General oddities of Iceland

Our time here is running low, as is our energy. Since the weather was rainy today, and there wasn't much sightseeing to be had, I have decided to dedicate this post to the "quirks" that I have found in Iceland. And let's be honest, those are some of the most fun things to discover!

1. Skyr- it's Icelandic yogurt, a soft cheese really, that's somewhat similar to Greek yogurt. It's rich and creamy, made from skim milk, and crazy high in protein. It comes in unique flavors like pear and chocolate chip. The best part, though, is it comes with a tiny foldable spoon tucked in the lid. If it wasn't completely wasteful I would love the idea to pieces. 

Tiny little spoon 

2. Food prices- I've said food is expensive here, but I wanted to give you a cost comparison. We have done our shopping at Bonus, the Aldi's of Iceland. A dozen eggs will set you back 6 bucks; a pound of chicken - $17. A handful of green beans is close to $3. Oddly enough a bag of "cool American" AKA cool ranch flavored Doritos is only 1.25.

Couldn't get over this!

3. Bedding - I'll keep this short and sweet. I think they discourage "cuddling" here. Iceland goes by the European bedding idea. In a queen bed there will be one fitted sheet, no flat sheet, and each person gets their own duvet cover. Which is good for Andrew, because it means he doesn't have to pull the sheets back from me in the middle of the night. 

4. Driving - getting used to kilometers per hour is weird. Their speed limits are weird. In the city, the limit is 50 kph, which is 30 mph. Outer city limits is 70, and in rural areas, it's 90, which is 55mph. Which means people aren't moving extremely fast. JK THEY ARE, speed cameras be dammed! Andrew likes to abide by speed limits (Donna, I'm sure you're laughing at this!) and we are constantly being passed by eager/angry tourists and locals. Other oddities in the driving realm, most of the bridges are one lane "blind headers" that are terrifying since you can't see if people are coming around the way. Roundabouts are the name of the game, and stop signs are non-existent. 

5. Drinking - as my guidebook says, Icelanders love to get "trollied" on the weekend. The problem is the dang price of booze! It's expensive. A pint of cheap beer is about 8-9 bucks, which I know is comparable to European prices, but doesn't make it any easier. Spirits are only sold in government run "vinbudins" or liquor stores. They aren't in every town, so it's necessary to be strategic in where you stock up! Andrew is enjoying trying all the local brews as he works his was through the island. 

worlds best beer (lager) in 2011

And last...

6. Sunlight - June is the time of the midnight sun festival here. A time when there is zero darkness. While we're here it's never really dark either, just gets to a milky twilight and then the sun pops back up. I can see why people love the sun here, since in December there is very little. All of the places we have stayed came equipped with blackout shades. But any amount of light, even the one that seeps in through the cracks around the shades, drives me mad. I've taken to sleeping with an eye mask in order to combat the sun, which has worked out well!

Tomorrow we wrap up our trip with a visit to the blue lagoon...I'm sure I will have many stories to share! 

Travel pains

Today, I'm tired. My muscles ache, my back hurts. I can't stand complete upright. My lips are cracked; my skin, windburned. Hair whips around, growing knots. My mind is also tired; processing the beauty the rawness. All a culmination of over a week of hiking, exploring, and adventuring.

Tomorrow is the last full day of adventures, and I have mixed emotions about that. I told Andrew the first meal I wanted back in the states is chicken strips. In all their crunchy GMO goodness. 

Today was a short drive from one place to the next. So, we had plenty of time on our hands. The first stop was a waterfall, skogafoss. This was also the place I started to see the worst infestation of all: the ignorant tour bus rider. Swarms of tourists. It was maddening. Up until the past few days, Andrew and I have had the island to ourselves, so to speak. We would see a car every 20 or 25 minutes, but now, there they are, a line of headlights as far as the eye can see. It's rather depressing. 

Anyway, after the waterfall, we did about a 8K walk total to an abandoned plane. It ran out of gas at some point in the 1970s and they just left the shell there. A perfect playground for tourists, or Justin Beiber. Later, we wandered around the black sand beach, with the very outer worldly basalt pillars that look to perfect too be nature made. 

Who knows what adventures tomorrow will bring, but I'm sure there will be many. 

Ice Ice Baby!

Today was the Iceland I've been waiting for! Don't get me wrong, this trip has been fantastic in every way, but I've been waiting to get up close and personal with some glaciers!

We left Hofn early this morning after an unremarkable day yesterday and headed west. The first stop was the Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon. We had spent the previous hour driving over sandy wasteland, remnants of the glaciers retreating. After rounding the corner, there it was. This eerie pool of calm water with icebergs floating in it. We walked along the water checking out these beautiful shapes of ice and the seals that stopped by to say hello. Add wild seals to the wild reindeer that I've seen this trip.

