Iceland!

Hœ!

That's Icelandic for Hi!

Well, I have finally made it to Iceland even with the Volcano being all crazy.

May 15, 2010

This morning started out very early and has been very hectic from the start. I wound up taking the Underground all the way to Hammersmith to only find the way to Heathrow was closed, ontop of the fact that I was already running behind schedule. Somehow, I managed to figure out about taking the express train to Heathrow from Paddington, which wound up costing £18 for a one way ticket!! After arriving at Heathrow, I managed to make it to the check in desk to find out that the flight was delayed until 2pm, so at this rate, I was allowed to take a leisurely lunch and get on the plane. Icelandair was exceptionally nice, even though I wound up being stuck with a window seat. Meh. The plane had some funny sayings in Icelandic and was an enjoyable trip. I wound up arriving in Iceland around 5pm, taking the FlyBus for 2300Krona return into Reykjavik. I managed to get into the city in under an hour and have just been meandering and managed to find my way relatively quickly. Although it was relatively nice out during the day, it has gotten exceptionally chilly and yet is still excessively bright out even though its almost 10pm. I also managed to find the hostel, Reykjavik Backpackers quickly but well just have to wait and see how this turns out.

May 16, 2010

I guess you can say today was another epically awesome day in Iceland. Today started out bright and early, by heading down to the Pier to meet up with the Reykjavik Bike Club who do bike rides around the city and the surrounding area. After meeting up with the group, in total there were four of us, we set off away from the Pier and cruised along the coastline while our guide Matthias pointed out lots of interesting points of what it means to be Icelandic, although he is German. After a short ride around the harbor, we pushed on over the hills and headed towards the outside of the center of town. We passed by the University of Iceland and a couple of the various concrete churches they have in town, although we did not visit the most distinguished one of them all. After about a good two hours of biking, we finally were on the way back into town to complete our ride. After parting from the harbor, I mainly just perused the side of town that I hadn't been through yet and ultimately wound up infront of the Bonús store, who's mascot is a flying pink pig with glasses. Even with the ridiculous mascot, the prices were significantly better than the ones at the 10/11 store. Grabbing lunch and few other supplies, I headed back to the hostel to drop them off, only to head back out towards the BSI bus station to head off towards the Blue Lagoon. I just barely made the 2:00pm bus towards the Lagoon after paying 6400Krona for the return bus and the entrance to the lagoon, while arriving at the Blue Lagoon around 2:45pm.

Once inside, I was given this magnetic wristband that acted as your key card and sorts. After making it to the changing rooms, I ran into my first problem - the stupid lockers. I literally spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to open the locker, then how to lock it, and then how to reopen it. The instructions were beyond rubbish, which only actually confused me more and actually hindered the process. Go figure. After that little situation and the laughs from the Icelandic man next to me, who eventually helped me after a couple of good chuckles, I though I was finally ready to enter the lagoon. However, I was wrong, again. Since the lagoon is a natural hot spring, the lagoon is not chlorinated and thus without proper care turn into a cess pool. To avoid that, you have to shower without your suit on and lather yourself with this chemical like soap prior to entry and there were officials who inspected you. No lie. After that little ordeal, I was finally by the spring. The first big challenge was heading outside from the warmth, as it was 4ºC out, while I was only dressed in boardshorts. I sucked it up and ran like most of the people out to the lagoons entrance and was greeted by the exceptionally warm water. The water and the warmth are just so alien looking, especially when they are set in the old lava flows and surrounded by lava rock. I paddled my way over to the silica mask station and did myself up right like all the other Scandinavians. With mask in tact, I swam over the geyser in the pool and greedily enjoyed the exceptionally hot water that it put out. I ultimately went around to the all the different alcoves and places to swim plus venturing into a geysers cave vent, which was like an exceptionally moist sauna that was 100x better. After realizing the time, I headed back in to change and catch the 7:00pm bus back to Reykjavik. Although the silica dried my hands and hair out a lot, it was still exceptionally wonderful on my face and everywhere else it went. I definitely wish I could have spent more time there, but that will just have to wait for the next time I come to Iceland.

May 17, 2010

So another adventure filled day in Iceland is done, only three more days to go after this. Today I was originally supposed to go to Silfra to go snorkeling in the supposedly amazing, crystal clear water. However, on Sunday, I was informed that I was still the only person signed up for the tour meaning in essence that they needed a second person. Begrudgingly, I got the refund and was forced to look into something else to do. I had originally thought about doing a horseback riding excursion and the combined whale watching tour, but in the end I had to choose between a couple of things for monetary reasons and time constraints. However with my newfound free time, I booked a tour with Elding and Ishestor. In the morning, I made my way to the bus station to get picked up by the Ishestar people, who took me to the riding paths located outside the city limits of Reykjavik, a good 20 minutes by van. After arriving at the stables and filling out the paperwork, I was finally transported to the equipment room to be suited, all equestrian style, hat and whip in tow. I was then met with my horse for the day, named Strákur which is Icelandic for boy. The horses though are a bit special as they have been bred pure for almost a 1000 years. They are also one of the few remaining remnants of what he original Vikings brought over. The name Ishestar in Icelandic means ice horse, which is relatively appropriate, however, they are no where near as big as the normal horses back home but are much hardier to the rugged landscape. The horse was relatively friendly, but he had a very strong set will which was kinda hard considering it has been years since the last time I was on a horse. However, I was mounted and ready to go. After a brief introduction, more like a crash course of where we just wing it, we were off into the volcanic land surrounding Reykjavik. Naturally, the first leg of the trek was considerably hard since my horse decided he was not to fond of me being on his back and taking my commands, so he did his damnedest to do everything but listen to what I thought. However somewhere along the way, we came to a compromise and we worked together. At the halfway mark, we came to a stop around a stream area and allowed the horses to rest for a bit. About 15 minutes later, we were saddling back up and heading back to the stables. For this leg of the trek, we sped things up a bit and did some galloping and running back, which was exhilarating and mildly painful for me with the bouncing. However, we returned after being gone for some 3.5hrs and dismounted whilst also performing the necessary end steps of horse maintenance. Overall, I had a fantastic time and for a period of time considered how I could steal a horse and take him back to London with me in my carryon.

