Day 3: Don't try to eat in Skogar, and the Scourge of Adventure Travelers

[life_of_glamour]

In the morning we headed out for some waterfalls, glaciers, and good old fashioned Icelandic hospitality. This was a hard day for a variety of reasons, and I may be a bit cranky here and there. It's all a part of my charm. I hope. Nonetheless, onward!

The mountains here seem to be pasted straight onto the wide flat plains, rising straight up in flat rocky faces, sort of like if you took a handful of playdough, molded it into a strangely misshapen box, then slammed it down on your kitchen table. Which makes for some amazing waterfalls. Don't just take my word for it, check it out yourself:



That's actually the second one we saw today. The first one had a parking lot and a trail that allowed you to walk behind it. Before we got to the trail, though, we encountered the most badass camper van you've ever seen.





Had I only known I could rent Chuck Norris, why, I don't know what this trip might have become!

Then we got down to business and hiked behind that waterfall! Here's a picture as we approach the waterfall.



And here's what it looks like looking out from the inside of a waterfall.



After that we made the egregious mistake of going to Skogar for lunch. Skogar is known for two things – a giant waterfall and a well renowned Folk Museum.



And lest you think it's all lobster feasts and licorice candy, let me tell you about lunch in Skogar, which was a goddamned fiasco. I had the soup of the day which was disgusting but you could have as much as you wanted, and Cathyn ordered a lamb and cheese sandwich. Which cost 1500 ISK (approximately $12). After paying $12 for a sandwich, let me tell you, one expects something pretty good. At least decent, right? One certainly doesn't expect to sit around waiting for 25-30 minutes for this:



That's right, this is what you get after paying $12 and waiting 30 minutes, a single slice of lamb, a piece of cheese, a squirt of mystery sauce, and all served by staff scoring highly on my Icelandic hospitality scale :-( :-( :-( :-( four grumpy faces for them.
So, for the record: Don't eat in Skogar. This may explain why all of the ubiquitous tour buses had their people spread out on the lawn in front of the Skogarfoss having picnic lunches. In hindsight, I wish I'd picked up on that clue!

The Folk Museum was...underwhelming. Cathyn liked it a lot because it was similar to something he loves – antique/junk stores. It was three floors crammed full of stuff you might find at an antique shop, none of them suffering from such plebian indignities as labels or descriptions or anything that might dispel any questions you might have about what or why or when.



I suspect that the Folk Museum is much more meaningful to Icelandic people who have some context to put around all the many things in the museum. Since most of the history that's been preserved appears to originate no earlier than 1850, I'm...less interested.

Next stop: our first glacier! It was described as one that is retreating 100m each year, and it was located right next to Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano that erupted in 2010 and shut down European air traffic for several weeks. Our best guess is that the black soot covering the glacier is a remnant of that explosion, and also a possible reason for the hasty retreat (in addition to generally warming conditions).



Here's a closer image, the three white streaks down the middle of the glacier are waterfalls. These pics were not taken in black and white. This is a true representation of the glacier.



We actually got close enough to touch it, however walking on it is dangerous since you just can't know how strong or thick the ice is from looking, so we elected not to do something suicidally stupid like getting up on it. Well, ONE of us elected not to do that.

Then there were further unfortunate items for sale which we elected not to buy.



And finally, we drove out to Dyrholaey, which is a large rocky promontory on which we were assured that many puffins would be nesting and from there we would be “at quite a close distance” to them. I have come to the conclusion that puffins do not exist, and are an invention of the tourist industry created to fool unwary people like me.

We did, however, take a lovely picture representative of Icelandic vistas for you: Black sand beaches over looked by glacier-covered mountains. Freakin' idyllic!



Today we encountered many busloads of Adventure Travelers(tm). Adventure Travelers(tm) all wear a uniform, they always travel in large, loud groups, and they don't understand about not blocking entire paths or entryways. The uniform of the Adventure Traveler(tm) is pants made of nylon rip-stop fabric, with many pockets and (especially important) zippers around the knees so that they can be converted at a moments notice into shorts. Up top they wear shiny nylon waterproof shell jackets with hoods, 5-7 days growth of beard, greasy hair, and on their feet they wear Very Serious Hiking Boots. Every single one of the Adventure Travelers(tm) wear this uniform. There is no variation allowed, if you do NOT wear the uniform of the Adventure Traveler you are, apparently, not allowed on the tour bus.

I'm not an Adventure Traveler(tm). I don't wear the uniform, I wore a miniskirt and tights today, because I like to be a normal person when I'm on vacation. Yes, waterfalls tend to spray a little bit when one is close to them, but clothes, even normal non-waterproof clothes made of material other than nylon, dry after a few minutes.

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[lifeofglamour.livejournal.com]

Well, I mean, who has space to pack their tweezers on an Adventure? Even *I* am growing a bit of a beard...!