Author: Börkur Sigurbjörnsson

Atlavík — Vopnafjörður ?>

Atlavík — Vopnafjörður

I woke up early after a good sleep in the quiet nature of Atlavík. I packed my belonging and drove to Egilsstaðir where I had breakfast with a couple of friends who happened to be traveling through town on their way to go fly-fishing. We continued the chat in the hot-tub of the local swimming pool, where we met an Icelandic speaking Catalan geologist who was eager to chat with us about geology, economy, Icelandic word origins and whatever under…

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Berunes — Atlavík ?>

Berunes — Atlavík

I left my aunt and her family in Berunes and headed north, threading the Eastern fjords — Berufjörður, Breiðdalsvík, Stöðvarfjörður, Fáskrúðsfjörður, Reyðarfjörður, Eskifjörður and Norðfjörður. The route along the fjords is an extremely beautiful ride, with high mountains rising above the road. It was a relaxing ride, I laid back behind the wheel and enjoyed the view — to the extent that I could without loosing sight of the road. I made sure to stop every now and then to…

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Berunestindur & Steinketill ?>

Berunestindur & Steinketill

I spent the day chilling at my aunt’s farm, Berunes, in between walking to the beach and the mountain. I started the day with a stroll along the beach, and then sat myself down on the veranda, reading a book in the sunshine. I fancied climbing the mountain peak above the farm (Berunestindur) but the infamous Eastern-fjords-fog (austfjarðaþokan) covered my path. – You stay where you are city-boy, said the Eastern-fjords-fog, I am the one who makes the calls around…

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Skaftafell — Berunes ?>

Skaftafell — Berunes

After making breakfast in Skaftafell, I continued my journey around Iceland. Next stop was the glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón. On the way there I picked up Vlad, a hitchhiking sausage maker from Moscow. On the way we chatted about everything and nothing. Vlad told me about his adventures of cycling form Akureyri, over the Icelandic highlands and to Skaftafell. It had been a cold, wet but beautiful journey, partially through fresh snow. Since he had not much time before his flight…

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Vík — Skaftafell ?>

Vík — Skaftafell

It was nice to wake up early in the relatively quiet countryside at the Vík camping ground. The stereotypical rooster was presumably on holiday since I was awoken by a flock of sheep. After breakfast I went for the popular local past-time, I went to look at phallic structures on the beach. More precisely, I drove down to Reynisfjara (beach) where I looked at the impressive Reynisdrangar (phallic structures). Back from the beach, I continued my trip eastward along the…

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Reykjavík — Vík ?>

Reykjavík — Vík

Since there are almost thirteen years since I moved away from my native island, I decided that on my current vacation in Iceland I should to behave like a tourist and do some tourism. I decided to drive the ring-road (road nr. 1) around the island from Reykjavík to Reykjavík. Maybe I am not exactly like a typical tourist since I claim to know my school geography quite well and thus have insider information that would be helpful. Dad: What…

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The distress of giving ?>

The distress of giving

On Sant Jordi (Saint George’s day), the international day of the book, I decided to hit the streets of Barcelona, giving away short stories in order to promote my book — the short story collection 999 Abroad. A priori, the plan sounded fun and easy. How hard could it be to walk around and give away stories? The execution did indeed turn out to be fun, but it was far from being as easy as I had imagined. In the…

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La Morella ?>

La Morella

We set off from Garraf train station and headed into the Massís de Garraf natural park, towards la Morella. We followed GR-92 up Serra dels Pins, gradually making our way to la Morella. The route alternated between walking on forest paths, gravel roads and asphalt. From la Morella we enjoyed the view of Montserrat, Collserola and the contaminated city of Barcelona. For the route back, we followed the forest path down to Castelldefels. More photos on flickr

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Figaró — Sant Pere de Bertí ?>

Figaró — Sant Pere de Bertí

We started our hike from the Figaró train station with the intention of hiking to Sant Miquel del Fai. We followed PR C-33 trail up to Cingles de Bertí. Upon reaching the top of the cliff we took another look at the map and argued that, given our time constraints, Sant Miquel del Fai would be too long of a hike. Hence we updated our plans to taking a circular hike via Sant Pere de Bertí, following PR C-33 and…

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