at the edge of the world
On the weekend I went to Bifrost, which in Norse beliefs was where the world of the gods and earth met with a rainbow bridge connecting them. It is also a very small town of 1800 people, 100 km north of Reykjavik. I was visiting my friend Bettina who is from Germany but studies in Bifrost at their Business University of 700 students.
I got there early evening on Friday. Bettina picked me up from Borgarnes where the bus dropped me off. The town is really small. It looks like a middle class suburb from a town but in the middle of nowhere, without any stores, just houses and the school with one cafe that is part of the school. There are a lot of young families and single mothers and a large portion of the population are the students.
So we get to her place. It is quite cold and windy, compared to Reykjavik which was cool but little wind when I left. We struggle dragging a mattress from Mathieu's (Bettina's friend at the school from france) room to Bettina's place. We made some pizzas and watched The March of the Penguins (which I thought originally was a cartoon but ended up being a beautiful documentary of the antartic penguins) with Bettina's roommate Monica (also from Germany). Later the three of us plus Mathieu went to the school's "swimming pool" (more of a kiddie pool) and hot tub, thinking there was suppose to be a party but only two other random Icelandic guys were there. The sky was very clear, but no northern lights to be seen. After the hot tub we hung out in Mathieu's room for a bit listening to some french music. But I really exhausted and nearly fell asleep on his bed so we headed back to Bettina's place and crashed.
On Saturday, the sun woke me up (which has now become my natural alarm clock). We ate some of Bettina's home made dense, seedy bread with jam and apples and tea. Then we got dressed (I was stupid and somehow forgot to bring a sweater and a touque) and prepared for hiking around the area. There is a volcano crater near by that we walked to. It was insanely windy and cold. When we were on the top a few times it felt like we would have been blown off the edge. It was hard to take pictures with the wind and my hand feeling like it was freezing. After walking around the top we tried to find a short cut back to Bettina's place. We first tried walking down one road which ended up leading to some summer houses and a fence. We back-tracked and found and opening in the fence, then walked through a lava field, finding a frozen river, so we followed that for a little while. There were lava cliffs around us and we weren't sure where we were and climbed up it and found we had actually walked past Bettina's house but at least we had made it to Bifrost and went home to warm up with some tea and lunch. After a bit of a rest we met up with Mathieu and then headed out again to see the lake near by.
On the cold windy walk down the dirt road, we must have looked quite funny all wrapped up with only our eyes not covered. Then all of a sudden some Icelandic guy (maybe 16 yrs old) stomps past us with big head phones wearing a black trench coat that wasn't even closed. We thought it so typically Icelandic (they seem to be immuned to the cold, or at least some, the rest use their cars as coats). We wondered what he was listening to and why he seemed so upset. We continue walking down the road, taking some pictures of the scenery. After some time when the guy was further in the distance a silver car drives passes us and stops beside the guy and he gets in and then they drive off. I think that perhaps he may have had an arguement with a parent and stormed off and the parent came to pick him up and discuss what ever the arguement was about. But who knows..
The lake seemed to not get any closer and we were really cold so think of walking to a river near by (which was probably actually a 45 min walk away). On the way though we decide it would probably be more sensible to go back to Bifrost and get the car to drive to the river, and also warm up a bit. On our journey home some purple car kept driving by, I guess crusing for the lack of anything else to do in the town. We made it home and more tea was boiled. Bettina was then preparing to make a new loaf of her bread while I wrote down the recipe to try out later. While we waited for the bread to rise we tried warming up in the sunlight on the couch and had a small nap. Once risen and popped in the oven we headed out to the river in the car. It was quite pretty, with a small walk through a birch scragly forest and a waterfall and fish stairs. We watched the sun set behind the mountains surrounding us then headed home. We all had dinner together. We made a pasta caserole with salad and wine. Really yummy. We watched some tv (I saw the most amount of TV this weekend than I had since my trip to Akureyri with my dad) and then Mathieu and Bettina tried to dance to Beyonce. Then I was off to bed.
Sunday I woke up again early from the sun. I watched some cartoons, which I was surprised were in english and not Icelandic, for most of the morning and then Bettina drove me to Borgarnes for the bus at 2:45 and then off home. The cold weather had followed me to Reykjavik, now being windy and cold again here (where did our nice spring go?).
