Iceland: Day 3

This was my last full day in Iceland, and it was blessed with beautiful sunshine! The other two days were cloudy on-and-off, but this day was gorgeous throughout.

After breakfast at the hostel (this time with the addition of danishes), we took a shuttle to go horseback riding with ís Hestar. I was so excited for this outing: I've never grown out of my pony phase, and I love horses. The ride wasn't long, but when we arrived it felt like we were very far away from any cities. We were surrounded by more lava fields, lots of flowers, and real trees (in Reykjavik, the trees were all short and stumpy).

We were part of a big group, so there were probably about thirty of us getting paired with our own Icelandic horses (they are their own breed, and are smaller and furrier than "regular" horses). The farm we went to rescues horses who are on average 10-15 years old in order to give them a second chance. There were so many horses there, and I was impressed that many of the staff members knew all the horses by name (of course I can’t remember the name of my horse because he had an Icelandic name). As they paired us with our rides, Hannah gave me the good advice to claim I had never ridden a horse before; that way we would get the calm horses. This totally worked, and my horse just followed the drill the whole time. Once we all were on our horses, it was time to go!

Here's Hannah on her horse.

Our ride was absolutely amazing. I will let the photos speak for themselves:

And here’s a fun fact: Iceland has no equine diseases, so none of their horses are vaccinated. Who knew?

I was having so much time!

This is an inactive volcano in the distance.

This was my horse!

After the ride, we sat outside on the terrace to enjoy a cup a hot chocolate. It was the perfect ending to the perfect excursion!

The horseback riding was just in the morning, so we spent the rest of the day in downtown Reykjavik. We did some more shopping, and though I had planned to buy gifts for my family, I ended up buying more things for myself. But it was my vacation, right?

We passed this sign every time we walked toward the downtown area. The smiley sperm in the condom hat cracked me up.

This is Hallgrimskirkja, a famous old church.

We saw (but did not visit) the Icelandic Punk Museum.

This pig statue was celebrating the World Cup; it was the first time in 47 years that the Icelandic team made it to the competition.

This is the seafood stew and mystery fish dish at Icelandic Street Food.

We had a late lunch at Icelandic Street Food. I am SO glad Hannah suggested this place. The business model of this restaurant was pretty neat. They only offered three entrées: a seafood stew, a lamb stew, or a fish dish that looked like mashed potatoes. But as long as you ordered one entrée, you could get free refills on any of the entrées, plus free bread, carrot cake, and coconut macaroons. What a deal! The seafood stew was good (although I’m not sure all the seafood was actually local), and the fish dish tasted just like gefilte fish!

Afterward we headed back to the hostel for a yoga class (compliments of our stay). There were only five of us who partook in the class, but that’s probably a good thing: the room let in a lot of sunlight, and the small space became quite hot very quickly (the yoga was not promoted as hot yoga, mind you). But the class had great energy; the two men in class had powerful “ohms” that added an intense vibe to the class. Hannah and I were pretty sweaty after class, so we cleaned ourselves up before heading out again.

A beer flight at Icelandic Craft Bar. Image found here.

Because we had had a late lunch, we weren’t really hungry for dinner. But we had received coupons for the other restaurant earlier for free beers at their sister bar, Icelandic Craft Bar. I don’t drink beer, but I figured Hannah could get two beers, and I would get something else. It was definitely a beer place, but I tried what they called “cider” (it wasn’t like hard apple cider at all, but more like some sort of clear spirit mixed with some rhubarb mix). It was very good! I also tried Brennivín, which is Iceland’s home spirit. Our bartender (who from Los Angeles of all places) described the taste as “the life of a sailor.” So I assumed it would be salty, harsh, and have a sad ending. But it wasn’t like that at all! The flavor is citrusy and floral, and it is so smooth. It was so good that I had two shots of it, and I bought a bottle to take home with me.

Since this was my last night in Iceland, it was fun just hanging out at the bar and chatting. We met another American, a young woman who was traveling on her own. It sounded like she was making adventures for herself: she got a rune tattoo, and she joined Tinder so she could meet men in Iceland. I don’t know if I’m jealous of her wild spirit or scared for her own life…

Then we got ice cream one more time before going home. The place didn’t have sprinkles (I’m not even sure if the girl knew that word), but there were miniature M&M's, so that more than sufficed my need to have extra sugar with my dessert.

We saw the prettiest sunset as we were walking back. It was like Iceland's way of giving me a nice send-off.

Once we got back to the hostel, Hannah and I stayed up late having “girl talk” in classic sleepover style. This was such a fun evening to end this trip!