Roy Sigurd Karlsbakks blogg

Starting off quite late today, not leaving the hotel before close to one o’clock and walking into town. On my way, I passed a hair dresser, turned, went back and inside and told the lady to do as she pleased.

Now, that was upon time, and a wee bit cheaper than back home, haircut 4200 krónur and then another 6840 for shampoo, conditioner and some styling stuff, all from KMS. Back home, that’d probably cost at least the double of that, probably more.

Wanting to follow Hildigunnur’s advice of visiting Grái kötturinn (the gray cat), I eventually found it here, across the road from the national theater. A note stuck to the door, however, informed visitors that the store was lokað vegna viðhalds, closed for maintenance. Looking in there, saw one of the nicest cafés I’ve seen so far, perhaps only three tables, and two or three shelves of books, much like a miniature library café. I hope I can get a chance to visit that place.

Still hungry, I ended up at Prikið again for today’s Tilboð 1, “Akureyrar Tribute – Hamborgari m/Frönskum, beikoni, osti, bernaisesósu + franskar & gos”, that is a burger with fries, bacon, cheese and bearnaise souse(!) served with fries and soda. Whoever got the idea of putting fries into the burger, or pour Bearnaise souse over it, I don’t know. It wasn’t bad, but then, it wasn’t really good either. The service at this place is highly variable – this time they forgot to bring cutlery – but a full stomach for 1000 krónur isn’t bad.

Back at the hotel now, having bought some harðfiskur, dried fish, which is a common snack in Iceland and parts of Norway. In eastern Norway, where I’m from, it is generally frowned upon because of the smell (read “stench”), but I find it good 🙂

History says once Iceland had large forests of birch, forests that disappeared when people settled and started cutting them down. As it had probably taken hundreds or thousands of years for them to grow, the climate was too tough for them to just grow back up as would happen most other places in Europe. It seems Iceland also has its own species of the Rowan tree, with bark almost like that of a birch.

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