8:45am
Woke up an hour late this morning. Was supposed to be up around 7 and woke up at 8:10 because some fly was buzzing in my window. Brian called Arctic Adventures and luckily we were able to schedule a pickup at the central bus station. Now we are on our way.

 

Still no sign of my bag.

 

4:50pm
Just left the horse back ridig adventure and are back on our way to Reykjavik. The experience surpassed all of my expectations and then some. When we started it was severely overcast and chilly, but we were given heavy, orange rain repellant clothing to put over what we were currently wearing – kinda like what a fisherman would wear. 

 

Really digging my new getup.

 

The outfits kept us dry the entire time. At first I didn’t think much of the experience because we started out on a flat lava field next to a highway, but before you knew it we were climbing up a mountain. 

   

Our group riding up the mountain.

   

I should mention that this was the first time I have ever ridden a horse in my life. It’s a really cool feeling. I found myself thinking about the relationship between humans and animals and what other mammals humans can carry out such a relationship with. Regardless, it took little time getting the hang of things, but it became fun really quickly. As we neared the mountains, you’d see plumes of steam rising from the ground here and there. 

 

Plumes of steam rising from the ground.

The further up the mountain we went, the more frequent they were. After a couple hours we happened upon a large stream that was steaming the entire way. 

  

People enjoying the steamy streams.

 

 

It was just past this that we stopped from lunch (sandwiches, with ham, cheese, zucchini, lettuce and red peppers) and walked down to the steam to bathe. It was probably in the fifties in the air, and there was a light drizzle falling, but there were people butt naked in the stream. I ripped everything off and jumped in and it was basically a hot tub. Amazing. Getting out was not as fun, but whatever.

Turns out I like hot springs.

   

On the way back, we took the same route out of the mountains and one slip of the horse at some parts and it would have cost us both our lives. 

 

Incredible views from the horse.

 

Pretty incredible feeling putting all your trust into an animal, but you eventually lost sight of worry and realized that 1. They don’t want to die. 2. They’ve done this before.

 

 

The way back was interesting because the rain was flying into our faces with a little more speed than on the way to the mountain. This was offset by the fact that the horses knew they were going home so the pace in their trot was a little faster. Add in the fact that my horse and I had become one like Jake Sully and his bird in Avatar and all in all we were an unstoppable force for the trail back. With about two miles left to go, the young 19 year old British instructor took all the “advanced” riders and galloped off. They ended up getting back 20 minutes earlier than us. Brian and I spent the rest of the way racing each other or going as fast as our horses / instructor would allow. I kept slapping Brian’s horse on the ass with my leather bridal hoping it would take off, but to no avail. When we got back there was coffee, cake and cookies waiting.

 

The ride back was more of a nap time than anything with the rain beating down and nothing really to look at. Occasionally I would wake up to a really foggy highway, but sooner or later we made it back and got dropped off at arctic adventures. Because my clothes have still not made it here, I had to go in and rent pants and a jacket for tomorrow’s glacier hike. While we were there, one of the ladies was nice enough to call the airport for me. Still no bag.

 

We walked the mile back to the apt and sat and took showers and listened to music from djs that will be playing at Tomorrowland later this week and ate gummy bears we had soaked in the vodka we bought the other day. They had ballooned up and were pretty tasty.

 

We eventually made it out of the place around 9pm and walked back down to the strip we’ve gotten to know so well. We found a new coffee place and Stien and I split French fries, and we all got some coffees and tea of sorts. Since we don’t have Internet at the apt, we’ve used cafes as our primary source and honestly you can find a good signal for free pretty much anywhere downtown which is pretty darn convenient. By the time we left this place, it being Sunday, most of the restaurants in the area had closed so after walking around for a while, we found a pizza / shawarma place called Ali Babi that was still open. The food was as youd expect. Just ok. After gorging our faces we decided to call it a night.

 

Tomorrow. Glacier hike!

 

If you are interested in booking this excursion, click here.