March 1st was National Beer Day in Iceland because that was the day the prohibition was lifted in 1989.
March 4-6 was the ESN Reykjavik annual trip trip to Akureyri, in North Iceland. We left at 10 a.m. on Friday and rode a bus about 5 hours to our destination. We stopped at a couple gas stations for breaks and also stopped at a Kaldi Beer Factory. It was actually very interesting being in an actual brewery and seeing the huge machines that brew and ferment the beer. Oh yeah, they also had free beer on tap and then for the rest of the bus ride the Spaniards that were on the trip (there were like 10 of them) all started to drunkenly sing La Bamba over the bus microphone. I kind of felt bad for our bus driver but I couldn't stop laughing.
We finally arrived at our Guesthouse in Akureyri at around 7 and were treated to a hamburger buffet at 8 at a very nice restaurant called Greifinn. Needless to say it was delicious. The next morning at 10 we left for the ski mountain. It was a comparatively small resort to ones in the U.S. and other countries from what I was told, but it is Iceland and Iceland doesn't find the need to expand anything at all, really. Iceland also doesn't have enough skis for 50 University students after already renting out a lot to other people. Many of the ESN kids had to snowboard just because that was all that was left. That was fine with me since I felt there was less chance of me hurting my sort of bad knee by trying to snowboard. However, I pathetically lasted no more than an hour before I recklessly tried to go down the rope-tow hill, got going to fast (obviously), spun around, faced the top of the hill, fell backwards, landed on both my wrists and didn't want to move them for about 5 minutes because I thought I broke them. I definitely should have seen that coming. They are still terribly bruised but I will live. Nevertheless I still had fun watching everyone to try make it down the hill without falling and we also stopped at the outdoor heated community pool on the way back and dinner that day was delicious again. The pool had two running water slides, lap pools, community swimming pool, hot tubs, all functioning outdoors in about 40 degree weather. Going to any outdoor heated pool in Iceland is always a good time. Pizza buffet was the meal of choice for day number two and you know you are in for a treat when they top pizza slices with bacon like its customary.
And go figure, this being Iceland with it's ridiculous weather and all, skiing had to close an hour early because of blizzard like conditions and on Sunday when day number two of skiing was supposed to be, the entire resort was closed due to absolutely terrible weather. Even on the bus ride back we passed at least two cars stranded on the side of the road, covered in snow. The weather in this country is on a hair-trigger. The pictures of the drive to Akureyri look so beautiful, and then in 48 hours it goes from totally peaceful to wind that can blow cars off the road and snow creating visibility issues like fog. We couldn't see more than 10 feet of the road for a while in our return trip.
But we finally made it back and it was no doubt a fun trip. Trudged through snow to the post office today and finally picked up my package from my parents with hiking boots, swimsuit, etc. So yea, that's about it for now. Woo
