Þorunn after work and even though the weather was super windy climbing up the lighthouse was still a fun experience. It was very tall with staircases to four different levels on the inside. On each level, there was also beautiful art exhibitions of pieces for sale. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to walk on the outside top floor of the lighthouse due to the high winds but there wouldn’t have been much of a view because it was overcast. The weather in Akranes has been so rainy and windy this week that it has prevented me from exploring the town more by bike, which I would have liked to. Friday after work, Þorunn drove me up by Akrafjall, the mountain by Akranes, where there was a great view over the city. We also drove to a nice spot on the coast with a rock that had a place to sit carved out of it so you could sit and look at a view over the ocean.

Today, Þorunn, one of her daughter’s named Anna, Anna’s two year old daughter, and myself left Akranes in the morning to drive to Akureyri. It was supposed to be something like a five hour drive without any stops but we stopped for lunch and in Sauðárkrókur (located in Skagafjörður), where Þorunn grew up. We visited the houses of her sisters who both had dogs - one was an old black retriever and the other a fat pug! Unfortunately, it rained for the entire drive and there was long periods of poor visibility – even fog all around us at one point so I was not able to see as much of the landscape as I would’ve liked. However, I was able to see some amazing lava fields near Borganes and steep mountains on each side of a deep valley that we drove through near Akureyri. We didn’t reach Akureyri until 7 pm so we bought a quick dinner at a grocery store and headed to the apartment of Þorunn’s eldest daughter (which is empty this week since her daughter is on vacation). We will spend two full days in Akureyri then leave on Tuesday so it should be an enjoyable long weekend! The weather was supposed to be around 80°F on Monday but now the forecast shows more rain and moderate temperatures.

More photos of the folk museum exhibits and one picture when it was sunny for about an hour outside!

The Akranes lighthouses and an old fish drying rack next to it. Pictures of the newer Akranes lighthouse, which has been in used since 1947, are shown first then one picture of the older lighthouse built in 1880 is shown last.