Wednesday, August 31, 2011

It was hard to believe, when I woke up this morning, that it was still August out! It definitely feels like late fall here, and by the work the farmers seem to be doing in the fields, I am sure that winter is on its way! I plan on having some heat in Edmonton next week, so it had better not get any ideas from Iceland!
We decided to skip breakfast this morning because we were both still full from out awesome seafood last night. Instead, we packed up and headed up the Snaefellsjokull glacier on the F570 road – have to make sure our rental car (that is insured for those F-roads gets well used!). The road wasn’t nearly as awful as our trusty little book suggested it would be. The unfortunate thing was that the wind was blowing so hard and the fog was so thick, that even at the top of the road we weren’t really able to see the glacier! We could see little bits of it that came down lower, and we got out of the car to walk a bit on the glacier (bragging rights, of course!), but there was no view at all, which was disappointing!
On the way back down, we stopped at a location called Songhellir, or “song cave”. The cave has a small entrance, but is a huge dome inside with remarkable acoustics inside. There were engravings on the walls that dated back to the 1800s and the location was said to be used in the Saga age by Bardur Snaefellsas. It was neat to see, but was a tad creepy with all the fog around today.
From the base of the glacier, we backtracked a bit in order to see the Dritvik area. The car turn off wasn’t marked, but a hiking trail was, so off on our feet we went. The footing here is definitely not superb, so we picked our way on the lava-moss trail for almost an hour before we reached the coast. The little bay was beautiful, and it was easy to picture how over 200 men worked in the area with about 60 fishing boats all summer. Glad I wasn’t the one doing the fishing, but it was beautiful to see with the waves, beach, and green cliffs!
Because our walk out to the water was rather unpleasant because of the lava rock everywhere, we followed another couple to a beach, and eventually car park – and walked back on the road! Kind of cheating, but we had the chance to see some other sights as well, so it was worth it! We saw the beach at Djupalon where four boulders are present. They were used to test the strength of the fishermen and weigh 155Kg (Fullsterkur – Full strength), 140Kg (Halfsterkur – Strong enough), 49Kg (Halfdraettingur – Half strength), and 23Kg (Amlodi – weakling). Lifting at least the second heaviest was a requirement for the fishermen from Dritvik. Darren was able to lift all of them at once; my hero. Also on this beach were the remnants of a steel ship. The ship was from the 1940s and was caught in a horrible storm where only 5 of the 19 crew survived. The washed up pieces from the boat remain on the beach as a sort of memorial to this disaster.
After our mistake-hike, we headed off to Malarrif where there are two huge stone pillars. The larger is called the “Christian pillar” and the smaller the “Heathen pillar”. There is said to be a story with the devil in regards to the pillars, but I actually don’t remember! Regardless, the pillars were cool and the views of the cliffs and rock were breathtaking!
It was then off to the town of Hellnar. There is a really cool cave/hole in the wall on the beach here where the light plays tricks on your eyes (it looked as though there was water in the bottom of the cave when we looked from up on the hill, however, once down at sea level, it was obvious that the tide was not yet in, and the water was much lower than what was previously thought!). The rock formations here were really cool – layer upon layer of rock from the ground up to the top of the cave and arch! Beautiful view, yet again. Darren and I stopped for a hot chocolate (the most expensive one I think I’ve ever had in my life…this trip is breaking all sorts of records!) at the little hut on the beach because the view was so spectacular. Most expensive hot chocolate, perhaps, but also the best view drinking hot chocolate as well! Definitely worth while!
The town of Arnarstapi was a quick stop. There is a rock formation of a fisherman that sits on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the ocean. The statue is of the Deity of Mt. Snaefell, Bardur Snaefellsas. In the saga, it is said that he was a descendent of giants and men. Later in his life, he became more giant-like and disappeared into the Snaefell mountain. However, he didn’t really disappear because he became part of the mountain. The artists who made this made it in honour of a 19 year old that lost his life on the mountain in 1928.
Our last stop of the day was to a little farm called Olkelda, or “Ale Spring”. The water that comes out of the ground here is natural mineral water (it tastes exactly like club soda!)! Kind of cool. We were a tad disappointed, however, because we thought it was going to be a naturally carbonated HOT spring instead of a cold spring! Oh well!!
We made it into Borgarnes where we had no problem finding the camp site. We then went and found the pool and had a nice leisurely time there in there several different hot tubs! I now want a lane pool like this at home, however; at the end of the 25m, there was a view of the ocean…I could go for that!
It was slightly drizzly out, so we made Canada meets Japan (ichiban noodles, chicken noodle soup mix, and bacon) and ate it in the tent while playing cards! All in all, a lovely evening!
Later
-Allison

