A Blueberry Day

It was a wonderful, sunny, summer Icelandic day. Blue skies, sunny - even this evening is cloudless, but I am freezing my hands as the open WLAN is only reachable from the outside benches, not from my cellar room....

I climbed up a bit of the mountain behind Ísafjörður this afternoon, looking for blueberries. Are there ever blueberries! Big, sweet blueberries, close to the ground. Tons of them. All you have to do is grab down and pull. I picked for 45 minutes, stuffing my gob on occasion. What a wonderful taste sensation having your mouth just stuffed with blueberries!

I had a whole bag of them picked, enough for lunch, supper, and breakfast tomorrow. It was so sunny I was starting to get sunburned, so I thought I would head down. Going down shouldn't be soooo difficult, should it? It is. Looking for a good place to put your feet when the ground (and the potholes) are covered in grass is a challenge. I crossed some little creeks, washing my hands in the first one. Yup, seems glacial to me - freezing cold! I finally made it down almost to the houses when I remembered I had crossed a bridge waaaaay up there - no bridge here, but a few furts here and there. You climb down a very steep hill, jump or wade, and back up another very steep hill. Hmm. Maybe on down a bit?

I walked though a few pine trees, an Icelandic forest. The old joke goes: What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest? You just stand up. This forest had wild strawberries, lots of them! I picked and ate on the spot all I could find! I finally made it down to a place where the hill was not quite so steep, and made it across the creek.

Now, how to get back to civilization? The houses weren't far, but the space between them and me was covered with weeds higher than I am! I tried to follow this bit and that, but the brush eventually got to be too much. I climbed back up to the top of the hill, set my sight on the nearest street, and then just charged through - and made it!


I was home quickly, chatted with the landlord, she gave me a tour of her restaurant - it is closed as she can't get anyone to be cook or waiter - there is no unemployment here at the moment! Then I got out some skýr, added milk, put in tons of blueberries, and sprinkled with brown sugar. Just delicious and well worth the hike!