'And God saw that it was good' - Genesis
Admittedly the first time that I've used a verse to begin a blog but in the case of Iceland, I honestly think it would've been one of those places where God went to town on creation, not that he didn't love creating creation anyway, but the beauty was so breathtaking that you can't help but admire the splendour.
The trip was Wednesday to Wednesday, with my class and both biology and danish teacher - the bio teacher is a little funny - not only does she speak to me in english, when I do understand some danish, she speaks very slowly as if I don't understand my mother tongue, and questioned me as to if in Australia, we know who Charles Darwin is.... yup, as it happens, we're not too behind the times. Still, just another odd memory to add to the exchange book.
The Blue Lagoon
We left pretty early in the morning and got into the capital, Reykjavik around midday where we then headed of to the Blue Lagoon which is a geothermal pool about 40 minutes from the airport. The temperature in the water is max 39 degrees and is refreshed every 40 hours - it is also a beautiful pale blue cloudy color that smells every so slightly like rotten eggs due to the CuSO4 - ain't that just dandy, I havn't forgotten all my year 12 chem lessons (unless thats wrong in which case - awkward..., nah actually not really considering the amount of other errors I make in my blog) anyway on with the show. The water is filled with many a mineral, silica and algae which all contribute somehow to 'exfoliating and deep-cleansing effects' and 'reduce UV degredation of collagen in the skin and stimulate natural collagen production' - truthfully there wasn't enough sun to do any damage/ any sun at all so we've got that one covered.
So the experience was very cool. We spent about 4 hours in the water, just relaxing - we had to have a shower before hand so we would'nt introduce any bacteria into the water I guess. It wasn't very deep - maybe a metre, but the one pool itself is relativly large and there are steam rooms, sauna's (beats me what the difference is?) around the edges as well as a waterfall that is strong enough to give a pleasant back massage. Twas lovely indeed. There were also tubs of white silica around the place which you ut on your face until it drys - or for some, they coat their whole bald skalp with it and come out looking like a ghost - guess they're trying to encourage regrowth or something :P anyway, at one stage, being in excess of this gloop, my friend and I slathered it on our arms and necks as well, and attempted to let it dry - not very easy when you're too short to be able to comfortable put your arms out because the seat is to low...sigh...But it was a great couple of hours, with some slight drizzle, as the steam rose from the spa and the nearby mountain/hill (my perception of height is a bit distorted after spending so long in such a flat country) overshadowed us! I also met two Melbournites while in the steam room - they could'nt have had a stronger aussie accent if they tried. Turned out one of them had lived at Modbury heights and knew Eynsebury college - but you'll here more on these very odd random encounters.
The Golden Circle
On our second day, we headed out in the bus with an Icelandic tour guide, who spoke danish, to visit three very famous sights, well at least in the south of Iceland. The first was Thingvellir - which , is basically just a big open plain area, with a lake in the middle, and small cliffs overshadow parts of the plain and in the distance, larger mountain ranges can be seen. After looking at a crack where Iceland is pushed apart by 2 cm a year, effectivly 'growing' the country, we headed down to the lower levels where we could see where the old Icelandic parliament ( called the 'Althing') met and lived while laws were made and so forth. In the distance was a beautiful little church and some quaint houses - If I could live anywhere, it'd make my top 5. It is hard to describe the beauty, the lush fields, the small waterfalls and ponds and the overshadowing rock formations but if you have ever been to NZ, I imagine some of the scenery to be similair. Just before we boarded the bus, we saw a little pond with the clearest teal water, and the was money sparkling on the bottom of the floor which made all the water shimmer! I can imagine it being a beautiful place to swim.
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| The gap where Iceland is pushed apart |
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| Sparkly |
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| The beautiful houses and church |
So after the delightful time at Thingvellir, we headed onto the Geysir's which as the name tells, are a bunch of Geysirs (Hot water that boils up and shoots in a stream) So this place smelt dreadful! The rotten egg smell mixed with steam was a bad bad mix - its like having at least 10 fart bombs in a very small steamy space but the geysirs themself were pretty and the water was a beautiful hot Aussie sky blue color and very clear. The first one we walked to was to old to no longer be active but its neighbour would shoot every 5 - 10 minutes. It was here, while waiting that I again heard that glorious Aussie accent and turned around, smack bang into a Adelaide crows scarf - Joy of joys, I was with fellow South Aussies - we chatted for a bit - these two couples were on a cruise and in Iceland for 2 days with the next stop being NYC - however our conversation was brought to a close after the geysir suddenly went up and rained down on an unsuspected, non rain jacket hooded Hannah - yay for smelling like rotten eggs. Sarcasm should be noted. But it was lovely talking with them - they were the first SA people I've met this year, aside from my two friends and brother!