After the riding adventure, I was taken back into Reykjavik for the whale watching tour. Although mainland Iceland has been relatively nice with a jacket and the like, once aboard the boat, the bay and the whipping winds made the cold almost unbearable. So to combat this, the Elding people gave us these jumpsuit like things which were basically insulated neoprene dry suits that you put over your clothes. Essentially it made me feel and look like the Michelline man, but whatever, I was warm and actually comfortable so I ventured to the upper decks to start my tour. After about an hour on board, we had finally left the harbor and had entered the whale territory. Although in the end we only saw a couple of whales, we wound up seeing a huge amount of dolphins who were playfully jumping and frolicking in the summer waters. Also in attendance were the newly migrated Puffins, who were practically everywhere. Lucky for me, they arrived on the 15th and have pretty much taken over the small islands outside of the harbor. The puffins are actually relatively funny when they try to fly, since usually when they are in the water they gorge themselves so much they are unable to lift off very far. So, they basically look like they are running on the top of the water, in which, they ultimately give up and then dive down in the water. After cruising around for a couple of hours, we pulled back into port, in which, I walked back to the hostel and stopped by the Bonus store to get some more food items. All in all, Iceland has been amazing and the people are hilarious. The only thing that is driving me crazy is the daylight. It literally is daylight until about 1am and then the sun rises around 4:30am. Even the hours between are not say like usual darkness but more like a dusk, so it's a complete brain flip and my mind just cannot get past it yet. However, exhaustion usually takes over and I pass out.

May 18, 2010

Wound up getting up insanely early again, to get on another tour to go visit the South Coast of Iceland and more specifically, the Jokulsarlon lagoon. The tour in total wound up taking the most of the day starting from 7am until 9pm that night. The tour was actually really cool though, although exceptionally long, since we wound up driving for super long periods and actually drove right next to the now lava producing volcano Eyjafjallajokull. We went through tons of roads covered in ash and actually drove through the ash plume on the way south. We drove through the villages of Selfoss, Vik, and Kirkjubaejarklaustur as well as visiting the Skogafoss waterfall, which was super awesome due to all the glacial run off from the melting glacier. We also stopped at the Skaftafell National Park, which had an interesting memorial to the Skeidararsandur flood plains which wound up killing a several people and took out this huge metal bridge, leaving just an extremely twisted pylon. Many of the biggest glacial rivers in Iceland go through this region which empties in the Atlantic Ocean. Before the lagoon, we went through the gorge of the Oraefajokull glacier, which has the highest peak in Iceland from Hvannadalshnjukur at 2100 meters. After a couple more kilometers, we finally arrived at the lagoon where we took a duck boat tour into the lagoon. We saw a couple of sealions in the lagoon which is filled with huge chunks of ice from the near by glacier Vatnajokull. After the boat tour in the afternoon, we made a couple of stops to just take in the surroundings and the newly formed waterfalls from the volcanic eruption on the way back to Rykjavik, arriving around 9:15pm with the sun still shinning.

May 19, 2010

We went to the Nesjavellir power station, which is a high temperature geothermal area situated in a picturesque landscape near Lake Þingvallavatn. Then we enter Þingvellir, a special place in the hearts of Icelanders where many historically important events have taken place. The Icelandic parliament Alþingi was founded at Þingvellir in 930., the oldest parliament in the world. Icelanders adopted Christianity at Þingvellir in the year 1000 and it now a National Park. Geologically it is unique and here the American and the Eurasian tectonics plates meet and slowly drift apart. We continue to the majestic waterfall Gullfoss and from there to the geothermal area of Geysir and Strokkur.
We proceeded to the church at Skálholt, the ancient seat of the Icelandic bishops where the first translation of the Old Testament was printed. On our way back we will make a stop at the explosion crater, Kerið.
From Kerið we travel through agricultural areas to Hveragerði, a small horticultural town, where you will see how geothermal energy has been harnessed to grow flowers, fruit and vegetables in greenhouses. Due to weather and road conditions we cannot guarantee a visit to Nesjavellir during the winter.

May 20, 2010

After an amazing time in Iceland, I headed to the airport around 2pm after doing some last minute shopping and was able to be lucky and get out of Iceland before the ash closed the airports again. Luckily, the norse gods were smiling upon me as I was able to get back to London on time and actually had the entire row on the IcelandAir flight back to Heathrow.