Category — Iceland

July 22

Before leaving the crazy Is(ce)land, a few things that any normal visitor should do in Iceland, but I didn’t, for lack of time or will.

Stuff I didn’t DO

• Take part at the “runtur”, the famous weekend barhopping activity. Starting Friday night and lasting till… sunday evening, people drink up at home, then hit it for the bars in Reykjavik. I wanted initially to go check it out, but was not in the mood the first evening.
• Walk on the glacier - would have liked it.
• Horseriding in the wild - cool, but priority 5 for me
• Salmon fishing - priority 55
• Museums - there’s a cool one about viking history, didn’t get to do it

Stuff I didn’t EAT

• Hakarl, rotten shark - I didn’t have the chance. Found out from R. that there was an open market where you could have it, but too late, I missed it. Would have liked to try.
• Brennivin. The local brandy. Goes with the shark. No shark, no brennivin.
• Ram testicles. I wouldn’t have tried even if I had found.
• Puffin. I saw at a restaurant, but a meal was 10% of my Greenland expedition. I decided to pass and use the money for what was more important.
• Whale. I found pretty cheap whale, around 12 euros a “shish taouk” type stick. I was tempted, but decided not to do it eventually. For emotional reasons. I am fond of whales. I like fish, but i am FOND of whales. There’s a difference. I didn’t feel like eating them. In spite of existing temptation

There could be others, these are what comes to mind. Overall though, I’m happy with what I managed to do. I would advise as priority 1 the Golden Circle, then the Blue Lagoon (can be done on the way to the airport) and whalewatching, which I am a fan of. Beyond that - all depends on time, possibilities and inspiration.

One thing I did do in Iceland is meet some really nice people. Starting with D. and V., the guest house hosts, and the guest house… guests R. and E. Nice meeting you guys!

With that - now I’m really out of here. See you in… the next chapter.

Among the Nordic languages, I like Icelandic most so far. While Danish and Swedes sound jumpy when they speak, like they’d speak to little children, with stumbling sounds like „ütt’ – ött’ – ätt’ -itt”, Icelandic is more free-flowing, from the tip of the lips, with the oddest sounds combined in a pleasantly natural way. For example, đ is pronounced like a „th” in „leather”, Þ is like a dry „th”, in „thing”, then they have the strong „chhh”, but not as spit-full as in Dutch, æ is like ä in German, they also have ö and ü. The „s” is strong, like in Spanish and Greece, „LL” is pronounced “DL”, „au” sort of an „eu”, etc. This crazy combination sounds very much like Elfish, the language spoken by Arwen & co. in the Lord of the Rings - i find hearing this on the streets utterly cool.

For example, the word Snyrting – doesn’t it sound nice? You can already imagine a hero in a story with elves, druids and vikings, maybe from the same gang with Aragorn, Legolas, Mithrandir, Gimli or Boromir.

Snyrting.

It means “Toilet”.

But there are other cool words. For example, this street in the center: Dar Skólavörđustígur. Or, the coolest Italian-Icelandic combination I saw:

One last thing, speaking of Elves and Gnomes, it seems I haven’t been far off with my hypothesis - not long after thinking about it I found this:

The Icelandic language is the ancestor of German and English. Since they were isolated here for so long, they kept the Viking language from around the year 1000 almost unaltered. Lingvistic treasure. I wanted to buy an English-Icelandic dictionary, but as it was ~20EUR, and tomorrow at 7am plane is leaving, I stayed to Laxness’ book. If I’ll ever need it, we’ll see then. But at least one thing I needed to find out. So I went to the book store clerk and asked her how to say “cool” in Icelandic. It’s “FLOTT”, or “SVALT”. Flott, like in German, or swell, like in English. Cool.

22 July

They say that in Iceland whale watching and whale hunting vessels anchor next to each other in the ports. We tried to identify them, couldn’t though.

