Brimnes Cabins

Some things worth knowing about Iceland - they are serious about their tunnels. I've gone through two tunnels now, and either one makes the Eisenhower tunnel that goes through the continental divide look childish. The first tunnel, yesterday, was under the water. Under Hvalfjordur to be exact. I didn't even realize where I was going. I was just going down down down to the center of the earth. Jennifer and I only realized what happened when we came out the other side, paid a massive toll, and couldn't figure out where we came from. The second time was today, going through a mountain on the way to Olafsfjordur. The tunnel is crazy long, deep, and most shockingly, one lane. It was like traveling through the belly of a dimly lit snake. It made the Icelandic stories of the hidden people seem feasible. It took a little while to realize there was a system wherein I believe my direction could periodically pull out to the right and let the equally freaked out oncoming traffic creep by. There appear to be even longer ones to traverse tomorrow.

We began today by miserably failing at getting gas in Hvammstangi. After a lot of staring, a man came outside to ease our distress. He determined the machine needed to be restarted. The woman who came to restart it clarified that it needed to be restarted because we had messed it up so badly. She then walked us through the proceedure culminating in needing to enter our PIN for our c redit card. I said we didn't have one. She explained all Icelandic credit cards have a PIN. I explained no American credit cards had a PIN. So she said we needed a gas card. I really don't know why it still didn't work. The second woman that came out did the exact same thing I just did, but it worked for her. We've decided to always get gas now on the way out of town, to better hide our shame.

Though not very religious, it turns out Icelanders take a very long Easter vacation. Starting today and lasting through Monday. It's unclear what they do on this vacation, as most everything is closed. We drove up to Saudarkrokur (which I like to pronounce Soda Cracker) to check out the world's only fish leather tannery. Which was closed for the holiday. As was the information center, as was the museum. Turns out the only places open are typically restaurants. Which isn't the worst thing. But food can be pricey here. Don't expect to get a steak of any variety anywhere for under $50. Thank goodness I didn't come here for steak.

Heading south from Soda Cracker we happened upon some beautiful old turf houses in Glaumbaer. They currently feature in the book I'm reading (Independent People by Halldor Laxness), and are called croft houses. The traditional home of the shepherd, made on all sides by thick cut turf, with tiny windows. The houses themselves were closed, although the tea room stayed open (keeping with the 'everthing closed but food' theme).

We now circle our way counter clockwise around the Troll Peninsula. Spending quite a long time in the hot tub at the cabin tonight, waiting for the lights to show themselves, we have been stood up again. But the hot water and cosy cabins are never a disappointment.Read more