Memos for Me

Today was the day of waterfalls.

Leaving at our usual time of 8 a.m., our first stop of the day was the 200-foot Seljalandsfoss waterfall. We were actually able to walk around and behind the waterfall – which was pretty neat and satisfying. I might have gotten pretty wet during the walk behind it but it was worth it.

Next, we traveled to the 197-foot Skógafoss waterfall, which is 82-feet wide. According to the nearby Skógar Folk Museum, legend claims that when the sun shines, a store of gold hidden by original settler Prasi may be glimpsed glittering behind the water. The waterfall is south of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier volcano, and flows through the Skógárgil gorge  which has more than 20 additional waterfalls. Someone brought a traveling piano to the waterfall so we had music to go with the view.

We first learned of the museum through our taxi driver on Tuesday night. The taxi driver’s grandparents lived in one of the last old turf farmhouses (the typical one of the southeast has the household living above the cowshed) that was lived in. He stayed with them until he was 8-years-old, and his grandparents moved out of the home in the 1960s/1970s. The home was then donated to the museum, which moved and reconstructed the home on the museum’s site along with some other buildings.

The museum itself preserves the cultural history of the Rangárvallasýsla and Vestur-Skaftafellssýsla regions. It’s collections include old books, paintings, needlework, tools and equipment, boats, and outfits including three dresses around 100 years old. One was a black wedding dress with a veil.

Later, we drove along the natural reserve Dyrhólaey, which translates to door-hole island. The name comes from an arch created by the sea. During the drive, we also passed the Mýrdalsjökull glacier. The picture below is of the volcano that erupted in 2010.

We ate lunch in Vik at Halldórskaffi, a cafe located in a historic house called Bryde’s Store (Brydebúð). The Settler’s Cheese Pizza was delicious! It has a varieties of icelandic cheese and is served with a red currant jam.

Afterwards, we stopped by Icewear/Vik Wool to look around and to step onto the nearby black sand beach. We shopped a little before hopping back into our van to go to the nearby Reynisfjara Beach, which has black sand, a small cave and the Reynisdrangar basalt columns. The winds were as strong as the waves crashing to shore. Our driver warned us before we got there of two things: Don’t turn your back to the sea because the waves are too strong and don’t go into the water even to dip our toes in.

Tonight was our final chance to see the Northern Lights; however, our tour was cancelled once again due to cloudy weather. Getting back to Reykjavik at 7 p.m., we decided to instead go to Perlan, a modern interactive museum that had a Northern Lights planetarium show called Áróra. I did enjoy learning how the Northern Lights are created, and the roles it played in various cultures. We originally planned on going to the 8 p.m. show; however, we were 4 minutes late getting there so we had to wait until the 9 p.m. show. We spent our hour-long wait eating at the Ut I Blainn, which overlooks Reykjavik. I had the steamed cod with kale, onion, preserved lemons and beurre blanc. It was good, but I left still hungry – the same as one of my aunts who also had the steamed cod.