Posting for two days, I suppose...

Yesterday (Saturday) we were allowed to sleep in and skip morning chores, though we didn't sleep too late as we wanted to get going and head into town! Our first stop was a local gymnastics competition, which we had heard about because two of the extra people kicking around the house on Friday were competing in it. We had no idea what to expect, but showed up at a local gymnasium and watched for a couple of hours. It was pretty interesting! Instead of the events we do, they had a vault and mini tramp event (two events but considered as part of one), a power tumbling event, and a team dance event. On the first two events, everyone went one right after the other (some very close together!) and then they lined up and saluted as a team. The dance thing was interesting too--it seemed like they all needed some elements, such as a full turn, a cartwheel, a prone-fall, and a couple of other bits and pieces, and other than that it was just a dance routine; not so interesting to be honest. The vault was a loooooot of front handsprings, with some half-ons. The hardest vault I saw was a tsuk 1/1.

On minitramp, mostly they were layout 1/1 with some double fulls. Strangely, no one really seemed to try and stick anything, even the things they totally could have. On the power tumbling strip, we saw front tuck to cartwheel, ro, bhs, bhs; ro, bhs, blo, etc. Oh and a couple of front layouts with a full twist that were sooooo low and forward it was like if a whip back was sent forwards and they managed to get a full twist in. It was pretty cute.

After that we had lunch at Bonus which is a supermarket kind of like a mini costco. We had wanted to eat in their cafe, but it turned out to be surprisingly expensive given how cheap Bonus is, so we ended up buying a few groceries--individually-sized skyr, thick digestives, cheese buns, and diet coke. mmmmm bubbles.

After lunch we went to the mall to try and return my mobile data stick from vodafone that doens't work out here on the farm, but without a receipt, she wouldn't help me. We picked up some half-price candy and then took that out to one of the big Icelandic horse breeding farms to watch a show. It was really interesting. Two horses at a time went out onto a track and started at diagonally-opposite corners. They then tolted around (this was a tolt-only class) until they were told to reverse. On the reverse rein they would tolt with extension along the long side and collection around the short ends. After about 3-5 minutes the class would be over and they would each get a score and then move on to the next pair.

We came back to the farm for SUPER quick chores (lots of extra people helped) so that the family could be ready to go in time for Eurovision. But before that we had time to help T take 4 kids on a trail ride. Three of the kids from here came plus one of their friends who was SO funny. He's never really ridden before and spent the whole time using his crop like a jockey and yelling 'hup, hup, yeeehaw!' while smacking and pulling and bouncing along. Osk was an absolute star and did exactly what she thought would be best for him, which was a nice slow trot. Emil and I stayed close to jump in if needs be, but she was an utter star. That pony is amazing. We've walked in on the kids standing on her back while she was in a stall with another pony, as well as lounging around on her back, dropping the reins and leaving her wherever, etc. She's pretty great!

C and I changed back into our city clothes and went into town for dinner. We had yummy burgers at a little burger place and watched about half of the Eurovision contestants before walking around Akureryi and heading home in time to find out that Azerbaijan, of all the European countries, was the winner this year. We had never experienced Eurovision up until this point, but we're both quite well into it now and planning on getting the CD of all the finalists (like 45 of them) to listen to on our Alberta road trip later this summer.

Today (Sunday) was relaxed. We got to sleep in again, because it was Sunday, and when we woke up, everyone else had gone to church, so C read for a bit and I did some work, and then when they got home around 1 we headed out, to the most kitschy place in all of Iceland, probably--it's a funny little Christmas town that is really just a big Christmas store, a few little buildings, the 'world's largest advent calendar' (situated in a faux medieval tower, of course), the cutest little outhouse you've ever seen, and lots of Christmas cheer. Naturally I loved it!

Driving back into town we noticed how the airport here is built right into the fjord--it must be a craaaazy landing! We had planned to go to the visitor's centre to see about our options for getting to our ferry next week and also about visiting Lake Mytvan, which is supposed to be amazing, but they were closed, so we had lunch in a lovely little cafe in a bright blue building and then came back for cows. After cows was dinner and then a bit of low key babysitting before bed. C is asleep now, but I'm working (uploading and the internet is slooooow, so it's taking forever) and updating the blog for you guys. There will be photos eventually Grampy, I promise.

Tomorrow: The Arctic Circle. Also: NO COWS!
xx
D