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

It has been a dreary day since we woke up this morning. Thankfully it wasn’t windy or rainy for breakfast this morning. It was nice to cook and eat outside enjoying the river view from our campsite.
We headed off South to a town called Stadur, where our non-English-Speaking-campsite monitor indicated we could stop at the N1 gas station to get more information on the Western Fjords. The lady who helped us at the gas station was beyond any expectations I had and provided us with great advice and info! I had wanted to drive a bit up into the fjords and then take a ferry onto one of the branches where it is almost entirely a national park. However, the tourist seasons seems to have ended last week, so a lot of sites, restaurants, and ferries are shutting down! So, the ferry that I had wanted to take is no longer running…she did suggest a route for us to take in order to tackle the Snaefellsnes peninsula.
After a few hours of driving along the coast, we reached the town of Stykkisholmur. The town was rather cute and had two excellent looking restaurants: one that was closed (probably for the winter) and the other was so busy they weren’t really concerned about us at all! Oh well! We had a lovely lunch of stoners and tubes in a farmer’s field instead! It was kind of funny, actually, because not long after we parked, a herd of cows came up to check us out and walked around the car! Ironic as we were eating beef jerkey!
Before leaving the town, we stopped in a Lion’s Club run shop. The locals have a handicraft store, where the prices are much more reasonable than most of the other shops that we have visited. After much deliberation, I ended up buying these 4 glass plates each with a picture of a flower, puffin, horse, and mountain (actually the Snaefellnes glacier) on them. Cute little dessert plates – and I actually made up my mind because the artist was in the store – I am such a sucker for meeting the people who make these things!
We also visited Helgafell, or “Holy Mountain”. It is a 73m high hill that, if climbed not looking back or speaking, will grant three wishes to the climber! The wishes have to be made facing East, at the grave of Gudrun Osvifursdottir. She is the heroine of the Laxdaela Saga and lived out her last years here as a hermit. The view from the top was lovely, as it overlooked the Breidafjordur bay. There are about 2700 islands in the bay! It would have been a little better if it hadn’t been so windy or cloudy, but we did our wish-hike none-the-less!
Because it was only just after noon, we decided to continue on to the next town along the peninsula, Grundarfjordur. It was rainy, cold, and the campsite looked uninviting, so we proceeded onto the next town, Olafsvik. It is one of the larger communities with just over 1000 people! The town was actually established as a trading town in 1687. The wind was not that great here, either, but the camp site has great facilities and there is a pool in town, so we decided to stay.
After setting up our tent in the least windy location we could find, we headed off to the pool. It was an interesting experience, as it looked like it was previously a gymnasium – the wood panneling was still on the walls, and I am sure that the hot tub was located in what was formerly a storage closet of some sort! It was an impressive re-model! The pool itself was only about 15m long, but they had good equipment, so I was able to get some lengths in! I am definitely starting to miss my work-outs!
It is now raining, and we are sitting in a restaurant for dinner (better than cooking in the rain and wind at the campsite!)…we’ve been hanging out here for over an hour because the kitchen didn’t open until 6pm! Ahhh…small towns! Quite the experience!
Hopefully another dose of awesome seafood for dinner!
Later
-Allison

Monday, August 29, 2011

We had a relaxing morning because we didn’t really have a plan of where to head off to today. We “slept in” (ie I made it to 8:15 before I woke up!) and then walked up to a bakery we’d seen yesterday. We tried these caramel cinnamon bun things along with hot chocolate for breakfast – a nice change from granola and oatmeal!
Because downtown opened up at 10am today, we headed off to look at a few stores that I wasn’t able to go in yesterday. I am definitely not cool enough to wear the clothes that they consider fashionable here! They were those “diaper pants” and leggings most of the time it seems – neither of which I could really pull off back at home! Impressive styles here, for sure, however, nothing for me! It was fun to look, however.
After a while at the bookstore/internet we walked back to our car to find a parking ticket! Never received one of those at home, so seems right that I get one here! It was for 20$, and was because we didn’t have a “parking clock” on our dash! The time zone said parking free for 2 hours, and we were parked for 1h 45min, however, they put these manual clocks on their windows to indicate the time they arrived at the free parking, and we didn’t have one! No honors system here…uggg…so we went over to the tourist information centre to ask where to pay the ticket! The lady there kind of made it better, because she said that the parking attendant likes his job too much! I would have to agree.
Because of the parking ticket we got to see city hall (boring) as well as a local bank, because as it turns out, parking tickets are actually paid at the bank! And, the best part (if there I one to be had from receiving a parking ticket for not really doing anything wrong in the first place) was that for some reason the ticket turned out to be only 1350 ISK (about 13$). Apparently there is a discount if you pay your ticket fast or something! Go figure!
We made it out of Akureyri alive and headed off West towards the town of Saudarkrokur. It is the region’s administrative centre with a population of 2600, the second biggest town next to Akureyri. We didn’t spend much time in the town, but continued on out to the tiny town (ie it was one house and a campground) of Reykir. This place was right on the ocean, on the tip of the fjord with towering green cliffs along the side. The view was awesome, and as a bonus, there were natural hot springs with no one nearby! After a walk on the beach to find some ocean-polished quartz stones, we had an awesome swim in the two hot pools by the ocean. Definitely the quintessential Icelandic experience!
As we were driving along the highway, we followed some escapee Icelandic horses for a while! It was fun to see them run around!
The campground in Saudarkrokur looked kind of ugly, so we decided to head off to the town of Blönduós. There are only 800 people living here, but it is apparently an important fishing village right on the coast! Yeah! The campsite is beautiful, right next to the river, and we’ve already walked around the little island in the middle of the river!
Off to play cards and eat something called Smamal (I think it is chocolate mousse for dessert!).
Later
-Allison

