Iceland, Day 8: Ferries and Waterfalls

Wow, Sunday already!  Well, happy father's day to all of the fathers!  Also, it is our 24th wedding anniversary!

Today we drove about half an hour to the ferry, then took a three hour ferry ride across the very large fjord.  It might have probably taken about the same amount of time (depending on the gravel roads), but taking the ferry was a nice change of pace.  It was a long time, but I finished my book and got some quality iphone gaming time in ;).

Our ferry

Shelby doing her Cousin It imitation (referencing The Adams Family)

Children trying to avoid me taking their picture, again!

When we landed, we found a grocery store to get food, then drove to our hostel (about half an hour away).  It is an odd setup.  They have two houses, the red house and the green house, across the street from each other.  Then the city parking area is a block up the hill from there.  We are on the second floor (of two) of the green house.  There are four rooms on our floor with a kitchen and two full bathrooms.  Each room seems to have two beds, so we have two rooms.  Instead of numbers, they named them.  We have (in English) the Rainbow room and the Lighthouse room.  The other two rooms are the Moss room and the Waterfall room.  Kind of sweet.  There is a couple in the Moss room.  Not sure about the Waterfall room.  No one is here yet for that room.

After we checked in and unpacked, we went to a waterfall and mountain  that are very close by.  They are included in many guide books, etc.  I'm not sure why.  They were nice, but not as nice as some of the other waterfalls and mountains we've seen so far.  They were the Kirkufellfoss (waterfall) and the Kirkufell mountain, named for the Kirkufell farm that used to be here.  The story goes that the two sons were fishing in the river and drowned.  The mother was overcome with grief and cast a spell on the waterfall and river that there would never be fish again and no one would die there; and so far, both have come to pass.

Shelby

Shclby

Just in case you weren't sure what would happen!

Joshua

The mountain

After dinner, Randy and I went for a walk, but I had forgotten my SD card by my computer (dowloading these photos!).  So no photos, but suffice it to say that it is a cute town, very tidy, but very small.

There has been something rolling around in my head lately about travelers.  If you just want to know what we've seen, you can scroll past to the comment section, otherwise go on and read the next paragraph.

In my ruminations,  I have thought about types of tourists.  There is a whole horizontal continuum.  And this is not meant to be judgemental at all, I'm sorry if it comes out that way.  We all are who we are and I have to think about something for all of those hours in the car.  You have the people at one end that have a written or mental list of everything they want to see.  They go, snap a picture, and move one.  Sliding down the continuum, you have people that know what they want to see, and like to be there for awhile, get the feel for it, but still rush from one "sight" to another.  Still further down, you have the people that like to experience each place they go to, each sight they see.  These experiences help inform who they are as a person.  The current buzzword that seems to fit this is mindfulness.  Then, of course, at the other end you have the people who enjoy reading about other people's travels, but have no interest in doing anything like that themselves.  If you didn't guess, I'm the second to the last kind.  I spend a lot of time reading all of the informational placards (yeah, I'm that person); looking at the sight: be it a sculpture, waterfall, or an old building; thinking about it, then taking a few photos to try to record it the way that I'm thinking of it.  I spend time sitting on a bench and people-watching, hoping for a conversation with someone else--natives of the area or other travelers.  I like to discuss what I see with others I'm traveling with to help organize my thoughts and try to see whatever it is with their eyes as well.   These experiences help inform who I am, geek that I happen to be!   Of course, I tend to spend a lot longer at each sight and drive my fellow travelers who are one of the other types crazy!

But that's all, good night!