Day 8 probably turned out to be my most memorable day of this trip. The only boat back to the mainland was at 2pm, so I set off early on my walk around this Paradise Island's coastline.
Besides the scenery, Grimsey really is the perfect place, it has one of everything (Boat, plane, road, School. swimming pool, restaurant, shop, church etc) a truly great place to live and raise a family (which as we'll see later is something Blake Lively couldn't remotely comprehend).
Despite the slight drizzle things started hotting up about mid-day when a herd of Icelandic Horses started making their way quickly towards me (TITS as my grandad used to call them lol), unfortunately the battery on my camera went as I was recording them as they lined up in a perfect line right under my nose. They all just stood there quietly with ears pricked like elves when thoughts of Family Guy's 'Road to the North Pole' came to mind. I then realised I was 10 meters from a cliff edge and didn't fancy being eaten or pushed over the edge by reindeer so instinctively shouted things at them they'd never heard before, which did the trick!
I was soon back at the guest house chilling on the veranda, after putting my camera on charge,and packing my stuff for the boat journey back to the mainland, when the daily boat arrived in the distance. Three couples started to walk towards the guest house which has Arctic circle info and the airport next to it, with the 'official Arctic Circle' marker 'Orbis et Globus' beyond it, the first couple strode quickly past the guesthouse and obviously knew where they were going, the second couple walked up to me and asked where to go, whilst the third couple were making their way slowly up the slight incline.
On arrival at the guesthouse / airport / end of the road, the straggling couple started to read the general information boards, whilst their body language gave the impression they didn't know what to do. So I shouted over to them to see if they needed any help, I got no response so I figured the wind must be stopping them from hearing me as I was only 25 meters away, so I walked over to them saying Hello, Hi there etc. The woman then walked away and went in to the airport waiting room, so I shouted to her " You're not going to find the arctic circle in there" to which she didn't look or respond. The man though did finally turn around when I was about 10 meters from him and he had an annoyed / disappointed / you got me look about him. Luckily for him I haven't watched anything American since Dawson Creek, so even though I thought he was an american actor straight away, I couldn't think of his name and thought he was probably someone from Beverly Hills 90210. Hence, we had a really good 10 minute chat, where I found out the boat journey was really bad and so they were going to fly back to the mainland. I advised him that the plane was really expensive (lol) and the boat journey back was said to be a lot calmer than the journey here. I told him all about what a great place Grimsey is and about my trip around the Island (including excitedly all about the horses) and that he should stay for at least a night. He sounded intrigued about the place but couldn't stay as they had to get back to the mainland, the woman then came out of the airport / glass shed and after he told her what I'd said about the Island she confirmed that they had to get back to the mainland via plane as the boat had made her sea sick.
I don't think I can remember seeing anyone looking that unwell in my life, her face was a green garden fence paint colour, which along with her pock mark craters and mole on her face made her look like a young version of the evil witch from Wizard of Oz (I thought that at the time, so quite a coincidence to arrive back in Dalvik and the first thing I see is a Wizard of Oz play's cast on their break from a show). Hence, I also thought the man could't be that famous to end up with something like that, so it added to the general non star struck conversation which ended when the owner of the Guest House who also runs the airport and works at the fish packing company arrived in her car to take another guest to the boat " Here's the woman who will provide you with all the information you require" I said, they thanked me and we wished each other a good journey and nice meeting you etc thinking that'd be the last time we'd see each other, it wasn't!
I set off to the boat about half an hour after saying goodbye to the americans, giving myself plenty of time to go to the tourist shop, on arrival the man was stood outside the shop taking in the scenery, but quickly went inside after a nod of acknowledgment to each other. I quickly turned the neat and tidy tiny souvenir shop upside down looking for the right sized T-Shirts and suitable knick-knacks whilst the man stood there looking bored as his wife shopped. It soon turned out that the woman was buying an official 'I've been to the Arctic Circle certificate', for which the woman was asked her name by the shopkeeper, the woman replied "Can I write it down for you" both me and the shopkeeper looked at her in slight surprise, and even more so when she covered with one hand what she was writing with the other.
As the shop keeper was writing out her certificate the woman said to her
"Do you live on the Island"
the shopkeeper said yes, to which the woman replied like a bitchy spoilt american teenager
"OMG it must be so boring, there's nothing to do up here?"
To which the woman put her pen down slowly and methodically, turned round in her chair to face her and said
"I own and run two businesses up hear and have seventeen grandchildren, where am I going to find time to do anything else?
To which the woman said in a 'surprised to be challenged / dumb bitchy way'
"O Oh Oh well have you been to that place where we arrived in the airplane, that I couldn't even begin to pronounce?
To which I said in a firm and quite loud tone"
"AK - UR - EY - RI"
To which the man replied
" Yeah that's right Ayureyri, Akureyri ......."
whilst bobbing his head about and smiling at his mrs, as if to say I can say it and you can't you 'daft bitchy woman'
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I really can't see this relationship lasting, except for the sake of the children
A couple of days later I googled american male actors under 40, and Ryan Reynolds came up straight away (despite being over 40), I've seen him on chat shows and adverts (and with a beanie hat on in Grimsey) and have very little doubt it was him. I was however disappointed when I looked at pictures of his wife Blake Lively as there is no way it could of been her as she's gorgeous. I then googled pictures of Blake Lively without make up and certainly internally screamed with surprise and disbelief, as even though she wasn't green I have virtually no doubt at all that it was her.
The moral of this story is if you're going to help create awareness of child exploitation, don't slag off communities where there is 'minimal likelihood' and no history of child sexual abuse!
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Boat trip back to mainland Iceland
Seal
In the sick bay
Dalvik
Oceanic: Insanity
In the sick bay
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Finishing the day with some Elvish Northern Lights in Dalvik
They don't really show up that well on camera but there were bits of red, green and yellow dancing about all over the place between the clouds and occasionally a big green and yellow stripe when the clouds cleared, all whilst on the rocky beach in the centre of town
Calming shore sounds, nothing to see though yje Northern Lights are faintly there
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