Sunday, August 28, 2011

We woke up this morning to rain on the tent, which never makes me happy!! Thankfully, it didn’t last long and almost as we were done packing up the tent, it had finished! Yeah!! We made breakfast in the cooking tent at the campsite, which was a welcome bonus.
We headed off to see some more of the sights around the lake…Starting with Dimmuborgir, which means “black castles”. This area has huge pillars of volcanic rock, some as high as 20 meters tall. They’ve done an excellent job of renewing the vegetation, so there are trees and grasses growing around the pillars. There was a cool hole in the wall as well as the most know structure called Kirkjan (the church). This one is a three-pillared cave that is supposed to be reminiscent of a gothic cathedral. It was cool and the walk was lovely – we didn’t even get lost in the maze of rock!
Then it was off to Hverfell, a 1000 meter wide crater that was formed from an eruption 2500 years ago! We followed the path up to the rim of the crater. It kind of looked like a big football stadium on the inside. We didn’t walk all the way around the rim because it was quite windy…and after a while a rock is a rock! The views of the lake from up top were excellent, however!
Another site was the hot underground spring of Grjotagja. Underneath a crack in the rock is a steaming pool. Our travel book here says not to go in it because it is way too hot…but as to Icelandic safety – they don’t say anything at the site about it being too hot. I think their view on safety here is that if people are dumb enough to do it, then they deserve it! It is kind of refreshing to not have signs and warnings everywhere!
We then stopped off for some ice cream in a restaurant called the “Cowshed Café”. The restaurant shares a wall with the cows, so as we sat at the table we could see into the cow stalls (through glass, of course!). We had the most expensive ice cream I have ever had in my life – I can’t even say the price – but it was good. Icelandic ice cream is supposed to be special or something, so I’ll chalk it up to “an experience”! 
Then we headed off in the car to Husavik because the whale watching is supposed to be excellent from here because it is located in a bay. We found a company that is supposed to be good, but they told us that the morning boat saw 3 whales and a dolphin! Hard to justify that when it costs almost 90$ and the weather was crappy! I felt bad because I know Darren really wanted to go see whales, but at that price, with those numbers, it just didn’t make any sense! It was going to be especially hard for me to swallow after whale watching with mom and dad last year in Victoria where we saw over 100 whales! It is a bad time of year to see whales and puffins! Too bad.
We decided to head off to Akureyri where we had an action-packed evening. Because it was Sunday night, there wasn’t a lot going on in terms of shops being open or anything. However, while Darren had a nap in the car I did a little poking around and I found the movie theatre, free internet at a book store, and the church! So after an awesome dinner of Sheppard’s pie (à la Allison!), we headed off to see Larry Crowne with Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks at the movie theatre – we were two of 6 people in the theatre! It was fun. Then, there was an ‘open Church service’ at the church here that I dragged Darren to. Unfortunately, there was no speaking…just the Church being open. I wanted to go to a service in Icelandic just for the experience, but no such luck! We then hung out in the book/coffee shop for a couple of hours checking up on e-mails and all that good stuff!
Later
-AJ

