Day 4 - Mountains Safari, Flea Market and National Museum

Another early start this morning at 9am took us to the mountains Ulfarsfell and Hafrafell.  Both are about 15-20 minutes from Reykjavik.  Before starting the safari we had to sign our lives away to the tour guide named Ethan (? unsure about icelandic spelling).  Lauren drove the vehicle called the Quad Bike ATV and I was the cameraman. The ATV fits 2 people. It's like a large bike on steroids.  We put it to good use, going over over rocky roads (made from lava not chocolate) and frozen waters.  Ethan told us that 4 years ago 4 people fell into the lake next to Hafrafell while driving vehicles and drowned. No rescue team was sent. Guess who discovered the bodies? A bunch of tourists scuba diving. We were supposed to go over the lake but it wasn't fully frozen and Ethan's a strict guide so he said no and so, we did not get the luxury of experiencing a near drowning experience even if we wanted to.  He also told us that only the day before a woman driving the ATV ran off course but thankfully she survived.

Here's us on the ATV.  It was actually quite nice since there were only 2 of us in the group. Too early for everyone else perhaps?

A photo from the top of Hafrafell

Off the top of Ulfarsfell. There's bike racing on ice.  Look carefully and you will be able to see the race track.  Apparently it's quite popular. We drove to Ulfarsfell after Hafrafell, using the ATV of course.

We went back to the hotel after the safari tour to refresh.  After having lunch (hot dogs, apparently the best in Europe, next image) we proceeded to the flea market.

I have no pictures unfortunately only hundred meg videos.  Lauren bought some leggings but other than that we didn't get anything else.  There was a small area where you could buy seafood and other gourmet goodies.  It was there I had my first piece of rotten shark.  Promptly threw up 80% of the 2cm square block and swallowed the rest.  Interesting taste...  the woman selling it said she eats like a container of it without problem.  You're supposed to have it with brandy or something after eating it.  In case you were wondering, icelandic rotten shark is exactly what it is, shark that has been kept fermenting for around 3 months.  Yummy.  Sushi anyone??

We walked back to the hotel again to have a rest then caught the bus (280 kroner which is about 2.80 AUD) to the National Museum.

Here's us outside the building.

The museum was quite good, we didn't get enough time to go through the exhibits.  The main exhibit was on the history of iceland.  According to history, all the women in iceland are of British ancestry, the Vikings took women (with or without consent) from the British Isles to Iceland with them.

After that we took a walk again down to the city area, this was taken on the way.

The lake was frozen over, it's the only time when we can pretend to be like Jesus and walk on water.   Many of the ducks and geese were confined to a small area of the lake as all other parts were frozen.

We stayed a bit and fed them bread that some random woman had given to us.  Well, she said please, so we had to take it from her!

After that we wandered around looking for a place to eat and settled on a place that had minke.  Next image shows it all.  That's what Lauren had, I had a tiny piece, it was surprisingly not too bad, a bit steaky and a bit fishy.

More adventures tomorrow!