Skyberries and Voidmelons or Voidberries and Skymelons

On my last full day in Iceland, I visited the Snæfellsnes peninsular.

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Near Stykkishólmur:

She took a bus into Reykjavík, the number 1 bus, that afternoon, and wandered around the city.



She found gloves lined up on railings with a sign saying "Single gloves speed dating", and she wondered how her glove that she had lost in Vík was doing.



She went past a postbox for "letters to the Icelandic Santa" and it explained that you should write a letter with the name of your best friend or child and they would get a letter and gift from one of the 13 Icelandic yule lads.

She walked past souvenir shops selling many toy puffins, and a shop with a large polar bear outside.

It was snowing on and off in Reykjavík that day.

She took a lift to the top of the Hallgrímskirkja and admired the views across the city of the colourful buildings.



She went inside the Harpa building and stared up at the geometric shapes and the pretend birds flying across. She found a glowing sculpture made out of empty bottles.

Then she stood for a while by the harbour, simply looking out across the water to the mountains, the beautiful mountains.

The girl with only one glove (she lost the other in Vík) went inside the folk museum and listened to the guide at first, who explained that when she was young, if she looked like she might be a bit pale or getting ill, her grandmother would ask if she had been eating too much fresh food. In her grandmother's time, fresh food was scarce and as they were not used to it, could make them feel ill if they did eat it.

The girl with only one glove looked at the objects in the museum - the inscriptions on the bed boards, the old bottles from Hull, and then she went outside and into the turf houses. These were small wooden houses that had roofs with turf over them.



She then briefly looked around the transport museum, at snowmobiles and old telephone switchboards.

The coach tour continued and she saw a waterfall running sideways, and mountains, beautiful snow covered mountains (or were they volcanoes?), and pylons amongst snow.



The coach stopped and she got off the coach, along with the other tourists, and stood next to a field, looking for the glacier - Eyjafjallajökull, and the volcano that erupted just a few years ago.

Back on the coach and then it was time to stop at Seljalandsfoss.



She followed a slippery path that took her behind the waterfall and there was a rainbow waiting for her there, which she walked through.

She had very much enjoyed her first full day in Iceland and found it all amazing and wondrous.

Sometime in the 1980s, I read The Hardy Boys: Arctic Patrol Mystery, and was fascinated by the fact that in Iceland, people were listed by their first name in phone books.

I had wanted to visit Iceland since then and last year I took Icelandic classes for 10 weeks to find out more about the language.

On Tuesday 24th March I travelled to Iceland.

When I stepped onto the plane, I noticed the seat covers had Icelandic phrases on them and that made me smile:



Here are some clouds I saw:



I travelled by flybus to my hotel (Hótel Hafnarfjörður) and then wandered to a supermarket, where I bought some baked apple skyr (similar to yogurt) and some kleinur (twisted doughnuts) to eat.

I stayed in the town of Hafnarfjörður, which is the third most populous town in Iceland (after Reykjavík and Kópavogur). It is situated in lava fields and has a large population of elves and other hidden people.