Saturday, August 27, 2011

We had a nice, quiet, sunny breakfast on the hill where we camped that overlooked the bay this morning. Contrary to the middle of the night where I was sure our tent was going to blow away, it was actually a calm morning! (In the middle of the night, I actually had to get out of the tent to re-peg ropes and things in order to not blow away!!  ) As well, during the night, I got up to go look at the stars, which were fantastic – there was also the faintest hint of the northern lights as well!
We drove today…and drove…and drove…until we arrived in a little harbour town called Seydisfjordur where the ferry from Denmark docks once weekly. The town is supposed to be full of Scandinavian character as the little houses were shipped from Norway in ready-made kits back in the day. The town only has 700 inhabitants and most are involved in fishing in some way. The town was founded in 1830 and was one of the largest and wealthiest settlements in the East of Iceland. It was a cute visit. We also saw a nice waterfall as we were driving down the mountain, where we stopped to have lunch.
More driving brought us to Dettifoss. This waterfall is Europe’s largest waterfall and has approximately 500 cubic meters of water spill over the edge every second! The river, Jokulsa a Fjollum is the second longest river in Iceland and is definitely big and powerful looking! I wouldn’t want to fall in, that’s for sure. The waterfall, itself was pretty spectacular. A lot of water and power. Unfortunately, it was a tad cloudy, so no rainbow was spotted from all of the mist, but as we left, there was a rainbow in the field!
We then headed towards Lake Myvatn, which actually means “Midge Lake” and there were a few bugs out…but not too bad! We first saw “the fields of fire” where there is a whole field that is busy steaming away with hot pots and bubbling mud pools. There is a lot of sulphur here, and this area reeked of it! Actually, this area provided sulphur to Europe until the 19th century when other sources were found. We then visited Krafla, an “active” volcano! In 1973, the geothermal plant located here, is said to have caused a series of eruptions from their drilling into the ground. These eruptions are called the “Krafla-Fires” as the eruptions continued on for the next ten years! Now, there are steaming vents, hot water, and mud pools that visitors (like us!) can visit by walking through the area. Kind of cool to see relatively fresh lava!
We found a campsite right on the water, had a quick dinner, and then headed off to the Myvatn Nature Baths – basically the same idea as the Blue Lagoon in the South, except that these ones are actually supposed to be a better experience as there are far fewer people around and the views are superior! Made me happy! We stayed in the pool for a good two hours before we decided that sleep needed to happen as well.
Night!
-Allison

Friday, August 26, 2011

I unzipped the tent this morning to a beautifully sunny glacier! It was so fun to just lie there and look at the mountain as I was still curled up in my sleeping bag! Made me happy. This was after a very, very windy night – Darren took his shoe lace to tie two parts of the fly together because they were making so much noise! So, it was a great relief to have so much sun and lack of wind upon awakening!
After brekkie and packing everything up, we headed up the nearby mountain to the waterfall, Svartifoss. It is known as the Black Waterfall because the rocks around it are so black. The rocks around the falls are columnar shaped and look as though they were placed there by hand. It was an easy hike to the falls and we were more or less the only people present! These falls are, by far, my favourite thus far! The waterfall was so peaceful and unique… it had a good ‘feel’ to it! 
We started our drive heading East until we hit the ever-so-popular Jökulsarlon. The icebergs from this glacier-filled lake come from the glacier Breidamerkurjokull. There were a tonne of floating icebergs in the bay and several that were floating out towards the ocean. It was a spectacular sight to see! We then walked along the black sand beach and saw many “beached” glaciers that were sparkling away in the sun. They looked like cracked glass lying on the black sand. It was pretty cool. We also lucked out and saw a bunch of seals that were wave-diving near the shore. They were obviously having a great time! Definitely way too cold for me to be playing in the water!!
Around 1pm or so we stopped in the little town of Hofn. This cute little town has a population of 1600 and is one of the few harbour towns in the southeast. Our marvellous book suggested a few restaurants, and because it was so cute and we didn’t want to leave, we decided to eat lunch/dinner (aka Linner or Lupper) at Kaffi Hornid. It was a spectacular meal! Laogostina (sp) is a speciality here…lobster! So, we decided that it was just going to have to be a pricy meal! The restaurant was located in this cute wooden cabin-like building, it was wonderfully warm and cozy, and they let us charge batteries in their power outlets! All good things. I had the lobster pasta with homemade bread and I thought I actually was going to die it was so absolutely incredible! The sauce was amazing and there was so much lobster in my pasta dish, I couldn’t even count it! The most amazing 30$ on seafood I think I have ever had. Darren had a lobster and salad on a bun thing that looked equally amazing. We also both had hot chocolate (which they do incredibly well here) and were so stuffed when we left…seriously the best food ever! 
More driving along the ocean presented a bay with hundreds of swans! We decided that we should get a closer look at them, so we hopped a barbed-wire fence and headed towards the ocean. There were a dozen or more streams to cross and by the time we reached the ocean, the birds had swum away (duh!). The funniest part was that over the next corner, there was a look-out over the bay, where there were a tonne more swans, all within perfect photo range! At least we got a good walk, I suppose!
We drove for another couple of hours in order to reach our destination for this evening, a tiny town called Djupivogur. It is a fishing village located on the edge of one of the fjords and there are probably no more than 20 families living here! Of course, there is a pool and a camp ground. We walked around the town after our swim and discovered that the local supermarket is open for one hour a day – except on Saturdays, when it is open for two hours. It is a great campsite, however, with a sitting area and a kitchen inside! It is nice to have a couch for an evening!
There are interesting people at our campsite this evening. Because everyone is hanging out inside, using the kitchen facilities, we have run into a few more people than we normally do. One couple is from Holland. They came over from the ferry that goes from the Eastern Fjords to Denmark once weekly and have been cycling for the past 4 weeks! The wind here is horrific; I definitely wouldn’t want to be cycling in this! The guy said that they cycled for 8 hours today and only went 60km! That’s pretty intense. They have the coolest tent – the front wheel of the bike comes off and the tent is supported by the seat of the bike as the forks of the bike are used to support it on the ground. Pretty cool.
We bought a Toblerone and pop for dessert today…off to enjoy with our indoor comforts!

