East Iceland and the snowstorm

Leaving Faroe Islands was harder than I’d imagined. I had been there for 21 days and met some great people and It really felt like home to me, so it was tough leaving it behind. Thankfully, I had Steve to keep me company on the ferry and the scenery of the islands was spectacular, even though I felt sad leaving it behind.

But I was ready for new adventures in Iceland and one day later, I arrived in the coldest place I’ve ever been to.

Last time I was in Iceland, it was sunny and a decent temperature, but this time it’s really living up to its name.
When we first arrived in Seydisfjördur, we were shocked to see that everything was covered in snow. It looks really beautiful though and it’s nice seeing Seydisfjördur in other colours and I must admit that – even though I live in always cold Denmark – I’ve never experienced weather like this before, so it was really scary, yet aslo extremely exciting.

I remember that the first time I arrived with the ferry to Seydisfjördur, the tourists were all in a hurry to get away from the town and get to the south, where the more popular tourist attractions are. I never understood this though. It makes no sense to not spend some time in the places you pass on your travels and Seydisfjördur is such a beautiful town. Therefore, it was only natural for me to stay the night and – even though I’ve seen it all before – I was really excited to experience the magic of this small town again.

The hostel that I had booked for the night was under reconstruction, so Steve and I were driven to a nice house with a great view of the town, where we spent the night instead.

After getting settled in our room and admiring the enormous icicles just ouside our window, we went for a walk in Seydisfjördur, taking pictures of the quaint houses with icicles all over them and enjoying the very fresh air.

We stopped and had a look in my most favourite building in the entire world; the blue church in Seydisfjördur. I love churches in general, but this church has stolen my heart – I’ve even bought a miniature model of it! Eventually, I want to get married to some person in this church, it’s just so magical!

We then went to the supermarket and bought some super healthy stuff (…), but when we went out again, we got stuck in the worst snowstorm I’ve ever experienced. At one point, there was so much snow in the air surrounding us, that I was worried that the cars on the road wouldn’t be able to see us. But thankfully, after fighting our way through the storm and the slippery roads, we got back to the house safely and were given hot chocolate with marshmallows by our host.

Later that evening, we decided to go out again despite the bad weather and ended up having drinks at the local bar for a few hours. I can definitely recommend going to the bar, if you’re ever going to Seydisfjördur, as the atmosphere is really cozy and the owner is super nice.

The next day, Steve and I decided to move on to the next town; Egilsstadir, where I was going to catch a flight to Reykjavik the next day.

Easier said than done though. We got up early and left the hostel at 7:30 to catch the early morning bus, as the busses only run twice daily. My plan was to go straight to Myvatn, an eutrophic lake surrounded by active volcanism and hot springs in the North, after getting to Egilsstadir, but the bus only ran once that day at 9:10. We would’ve made it, if the bus from Seydisfjördur had been on time, but since the roads had been closed because of the snowstorm, it didn’t – and we missed the bus to Myvatn.

We waited around in the tourist office in Seydisfjördur for a bit, but then decided to try to hitchhike instead. Eventually, the snowstorm stopped and the road was opened, and after about an hour of trying to hitchhike, a nice Faroese family picked us up and drove us all the way to our hostel (Guesthouse Ormurinn) in Egilsstadir. For anyone visiting Egilsstadir, I can recommend staying at Ormurinn, as the owner is extremely nice and helpful – he even drove me to the airport the next day!

We didn’t do much the rest of the day, apart from doing a little shopping in Downtown Egilsstadir and going to see Lake Logurinn, which I saw for the first time with my mum in October 2013.

It was a very different experience this time though with no autumn colours to be seen and the lake completely frozen. We tried walking on it for a bit as the ice was pretty thick, but we didn’t feel safe enough to walk across the lake, even though we really wanted to try.

That was my last adventure in East Iceland, before I headed South to meet my parents in Reykjavik.

So unfortunately, I didn’t get to see Myvatn, which was one of the main things I wanted to see, but now I have a great excuse to come back to North/East Iceland someday.