Today looked like being bad weather everywhere apart from Húsavík, which was where we were going to go Whale watching, so that's what we decided to do. First though, we spent the morning looking round the Art Galleries in Akureyri, Ellis entered into the galleries feeling unimpressed, and Luca left seeming a little uninspired by what he'd seen.
The boys insisted on having a Subway - I went for a more Icelandic lamb and yogurt sandwich from a shop. Luca then felt my wrath by leaving his drink sat on the seat next to him as we drove off only for it to fall over and spill everywhere,...
As we drove to Húsavík I kept expecting the weather to improve, but it never did. The air was damp, and cold. We booked in for the whale watching trip and had a coffee downstairs. The waitress gave me the wrong order, but I did the decent thing anyway. I then felt the waitresses wrath when it turned out that I'd taken someone else's order....
We got on the boat and put our overalls and long fisherman's mac's on and took a position on the boat. They warned us that the sea was a bit choppy and that we couldn't guarantee that it would be safe for us to stay out for the full 3 hours and that we might not see anything. But the sea had looked reasonably calm and we were in good spirits as we set off.
The sea soon revealed that it wasn't as calm as it looked. The boat rocked and reeled, we all stumbled around as the water splashed and sprayed over the bow. The boys lapped it up and wanted to stand at the front - I pointed out that we had 3 hours of this experience and we should probably see how we felt in 2 and half hours.
After a while Ellis started to look a bit subdued and I started to wonder how much longer this was going to be fun for and how much worse it would get before we turned round. Luca was still reveling in it though. The staff wandered around, stumbling and sliding without care, so as to make sure everyone was OK. She pointed out that Ellis looked like he was going to fall asleep and that this was a sign of sea sickness. I was starting to feel pretty rough as well by now - that lamb and yogurt sandwich really didn't feel like a great decision. She recommended that we go to the back where it was a bit more stable. Eventually we did - though Luca still wanted to go to the front.
The back of the boat was quite congested. But quiet. Before long vomit started to appear on floor of the boat. I wondered how long it would be before Ellis or I added our flavour to it. Ellis remained quiet, stoical and determined to man through it without a word of complaint.
It very much got to the point where if they'd spotted a whale no one would have been interested. Fortunately they decided that they'd turn round. Everyone breathed a sign of relief. It felt like a long while before we reached calmer waters, but we saw a couple of Porpoise on the way, which provided some light relief. And once we did reach calmer water it was surprising how quickly the sickness subsided. Ellis soon picked up and said that it had still been a fun experience, even though he had nearly been sick.
On the way back we went to the VinBudin in Akureyri, I entered through the double secure doors and chose a few beers from the paltry selection, got served in silence by the very officious looking staff. Felt like going to a sex shop.
We wandered round Akureyri that night looking for something to eat, but failing to find something which we all wanted. I really wanted an Indian, the boys just wanted to go back to the burger place. And I can't really remember where we ended up. The boys more than likely had burger though.
One shop we went in stuck in my mind - a book shop which had a cafe in it. I love those places. Quite bohemian. And with a good selection of books in English. I found one in particular called From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjon. For some reason I didn't buy it while I was there, but ordered it from Amazon when I got back. I now regret not getting it from the bookshop, for all the obvious reasons.
We spent the rest of the evening chilling at the house with crisps and popcorn. I had 2 beers and couldn't really drink any more!
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