A new life in Breithdalsvík

As I wrote some days ago, we arrived quite late to Berunes the night before, so we decided to stay a bit longer than usual in bed, as we estimated that our plan for that day was not very tight. Then, we had breakfast, we checked our email and we started driving...

After ten minutes, the car started suddenly to lose power until it stops in a crossway. We realized that the engine was overheated although no indicator showed anything to us. We phoned the rental car company (Hertz) and after thirty minutes our car was taken to Breithdalsvík, a small village two kilometres away from that crossway.

We then phoned again Hertz in order to ask for a replacement car. They told us that the only available car was in Reikiavik (more than 500 kilometres away) and they were going to send it if we agreed to pay for the broken engine. That was a clear blackmail, but we had no better alternative, so we agreed with that. Eight hours later, around 8pm, we would meet someone from Hertz with our replacement car and some documents for us to sign.

I even considered the idea of settling down in Breithdalsvík if our replacement car could not arrive and start a new life as a fisherman (see the picture to the right). That idea did not looked like that bad to me. For Sonia, I guess, it was not so appealing...

In our time there, we had lunch in the only hotel and restaurant of the village, we planned to go to the swimming pool (but finally it was not possible since we were quite busy that afternoon), we found some accommodation nearby (it was not that easy because a ferry was leaving to Norway the next morning and everything was booked), we emailed the Spanish Consulates in Iceland and the Spanish Embassy in Norway asking for help and advice, we drafted a letter explaining what happened to us, we sent some postcards, we went for a walk under the rain in the fjord,... I must admit we did not get bored at all and I am sure that we were the greatest news ever in Breithdalsvík.

At eight, under a torrential rain, we met the employees from Hertz, who clearly said that withouth our agreement to pay for the broken engine, they were not going to give us the keys of the rental car, although they were breaking their own contract. Finally, we had to agree on that and sign all the documents and we took the replacement car to Eskifjördur (see picture below), the place where we had to sleep that night, about 50 kilometres away. Before we spoke with the owner of the hotel, which had seen us around town and wanted to help us (what I told you before, the greatest news ever in Breithdalsvík).
Again, we arrived quite late in the evening and I was extremely tired, but somehow Sonia and the owner of the guesthouse persuaded me to give some milk to two lambs before getting into our room (it should be around midnight and it was raining). They sucked the milk like crazy and it was, after all, an enjoyable thing to do after a day full of fights and problems. Somehow, though, I did not want to feed the lambs, I wanted to eat them!

Our next day was going to be very busy: we were going to get up at 6, go to the police station in Eskifjördur, then drive and visit a National Park, visit Lake Myvatn, have dinner in Akureyri and sleep in Olafsfjördur. That was the plan for our last full day in Iceland.