Iceland: I Went Down a Waterslide in Iceland!

 From Saturday, September 25 and Sunday, September 26

Originally the plan had called for me to be in Husavik at 9:30 am for a whale watching tour, but on Friday I received an email saying that due to expected high waves in the bay on Saturday they had canceled all tours out of Husavik (seems to be a theme)...but that they would be doing tours out of Hjalteyri instead.  That worked out alright for me in the end.

Husavik

I still went to Husavik because I had to.  It is a cute little town (or big one by Iceland standards).  I went to the Husavik Whale Museum while there and spent probably a good 2 hours inside.  The museum has a load of different whale skeletons from various types of whales that either were stranded or died and washed ashore in places around Iceland.  They even have a blue whale skeleton.  The rib cage for it was probably about 2-3 feet taller than me!  I learned about all sorts of whales that are found around Iceland often, sometimes, or rarely.  

A Real Live (Dead) Blue Whale Skeleton

After the Whale Museum, I went to get more fuel, only to find out my gas cap was stuck.  I still had about half a tank, but the fact I couldn’t get to put gas in put me on edge.  I tried a couple of times throughout the day, but haven’t had any luck.  I emailed the rental place and they said to see if I can find some WD-40 or something at a gas station, see if that helps.  Or else I’ll have to wait Sunday out in Akureryi until Monday morning when the car shops open up.  The good news is I am in Akureryi, which is the 2nd largest metro area in Iceland.  It means that there is a Renault dealer who might be able to help, and things to do to keep me entertained.

But before I got to Akureryi, I stopped by Godafoss, another waterfall.  This one was a short one.  No crazy uphill hikes this time.  It is a nice little waterfall.  Story has it that it got its name when the lead lawmaker in Iceland threw his pagan god figurines into the water after the country decided to switch to Christianity.  This was his way of saying, I’m done with them!

Godafoss

Well, I’m in Akureryi for at least one night.  We’ll see what happens with the gas cap tomorrow.  But first thing in the morning is a whale watching tour.

Yep, that's me.  Put in contacts since it was sort of spitting out and I wanted to be able to see the whales.

And that whale watching tour delivered!  We saw 2 different whales while out for 2 hours.  We spent probably and hour with one alone and it kept coming up to the surface for a little bit, and then would dive back down.  No glorious breaches because this is feeding time, not impressing the mates time.  It was cold and a bit rainy, but it could have been worse, or canceled and I’m so glad it wasn’t because that would have been the second thing canceled on me.  But thank goodness for the thick coveralls and large raincoats.  I had like 4 layers on underneath and with those additional layers everything was warm enough (except my feet which got a bit cold).

One of two Humpback Whales we saw.

After the tour I headed back into town.  One thing I had planned to do today was a bit of shopping for holiday gifts, but I momentarily forgot that it was Sunday, and that meant that all, but 2 or 3 shops were closed.  I decided to hold off until I reached Reykjavik before shopping.But the good news everyone!!!  I got my gas cap off!  I bought a can of WD-40, sprayed down my key and the inside of the lock and without too much work, it jiggled free!  Thank goodness!  That means first thing tomorrow I can be on the road again!  Because in the end I decided to spend one more night here.  It was about 2:30 by the time I got the gas cap thing figured out so after a trip into a cafe with wifi, and checking out the weather, I decided to wait until tomorrow to leave.  The things I want to visit between here and my next stop would be a lot more enjoyable if it wasn’t raining, and it is supposed to clear up tomorrow.  So that left me trying to figure out what to do next.I settled on going to the public swimming pool.  Nearly every Icelandic town of significance has a swimming pool.  Akureryi’s is amazing.  The water is naturally heated, but filtered.  They had 8 different pools ranging from about 35 C to 41 C, plus one that hovered somewhere between 5 and 12 C...I did not visit that one.  They had a lap pool, a large pool for playing that was not cold, but not hot either.  There were 5 hot tubs of varying hotness.  There were also two 3 story waterslides that had an enclosed set of stairs up to them.  I did go down one of them once.  There were actually a ton of adults having fun on the slides.  There was also a smaller 1 story slide.  Besides the nice warm water in the pools, one of my reasons for going to the pool was a nice hot shower.  The campground I’m at seems to only have lukewarm showers which is very disappointing.  The thing about showering here at pools (both Myvatn and the public pool) is you are expected to shower nude and there are no curtains.  It’s just open.  Let’s just say I’ve never done that before.  I know Americans are considered rather prude in that sense, so for me it was a new experience, but it doesn’t phase the locals or most of the other Europeans at all.