Following a picnic lunch in the forest, we then took the bus to Gulfoss - a very splendiforous waterfall that lies very close to a glacier - the first I ever saw. This waterfall is as beautiful as McKenzie falls in VIC but 10+ times bigger, and you can go and stand 5 metres from the water edge - it was very impressive to say the least.
We spent about 30 minutes down there, climbing the rocks, taking pictures and in general, being very touristy. Admittedly I find waterfalls one of those places that of course are incredibly stunning, but after 30 minutes, the water doesn't change direction, a dragon won't come crawling out and you realise that while you could sit and relax in front of it for hours, nothing will change, you you trump up back to the bus - I think perhaps I'm a tad impatient....
On the bus rides from place to place, there was little to do but listen to Sigur Ros, a fantastic Icelandic band that make very different music, and admire the green rocky outcrops, silhouettes of mountains, and various lakes and rivers winding through the countryside. It made me realise how much I miss going into the bush and camping, when you see nature that pure.
South Coast
Another day we headed out to the South coast to see some of the sights and yet again, saw two new waterfalls. At the second one, two friends and myself attempted to get one of those jumpy photo's and only managed it after 30 or so tries - I think we're a bit uncoordinated :) We also went past the Volcano that erupted last year and sent all that ash into the air that stopped airtraffic for a while. There is a family who have a dairy farm directly below the mountain (as its normally a glacier) and during the eruption, had to be evactuated and when they returned, found the farm to be covered in 5 cm of ash - luckily enough they're managed to get the farm back to working order but I think its a bit like, at home we live in constant fear of a bushfire, they live in constant fear of a volcano blowing its top. We watched a doco that her and her husband had made with footage of the ash descending and don't get me wrong, would've sucked to be in that situation but it looked so cool. There was this one photo of a man standing in the middle of a road and the black cloud was covering half of the photo and coming closer to his car - natural disasters are obviously destructive and whatnot but at the same time, you can't deny their mighty awesomeness.
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| The dairy farm below the volcano |
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| We finally got our photo! |
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| Camilla, Jeanette, Jesmin, Sabina and myself - my wonderful roomates and friends from London and Iceland |
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| Glacier |
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| The glacier was much dirtier that I expected |
We also went to a beach with rather than sand, tiny, very smooth black rocks - it was pouring down with rain, but in the grey smog, you could make out some rock formations lying in the distance and see the seagulls circling above the cliff (no matter where you go in the world, I think seagulls are always as annoying as ever) Admittedly I probably should not have taken my camera out - it required some recovery time later on from the water but at least it survived that experience. Still it was a beautiful beach, and we sheltered for a bit under the very odd rock formation cave - all the rocks were rectangular cubes stacked alongside one another.
Chill time
Both days when we were out in the country were very rainy, but fortunatly on the day that we explored Reykjavik central, it was nice and sunny. The weather makes such a difference and I'm no so sure that we appreciate it enough in Australia. But none the less, the city is very small but has a very camperish atmosphere and there are travellers everywhere. It also had some of the coolest little flea markets and 2nd hand vintage shops I've ever seen as well as a brilliant cafe that sell the most amazing chai latte - I consumed at least 5 over my time there! It took about an hour to get from one end of the main st to the other side - looking in shops included. There are a lot of Icelandic wool products there seeing its so famous but I actually thought it felt pretty scratchy - not the nicest wool to wear.
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| Waiting to take off |
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| One of the first churches in Iceland |
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| The money thing is a bit different - 10 AUS$ = 1,000 IS krona so I felt pretty rich :D |
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| A viking ship in Reykjavik |
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| The Opera house |
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| We went to this art museum that had a expo with cameras and this one, after 5 or so minutes, would have a replay of where you moved so as you can see, I'm doubled |
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| Any town with a Haberdashery is immediatly |
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| Hallgrims church |
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| Just the best chai latte...ever |
In the evenings, after one of the class groups had all made dinner for us ( I was going to make a Pavalova but no oven would create a problematic situation) we headed down to the local pool, which included 4 geothermal pools from 38 degrees to 44. I found that I could stay in the 44 degrees for maybe a minute and a half if I stayed completely still and at that time, the tingly feeling in my arms and legs had just turned to numbness - a very long dip in the cold pool was neccesary afterwards.
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| Wool covered bike and tree |
Why I now believe the world to be a very small place - On my second night there, having already met the blokes from Melbourne and cruise people from Adelaide, I went down to the social room in the hostel we were staying in to the sound of more Aussie accent - turns out these two guys were from Adelaide and travelling around the world on their gap year, and we had a mutual friend - in a place like Iceland, thats pretty random!!
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| Our trip to a viking museum - the saga history in Iceland is very interesting, well worth a read |
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| With Jesmin on our last night |
Hopefully, I'll start doing blogs a bit more regularly but I make no promise - always got to have a disclaimer in place :D I only have 3 months left of my year, which is very weird but I think as this weather continues its slide into winter, I'll be ready for the aussie summer!
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