- - -

Before leaving the lovely cabin in Bíldudalur just after ten in the morning, Justin texted Valur to say that they would be in Isafjörður late that afternoon and if he and his husband were free Brian and he would love to treat them to dinner if he could pick a place and book a table. Valur promptly wrote back that they would love to and asked if they liked fish. Justin could tell him fish was a good choice and told him he would text back when they would be near Ísafjörður.  

They had stopped at the petrol station where the bought sandwiches and healthy looking smoothies for breakfast and were now heading towards the museum Justin had read about the evening before.  The narrow road found it’s way along the fjord with the steep mountain sides to the left and the ocean on their right to one of the outermost valleys of the fjord. It was for sure quite a remote place.   Not a place one would expect to find such interesting artwork as they indeed did.

The artist had lived on the farm his whole live and never had the opportunity or means to educate himself in art like he’d wanted as a young man. When he retired he’d finally had time to work on his passion.  He made an altar for the local church but when they rejected it he build by himself on his land a church.  Among his other other somewhat naive work is a replica of the ‘ Patio de los Leones’ in the Spanish city of Alhambra, and various other concrete statues for which he collected sand from the shore. Unfortunately most of his work is now in very bad shape through neglect and low quality of building materials but volunteers have been restoring some of if in recent years.

“What is the boy doing with that seal” Brian said with a sparkle in his eyes trying to hide his smile by placing his finger in a theatrical way to his lips.

“He’s feeding him” Justin said a bit cluelessly since he was looking at the piece from the side and did not have Brian’s perspective.  “Yeah Sunshine, come over here and look at it from this angle.”  

When Justin did as his lover suggested all he could do was turn into his embrace and where he hid his face in his chest so that he would not embarrass himself by cracking up in laughter.  “Ahhhh, this is wrong on so many levels” he whispered when he finally could take a glance at the statue again.  Justin hugged his man closer and looked adoringly up to meet his eyes with adoring eyes “yet, it’s lovely isn’t it?  Do seals have sharp teeth?”  he added.

“I don’t know Sunshine… I’m not sure I’ll ever find out”

On the way back they stopped at a nice viewing point where a skinny little waterfall bounced down the rocks getting broken up with protruding sills along the way until it came down with a splashy crash straight into the stones on the shore.  Justin looked at it with his critical artistic eye and then  “Poor waterfall, he’s not having an easy life. I need to film it.  Coming with me?“ he added and winked at his lover who did not have to be told twice. Justin was at the little stream before Brian. He jumped over it and on the other side of it he found nice patch of a sandy beach.  When Brian reached him he was already planking on the sand wiggling his crossed legs  and all the blond boy said was “ou ou ou arf arf…”

“I’ll be damned... there is a seal… I wonder it he’s hungry”  Brian improvised.  I’m too tall for you little seal” he got down on his knees opened his fly and took out his enlarged cock.  The “seal” turned out to be really hungry though, poor thing sucked like it had not been fed for days.  It eventually got rewarded for the effort when a generous ration of high protein juice erupted into it’s eager mouth.    

- - -

The drive back through Bíldudalur was done in comfortable silence, Brian drove slowly on the uneven road with his hand on Justin’s thigh. He had gotten used to the sheep running in front of the car. Here in the Westfjords they were so many more sheep and the actually stayed on the road and not near it like in the south. He had commented on this while falling into small talk with a petrol assistant in the village that morning before they headed out. The guy had told him that because the roads were unpaved they were regularly treated with a concentrated salt mixture to bind the dust and the sheep loved to lick it.  Hence the rule was just to be alert while driving and slow down for them and use the horn enough to try to scare them. Another obvious factor was the general lack of fences. These lands were not farms per se but highlands in a way, open areas where the sheep roamed free in the summer grazing and living their life (their whole live in cases of most of the lambs) in luxury and peace. The certainly were not afraid of the cars and probably thought the road was theirs “and not the other way around as we humans like to think.”

When driving through Bíldudalur on the way back Brian remembered the book of pools Edda had lent them.  “Can you check in the pool-book where that pool is, we’re not come past it have we? I’d really like to take a small dip. The location of the pool turned out to be just 15 minutes drive from the village and even though the GPS worked perfectly they would not have needed it in this case because they could see the larger concrete pool from the road. They were not looking for that one but a smaller natural one located on the hillside behind it.  They parked the car next to the newer pool and walked by a path to the old style natural pool. No other people were around so no bathing suits were needed.