Later
-Allison

Thursday, August 25, 2011

This morning was beautifully sunny when we woke up! It was totally awesome to see completely blue sky! And, fortunately, the blue and sun stayed with us all day! It made me happy, that’s for sure.
After a quick breakfast of oatmeal and/or granola, we headed off towards Vik…en route we stopped at many waterfalls, the first of which was my favourite. I don’t have the name, however, because it wasn’t written about in either of our books! It was super cool, however, because we could actually walk on a path behind the falls! It was awesome. The next one we got up close to visit was Skogafoss. It was much bigger than the first and had a tonne of stairs to climb up to the top of the cliff. Good work-out! Much easier falls to see today after our hike yesterday to see only one!
We then arrived at Dyrholaey, which is a protected nature area with the natural rock arch that is seen in many photos of Iceland. We are too late to see puffins this year (which makes me really sad!), but we actually did spot some wayyyyy down in the water with the help of some other tourists. Regardless, the arch, breathtaking views, and cliffs were pretty awesome. Below, to the East of the cliff is a long stretch of black sand beach. This section of beach is the only non-tropical beach to be rated by the US magazine – Islands – as one of the world’s top 10 beaches!! Kind of cool!!!
We stopped at the 300-person town of Vik to have an ice cream cone and to wander on the top-10 beach! It wasn’t quite sun tanning weather, but I did take my hat off during the walk! ;)
More driving brought us to a town called Foss…or waterfall…which was quite fitting because of the number of falls coming off of the glacier above. The area here has been devastated by the Laki volcano when it was active hundreds of years ago. In 1783, the eruption caused 30 billion tons of lava to pour down the mountain and the sulphuric acid and other gasses that remained in the air for 10 months caused the “Haze Famine” and wiped out about 1/5 of the Icelandic population, crops, and livestock! The ground is, once again, covered in lava fields. This time there is a lot of new ash as well, from the eruption of Grimsvotn earlier this year. When we were driving down the highway, there was actually ash being blown across the road – just like snow would be back home!
We stopped at an old farm called Nupsstadur, where there is a 17th century church, covered in grass, that people still come to worship in a few times during the summer. It is a historical site that seems to be run by a young-ish guy. The farm was in use by a gentleman aged 102 until two years ago! Prior to that, over the centuries, the farm had existed in one form or another. The guy there explained that through saga’s they have written record that the farm existed as early as 900 AD! He explained a bit about the Saga’s to us as well as some history of Laki volcano. He explained that Laki’s eruption in the 1700s helped to initiate the French revolution due to the haze that Europe experienced! I think this was my favourite stop today. It was neat to talk to a local and hear their perspective on their history! I wanted to see some houses covered in grass…and now I have seen that too! Yeah!
From this point, we could also get a good view of Lomagnupur, which is the largest flat-mountain in Iceland. It looks like a giant cliff and stands 770m tall!!
We arrived at Skaftafell around 5pm or so. This is the most popular area of Vatnajokull National Park. This national park covers 12% of Iceland’s total area, making it the biggest national park in Europe! The camping area is beautiful and is the starting point for many hikes and day trips up to the glacier. We did a short walk to the base of the Skaftafellsjokull glacier. It is covered in volcanic ash and is a black, charcoal colour! No bright blue glacier here!
Tomorrow it is off to a few more waterfalls and much more!
Later!
-AJ

