réttir

réttir is the annual roundup and sorting of sheep! during the warm months, they wander round the countryside, grazing and doing sheepy things. come fall, they must be sorted out so each individual farmer can get their sheep back. so i headed off to see it with three other exchange students. we saw a bit of the herding, lots of running around hills and people on horseback waving their arms. but since we got to the town (grindavík) really early, we checked out the "saltfish museum," which was... just as boring as it sounds. 

anyway, it was very rainy, windy, and cold by the time the whole shindig actually began. the shindig being the sheep being herded  into a stone walled paddock connected to a bevy of smaller paddocks, with each farmer having their own paddock. and then everyone went into the large paddock, grabbed a sheep, and if it was theirs, wrestled it into their little paddock.
very entertaining to watch, but we only watched it very briefly because it was FREEZING and we were SOAKED.

the plan for the way back was to find a natural hotpot along the roadside, but we couldn't find it, and we were literally dying, so we just went to a pool in kópavogur. unfortunately, everyone knows that after going to a pool, you are rendered unable to move for the remainder of the day, so i just sat around in bed until i fell asleep. :~)