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I’ve been to Iceland more than once, but the longest I spent there was in October 1994. I explored Reykjavik for several days, and since I had been there on a stopover in 1993, perhaps I could say I was almost an expert on that small, pleasant city.

North to Akureyri

Tony
2004-01-28 10:18:59

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that “it’s the journey that matters, not the destination.” And I suppose that’s true. Akureyri isn’t the most exciting town in the world, but it’s pretty, pleasant, and easy to navigate. After having lunch at a very old-fashioned snack bar in the basement of the KEA Hotel, I walked all around the city center. I ended up at the municipal building, and went up to the city planning department. One of the town architects welcomed me like an old friend, offered me coffee, and sat down to explain a bit about his work, life in Akureyri, and life in Iceland generally. A really nice way to get to know someplace new! I was really impressed by his hospitality. He gave me a stack of materials about Akureyri, all in Icelandic, but useful nonetheless. I was walking on air as I left the building.

As it grew dark, I went to the town library, after buying a cd by one of Iceland’s many popsingers, in the KEA Department Store (KEA is a local co-op system and runs many of the stores in the area.) The library had such nice floors that everyone has to remove their shoes before going inside. Of course I did the same, although I’ve never browsed a library in my stocking feet before. It was a very nicely designed library and was packed with people, many of them students.

After looking around the library, I walked up a side street to the upper part of Akureyri, passing the house of David Stefansson on the way. He was a very well-known poet in Iceland, and was also the head librarian at the Akureyri public library just down the street. His home was very simple, but looked very cosy, and it's on a very typical street filled with pretty houses built from about 1900-30. It's a museum nowadays, with his large book collection intact. I would like to see that someday, but will have to come back to Akureyri in the summer. The rest of the year, the small museum is closed.

I backtracked down the hill a little and went over to the distinctive Akureyri church. It was open, so I took a brief look inside. It’s more impressive from the outside, but has nice stained-glass windows. As I walked over to the town’s botanical garden, two kids ambushed me with snowballs. Not very friendly, but kids are kids... It was too dark to see anything in the garden, and the snow was coming down hard again. So I went back to the hotel with a take-out dinner and watched Icelandic tv the rest of the night.

The silhouette of the Akureyri church was just outside my window, and I was reminded of the photo of the church in my sixth grade geography book. It was nice to be looking at the real thing as I turned in for the night.

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