 

We moved on from the lagoon though and headed to the national park. I'd booked a half day glacier hike through Glacier Guides (if any of you ever go to Iceland, book a tour through them...FANTASTIC)

After checking in, we were handed a harness, a helmet, crampons, and an ice ax. All pretty intimidating for a newbie like me. Our group of 10 from all over the world, drove about 15 minutes to a glacier, past the one dubbed "the Hollywood" glacier where Game of Thrones is filmed. The glacier we were on was privy to glacier guides. 

We hiked about 45 minutes before hitting ice. The guide told us that the start of the hike was where the glacier was in 1990. The bottom shelf of the glacier is predicted to be gone within the next 5-10 years, and last year was the biggest drop in the amount of ice ever. Which makes me so sad. 

Anyway, after we got our crampons on and a swift tutorial on waking on ice and how to stay away from the "fall zone" we headed aboard. I don't think I'm going to ever be able to properly describe the things I saw. They were truly spectacular. We saw blue ice that was over 700 years old, we saw deep crevices that were like open holes into the earths sole.  We heard and saw chunks of ice break off from the ice wall ahead. We were on the ice for about 3 hours and it went by in the blink of an eye. The blues and the black amid the white ice were outer worldly. I'm still processing the beauty of today. Simply amazing. 

I feel since I probably crushed some soles with my global warming destroying our planet thing, the guide told us about some "good" news happening with this particular glacier. The British geological society monitors this glacier daily. They have had originally predicted the entire glacier to be gone by 2080, however what they have found is interesting. The lower ice shelf, which will still be gone in 5 years, has been rendered dead by the glacier, so it's moved its focus inward. There has been thickening of the main part of the glacier since 2009, which buys some time. While this isn't applicable to all glaciers, not even the one right next to the one we climbed today, it does provide some hope that maybe we can save this planet. Maybe nature will find a way. 

A hard days hike

Wow! What a day. My Fitbit currently says I have 11 miles under my belt, so it's safe to say my legs are HURTING!! 

The day started unlike any of the days we have had so far in Iceland--sunny!! And warm??? If you can count 60 degrees warm (I do). We headed out from Akureyri to a geographical wonderland-- Mytavn. We started the day doing several short hikes around the lake, seeing "pseudocraters," pockets where lava flowed into subsurface water, which boiled and popped (like a pimple). 

The second hike we did was around a small lake where really neat lava formations rise out of the lake. 

But because we didn't have enough hiking we headed to the Martian Dimnuborgir lava fields, which were, bar none, some of the creepiest things I've seen. After the swarms of maddening tourists ends, a 8K round trip hike begins to Hverfell - a 463m crater AKA dirt pile. The first part of the hike was fabulous. The wind died down, the sun was shining and I was navigating beautiful lava rock. But then came the dumb decision. There were two choices to summit this thing. The "easy" route was twice as long as the "difficult" route. And for those of you who know my husband, he obviously didn't hesitate when the word difficult was thrown about. 

They really really really weren't kidding when They said difficult. The path was a solid 85 degrees vertical. The switch backs didn't start until half way up. Several F bombs were thrown about as my feet were trying my very best to dig into the sand that made up this mountain. It was like climbing a rocky sand dune. When we made it to the top, I became Pissy Laura, which is no fun for anyone. 

The winds were going strong at the top and in the crater far below, teenagers had drawn a giant penis with rock.  

I was so sore by the time we made it back to the car, but we still had 2 more stops. 

Next was Hevrir, a boiling mud pit and steam vent center. The air smelled so strongly of overboiled eggs, I saw a woman wrap a scarf around her face. The mud pits were cool as they were warmed from the magma below, bubbling and gurgling silica and sulfur. It was pretty awesome to see. 

The last stop of the day, Dettifoss, which is one of Iceland's most powerful waterfalls. When we pulled into the lot, the park ranger was wearing waders and pushing picnic tables into the knee deep water, which had gone over the path. As we passed by he said "don't stay too long...there's a river that wasn't there yesterday and it's growing"

Reassuring. 

And later on we could see why, the snow hadn't  melted enough to see any sort of path yet, so people before us led the way. At one point, we had to walk over 2 by 4s just to get to the other side to the growing river. By the time we made it to the waterfall, I was so over the day. But the waterfall was beautiful, and it helped so much that it was sunny. I just can't believe I walked over planks; in the US the park would definitely be closed. 

That's all from me today...gotta go rest my feet!!

Splishy splashy

Were only a few kilometers front the Arctic circle, yet the weather today was the best we've had in days! Although still overcast, it was a balmy 13 degrees Celsius. This morning we headed north to a small fishing village called Husavik; also called the whale watching capital. There are several tourist companies that offer similar tours. I did the logical thing and chose by which food they served. I ended with Gentle Giants which served hot chocolate and Icelandic donuts. Spoiler: they were tasty!!

