The weirdest weekend. Very nice, though.

My friend Úrsúla called me sometime during last week and told me about this huge party that would take place in Landmannalaugar the following weekend. The farmers were going to round up the sheep and a lot of other people were planning to show up and party with them. Hmm, sounds interesting, I thought. Sheep round-up party. Wow. How Icelandic can one weekend get?!?! So, I decided to join (the small anthropologist inside, you know).

Just getting there proved to be some challenge. Got a ride with a friend of a friend of a friend... but another friend, Hugh, and his girlfriend didn´t get any ride with anybody´s friend, because other friends´ friends decided to do something else than to give rides to other friends of mine. So, in the end the only person I knew at the party was dear Úrsúla.

So much for the party, an abominable headache turned me into a social invalid who sought refuge in the sleeping bag. By the next day it had more or less disappeared and I could enjoy a walk up a nearby mountain on my own... nature gets so much closer in on you when you´re out alone.

The return trip to Reykjavík was good. We took all the bumpy jeep tracks available, dipped into a mud pool butt-naked (and made the day for some horseriding sheep(ish)-round up guys - they went into the highlands looking for sheep and found three naked women!!!), all the time listening to some fabulously boring music borrowed from a Selfoss cop. What more can you ask for in this life?!?!