Mount Esja

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Soooooo... Yesterday was like the coolest day ever (Both experience wise and temperature wise, aha)! I was originally planning on another lazy day before my northern lights tour at night but decided against it after reading of mount Esja. Just 20km North east of Rekjavik, this is the most prominent mountain on the coastline that has paths maintained by the city that are followed by thousands of hikers each year. Both getting there and getting up was a challenge!

It was such a beautiful day so insider mind walked a but to the bus stop around the corner and up the road. From there I caught the 15 towards Mosfellsbær where I thought I would transfer soon to the 57. Turns out it only comes every hour and I had just missed it 😞

So to pass the time, of course I find food because, well, what else do you do when you're bored in another country. I wandered into Icelandic KFC (really the exact same as home) and grabbed a sandwich while watching kids play in the place place (cause we know those don't exist in McDonalds ?)

Spent sometime in there and then went back over to the bus which came with 10minutes to spare before my transfer was invalid. This bus took me directly to the base of the mountain.


So I went up. And up. Aaaaand up some more. And eventually I saw a couple black spots near the very very top of the peak. There's no way that can be people. Omg it's people, I want to do that!!! After just over or under an hour (apparently I was supposed to time myself) I finally reached the top and man, it did not disappoint. Likely the most incredible view I've ever seen... I'll let you see for yourself.

The couple guys who came down from the top top, had big studs in there boots and ice picks and really didn't recommend me going any further so I listened to them and stopped there. On of them was from Reykjavik and is an air traffic controller, headed to Montréal for a conference in a month! He also last year and year before climbed to the summit 180-200 times a year. No biggie right? This is his gym, he says, so much better than being couped up in a fitness centre, and I'm definitely feeling the effects of that workout this morning! We parted ways and I headed back down to catch the bus... Or that's what I thought I was doing.

Down Esja in 44:49, I had JUST missed the bus back to Reykjavik. The next one - an hour and twenty-seven minutes later! ? So of course I contemplated hitch hiking, but being quiet reserved me, I gave up asking people leaving the hiking centre after 1 couple who was headed the other direction. So I waited, and waited, and then waited by the bus stop about 20 minutes before it was supposed to come. And what do you know, a lady in a nice Porsche SUV drives up slowly and asks if I'm waiting for the bus. I say yes and she immediately waves me into the car. She says "I live here and I know how much the buses suck, I'll drive you into town and you can catch one of the more frequent ones there..." Thank you kind lady in the Porsche ! She drops me off at the KFC stop and I almost get on the wrong direction one, run across the street to catch the right one and then finally I'm home.

I get to call out dad in this next paragraph... When I get back to the room, I have a new roommate and he's sleeping. And snoring. Snoring reaaaal loud. And it sounds exactly like when I share a room with my dad. The exact same congested snore. Sorry G, it just reminded me of you!

I didn't end up napping very much because of 'dad' but I headed out to the northern lights tour regardless. We drove about an hour out of the city lights to a place called the blue ocean, and waited and waited but nothing came. At this point, it was the 1st and I was really thinking about running inside the little café where 95% of the people were huddled up waiting and drinking their 400kr espresso and yelling "The lights are here, quick!!" But I decided they might be a little mad with me when they realized there was nothing there. So a little disappointed, we drove home and I went to sleep.

The End

- NB

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