The tour was about 3 hours and prior to departure Andrew and I once again suited up in those oh so attractive thermals. Only today because the weather was supposed to be "splashy" they gave us extra attractive Haz mat orange raincoats. 

 

Looking Gooooooood 

So "Splashy" in Icelandic doesn't mean a light spritz. It means the boat lists from side to side, throwing water over the side. Luckily, Andrew wanted to be up top in the crows nest, so instead of getting wet, I had to hang on for dear life. 

About an hour into the tour we hit the bay where most whales hang out. There were birds screaming everywhere overhead diving for the food below. Then in the distance, we saw the distinctive fin of a whale. The guide explained that these were Minke whales, about 30 feet long and weighing about 10 tons. Over the next hour we saw many minke whales, but never the humpback that are so common in these waters. 

There's a whale!

After finishing the tour, we headed over to the museum next door that had 12 whale skeletons and talked quiet extensively about the mating habits of all the whales. This was just the next section over from the children's area...soooo????

Lastly we wanted to get in a bit of hiking. The guide book said the city park was nice so we took a stroll through there. The stroll led into a hiking path which we followed for the next hour, not sure where it led. At several points we treked over several snow packs. The trail eventually turned cold (pun intended) and there was too much snow to continue, so we headed back. 

Trying to find the trail 

Sandstorms on Horseback

Yes yes, I know I missed yesterday. But our car got stuck on a rock, had to get towed, broke a mudflap, was drive 20K down an F road which is a big no no for a 2 wheel drive car, then we had to drive back!! Needless to say, that was enough adventure for the day. By the time we rolled in to our lovely guesthouse in the countryside, we kinda just collapsed into our 2 very separate beds.

Today was also definitely eventful. We had a Icelandic horseback riding tour booked through a local outfitter. I'd been watching the weather furiously, praying for no rain. What I didn't pray for was no sandstorm. (We also opted out of the sand and ash insurance coverage for our car. I was just assuming that there wasn't going to be a volcano erupting while we were here.)

Icelandic horses are so beautiful. The are smaller than regular horses, which is great. Those of you who know about my insane fear of animals larger than me will understand. Prior to riding they gave us some super sexy thermal coveralls to keep us warm. Mmm were they attractive. We selected the 2 hour tour. Apparently Andrew wasn't around to tell me "stupid idea" when I booked. About 20 minutes after we started the winds started whipping around voraciously. Little did I know we were under a gale force winds warning. The poor horses. They just weren't having it. I also wasn't having it.  However, we made it the two hours. Andrew loved it. Me...meh

Sexy can I?

 Luckily after that wonderful adventure we had a short trip to Akureyri, which is the capital of the north. Now, I don't know about you, but when I hear the word Capital,
I think big sprawling metropolis. Nope. This town has a population of about 18000. We have a cute apartment right on the water, just near the city center

Big city living

After a stroll, we headed to the #3 trip advisor reviewed place in town...Noa. We were the cool kids waiting outside on a bench until they opened at 6. We have grown pretty tired of our sandwhich, ramen, handfuls of cereal, and cookie diet. We were in need of some delicious food, even if that meant dropping 9,800 ISK. I'll leave you to do the conversion. I ordered the catch of the day, the wolffish.



This was our meal

Yum Yum 

lastly, I'll leave you with a photo of what my fish looked pre-caught 

Remember to Look Up

Andrew said that too many people spend too much time only staring down. "It's human nature," I retorted. "No, it's technology," he said back.

So look up is what I tried to do. And I am so glad I did.

Look Up!! 

Look up and see those cragged cliffs. The ones with the ice blue water endlessly crashing against its walls. Look up and see those birds fighting the winds, nesting in the crevices, hiding from the brutal elements.

Look Up! 

Look up and see the elves and gnomes hidden behind the hardened lava, peering out from behind the greenery. They are laughing at every trip or stumble, and scurry out of sight before you turn your head, hearing a noise carried on the breeze. 

A hike with the elves in Arnastapi in Snaefellsjkull Park

Look up!

Look way up! See the light house. The one that you thought was going to be ancient, but really wasn't. Look past that and see the volcano, it's snow capped peaks hidden in the clouds. Looks out at the ocean, whitecaps rushing towards the shore. The beach, black. The water, cold. 

Malariff lighthouse - spot Laura! 

Look up!

Lift your tired, windburned head up. Look at the seemingly endless staircase inching it's way towards the heavens. The stairs reach for a crater. But it's not the crater that's the fun. It's the 70mph winds pushing you towards the edge of the cliff. You look up, laughing. How ridiculous, you tell yourself.

But you looked up, and you embraced everything.