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

We woke up earlier than normal today because we wanted to make breakfast in the geyser! We found that little one up above the park limit, so we brought our chocolate milk, water, oatmeal, and eggs up there to cook!! I accidently dropped the eggs just as we arrived, which broke three of them (duh!), but the other three went into my mesh dishbag and into the 100-degree water to cook. Darren tried to scramble the other three eggs in his cup, but it was too well insulated, so that didn’t work. The chocolate milk got so hot it started to boil, which made excellent hot chocolate, and the water got warm enough to make oatmeal as well! It was a pretty awesome way to make breakfast this morning!!
We returned to cam around 9:30 or so and after packing up our tent headed off to Skalholt, Iceland’s first Christian bishopric. For over 700 years, it was the theological powerhouse of the country because the farm’s owner, Gissur the White was a holy-man who lead the pro-Christians in 1000 AD. His son, Isleifur, was educated in Germany and was the first properly trained priest in Iceland, as well as became the first Bishop here in 1056. Eventually, the religious power-house was moved to Reykjavik and Skalholt was forgotten. In 1953 the wooden church that exists today was being built, and during construction, the foundations of many cathedrals that had burned down over the years were found.
Then, we continued on towards Stong, where there is located the Viking longhouse remnants. Stong was the farm of warrior-farmer Gaukur Trandilsson. Because this farm is at the base of Mt. Hekla, which is still one of the country’s most active volcanoes, this farm, as well as others in the valley were abandoned when the volcano erupted in 1104. It is neat to see how far back the Icelandic people can reconstruct their history through the use of volcano records and saga’s. A lot of their history isn’t an “educated guess” at all, but rather a detailed record of events! Kind of cool.
We decided to walk the 8km hike (one way) around a couple of mountain/hill things to see Iceland’s second highest waterfall, Halifoss. Unfortunately, the wind was unbelievable!! I don’t think I’ve ever experienced the continuous roaring of wind like this before! Wayyyyy worse than Lethbridge, that’s for sure!  It wasn’t super cold, but walking against these gale-force winds made it seem as though I was walking with tharabands on my ankles! We did make it to the falls, however! They are definitely beautiful, and it was great that there were no other tourists present! No one else is as crazy as we are, I suppose. It was also fun to walk over the hills with all the sheep! There are sheep just randomly roaming everywhere! Kinda funny to see them run away…I didn’t know sheep ran…anyway!
Both of us were definitely tired after our 16km hike in the wind! We drove with the idea of making it to Vic for this evening, but when we reached Hvolsvollur, we decided to stop for the night. Our criteria are a camp site and a pool…which exist in almost every little town we pass. This town has only 800 people in it! It was a lovely pool, with three hot tubs and a lane pool! We both did laundry and are now off to sleep! Yeah!
Night!
-Allison

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

We woke up this morning and went straight to the BSI bus station…where our bags were waiting! Yeah! It was awesome to be able to get new socks and a warmer jacket…and floss my teeth! 
We headed back up North on Highway #1, past Pingvellir en route to Geysir. On the way, we stopped at a little historical site called Laugarvatnshellar. In 1910 a young couple dug out the side of the sandstone cliff on this mountain and lived in the area they built! They had a kitchen and bedroom in the bigger of the two caves, and the sheep were kept in the smaller cave. They sold cakes and other baking to tourists on the lawn in front of their cave-home! It was kind of cool to see. Since then, several other families have lived in the cave. Sheep have been kept there during the winter. Now, it smells as though the sheep find it when they need shelter! It was cool to see, however, because it was off the beaten track and there weren’t really a tonne of tourists!
We reached Geysir not long after. It was packed full of busses and people, but was a cool site regardless! There are a tonne of little steam vents, mini geysers, and hot pools all over the side of the mountain. Everywhere, there are signs that say not to touch the water – and all I wanted to do was stick my hand in the water!! Don’t worry, I more or less refrained! Strokkur is the geyser that goes off most often, about every 5 minutes or so. We stood and played with photos for a long time while we were here! There were some models also getting their photos taken with the water when it exploded up into the air. It was kind of cool to see how popular the location is!
There are a tonne of other hot pools too…including my favourite, which is located up the hill, and over the barbed wire (that we are allowed to climb over…there is a ladder!). No one else was hovering around it and there is no rope telling you not to go there.
After we reserved a campsite here for this evening, we drove another 10km or so over to Gullfoss, which is known as Iceland’s best known natural wonder. The falls were supposed to be used for a Hydro dam in 1920, but a local girl by the name of Sigidur Tomasdottir walked to Reykjavik and threatened to throw herself over the falls if they built it! There is even a plaque at the falls to remember her by! The waterfall falls 32 meters down at this location and the rocks and valley are pretty spectacular. The mist is incredible, but there wasn’t any rainbow today because of the clouds! Oh well! It was still pretty cool to see.
We decided to go attempt to drive to the glacier by continuing along highway #35, but decided that we wouldn’t really make it and we didn’t want to end up on the other side of the country. Instead, we pulled over and had a car lunch with some sheep next to us.
When we returned to our campsite and organized our tent and gear, we watched the geyser for a while longer before heading over to the pool. The hot pool on site is included in our camping fee and was basically a private swim! No one came in while we were there and the pool was really nice and warm.
Dinner was dehydrated soup and crackers from home…lots of veggies, which is a good thing for a change!
We plan to take night pictures of the geyser tonight, so currently, we’re staying warm in the tourist office until it gets a bit darker (and less tourist-y)!
Later
-Allison

