ShizuokaGirl: Iceland 3: Selfoss and what we ate in Iceland

Our first evening stay was in Selfoss.

Lovely town with a beautiful church, hotel by the river.

But our guide recommended eating in Stokkseyri (a small town by the seashore with a population of around 445). "A lovely three course lobster meal" it was written. So, very hungry, we drove down to Stokkseyri, a 25 min drive. The town was so small, we drove through it twice without seeing any restaurant. It was just a small little place.

Fortunately, the menu was posted on the outside:

Now, just to inform you: $1.00 equals 110 Iceland Kroner.

So the recommended lobster meal was $99 a person!!!

Even a bowl of soup was $25.

Needless to say, we did not eat there.

So we wandered about the town and saw:

A lovely old church and cemetery.

Interesting grave marker

Old mounds with small markers

An old shepherd's lodge sodhouse

Even fences and boundaries are beautiful with rock and moss

So back to Selfoss and we googled for a family restaurant, not expensive, and headed over to Surf and Turf. This was our first true understanding that there are no inexpensive restaurants in Iceland except for Subway and little eating counters run by the gas station convenience stores. Casual dining for supper around $35-$50. And notice they are serving tenderloin of horse. The owner assured us they only slaughter old horses or when they are culling for breeding purposes. We did not choose to eat the hrossalund.

From that point on, we did what we were recommended to do in the first place. We filled up on the wonderful, delicious, healthy breakfasts provided (for free) by the hotels we stayed at. (Pickled herring provided every morning). Then a late afternoon meal(pizza, hot dog, sandwiches), snack for supper.

Here is what breakfast looked like at each and every hotel (plus the bread table and the coffee bar).

At some point, we discovered Icelandic hot dogs were pretty darn good (and under $5). This became our go-to along with pizza when we really were hungry.

I had also followed some advice to carry a lot of food with us which turned out to be a wise idea. All food in Iceland is at least twice as much as the US and in touristy areas, even more. Also took along an empty bottle and filled it with delicious Icelandic water every morning. Although we were never hungry, we sure did miss our regular, healthy meals that we eat here at home!