Waiting for the bus

On the taxi ride to the hostel the previous night, I had asked the driver to point out the SBA bus terminal, even pronouncing it the local way (ess-bee-ah) to help shorten the neural pathways and ease the burden on his somewhat weaker English. Combined with my midnight tour of the city, I knew exactly where to go. This would be a hectic day, with multiple connections, eventually ending back in Reykjavík about 15 hours later. There was no room for error, so of course, I showed up and the terminal was not yet open.

After 20 minutes sitting on a bench in the sun, the doors opened, and I was finally able to get some food. Good old skinka samloka (ham sandwich - without a dictionary, I still wasn't 100% sure at the time exactly what skinka was) for breakfast, and a langloka (sub - literally a long sandwich?) for the road.

Some other tourists started showing up. From a previous camp conversation with Darren the part-time gear shop employee, I had already identified them as British, from their Berghaus rucksacks, before they said a word.

The SBA-Norðurleið system is a very impressive feat of logistics, combining a tour with local commuter service in a sparsely populated but beautiful part of the country. People would be getting on and off at various points, and with a single point-to-point ticket, you can build your own tour, combining a number of different routes and stop-overs. Mine would be off the beaten path, and not likely to be a common one. The first segment was a more touristy one, and included a guide. A quick check of tickets, and my day started rolling again....

Akureyri, from the other side of Eyjafjörður