We spent a leisurely 8 hours driving to Ísafjörður, seeing what we could see.

It can be difficult and somewhat problematic describing someone’s driving style, especially when you will be in the car with them for the next three days, but I thought I would give you just a taste of what it’s like when Hawk is behind the wheel because it such an important part of our Icelandic experience.

Imagine barreling down a small two lane road at high speed when all of the sudden you come to a screeching halt and the car reverses back up the road at the same speed. “What the heck happened?”, you immediately think and then you realize Hawk has seen a cascading waterfall from the side of his raptor eye. For reference, there are 10,000 recorded waterfalls in Iceland. This particular chain of events can happen anytime, and several times, …an hour. As Hawk concludes that it is indeed a photo worthy spot, we all start looking for a turn out to park in. Silly us. Hawk darts off the road toward the prime waterfall viewing location and starts driving over a pile of rocks and parks right on top of them. This is the man that coined the phrase “why walk if you can drive?”If you are traveling with Hawk and have a delicate constitution I suggest using the bathroom before getting in the car. Use it as often as you can.

While I am on the subject of random car stops, you never know what the terrain is going to be like when you open the door and fall out of the car (because it is already high off the ground, and when it is parked on an incline it gets to be especially precarious). We are finding that walking through the foliage is like walking in deep snow. Sometimes it can go up to your knees and you never know how far down it is when you take a step. My mantra has been, “don’t break an ankle, don’t break an ankle, ooohhhhmmmmm”.

The rallying cry of the day “Wind Sock and Rainbow” was a head scratcher. When Hawk and Peter started chanting it, I thought, “WTH?”, when I realized it was a photo they wanted to make, I blurted out “wait, are you kidding? We are really going to stop, pile out of this car, and take a picture of this?” Hawk replied “this is boy stuff” and then he and Peter jumped out of the car with gusto. There are some things in life I’m not meant to understand, but I sure know that Peter will not be sitting in the front seat with Hawk again. Mischief seemed to ensue when those two spent concentrated time together. I submit a photo into evidence in hopes that I can garner support in my questioning of this un-photo worthy subject.

Additional evidence they should not be left alone together

You may be wondering what is Hadda doing while madness like this is occurring all around her, all day long. She is a zen like person who engages in the zen art of knitting in the backseat. And most importantly has wisdom to stay above the insanity.

Hadda introduced us to Icelandic music. I think I was expecting something like traditional Celtic. When the band Kaleo started playing my first thought was “wow, I am tragically unhip”. Then when Hadda informed me they opened for The Rolling Stones in 2024, I realized that yes, “I really am out of touch”. There is more work, much more work, that needs to be done to shore up my cultural literacy.

But I’m not quite done on this topic. Hadda asked me if I had heard Of Monsters and Men. When I said “no”, I thought she was going to declare I was a hopeless case and then move on. When their popular song came on, I said “oh, yes I know them” followed by “wait, are they Icelandic?” Hopeless was case declared. It’s like when I show someone a photograph and they ask “did you take that?”. I love that even now she keeps asking me “have you heard of [insert musicians name here]?”, with hope in her voice.

We also stopped at a museum/coffee shop/ waffle (or pancake) place two times today. Apparently coffee and waffles/pankcakes are a thing here. It’s not just for breakfast, it’s an anytime of day snack. At the first place the waffle maker started smoking and was declared unusable. This was nothing short of a state emergency. An urgent call was made for another one to be driven up. We were miles from anywhere much less a store with specialized in kitchen appliances. The drive was going to be hours, in one direction.

But back to the first museum. The museum was attached to the house of a famous Icelandic poet. I had read that Icelanders are not only hearty and resilient people, but they are also artists and have a deep appreciation for art. A simple statistic: Iceland publishes more books per capita than in other nation, with 1 and 10 Icelanders becoming published authors in their time.

Take for example, the exhibit in the direlect herring factory we went to yesterday. At one point, it was the largest building in the country. After it was abandoned it became a great place for photographers with its grungy graffiti walls and rusted machinery. I have to admit I was disappointed that none of that was there when we arrived yesterday. In its place was an art exhibit. Once I let go of my expectations, it was so interesting to take in the ephemeral forms and artistic ideas in a place with such an industrial history.

At my advanced age, I feel like I have experienced every type of dining experience on the planet. Tonight proved me wrong. We ate at the most popular place in town. Reservations were definitely required. Imagine 60 people in a small room with a low ceiling, all sitting at communal picnic tables. There are 2 seatings a night, and you must finish your meal before the next seating. The food is served buffet style. Now imagine the place is run by an extended family, in which one member delivers a 10 minute monologue in two languages on how you are to get your food, along with re-enactments. One poor guy made the mistake of getting up and serving himself a bowl of soup before the monologue and was immediately shown back to his seat, and the bowl of soup removed from his place. It brought a whole new meaning to “No soup for you!”.

They serve only fish at this restaurant, but 5 different kinds of fish. You ask for a small piece and are served a piece a 1/4 size of the plate. It’s times like these, I wish I had a bigger stomach so that I could try all the things. I think we will be going back just so I can really take in the whole experience.

Just a few iPhone photos from the day