The water temperature was almost too hot for Justin to stand it but Brian loved it.  It was not too deep so the 43°C heat was in his mind just perfect. Justin how ever alternated between sitting in it and moving up to the grass to just dip his water in it.

“Arghhh…. water that hot is NOT good for me. What would you do if my bubble butt would melt?”  he jumped up on the side and lay lazily on the grass giving Brian a good view of said body part.  

“Hmmm…. No... we couldn’t have that”  Brian agreed. “let’s see…. spray it with my big…. ummm… fire extinguisher. Do you think that would work?

“Do you mean... like this?” Justin asked his breathing getting more excited with each stroke he gave his cock as he gave Brian a show way hotter that the pool he was currently submerged in.

“Don’t cum yet” Brian roared as he got up from the water and grabbed for his jeans so quickly he almost dropped his phone into the water but managed to catch it last moment making Justin laugh out loud.  He grabbed the ever present accessories he needed from his pocket and hurried over to Justin who had not taken his eyes of him the entire time. As Brian got close enough Justin rose up and snatched the tube of then made a show of finger fucking himself with such an abandon that Brian could not stand it.

“Stop! you are gonna make me come before I get inside you” Brian warned him

“Well what the fuck are waiting for? Get to it!” Justin demanded and Brian certainly did not have to be told twice. He grabbed the hottest bubbly ass in the entire world and dove into it with one smooth motion and fucked him like his life depended on it.

“Arghhhhh”  Justin yelped  “oh yesss… deeper mmm… faster… unhh… fuck me!”

Their mutual grunts and moans escalated with every push until neither of them could stand it any more.

“Now Justin!  ahh… ah… Ahhhrgh!!! Hahhhhhhh…..”

“ummmerrhh” That was… hmmm good….”   Justin muttered

“Aaaamazing” Brian half moaned as a reply and rolled off Justin to his protest, removed and tied off the condom. They lay for awhile in the grass like that enjoying the pleasantly warm sun but soon enough a cloud passed by and it became too cold so both men took a quick dip in the hot water again to warm up… and wash off…

• - - -   -

They did not stay long though, it was still too warm for Justin and they still had about three hours to drive with the low speed they were traveling. If they were to be able to meet up with Valur and his man in decent time for dinner they had to keep moving.

By now Justin had decided to make a among other motives a waterfall themed series of paintings when he’d get back. Every new waterfall was in his opinion prettier than the last, be it short and frisky like the first one, long and narrow like Glymur or anything in between. He saw his and Brian’s relationship in them, their passion, their life, their love. And when they made it to Dynjandi the cried. The drive over Dynjandisheiði, the mountain road between the pool and the massive waterfall had been a bit stressful. The author of the guidebook was not kidding when he wrote that the roads in the Westfjords had character. It twisted and turned, and was littered with potholes. Miles after miles the surface was literally like a washing board. Add to that how narrow it was completely without shoulders. Add to that the Icelandic killer sheep. By now it was getting hard to tell if they were after the drivers or just plain suicidal. They were there by the hundreds. Justin had driving duty and did not want to know what it felt like to drive there in fog or snow.  But he loved it and he was not the only one. Brian had long since recovered from his near collision on the first day and before long he was asking Justin if he could drive now.

“What? Don’t you trust my driving?” Justin asked a bit defensive he knew he had been taking a few too many looks off the road. They had just passed a road-sheep family of three. They were always three together.

“Sunshine, I do trust your driving, but I like to try too. It looks fun” he did not want to tell him that he was not completely happy that Justin kept looking a bit too much of the road for his liking and the near vertical fall hundreds of meters to the shore would not be any fun to make.  Thankfully he was driving less than 30 miles per hour so it was not as if he was uncomfortable, he did want to try the road. “besides I’d like to catch us a lamb for dinner.”

That’s how Justin was in the passenger seat when the mighty Dynjandi came to view spreading itself over the mountain like a sparkling white silken lace shawl.  Judging by Justin’s initial reaction Brian knew for sure that he had made the right decision when he asked to take the wheel.  He was out of the car before Brian could park it and hurried towards it like moth attracted to light. “Be careful!” Brian told him but Justin was already too far to hear him. He was not worried something might happen he could see families there with toddlers running around so Justin would probably not be in much danger.

