Horses, Vikings, Gull and Canadians!

Wednesday we had our staff party. The hostels treat their staff really well and we get some pretty amazing opportunities!! After work, we all met at the City Hostel (about 40 minutes on foot) to take a bus to the Hester Horse Farms out in the mountains in the Greater Reykjavik Area. I immediately made a friend on the bus named Klara. I heard some interesting things on this bus ride. Klara said my package of 5 gum looks like a spaceship, and I heard a girl explain how Iceland and Britney Spears are very very similar. Unfortunately she had some pretty strong points.

The view from the horse ranch was beautiful.

We let the first group ride to the meeting point and we met them there on bus. Unfortunately I couldn't bring my camera with me. The sun came out when we arrived and we met them in some ruins in a lava field. We were surrounded by mountains and a volcano. Everything was covered with moss and there were Icelandic horses all over. We sat and had some hot chocolate and rum (which was provided) then rode our horses back.

Once we arrived again at the Ranch they had Gull beer waiting for us and we had an unlimited supply!
We were even allowed to take it on the bus!

(Unfortunately not the best picture. We were pretty close)

It was funny because on the way to the ranch we were all in our seats talking quietly, then on the way back everyone was standing with beer, yelling and talking very loud. There were even a couple vikings on the bus!

We then arrived at a viking restaurant. The view was very nice. It was just on the other side of Reykjavik!.

When we got in, there was again an unlimited supply of Gull beer.

We were greeted warmly by Vikings who came in and sang a traditional Icelandic song

After the viking dinner, we ended up going to a bar downtown for some beer and some live music. It was a great first night out with the staff!!

Yesterday, I met some Canadians who were headed off to France to work at the Vimmy Ridge Program. Del is from Newfoundland and Andre is from Barrie and he goes to school in Waterloo. It was nice meeting someone from a local area! After work I hung out with them and a few other people who are here from France. It was cool because we all spoke french the entire night. It was a great way for me to practice!

After we ate some fries at the Laundromat cafe (there is actually a laundromat downstairs) we bought what we thought was normal beer (at an amazing price of 190ISK). It turned out to only be 2.5%, so we sat upstairs and played drinking games anyways.

It ended up being a great night!


Today is Earth Day and Good Friday. I didn't do much but I went for a walk around Tjornin

I also checked out the Canoe that faces the mountains (unfortunatly it was too cloudy to see the mountains) and I saw some pretty awesome graffiti. I think Im going to walk over to the city hostel to go swimming with some friends. Its about a 40 minute walk so we will see!