Sulur

July 11
Akureyri sits neatly placed at the foot of the mountains and in the shadow of two peaks collectively they are called Sulur, but separately they are called Ytri-Sula (1,144 meters) and Syori-Sula (1,213 meters). 3979 feet does not sound like it is that high, but when you are going up from sea level, it is quite a hike. Since we have been here there has been a new development, the sun has started to set, it comes right back up, but now we have sun rise and sun set. The event occurs however at about 2 am so the crack of dawn is no time to getting up, so we did the best we could and got up at 6 am. It still felt like noon because the sun was so high in the sky but nobody else was up so we knew it was early. We had planned this trip out a couple of days before, get the bus at 7, to the edge of town, hike up to the parking lot, hike the peak and the hitch a ride back to town. Well at 7 am this morning we found out that the bus does not run on the weekend. So after grumbling a few kind words under my breath, Ginger and I set off on foot. We walked all the way from the center of town to the trail head which was about 5 kilometers, then hiked the 6 kilometers to the summit. The views from the hike and the summit were amazing. The ocean spread out to the north of us, the town of Akureyri to the east and the glacier fields to the south and west. The hike was challenging, but very much worth the effort. On our way back down the road back to town we got a ride from a nice group of locals who gave us a driving tour of town, the Icelanders are very proud of the country and are more than willing to show you around and tell you about all the things going on.