Whale hunting is a hot topic in Iceland, highly political and emotional. Together with Norway (don’t know the status of Japan), I think they are the only countries in the world still hunting whales. For “scientific reasons”, they say, and serve whale meat in restaurants. They also say that Minke whales destroy their fishing stock. I wonder if it’s not exactly the other way around, humans destroying the whales’ fishing stock. Anyway, Iceland is supposed to be one of the world’s best whale watching spots, so I went.

Funnily enough, when we boarded the ship, the welcoming person told us “enjoy the hunt”! I wonder if they take tourists to hunts as well…

First stop, Puffin Island. Puffins are a small funny waterbird, like the name, with a big colorful beak, constantly looking for fish.

They are millions around, apparently, and Icelanders eat them.

The coolest sequence was when a puffin was chased by another larger bird, which wanted to steal its prey. The puffin made a great avoiding maneuvre and plunged into the water. Cool stuff.

We went on, towards the whale spotting places. They say wherever birds are gathering to feed,

chances are whales turn up for the same purpose as well. And indeed, it seems that bubble came from a whale.

which eventually surfaced, but I only got a glimpse at its wing

I didn’t take too many pictures, it was wet, cold, rainy, windy, was afraid the camera might get wet and sea water is supposed to be highly corrosive. Whales came, not as spectacularily as last time in Boston, but nice nevertheless. Managed to capture a bit on this movie:

The second part of the day was dedicated to the Blue Lagoon. Lonely Planet says “it is very touristic, but if you don’t go you’ll regret it. Indeed, the incredibly turquise lake in the middle of an empty lava field is really impressive.

38 degrees celsius in the water, 12 degrees outside. No rain. perfect for a bath.

Water is 2/3 salty, 1/3 sweet, with bacteria and specific unique minerals, apparently very healthy. Like the “normal” thermal pools, it is not treated with chlorine, so a strict body hygiene is imposed before bathing.

Since it was the last day in Iceland, I took one more walk in Reykjavik, to say goodbye. With that occasion I saw a scene Hitchcock might have found inspirational for his movie “birds”:

and it became even more intense

The secret was this lady, who was feeding them.

Before you know it, the eagerly expected sejour in Iceland and “surroundings” came to an end. Thank you V. for the idea!

Tomorrow morning, up at 3:30. Because it is time again to follow the

Call of the North.

July 20

I decided to do a few “standard” trips. Touristy to the bone, but found it the optimal way to cover as much as possible in the little time available. Mass tourism, much like Spain and Turkey, with pickup at the hotel, transit to a bus, with a big group, travel to the “objectives”, a little time for photos, that’s it.

The first was the “Golden Circle”.
I was going to get picked up at 8 a.m., so at 5 to 8 I went down, to make myself a sandwich. While I was busy toasting n stuff, a tall blond guy with shoulder-long hair, around 45-50 years old, was standing in the middle of the kitchen, staring at me.
“you need to get rid of those, there’s no room at the table”. ‘those’ were my backpack and jacket.
“it’s ok, i’m not staying”.
“aha. good.”
while he keeps watching me, i finish the sandwich
“you done?”
“yes.”
“Good. Now go.”
I look around for a napkin.
“whar are you looking for?”
“a napkin”
“we dont have any. only at the table”.
“ok.” i take a napkin from one of the tables.
“right, you’d expect people to eat at the table, not like this, on the way. Not nice.”
„…”
„Now go.”
I smile, and go without a word, down the stais. He comes to the stairs and watching me go, says:
“be careful not to spill on the floor. Making it dirty. Not nice.”
“bye.”

I walk away smiling. Dani and Vero get along well with him; I admire that. It must have taken a while for them to “crack his social code”.

I get “collected” by the minibus, which takes me to the big bus, and off we go. Through lava fields, along hot water pipelines.

The first “warm-up” stop is on a hill from where we can see a geothermal plant and several hot water-collection points.