Monday, August 22, 2011

I totally forgot to mention that we went into Halifax on our layover yesterday! We had almost 5 hours to kill there, so we decided to take a taxi into the city because I haven’t been there in a long time and Darren has never been there. We had a friendly cab driver who dropped us off on the wharf where we walked around for an hour or so. There was this cute little pub place with live music, right on the water where we attempted to have dinner. The only problem was that there weren’t any tables free and the dude at the bar didn’t really want to serve us dinner. So, as there was a slight time crunch in order to make it back to the airport to check in, after Darren had a beer, we decided on COWS icecream – as that is also a unique maritime experience! It was good, as always!! However, back at the airport, we did find a great seafood place where I managed to have the most amazing clam chowder for dinner! Yeah!
We both had a great sleep last night…11h straight! After waking up and attempting to call baggage services again, we decided to go straight to the Reykjavik bus station to get our bags…they weren’t there! Because we wanted to tour out of the city today, we decided to take the hour to drive back to the airport to get our bags from there…and guess what? They weren’t there either! After finally tracking down someone within the baggage services area she told me that they were never supposed to arrive this morning and that of course they would be arriving tomorrow morning! (Like, duh?! Why would I have thought they’d be arriving today?!) So I demanded some form of compensation and received 100$/person. You’d think that they would hand out more money for lost + delayed bags than what they’d save on fuel by leaving them in Halifax! Anyway, at least that made me feel better about the whole thing.
Due to the slight change of plans, we decided to work on the closest part of the “Golden Circle” today. Unfortunately, the highway starts at Reykjavik, so we headed back up Highway 41 (Which Darren must be able to do with his eyes closed by this point!) before starting South on the main road #1. We drove through the fog and the rain for a while…the moss-covered lava is called Kristnitökuhraun here…before passing through the town of Hellisheidi where there are a lot of greenhouses because of all of the geothermal energy. We arrived at the town of Selfoss and decided to go for a little walk. We passed a church and noticed that down by the river there was steam rising up from the bank! After trudging through some knee-high, wet grass, we discovered three miniature geysers (ie hot water coming up from the ground through a pipe)…but the water was really warm, which was awesome!
We then headed down to the coast to a little fishing town called Stokkseyri where we looked at the ocean (it was very cold out today and I am a wimp!) and scared away some beautiful swans! It took a few minutes to drive through the rest of the town before we decided that we needed food and decided to head up to Pingvellir National Park.
En route Darren spotted “Elf Houses”…approximately ½ of the Icelandic population believes in trolls and elves! Someone or something has put houses on the side of the rocks that were laying in a field! It was cool to see!! 
I saw a fissure right before the tourist info centre and made Darren walk back to take pictures! There was no one around, so that was nice. Turns out it was just a secondary fissure called Peningagja that the Danish King Frederick VIII visited in 1907. We drove into the close end of the park and walked up to the actual continental divide. The Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are moving apart at approximately 2cm per year. The North American side has a huge rock wall which was used as an amphitheatre in 930AD when the early settlers started parliament…which was the first one established in the world.
About half way down the wall, there is a cute waterfall, called Oxarafoss, from the River Oxara. It was cool, because it fell between the two plates and was very un-touristy today…so we got some good pictures! The waterfall leads to the “Drowning pool”, were women who committed infanticide, perjury, and adultery in the 16th century.
After walking the 1.7km length of the divide, we walked down in the valley, where the Pingvallabaer Farmhouse and Pingvallakirkja church are located. The church was the first to be consecrated in Iceland. The pulpit is from 1683. The three bells are from three different eras: Middle ages, 1698, and 1944 when Iceland got its independence (Islandsklukkan). The farmhouse is the summer residence of the Prime Minister.
We made it back to Reykjavik and took three tries to locate white gas for our camping stove (it is a popular item) before finding groceries for dinner and checking into our HI hostel. Ironically, the hostel is located at the same site as where we were supposed to be camping last night! We were lucky to get in, however, as the hostel is completely booked tonight!
Currently, we are sitting in on a Volcano lecture that is being presented by a professor at the University here! It is really interesting to learn…there are 30 active volcanoes in Iceland! They take turns erupting and currently there are four that are most active, Krafla, Hekla, Grimsvotn, and Katla. The most feared is Katla because it lies under the Vatnajokull glacier and causes big floods when it erupts.
Now, we’ve been learning the different methods of measuring volcanic activity! They use this old method called the “tilt” method, where they measure the change in tilt of tipi-shaped sticks. Currently, Hekla should be ready to erupt based on this method, as it has a tendency to erupt every ten years. They also use seismic measurements, and GPS methods. Kind of cool. We’ve also learned that there was an earthquake here today! We didn’t feel anything…but it is kinda cool to know that we were here for one!
Enough learning for today!
Later
-AJ

