an awful, awful drive to egilsstaðir, iceland (7)
Halló visitor.
I am having a genuinely awful time in east Iceland. I'm at Camp Egilsstaðir. The bathroom here is fine. What was not acceptable was the journey here. It was rage-inducing, and honestly a bit traumatizing. Without further ado, here's what happened.
I ended my last post in Diamond Beach. So, after the beach, I drove up to Vestrahorn, expecting a 1-2 hour mountain hike. Actually, I did not hike Vestrahorn mountain. I don't even think you can; it's extremely steep. Instead, I paid for access and went to this amazing black sand area here with little hills of sand and a gorgeous beach in front of the water and the mountain.
Pictured: The beach with an awesome view of Vestrahorn.
I drove up a bit to see the rest of Vestrahorn. I also wanted to see the viking-themed movie set they have, but I couldn't really find it, so whatever. After leaving Vestrahorn, things got kind of shit. I backtracked 15 minutes to hit this 5-star restaurant, Pakkhús, with supposedly the best langoustine in Iceland. Huge mistake!
I had to wait 45 minutes to get a seat. The cream langoustine was ungodly expensive. (A langoustine is a lobster kind of animal.) It came in the shell. I don't know how to eat langoustine in the shell. Picture this: some guy sitting alone at a nice beach restaurant, sawing away at a langoustine, drops of cream flying everywhere. He's also sweating. That's me. It was a very awkward experience.
The langoustine itself was pretty good, at least, the bits that I managed to eat. It was fresh and tender. The bread was pretty stale, and the salad was alright. Not worth the money. I rushed to leave the restaurant after a highly disappointing meal.
Pictured: Cream langoustine, bread, salad, water.
Now we start an agonizing 2 hour and 30 minute drive to Egilsstaðir. The first hour was very pleasant — good music was playing, good views were all around me, the driving was a bit tense on the mountains but overall quite fun. But what they don't tell you on the internet (I probably just didn't do my research) is that the "road" to Egilsstaðir is an absolutely horrifying ~50 mile stretch of gravel; just like Thakgil, but there are no cars around to help if you get a flat, and there is no service. There are no bathrooms, no buildings, no people, and no food and water.
Pictured: Bumfuck nowhere on the way to Egilsstaðir.
A car passes once in about 20 minutes. Disgruntled and 50 minutes in, I asked the first car I saw for help. A nice young Icelandic couple told me it's only about 10-15 minutes more until a paved road. I thought, hmm, okay, I've already pissed in nature once, I don't feel like doing it again, if it's really only 10-15 minutes.
Well, again, what they don't tell you is that there are no public bathrooms in east Iceland. Not even one. So for the 34 minute paved road drive, I was helpless. Here, there are cars passing, so I couldn't go on the grass, either. The environment is very beautiful, but I couldn't enjoy it at all.
I'm here now. Thinking back on it, I only suffered for an hour and a half. The badness of this situation feels infinite but I'll probably be fine in the morning. In fact, I'm looking forward to exploring east Iceland. I'll keep an empty bottle in the van this time.
Bless bless,
Ayaan