The plant serves the city of Reykjavik - one part of it, including the one with the Pavi Guesthouse, being directly supplied with hot water from the ground, ~80-90 degrees Celsius. From here. The other part of the city is served by cold water heated using some other ground water, which comes at 120 degrees. celsius. That’s possible, i found out, due to the higher pressure below the surface, which pushes the boiling point above 90 degrees.

The lake in the distance will be talked about later.

The giude told us not to step on the moss. It takes a few seconds to destroy and some 50 years to grow again. As per the picture.

Iceland has the oldest ground in the world (somewhere in the west), and also the youngest. This. Hardened lava.

They have the youngest island in the world, UNESCO world heritage. Born around 1960.

Moving on, along the idyllic Þingvallavatn („thinkvadlavatn”) lake, one of the most memorable landscapes from the entire trip,

Next target: Þingvellir (Thinkvedlir), the place of the first parliamentary session in the world, 1078 years ago. It was called Alþingi. A Viking parliament, every tribe was sending over a chieftain + a small escort, to debate and settle community issues, including Supreme Court type stuff. Interestingly, the Court was just giving the verdict, the execution remained with the accusing party. Also, there was no death penalty - the toughest penalty was exile, rejection by the community. You were not allowed to live with people, and anyone finding you had the right to kill you. The penalty was effective 20 years. If you made it, you could come back to ’society’. In the Icelandic sagas, there is a story about a man who survived 18 years alone. Lived on an island. People were preparing to welcome him back to community, thinking that he had paid his toll. One didn’t agree, went out and killed him. No other made it that far.

Sagas, by the way, are their most important literary creation. Sort of legends, written around 1200-1300, accounting for viking life from colonization till then.

Another cool thing about Alþingi is the fact that you can see, probably best in the world, how two continents join/drift apart. The Atlantic Ridge is the place where Europe and America meet. Here, in this valley.

These rifts are made during earthquakes. I liked their puzzle aspect, if you join them they fit. And we’re talking about continents.

Every earthquake they drift apart a few centimeters, or even meters (last time, 7m). This is how these corridors were made,

where we walked down

with the English girlscouts following.

This corridor has some outstanding acoustic properties. If one stands at a certain point, he can be heard along the entire corridor, making it possible for a few thousand people to hear a single speach, without microphone.

They had a Law Speaker, since before year 1000 there was no writing here. Writing came with Christianity, which was also adopted in a parliament decision that year, right here.

Our next target was Gullfoss (Gudlfoss), the Golden Falls, second largest Icelandic waterfall

Nice view, getting you wet if walked down. Which I obviously did.

In the distance, the glacier where the river making the cascade comes from

Next, the attraction of the day, at least for me.

The word Geysir comes from this place, from the first hot water-bursting spring internationally acknowledged. It was called

Geysir.

In time, it became a common noun, like “xerox”. The “Old Faithful geysir”.

Those people in the picture were not supposed to be there. It’s damn dangerous. Geysir erupts very irregularily, now not perdictable. 50 metres column of 90 degrees boiling water - you don’t wanna be there. The old Geysir had been silent for many years, but started erupting again after an earthquake in 2000. First often, then even less so. Now maybe once every two weeks.

Of course he was silent while we were there, but his younger brother, Strokkur, is much more reliable. On average every 5 minutes, he has something to say. And spit.

The surprise for me was the blue/turquise bubble.

But first to explain the mechanism, which I only now understood.

There’s hot water in the ground, right. Like 80 meters deep, i donno. Because of the pressure it is still liquid at 120 degrees celsius. But because it’s so hot, it climbs up if it finds a crack. Climbing up, the pressure decreases. So does the boiling point. And the water cools down. At some point both water and boiling point reach 90 degrees - that’s when the water boils and turns into vapors - i.e., gas. In the meantime, the cold water which fills the pond at the top, being cold, is falling down. at some point, it meets the gas, which is trapped between the boiling water climbing from below and the cold water falling from above. This gas pocket expands and expands, with even more water boiling, and finally the direction with less pressure gives in - and that is upwards. So when there’s enough gas gathered in the pocket, it breaks the cold water barrier and erupts at the surface.