Saturday, August 20 – Sunday, August 21

Well, I am currently sitting in a room at the Salvation Army Hotel in downtown Reykjavik, which was definitely not the plan for this evening! We were supposed to be staying in my tent at a campsite not far from here where there were hot pools! Unfortunately, neither of our bags arrived this morning when we did! Actually, almost ½ the plane didn’t get their bags from the flight from Halifax today! It is a tad annoying considering I haven’t checked a bag in years, and then, the first time I do, I don’t get it on the other end! Definitely doesn’t make me want to check anything again!
The flights were all fine. We were only en route for something like 12h, which was impressive. With the time difference, of course we arrived early this morning, regardless…so it has been a long day! Thankfully, the car rental with Thrifty went really smoothly. They were waiting for us as soon as we excited customs (even though we were an hour late from dealing with the lack of bags!) and we had no problem with the price or conditions of the car at all!
Around 6:30 or so we were on the road with nowhere to go! We decided to stop at whatever interested us along the way…so we headed down the highway to Reykjavik and were distracted by the sights on the Reykjanes Peninsula en route to the city. The ground is completely covered with moss-covered lava rock, which makes for a pretty barren landscape. In the distance, we could see the steam coming from the Blue Lagoon so took another highway to get there. There was basically no one on the roads at all! Kind of a weird feeling!
The Blue Lagoon is Iceland’s most famous tourist attraction. It is a huge hot pool that is supposed to have excellent healing qualities due to the mineral content in the water. As well, no chlorine is needed because the water comes from the ocean and is replaced entirely every 40 minutes! We couldn’t go in today because we don’t have our bags, but also because we arrived hours before it opens. It was an eerie feeling to walk around the lava fields and murky blue water with no one around. We’re planning to return in two weeks when we are in Reykjavik again on the way home.
We continued South to the town of Grindavik, which is a small fishing village with some really nice houses. We didn’t stop here, but continued on to the oldest lighthouse in Iceland, Reykjanesta. It was a cool find at this location because as well as the lighthouse, there were boiling hot mud pots and steam vents. Nothing tourist-y about the location, really…but it was neat to be the only ones walking around! We also climbed up a steep rock cliff to have a better view of Eldey. This white island is home to one of the world’s largest gannet bird colonies (about 16000 birds nest on the island each year!).
At this point it was almost noon and we were definitely feeling jet-lagged and hungry, so we decided to make a bee-line for the city. We didn’t make it that far!! About 10 minutes away from the city we decided we needed to nap in the car! So, we pulled off the highway and into a school parking lot and slept for about an hour. It worked wonders. We were then able to navigate around the city and find a grocery store where we found some Fanta Limon and croissants for lunch. All good things.
We parked downtown and walked around the inner part of the city for a few hours. After visiting the information centre and getting some ideas of where we could stay the night, we found our hotel as well as a few unique stores and shops. We visited the church and saw the old residence of the President (did you know that Iceland has both a Prime Minister and a President?!).
After crashing for about another hour as well as finally having a shower, we met the son of one of my patients outside of the tourist info centre. He took us out for pizza at this really great pizza place and gave us some tips on what to see and do while we are here for the next two weeks. It was good fun. It was like having our private guide to show us around the city!!
Staying awake is challenging…lots to accomplish tomorrow!
Night!
-Allison