Northbound from Reykjavik to Akureyri

Two of the tours I booked for my stay in Iceland take place in Akureyri which is in the north (Northern Lights Hunt and Iceland: Beyond The Wall – Myvatn, Mystery and Magic, a Game of Thrones tour of Season 3 filming locations).  So I hopped on a flight from the Reykjavik Domestic Airport to Akureyri which was roughly a 45 minute trip. The airport is very small and so are the planes.  The plane was propeller powered and the overhead compartments are small, too small for one of those typical carry-on size suitcases, so anyone that had one of those had to check it in.  Fortunately I only have my backpack with an even smaller ‘personal item’ backpack, so I got away with carrying both on.  My larger backpack barely fit in the overhead compartment.

So before coming to Iceland, I was unsure how to pronounce Akureyri, and Google answers have different versions of it it seems.  After listening and hearing the city name pronounced a few different ways by locals, the general consensus seems to sound like Aww-ku-err-ee and now that I’ve documented it, hopefully I will remember!

I stayed at the Akureyri Icelandair Hotel which had a beautiful view from the room.  At night the hill beyond was lit up like a ski hill, so I suspect there is one up there.

Although the city centre was not too far away, I took a chance with walking there from the hotel.  There was a lot of snow and the sidewalks and even roads in some areas were covered in it.  It was probably good that the walkways had deep snow that was dry and not very icy, but it was a bit of a workout in some spots, especially the big hill that I had to walk down and then back up again.  Across from the hotel was an outdoor thermal pool that I could see steam coming from. It was open, and busy judging by the sounds coming from it.  I have heard and read that swimming is very popular in Iceland, with geothermal pools all over the place.  About a block from there was a small pond just filled with ducks, a completely random thing to me based on everything else around it.

The city centre was small and neat, I found a few gift shops to browse around in, along with a ton of cafes and restaurants.  Of all the places I could have chosen to go, I wound up at good ol’ Subway, yes a regular ol’ Subway restaurant in the Akureyri city centre.  I guess I’m not that adventurous when it comes to food!  Or maybe the ravioli I had in my Reykjavik hotel restaurant freaked me out a little bit, I don’t know.  Aside from the bilingual menu (Icelandic and English) and the pricing, the Subway was pretty much identical to any one that I’ve been to in Canada.  I paid $13.89 CAD for a 6″ buffalo chicken sub with one cookie and no drink (filled up my water bottle for free).

I have noticed so far that with some of the payment machines in Iceland, once I insert my credit card I am then given a choice of whether I want to be charged in CAD or ISK.  Only some though!  For others I’m charged in Kronas no matter what.  I have always chosen CAD when given the option, but I have wondered which option might be a better rate, if at all; Haven’t taken the time to delve into it that much!  ISK to CAD doesn’t seem to be that much different as far as numbers go, like 1000 ISK is around $12.00 CAD, it’s just the prices to begin with that are more expensive rather than the exchange rate I think.  I have my credit card configured to text me any time a charge goes through on it, and all texts I’ve received while in Iceland have been received immediately and show the CAD amount that was charged, how convenient is that?!!!  This makes it so much easier to gauge how much something is going to cost for future purchases.

And I may as well mention it here since it’s not yet worthy of it’s own post: I went on the Northern Lights tour and it was a total bust!  It didn’t start until 9 pm although I was conveniently picked up from my hotel.  The sky had clouded over by then and we drove around for 3 hours searching, but there were no Northern Lights to be had. Booooooo!  I am attempting to get out again on a hunt, apparently I get a free re-try either in Akureyri or Reykjavik, but I have yet to hear back from the tour company, sigh!  The drive around was still nice though, and our guide kept us entertained with all kinds of stories regarding his Icelandic heritage (a true viking, 30 generations in!) and of various farmhouses that we passed in our travels.  He also took the liberty of informing us that of all the gods there are in this world, there is only one true god: Odin. Already I’m being reminded of Game of Thrones and all its gods and which one or ones are the true one.  Gaaah!

We went to the other side of the fjord (Akureyri city is on one side so we went to the other) so that we could see the city lights.