What we see at the surface is how the geysir “breathes”

swells,

and when there’s too much gas for the water to hold,

it bursts,

pfffffffffff

tsssssssssssss

eruption.

Filmed, it looks like this:

After spending about half an hour with Strokkur, to get the images above, i climbed a small hill to get a panoramic perspective

and to tape another eruption (somewhere around sec. 22)

I liked the geysirs a lot. On departure, I found Little Geysir as well, who was mumbling something all the time, all by himself, without any height ambitions though. Yet.

On the way home, we stopped at a smaller but very neat waterfall,

with green spring water (unlike grey Gullfoss, which was glacier water),

And that was it, went home. Arrived around 7pm, in time to make it to the thermal pool, a “compulsory” experience in Iceland. Water at 32 degrees, perfect for outdoor swimming in cold weather. Thermal pools are social meeting points for Icelanders, where they discuss from gossip to business and politics. The one I went to has a large Olympic pool and a smaller pool where I played waterbasketball with a family from Sheffield.

Which should help for a good sleep, because tomorrow is about listening to the Call of the North, big time.

july 19

2 a.m. Guesthouse Pavi, Reykjavik. A sign on the door - for checkin call danny at this number, at any time. I try to call - phone not working.

WHAT?

I try again. Phone still not working.

Oh, no.

Out of a Divine inspiration (thank you), I try the door. It’s open - thank God, at least I don’t have to freeze outside. I enter, try to call again, no chance.

I curse, in Romanian (something I only do out loud when I’m completely alone). While I continue bitching at the phone, I hear footsteps. A sleepy silhouette appears at the top of the stairs.

“Oh! (gladly) Are you Danny?”
“Yes”
“Aaa, I’m so happy, I tried calling you, but my phone was not working”, I explain hastily and happily.
“Poti sa vorbesti si romaneste”.
“Excuse me?”
“Poti sa vorbesti si romaneste.” [='you can also speak romanian']

His name was Daniel, and he is from Craiova, Romania. I laughed out loud.

The next day I also met Veronica, his wife. Both of them work at the Pavi guesthouse. Probably the only two romanians in the entire hotel industry in Iceland.

The room i’m staying in is very cool, 20 beds, separated by… cubicles, an arrangement I have never seen before (or since). Gives a neat sense of privacy.

I started exploring Reykjavik around 11 am, not in a hurry, but very happy. Just very happy to be there. When I realized I was happy, i wondered what will happen to dampen my mood. Something always happens to dampen your mood when you’re happy. Or maybe it’s just me.

It did, nevertheless. The fact that I found out that the trip I wanted to do is damn expensive. Which raised worries about the whole trip budget. Oh well. I booked it nevertheless, and then joined a free walking tour (”the only free thing you get in Iceland”), lead by a funny guide, the one with a geuti.

That’s how i found out some interesting things about Iceland. In no particular order:

• A quote from the queen of Denmark: “if you get lost in the forest in Iceland, all you gotta do is stand up.” That’s because there are virtually no trees in Iceland, only smaller vegetation, due to climate. The one in the picture above is an exception
• Therefore, wooden houses we saw were made using wood imported from Norway. Newer ones have roof material on the sides as well - handy in snowy wet winters.

