Isafjordur / Bolungarvik

July 12, 13 & 14
I have come to find in my travels that every great trip includes a really long bus ride and this trip was no exception. We loaded the bus at 8:30 am heading for Isafjordur and after three bus transfers two cramped mini buses and several dirt roads that hung right off the edge of the mountain we arrived our destination at 6:30 pm. Isafjordur is a unique little place that is surrounded on three sides by mountains and three sides by water (picture that is your head). The weather was brisk but the towering mountains and the ocean scenery made it worth the drive. We woke up on the morning of the 13th to a bright sunny cloudless sky, did our normal walking tour of town, got supplies and then headed off for a hiking trail and a waterfall. This waterfall like many other in Iceland provided an incredible view and a chance to once again take way too many pictures. Our plan for the next day was to get up and hike to a half crater on the opposite side of the fjord and head to a little fishing village called Bolungarvik.
We woke up the morning of the 14th with the exact opposite weather of what we had the day before. Raining, wind blowing and we would later come to find out it was a balmy 3 degrees Celsius, roughly 37 degrees Fahrenheit. This, with the rain, meant the hike was out of the questions due to mud slides and water running right down the trail so we took our time getting up and ready and headed for the Village of Bolungarvik. On a sunny day this village would have great views of mountain peaks and lush green valleys, today however it resembled more of a place you may see in some horror movies with brooding skies, empty streets and clouds and fog obscuring almost every view. There are two redeeming things about the town, first was the Natural History Museum with great displays of every animal that has ever set foot on Iceland (no kidding, they even have a pink flamingo on display). The second was a great restaurant / bar that would make any pirate proud to slug down a pint of the finest grog the place had to offer. The food here was great; the fish was still wiggling when the slapped it on the cutting board to prepare it and everything was made from scratch. It was great!
We returned to Isafjordur to have a beer only to find the local football (soccer) team having a meal in the pub getting ready for that nights game. Needless to say our night was planned and we sat in the cold, soggy weather cheering on the home team and experienced the finest Iceland had to offer of small town football.