Brian took the gas burner from car and found a pack of instant soup. It was a while since they’d had breakfast and he figured they might stay here for a while. If someone had told him a few weeks earlier that he would be in Iceland cooking soup on a camping stove he would have asked what this person had been smoking.  Debbie would be proud of him. When the soup was hot enough he poured it into a thermos flask that came with the cooking set, placed the stove back in the car and walked to the waterfall in search of his young lover.  

He found him sketching totally unaware of any of his surroundings except for the cascading water. He sat down behind him and started rubbing his shoulders and his arm that was by the looks of it getting a bit tired, and by the angry rumbling of Justin’s intestines he was getting hungry too. “I brought you fake chicken soup” he said softly “drink it” he added and kissed his temple.  He’d also grabbed some bread and a bag of trail mix from the makeshift kitchen bag.

“Did you get your fill ?”  it was clear to Justin that Brian was referring to the drawing and not the food. “Nuh-uh… I’m not sure that’s possible… but I guess I can videotape it… actually can you do that for me? I want to make one more from a different angle.” Justin replied.   Brian was happy to help and happy that the camera now had a 64GB memory card in it. the old 16GB would not have worked on this trip.    

Late in the afternoon when they drove into Ísafjörður, the fjord of Ice, Justin remembered that he had forgotten to get back in touch with Valur so he quickly called him back. Brian listened to Justin’s one way phone conversation

“Hey, it’s Justin, sorry I made you wait so long…”

“Yeah, I kind of got distracted by Dynjandi… your country totally blows my mind“

“Yes, we want to check into our hotel apartment. It’s called ‘GentleSpace Guest Apartments’, do you know it?

Ah…. Why am I not surprised? You Icelanders are so funny!!

“And then we’d like to eat... we are seriously starving.

“Yeah, that sounds good, so I guess… could you text me the directions, our apartment is the one in a street that starts with Mja… something..gata.. No it has no D in it ….. Really?   ...oh.”

“Yeah that sounds great, what time is it now? Ok See you around 7 then”

“Bye”

“Hahaha, get this Brian, Valur’s sister in law owns that guesthouse we are staying at.”  Brian had to agree with him, it was pretty funny.  And they pronounce the double L in Mjallargata like a D in Icelandic, no wonder I can’t say those words correctly.

“I’m starving, where did he suggest to eat? ” Brian asked just interested in practical things.

“It’s a seafood  restaurant, walking distance from the apartment. He’s gonna make sure they have a table and he’ll text me the directions.

They had already been in touch with the woman they now knew was Valur’s sister in law and told her their approximate time for arrival. Unfortunately she would not be able to meet them but she send detailed information, where she described they would receive the key at a petrol station located one block away from the apartment.

It was easy to find the apartment, it was located very centrally and when Valur texted the directions to the restaurant they decided to leave the car behind and walk the half a mile to get there. They walked on the ocean side and both agreed Ísafjörður was a very pretty place.

All four men arrived to the restaurant almost at the same time

“Hey! Good to see you  again, Brian, this is Valur” Justin made the initial introduction.

“And this is my equally good half Björn”  All men shook hands. Björn was a strikingly looking guy. His age was hard to tell but Justin would guess he was closer to 40 than 50.  He was a bit taller than Brian and strongly built but well proportioned,  long strong arms and legs, strong chest and probably at least a six pack.  His facial features were interesting.  High cheekbones, ice blue eyes, his skin was tanned and somewhat wrinkled with many scars, his nose cocket it had probably been broken at at some point.  His smile was nice, full lips and white almost too perfect teeth compared to his scarred face. His thick wild looking platinum blonde hair fell past his shoulders and he had a full but well trimmed beard.

“I talked to my sister, she apologized for not being able to meet you she had a funeral to attend in Hólmavík 3 hours east from here. She’ll stay there overnight. She said she’ll get to meet you before you check out.” Björn explained

“My condolences, is that someone close?”  Justin replied like a well bred wasp he was.

“Ah… well it’s her father in law… My sister is a lot younger than me she’s only been married for a few years, and yes I met him a few times but I can’t really say I knew him well. He was too  young to go though, not so much older than me… it was an accident, he fell off the roof of his summer house while he was fixing it, it was not such a high fall… but well… bad things happen to good people sometimes, let’s go and order some good food to honor his life. He was a brilliant chef, he cooked at her wedding.” Björn smiled and both Brian and Justin instantly had a good feeling about him. Valur smiled too, it was clear that the two shared deep love.