• Around 1800 their literacy rate was 100% (!!). „what can we do in winter? read!”
• Very advanced education system, completely free. First school dates back to 1052. Book recommendation: „independent people”, Halldor Laxness, the only icelander winning the Nobel prize for literature.
• Country was colonized by vikings around year 800. the few irish monks living here before “fled”. Quotation marks from the guide - “do you see anywhere where they could have gone??” Then he made a suggestive gesture at his neck.
• Male genoms seem to be of norwegian origin, female of irish. Apparently vikings had a base in Ireland, hence the irish ladies supply.
• Oldest parliament in the world, Anno 930. We’ll get back to that.
• Population - 310000 (3 100 1000, i.e. three hundred thousand), more than half living in the capital and around it. About 20% of the island is inhabitable
• Country is supplied 100% by natural energy. 30% thermal, 70% hydro. Or the other way around. Anyway, first shower - odd rotten eggs smell. Sulfur. You get used to it. Drinkable, too, says Vero. Directly from the ground. Even the hot one, there are 90 degrees temperature hot springs.
• Thats because Iceland is on the Altantic ridge, hence volcanos, hence thermal water.
• Crime pretty low. Phone number of the prime minister supposed to be in the public phone book.
• Cheap natural energy = ecology? Nope. Government wants to sell it to some canadian and/or american dudes who want to build a huge aluminium factory. to get power for that they want to flood a huge currently uninhabited territory. Environment scandal on-going.

After the tour, which was fun, i started walking on my own. Town is small, no place to get lost really, at least in the center, with the main shopping street

main intersection, with the photoproject featuring every kid between age 3 and 6 in rural iceland

next to the lake

in the “center”, with the cathedral (middle) and the parliament (right)

the harbor.

Speaking of the harbor, a highlight is this shack, selling the apparently best hotdog in the country.

Bill Clinton was passing by one day, and one of the employees shouted at him asking if he wants a hot dog. He said yes, and got one each for all his staff. Liked it. They have a picture :).

Indeed, it is simply the best hot dog i ate in my life. And it seems that not only me, but also these young people who arrived as i was queuing

to eat a festive hot dog!

After that, on to the big dome

all under refurbishment

but with a good view from the back

finally the king kong syndrome - up the tower for the panorama

Upon exit, i asked how to get to the Pearl. I wanted to see it, but also to go shopping before they were closing at the supermarket, to get some food. It would have been wiser to go to the supermarket first, so i turned the other way around and hurried out to the Pearl first

they are water tanks, but also used as panorama spot.
After that, quick shopping, and… hm. It was 8 at night, sun high up… a thought kept nagging at the back of my brain. There was this town closeby with the coolest name, Hafnarfjörđur. Only 30 mins away by bus. Not much of tourism at this time, but… that name… so i went.

Not much to see, of course, it was evening, everything closed, but it didnt matter.

After a short walk i took the bus back. And while the normal Icelander was preparing for the runtur, the famous bar hopping every Friday night, I went home to sleep. One has to prioritize, and with 7 euros the cheapest beer in town, i had other thoughts on what to do with that money.

It was still light outside, although midnight. I observed that it does something to your biorhythm. makes going to sleep harder - i.e. less of a priority for the body. Especially combined with the adrenaline of discovering a totally new place, many sensations to digest…

While writing this, it’s almost dark by now, it passed 1 am, probably the max darkness point - you don’t see well enough to read. Time to go to bed. Good (nordic) night.

It was 23:00h and dark at take-off in Copenhagen. When the plane was rising, I saw a faint sunset at the horizon. Wondered how it will be in Iceland - it was 2 hours behind. Hmmm… Then I fell asleep.

…

It is almost 2:00am, Copenhagen time, midnight Iceland time. I was woken up by something reddish in my eyes. This.

Till we landed, it became like this.

It took a while till I got on the right bus to take us from Keflavik, the airport, to Reykjavik - around an hour’s journey. Finally, sitting on the bus, I looked out the window, at the midnight sunset.

It was already 1am. By the time we reached the city, 2am Iceland time, 4am Copenhagen time, the sky was still red. After a while I found it weird - even a looong sunset doesn’t last for 2 hours.

Then I realized. The sun was rising.

Welcome to Icelandic summer, where sunset seamlessly transitions into sunrise. I found it totally cool.

Good morning, Reykjavík, I said, before going to bed. Looking forward to meet and greet you… today.