Day 29

On an off topic note, I've been told that the reason Icelanders like coleslaw so much (an observation I've mentioned in a previous post) was that they like to eat their food with sauce.  And since coleslaw has so much mayonnaise in it they like coleslaw!  Considering this piece of information about Icelanders loving sauces which I heard from Sigga and Anna, I realized that this explains why there are so many sauce bottles at the table each night for dinner.  One night in Akureyri, we had four different sauces with dinner, each one being used for a different type of food in our meal.  I am still confused about why Icelanders feel the need to eat their food with sauce all the time but I don't think I'll find the answer to that question.

Turning to the topic of today's activities, today was a bit of a bummer.  Þorunn had planned for herself, Anna, Linda, and myself to drive north past Borgarnes do a tour around that area in the afternoon.  We were going to visit a lava cave and Krauma, the hot spring where Akranes gets its hot water from.  Krauma also has baths and a spa there that we were going to go in.  Unfortunately, there was a storm forecast for this afternoon with winds too strong for Þorunn to feel comfortable driving on the highway.  So we ended up staying in Akranes all day.

Around noon, I walked to Sigga’s house and ate a late 2^nd breakfast/snack with them as we talked about last night.  Everyone had fun but were struggling from having lost their voice or lack of sleep after a long night. One of the Snorri participants from Borgarnes had spent the night at Sigga’s house so after I ate with them, myself and the other Snorri participant walked to my host family’s house.  My host family was so welcoming and nice, offering the other Snorri and me food and hot drinks to warm up from the wind and rain outside.  Then, Þorunn took us on a drive to the small forest on the edge of Akranes where we walked around and saw the last 20 minutes of a children’s play that was part of the Irish Days festival.  I was hoping that the play would help my Icelandic listening skills by providing more slow Icelandic speaking for me to listen to which is easier to understand.  However, the actors were all talking rather fast and yelling out about the drama happening in the play so it wasn’t the best opportunity for learning.  The play seemed like a mix of the Pinocchio and Rapunzel storylines which I found confusing to follow.

After the play Þorunn drove us to the Akranes lighthouse, where we walked to the top of the new lighthouse (my 2^nd time doing so) and jumped over rocks to get to the old Akranes lighthouse that is farther out on the coast.  The wind was blowing so strong there that I could feel it pushing me sideways as I walked between the lighthouses.  After the lighthouse visit, we returned to Þorunn’s house where we played card games until the other Snorri participant’s ride back to Borgarnes arrived.  Then we ate a dinner of salad, chicken nuggets, and French fries with only Þorunn, her husband, and myself at the table making it was an unusually quiet dinner (the others were napping).

Photos of the view from the lighthouse, myself, and of a interestingly colored purple rock:

After dinner, Þorunn and I walked to the apartment of her middle daughter, Margaret, to say hi.  There, I played and danced with Margaret’s two year old daughter, Jasmin (pronounced like Yasmine in English).  Then we started discussing how to acquire an Icelandic woolen sweater for me since Þorunn was wearing hers today which started the conversation.  Margaret showed me some of the sweaters that Sigirun (Margaret’s mother in law and the woman whose apartment I’m staying at) had made for Margaret and her husband.  They had me try one on and see how it fits so Þorunn could tell Sigirun how large and long to make my sweater.  Þorunn kindly offered to mail me the sweater when it was finished since traveling around Europe with a big sweater is too impractical.

So even though our day trip plans fell through, we still had a fun day in Akranes.  Also, Þorunn looked at the weather forecast and is now planning to do the car trip around Borgarnes on Tuesday evening once I get off work!  I hope the weather cooperates.