The restaurant was housed in one of the oldest houses in town a historical wooden building down at the harbor. ‘Tjöruhúsið’ or The Tar house had been build in 1781 and so was one of the oldest houses in Iceland. Originally it had been a storage building servicing the pier which was the origin of the infant village at her time. The whole house had kept it’s original style with bare wooden walls on the inside and rustic red outside walls that went well with the tall tar painted roof.  They got seated  at picnic style long tables inside the informal and homestyle restaurant, which was pretty full for a Monday, but their Icelandic friends told them it was the most popular place in town and renowned for being one of the best fish restaurants in the country.

Thankfully they did not have to wait long for their food. The restaurant did not have a menu seeing as they only served the freshest catch of each day and the small group asked the chef to surprise them with what he thought would be best.  While they waited for the main course they were served a generous serving of a tomato based fish chowder served with sour cream, the best either of them had tasted. Soon a giant pan of barbecued spotted catfish, cod cheeks and butter fried plaice as well fried potatoes (which Brian skipped of course) arrived. The Chardonnay they’d ordered perfected the meal.

During the meal the four shared their stories and had a good laugh together. Their conversations flowed well and all four connected very easily. The Americans told about their journey so far and Justin described how as an artist he felt inspired by the scenery.  Brian talked about how calm and relaxed he felt getting away from his two demanding jobs.  “I own an advertising agency and a nightclub.  Both are doing well and I have very good people working for me, but this is the first time in years that I took a vacation. I love my job but sometimes it’s a bit stressful. This vacation thing definitely feels different but in a good way. I think I might start doing it more” Brian squeezed Justin’s hand under the table.

Justin then explained how he lived in New York at the moment for his painting. He talked fondly of the city but Valur and Björn quietly exchanged looks, it was clear to them that this little detail was not a completely happy factor for either man.  

“Tell us more about you Björn, are you from here?”  Justin asked wanting to know more about Valur’s hubby.

“Yes, I was born here, and lived here most my life. Most of my family lives here or in neighborhood villages. I never really wanted to leave.  I lived in Reykjavik on and off for 4 years while I was at the school of navigation. I then came back here and got a good position as first mate and later captain of a freezing trawler. I was not sure about my sexuality and when I was growing up homosexuality was still a bit frowned upon so I never really told anyone that I thought I was gay until I was over thirty. Unfortunately I was married by then to a sweet girl. It was hard, I took a sharp turn in live left my job at sea. I sold my half of the house to my ex wife and started taking flying lessons, something I always wanted to do.  Now I get paid for doing what I love, flying low over the Westfjords, I take tourists on sightseeing trips and look for illegal immigrants, that is polar bears.  The State pays me for that I just do the tourist thing for fun. The  trick is balance and finding something to do that makes you happy. I certainly helps having a husband who is willing to accept that you like to live remotely, and of course having enough money to be your own boss” Björn said smiling.

“His name Björn means bear, I like to call him Ísbjörn which means Polar bear because he’s so big and strong...and because of all that almost white hair. It’s just funny that he’s on the polar bear watch. He calls me bird instead because I fly a lot and because Valur is actually the Icelandic word for falcon.  

“Do you have a lot of polar bears? “ Brian asked “Do we need a rifle if we go hiking up here?”

“No not a lot but we get a few every year from Greenland, and unfortunately for them they don’t know they are not welcome here.  North of here is a very popular hiking area and a hungry polar bear does not mix well with hiking people.  And no, you don’t need a rifle. I’m pretty good at my job.

“So do you kill them, aren’t they endangered species?” Justin asked.

“It’s not my job to kill them I just report to the coast guard. And yes they are a vulnerable species but there is not much else we can do. In the end it’s about human security and money, and no one has offered to pay for transporting them back to Greenland. And even if we did it would not be ethical eiter. It was tried at some point if they were captured by fishing boats. They took them back close to the icecap and dumped them there. But those animals who leave Greenland are often young and don’t have a territory of their own so taking an exhausted, scared animal back and dumping it on another bears territory is just plain cruel. They have often been swimming for days without food and water and they can’t win a fight over territories like that.”   Björn stated matter of factly.

“Now now, let’s not talk politics shall we” Valur interfered  “If you like to go hiking we can lend you some gear for camping” Valur suggested, it’s a great place up there and the weather forecast for the the next few days is pretty flawless.” he suggested enthusiastically.   I would love to join you but it’s hard to tell when the eruption ends and we can start flying again. It’s still at full blast so there will certainly be some more days but I’ll have to stay where they can reach me. When they start flying again I’ll only know with a few hours to spare when to get back to work.”

