The Grand Reyk/Russian Adventure, Part 3: Where Fish Die So We Can Feast

Sadly today marked the last full day we're here in Isafjordur. I have to say (and I've told Allison this) but originally I thought coming up the West Fjords, we would kind of run out of things to do and see pretty quick. And while hiking isn't exactly my ideal definition of fun, I have definitely come to love it when Allison's coming along. Particularly if said hiking trip involves an element of danger; somehow that actually has proven to be an element of all the adventures up to this point that we've enjoyed the most(:

Kayak Skirts and all

Before that though, finally this morning we got to go kayaking! Ironically enough with kayaking too, I'm not much for kayaking. I think since I grew up going to Scout camp and only having canoes, I became first more of a canoer than anything else. Then I went onto rowing, and loved that, so maybe it's just that kayaking is my third boating skill I have to learn that makes me more hesitant to kayak. All that being said, we had a great time!

We went out with a guide from Borea Adventures, and cool thing is, the season just recently started, so it was just us! Ahhh the life of an introvert made all the easier by avoiding unnecessary social interaction. Our guide was excellent, and even though I think Allison and I next time would want to do one of the more intense (but drastically more expensive...) kayak trips, it was definitely cool talking to the guide about Iceland and Isafjordur in general, hearing what places she would recommend for dinner for our last night in town (more on that later) and seeing the mountains and city from a new perspective. Plus don't misunderstand, I might not be crazy about kayaking, but something about being on water has always been a huge draw for me. I don't know if it was rowing, or all those Scout Camps (where at one I was actually deemed the Lake Monster for always being down at the lake, by the way) or if it was living at my apartment building in Ypsi right next to Ford Lake and coaching high school kids rowing on that lake, but I love water sports. So this was definitely a good experience. 

And for future's sake, I did basically almost capsize my kayak when I was being pushed into the water. Although for reference, I don't think the skeg on my kayak was out the entire trip, so I blame my instability on that(:
I feel embarrassed to say it, but after that we kind of went back to our apartment and just took a break for a little bit. I feel bad about it cause we're here in Iceland, so we should be sucking the marrow from every moment we have here, but I think we both needed just a little down time.

Good thing too, cause our day ended pretty gnarly. Our kayak guide had pointed out on our boat tour a mountain on the other side of the lake called the Troll Seat, where there's this gaping depression in the mountain. It looks like that volcano in Washington that blew up like in the 60s and 70s and has this huge chunk of it missing cause it broke apart when the volcano erupted. Anyways, our guide said the hike is steep and pretty tough, but its also really fun, so after our longer break, we staggered out of our apartment for some fresh air and some adventure, and started climbing this mountain.

Just a sampling of our uphill battle

Of course, the sign showing you the general path for the trail said the hike was only 0.5 km long, but I think it was more like a mile solid. And when I say trail, it was more like a bunch of weaving dirt paths that had just been worn down cause multiple hikers had seen the same possibilities of this or that trail and had walked up and down them. Frequently though the paths just seemed to dead end, and then Allison and I were left scrambling up and down the mountainside till we found another path. Also an issue we had not yet encountered, but what do you when the path leads you directly to a patch of snow that covers all the trail in front of you? Short to say, walking up involved a lot of detours, scrambling on our hands and feet over loose rocks, dirt and shrubbery and frequent breaks to breeeeeathe(:

But we reached the top! And of course, as luck would have it, that's when it decides to start raining. Oh joy(: But we did sign the guestbook that I had read about that they had up at the top of the hike, we took some pictures, and back down the mountain we went! Problem was, going down all the dirt paths we had traversed earlier were now much more muddy and slippery, so going down proved to be harder than the ascent! While going down, we saw this couple walking up the mountain, and with a dog in tow. Funny enough, but they stopped moving for a little bit, so we see the guy pick up the dog and they keep moving. Chances are the dog got to a point and was like uhhh what is the point of us climbing this mountain? Honestly, I thought the view and the hike was dope, but in the rain, yeah I kinda get what he's thinking.

Overall though, it was a great hike and I'm happy we went on it.

The actual "Troll Seat"

At this point, we're ravenous for some food. Now to return to what our kayak tour guide said, (and again, props to her because everything we did that day after the tour with her is thanks to her suggestions) as we were walking back to the kayak tours office, she pointed out this red wooden building relatively close to the docks and was like "I don't really like seafood, but that is the one place I trust to have great fish every time". Since I knew it only from TripAdvisor saying it was a great place to eat, I figured it might be fun to try somewhere new for our last night.

Not only did it not disappoint, I think it blew both mine and Allison's minds. We walk in to find it's about as picturesque fisherman village as we thought it WOULD be: all wooden construction, long wooden tables with matching benches, a serving bar near the front (not a drinking bar mind you) and something you wouldn't expect, but really informal service. The lady we saw in there first barely spoke to us, mumbling something about "Wherever you want to sit", and there are no utensils or plates set out. Nor did we get a menu or anything. We sit there for maybe 15 minutes, only like 3 other couples in the whole restaurant, and this bumbling dude walks up and takes our drinks. Turns out he's basically the waiter for the whole restaurant...

Crazy strange, and we're not sure what kind of place this is, until the waiter walks up with our drinks and some instructions for how the restaurant works. Basically they don't give you menus because they don't know what fish the cook is bringing back from the docks RIGHT THEN, but usually they serve everything buffet style so you can take a little bit of everything anyways. I could just picture it though: since Isafjordur is mainly a fishing village, and the restaurant is close to the docks, the fishermen laying out the catches of the day for the cook to look over, he then hauls some of it into a cart, wheels it the short distance to the restaurant, and just cooks it right there. Of course I kind of couldnt believe it was THAT fresh.

So unsuspecting, so simple...

Well it was all either super fresh and cooked to perfection, or that fish had been pumped full of crack cocaine, cause I had six different types of fish (spotted catfish, cod tongue, halibut, plesh, wolffish and something else?) and literally I could not find a single thing that wasn't the best fish I had ever had. And the best thing was, like a buffet I particularly frequent, namely that of Pizza Hut, it was eat until you explode, so basically Allison rolled ourselves home after our respective kabooms. Not even to mention how dinner was preceded by a serve-yourself style five fish cream soup where they just thunked a huge pot of soup down in front of us with some fresh homemade sourdough bread. Yep, we might have died from food comas afterwards, but it was worth it(:

Waiting.......

Soup, and yep, we got the whole bowl for two of us(:

Serving #1...

Short to say, that ended the night on a good note. Hehehe and LAVA and Blue Lagoon to follow tomorrow(: