Grimsey (Above The Arctic Circle)

July 8-10
After taking in the sites of Akureyri for a few days it was time for us to head to the Northern most part of Iceland, a little island called Grimsey. Grimsey's claim to fame is that it is above 66 degrees North, placing it above the Arctic Circle. To get to Grimsey there is a ferry that goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tourist cram on this boat to sail for 3.5 hours, get off on the island for 3.5 hours and then get back on the boat for 3.5 more hours. We decided that this did not sound like a good idea so we decided to get off the Wednesday ferry and stay until Friday. The town itself has 95 people in it, the island can be walked around in about 5 hours. Needless to say there is not much going on, and when the rest of the tourists got back on the boat and left there were on three of us who stayed, the population was now 98.
The island is full of bird life, the best is the puffin and the worst is the Arctic Tern. These nastly little birds would dive bomb your head if you go too close to their nests, and their nests are all over the island. Needless to say we each got hit at least once. The puffins on the other hand were peaceful scared little birds that would pose for a quick picture then fly off and belly flop into the ocean, graceful lands were not their specality but they made up for it in looking cute. Looking cute really got the tourists, but the locals saw the Puffin as just another tasty bird and would go out and net them for dinner. Don't worry, there are more than enough Puffins for both looking and eating.
After being in town for about three hours we had run out of land one way so we decided to head to the swimming pool. The Icelanders are crazy about their swimming pools so the people we had not met in town yet, we met at the pool. It is quite an event for a tourist to stay so everyone wants to get in on the action. See as there were only three extras on the island there were plenty of rooms in the guest house and so we did the only other thing there was to do in Grimsey, nothing. We went to the local tavern for a few beers then to the pool then we went back to the house to watch the TV that had one channel, mostly in Icelandic. At least we got our rest.
Feeling refreshed the next day we got up at the crack of noon and headed out for the day, when it is light all the time there really is no rush. We started walking toward the other end of the island and after about an hour we once again ran out of land, we had done it we had reached the end of the world, all that was left was icebergs and penguins. Feeling good about our accomplishment we dodged the Arctic Terns and headed back to town for a celebratory beer. By this point we were locals so the crowd was much smaller but the fish burgers were still good.
We woke up Friday morning once again bright and early at 11:30 packed our things and got ready to head out. What we did not know was that the biggest celebration in Grimsey was about to happen over the weekend. The Sjostong Sjovak was a big deal, the ferry that was coming was full of people who would be staying for the festival and for the fishing competition that was the center of the festivities. All of the boats in the village went out about half way and greeted the ferry and we got to get aboard one of the boats to bring in the ferry. When the ferry docked 100+ people got off and just like that the population of Grimsey double. We would have like to stay but we realized we were running of days so we said goodbye to a few people, boarded the very empty ferry and headed back to the main land.