After my 14 km hike, I found a guesthouse in the village Skógar and got a room from the couple running it. I asked them where I could get groceries, and they said the closest place is Vík í Mýrdal (or Vik for short), 30 minutes away. Oh well, it never gets dark during these times, the only limit was the shops closing at 8:30 PM. I drove there, got some groceries (while dodging tourists), and then spent a lot of time browsing the Icewear outlet store.
I wasn’t expecting Iceland to be as cold as it was, so I was interested in the discounted winter jackets (yes, winter jackets for July!). I ended up delaying the decision until later (I was going to drive past the store again the next day anyway). Otherwise, the store has a lot of nice and warm clothes, but outside of a price range of someone who was going to still be unemployed for the next five and a half months.
Between Vik and Skógar there’s a small detour to Reynisfjara, a black beach, which was also a filming location for Game of Thrones. I actually thought it was the shooting location for the beach scenes of Dragonstone and for the Dragonglass cave, but those scenes were filmed elsewhere. Still, it was a cool location, with interesting basalt formations. But too many tourists. I was tired from walking all day, and it was cold, so I didn’t stay that long.
On the way back I passed a tiny little church. There was a husband and wife on the grounds, I talked to them and they were visiting from another corner of Iceland. The wife is originally from this area, and her parents are buried on the church grounds. They were going to take care of the church yard. I asked if the church was open, and the husband said “Let’s see”, and casually just removed the bar blocking the doors and invited me to look inside. It’s a simple small church.
I drove back to Skógar, which took forever because I stopped a lot to take pictures. The guesthouse had several rooms, and 2 other rooms were occupied, but I didn’t meet their occupants. An advantage was the kitchen, where I made myself something warm for dinner. I tried to plan the next days in Iceland, but it had been a tiring day and soon I was asleep.