I got there early evening on Friday. Bettina picked me up from Borgarnes where the bus dropped me off. The town is really small. It looks like a middle class suburb from a town but in the middle of nowhere, without any stores, just houses and the school with one cafe that is part of the school. There are a lot of young families and single mothers and a large portion of the population are the students.
So we get to her place. It is quite cold and windy, compared to Reykjavik which was cool but little wind when I left. We struggle dragging a mattress from Mathieu's (Bettina's friend at the school from france) room to Bettina's place. We made some pizzas and watched The March of the Penguins (which I thought originally was a cartoon but ended up being a beautiful documentary of the antartic penguins) with Bettina's roommate Monica (also from Germany). Later the three of us plus Mathieu went to the school's "swimming pool" (more of a kiddie pool) and hot tub, thinking there was suppose to be a party but only two other random Icelandic guys were there. The sky was very clear, but no northern lights to be seen. After the hot tub we hung out in Mathieu's room for a bit listening to some french music. But I really exhausted and nearly fell asleep on his bed so we headed back to Bettina's place and crashed.
On Saturday, the sun woke me up (which has now become my natural alarm clock). We ate some of Bettina's home made dense, seedy bread with jam and apples and tea. Then we got dressed (I was stupid and somehow forgot to bring a sweater and a touque) and prepared for hiking around the area. There is a volcano crater near by that we walked to. It was insanely windy and cold. When we were on the top a few times it felt like we would have been blown off the edge. It was hard to take pictures with the wind and my hand feeling like it was freezing. After walking around the top we tried to find a short cut back to Bettina's place. We first tried walking down one road which ended up leading to some summer houses and a fence. We back-tracked and found and opening in the fence, then walked through a lava field, finding a frozen river, so we followed that for a little while. There were lava cliffs around us and we weren't sure where we were and climbed up it and found we had actually walked past Bettina's house but at least we had made it to Bifrost and went home to warm up with some tea and lunch. After a bit of a rest we met up with Mathieu and then headed out again to see the lake near by.
On the cold windy walk down the dirt road, we must have looked quite funny all wrapped up with only our eyes not covered. Then all of a sudden some Icelandic guy (maybe 16 yrs old) stomps past us with big head phones wearing a black trench coat that wasn't even closed. We thought it so typically Icelandic (they seem to be immuned to the cold, or at least some, the rest use their cars as coats). We wondered what he was listening to and why he seemed so upset. We continue walking down the road, taking some pictures of the scenery. After some time when the guy was further in the distance a silver car drives passes us and stops beside the guy and he gets in and then they drive off. I think that perhaps he may have had an arguement with a parent and stormed off and the parent came to pick him up and discuss what ever the arguement was about. But who knows..
The lake seemed to not get any closer and we were really cold so think of walking to a river near by (which was probably actually a 45 min walk away). On the way though we decide it would probably be more sensible to go back to Bifrost and get the car to drive to the river, and also warm up a bit. On our journey home some purple car kept driving by, I guess crusing for the lack of anything else to do in the town. We made it home and more tea was boiled. Bettina was then preparing to make a new loaf of her bread while I wrote down the recipe to try out later. While we waited for the bread to rise we tried warming up in the sunlight on the couch and had a small nap. Once risen and popped in the oven we headed out to the river in the car. It was quite pretty, with a small walk through a birch scragly forest and a waterfall and fish stairs. We watched the sun set behind the mountains surrounding us then headed home. We all had dinner together. We made a pasta caserole with salad and wine. Really yummy. We watched some tv (I saw the most amount of TV this weekend than I had since my trip to Akureyri with my dad) and then Mathieu and Bettina tried to dance to Beyonce. Then I was off to bed.
Sunday I woke up again early from the sun. I watched some cartoons, which I was surprised were in english and not Icelandic, for most of the morning and then Bettina drove me to Borgarnes for the bus at 2:45 and then off home. The cold weather had followed me to Reykjavik, now being windy and cold again here (where did our nice spring go?).
posted by Kelly @ 12:33 PM
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