The day started off bright and early to act on an invitation to go birdwatching with a visiting ornithologist from the Icelandic Institute of Natural History in Reykjavik. We saw a gyrfalcon, which was pretty cool! It's a surprisingly large bird and likes to eat ducks, among other things.
Then we decided to get brunch at Vogafjos Cafe, which translates to the Cow Shed. Here's why:
The cafe is also a dairy farm with a small herd of cows. We had a glorious buffet with all kinds of bread, cheese, smoked trout, baked goods (one made of moss!), and the best selection of fresh fruit I have seen since coming to Iceland - they had watermelon and kiwi! It was pretty exciting. I took full advantage of the buffet. There was also this gem:
That's fish oil. Good for whatever ails you, but tastes pretty fishy and feels slimy going down.
Next we had to get to work on bug counting, but there were a couple of surprises at the station.
1. A lake ball! Also known as marimo or kuluskitur, these are spheres of filamentous green algae. Colonies are found only in a few lakes in Japan, Estonia, Scotland, and of course Myvatn in Iceland. There is a lot of concern over the fact that Myvatn's colony is drastically shrinking, but someone brought one lake ball back to the research station. They can be kept in aquariums for several years!
2. A rainbow! Awww!
But our day was not yet over. Not even close. You see, yesterday was the summer solstice, and we decided to drive north to the coast to get as close to the Arctic Circle as we could to watch the sun not set. It was absolutely gorgeous! We had a bonfire on the beach and at the proper time (one in the morning since Iceland is an hour off somehow), the sun started rising before it had even halfway set. We also saw a seal swim by!
I took a picture every 10 minutes while we were there - here's a rough time lapse of the sunset/sunrise over the Arctic Ocean.
After that we drove home and went straight to bed after having been awake for nearly 24 hours. It was a long day but definitely worth it!
Then we decided to get brunch at Vogafjos Cafe, which translates to the Cow Shed. Here's why:
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| CRAZY COW DOES NOT LIKE PETTING. DOES LIKE LICKING PEOPLE. |
1. A lake ball! Also known as marimo or kuluskitur, these are spheres of filamentous green algae. Colonies are found only in a few lakes in Japan, Estonia, Scotland, and of course Myvatn in Iceland. There is a lot of concern over the fact that Myvatn's colony is drastically shrinking, but someone brought one lake ball back to the research station. They can be kept in aquariums for several years!
But our day was not yet over. Not even close. You see, yesterday was the summer solstice, and we decided to drive north to the coast to get as close to the Arctic Circle as we could to watch the sun not set. It was absolutely gorgeous! We had a bonfire on the beach and at the proper time (one in the morning since Iceland is an hour off somehow), the sun started rising before it had even halfway set. We also saw a seal swim by!
After that we drove home and went straight to bed after having been awake for nearly 24 hours. It was a long day but definitely worth it!
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