Justin loved the idea, and Brian although not so sure he had to admit it might be worth checking out. God knew he needed more exercise after days of not going to the gym and all that good food. The decided to meet up for lunch the next day, Valur wanted to walk with them around the small town and show them things of interest.

“I’m not going to ask you how you like Iceland, I know you’ve had mostly good weather and there is no better place in the world to be in conditions like this than the good old Westfjords, but have you met any Icelandic people… I mean, do we owe you any  apologies yet?”  Björn asked also not wanting to talk about serious matters.

“We have met a few Icelanders and they were all so nice and helpful. People here seem genuinely nice and likeable. The do drive a bit crazy though, a lot of cars overtook us today on this less than good road and pretty much disappeared into the landscape” Justin replied

“Yes good weather brings out the best in us but… you need to know one thing about the roads it’s a secret though, we can’t tell it to everyone, you need to know the road to be able to apply this technique and stay mostly safe while at it… but there are only two ways to drive on a holy westfjords road. 30 kays an hour and that way softly onto the holes or at least 80 kays and hour and that way fly over the holes. But that is mostly for locals who don’t feel the need to enjoy the landscape.” Björn explained

“Icelanders in general suffer from total lack of discipline, they don’t take rules literally, it’s mostly as if they are written for someone different then them. In many other countries people are in general quite disciplined and take rules very seriously, but as a result they are not as free and definitely not as blunt. Iceland is a bit crazy and so are the people but at the same time they are honest and lovely"  Valur explained,  “and even though they often are mean and thoughtless in their speech, in general they are nice and have less prejudice than many other nations” he added.  “I’m sure you will meet some rude and unfulfilled people here in town tomorrow, they do exist. Trust me I know.” Valur added.

“So tell me… what is the case with the sheep, why are they always three together, is that some Icelandic sheep social thing? Normally they are in groups in other countries.” Justin asked. Brian had not thought about that but it was true, he had never seen more than three together and very rarely two.

“Well social or not, in Iceland they don’t really have any natural predators, the farmers keep them home until the lambs are mostly big enough to not get taken by the eagles, minks and foxes, so they don’t have the need of the security a group provides. In general sheep are individual animals and since most ewes have two lambs each spring the family unit is three. When a ewe has more that two lambs, the farmer will take one away and give to a surrogate who lost it’s lambs or only had one, because it is not easy for a mother to take care of more than two lambs in nature. If you see a pair, it is most likely that one of the lams has been run over.” Björn clarified.

Brian and Justin told them a few stories from Pittsburgh, of their family members and friends and how they had been together since Justin was 17.  “Well good job, Justin” Valur exclaimed, “You are a regular salmon hunter aren’t you, you go after the big one and don’t let it go! I knew we had something in common !”  That remark made all men laugh.  

“So, your turn, tell us how you two met.”  Brian demanded.

“Well, I had just separated from my wife”  Björn explained,  I had been staying in Reykjavik taking flying lessons and at the same time taking my first steps as a gay man.  After my pilot test I decided to go downtown to celebrate my license. And well basically I walked straight into little Birdie here, literally 10 seconds after I entered the bar. ”

“And I snatched him” Valur interjected proudly.  “I was going through a little crisis, my Mum was feeling a bit better and I needed to decide if I was going back to Dubai or not, so I was pretty wasted.  I told him ‘Hello big bear, take me home this second and fuck me until I know if I want to stay in Iceland.’   I guess that was a valid pickup line because 10 years later here we are still.

He took me to the airport and we went flying in the midnight sun, he showed me the south highlands from above. It was heavenly I had never really seen it like that. After the flight when I was sobered up he asked me if I still needed more convincing.  I told him no, but that I still wanted to fuck.  And believe me this guy is super human in bed. My two favorite things in the world fucking and flying. And get this... his teeth come out. I was a bit freaked when I woke up the next morning and saw his teeth in a glas by the bed but I quickly forgot about that. You have no idea what it feels like to be blown by a man with no teeth…” Valur mused and caused laughter from both Brian and Justin.

“Oh baby… no more wine for you tonight… or you will pass out before ‘you know what I’m gonna do to you’ when we come back home”  Björn said staring adoringly at his man.

“Hmmm… perhaps you should have your te... “ Brian tried.

“Don’t even try! You like my teeth” Justin shot back at him and on each side of the table a pair of men exchanged equally loving looks. It was time to end the meal and go separate ways. In at least two houses in town great gay sex was coming up...