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Building the bikes
A hallway near the hostel served as good shelter from the rain. Having just arrived in the "Smoky Bay" yesterday, we were happy to be able to sleep through our first night of - well - no night. Around June 21st, the days in Iceland are neverending, and even in the south, it never gets even remotely dark.
The bikes still packed away in bags, our first mission for the day is to assemble them. Also, two of my former colleagues from Edinburgh uni, an Icelandic couple, recently moved back to Reykjavik. When we got in touch with them, they were eager to meet up - another item on the agenda. Meeting Stefan and Elinborg, who are also on bikes, they give us a short tour around town, and we stop by for lunch at a nice small restaurant that serves fish on skewers. This is also where we have our first encounter while whale - as lunch. The texture and taste are very similar to beef, but with a slight hint of fish. Stefan and Elinborg are also incredibly helpful, giving up information and hints about various parts of our planned route. Already, our initial plan to pass through the higher regions of the South, near Landmannalaugar, seems out of the question
Mechanic at work
To fit everything into the bags, I had to almost completely disassemble the bikes - and put them back together. - our bikes are simply not up for the job.
After lunch, we buy some provisions, including lighting fluid for the cooker, and then get on our way. The objective is easy enough: simply follow the roads eastward, until we meet Route 36, which will take us to Ƥingvellir. This sounds easier than it is: around Reykjavik, all major roads in and out of the city are actually 4-lane highways, with lot of traffic travelling quite quickly - not exactly bike-friendly. Stefan himself admitted that he tried getting out of town a few times by bike, but never made it. Add to the major roads a few small roads with no signs whatsoever, and you're quickly back to basic navigation along landmarks - such as the seaside. Knowing that we will have to follow the sea until it ends in a bay North East of Reykjavik, we roughly follow the smaller roads leading that direction. This gets us right onto a golf course - and I mean directly onto the course, near hole Nr. 8, with golfers looking amused. Spotting a concrete path, we decide to try our luck, and a few confusing neighborhood mazes later, we find Route 36
Scenery
Reykjavik outskirts: full of contraditictions: lovely landscape, with a Pizza Hut and highway right behind. - which is still a highway with 2 lanes going each way!
Since we've already lost 3 hours trying to get out of town, we decide to try our luck and - as luck would have it - the highway soon narrows down to a regular 2-lane road, travelling eastward through the countryside. By the time we find a suitable place to pitch the tent, it's already well past midnight, and we're dead tired. In complete exhaustion, it takes us another hour to put up the tent. Finally, a strenuous first day on the road ends!
My tip to any cyclist coming to Iceland:
IF YOU NEED TO GET IN OR OUT OF REYKJAVIK, USE A BUS! IT'S NOT WORTH THE TIME AND NERVE!
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