Velkomin to Iceland!
It was funny because as I mentioned, we were all milling about the city, and one could hardly walk a few yards before we would run into someone from the ship and start chatting. What would be a 5 minute walk became a 15 minute walk. It was kinda nice, to be honest! I felt like I knew the whole town!
Unfortunately, we got so sidetracked with running into people, we saw about 1/10th of the sights we wanted to see. Oh well. One of those is pictured below, the famous Hallgrimskirkja Church, which was VERY modern. There wasn't a stair climbing option to get to the top (ohh.... darn), but we still got some cool views (after we took the elevator up!) of the city and then M/S Expedition ship we had just gotten off of!
Besides the dreary and cloudy whether that we got the 1st day, Reykjavik is a small but quaint town. I didn't know what to expect. The ONLY things I have heard is how the whole country declared bankruptcy a few years ago AND with the recent volcano (March 2010), I assumed things were not looking good for Iceland. But again, I was wrong. Everything seemed to be running smoothly and it seemed there were a lot of tourists, which I was surprised to see (who goes to Iceland for a vacation? Well, besides me of course!). I talked to a few, and it seems many cruises stop there as well as people transit to/from Europe there. Yes there were some empty storefronts, but these days, where aren't there empty store fronts?
I quickly connected with some people from the ship and spent the next few days doing some power sightseeing. A friend let me join her that first day while she was getting a photography lesson in a remote place where we literally almost fell off a cliff. No joke. We were 4-wheeling on some "roads" (even calling it that is exaggerating) and went a little off where we were supposed to go, and next thing I knew our jeep was no more than a few inches from toppling over. I admit I got nervous and Dawne even caught me crossing myself in the back seat... and I'm not even a religious person. Fortunately, Tony saw that we were nervous and let us out while he navigated. Phew, we made it. Once we relaxed and were on normal roads again, we made it to the "secret" waterfall and saw some beautiful landscape.
That night to "detox" we went to a hot pot, what Iceland is famous for. The hot pots are naturally heated geothermal pools and it is a super relaxing way to chill out and end (or start!) your day. Although I have been to hot springs in the States (Colorado), which reek of sulfur, this actually had a faint smell of it and was very detoxing. We went to Laugardalur hot pot, which we were the only foreigners, and I was surprised how busy it was for a Tuesday night! I noticed not only there but everywhere in Iceland everyone has really great skin... it is not just the hot pots that are geothermic, the water itself is. We even were "warned" that it was normal that the hot water may smell a little at the hotel. It was SUCH a treat and soo relaxing to just lounge around and relax in the hot pot in the cool open air.
Here is a random awesome sunset picture from a high rise in Reykjavik:
The next day we did the Golden Circle Tour with Tony. Again, he is a private guide/photographer that my friend Dawne was using to teach her how to use the camera. It was nice to tag along with them because we could stop when we wanted and take as long as we wanted at some locations. The Golden Circle included Kerio crater, Geysir hot spring, Gullfoss waterfall, and Pingvellir National Park. They were pretty cool, the Kerio crater has a lake filled it with rainfall,
but when it is dry it has served as somewhat of a concert venue and even Bjork has had a concert there. Geysir hot springs I have to say was probably a highlight for me. It was soo cool to see an erupting geyser!
I could have stood there for hours and luckily one in particular erupted every 5 minutes, so I got ample video and pictures of it erupting! The temperature of the springs is a whopping 250 deg C. Ouch! Don't touch that!!
The Gullfoss waterfall was pretty spectacular as well... can't go wrong with a BIG waterfall, especially on a beautiful sunny day and with rainbows in the background!
We then went to a hidden area at the Pingvellir National Park and found yet another waterfall and pretty flowers,
and later that night we went back there to try and see the Northern Lights again. Of course it was a beautiful sunny day the whole day and a few minutes after we got there some nice clouds started rolling in,
and didn't stop the whole night. Oh well... my memory of the actual Aurora borealis that we saw on the boat is as livid and memorable as can be!
But anyhoo, as we were on a private tour we stopped at a lava field and the ground was soo soft and squishy, it was soooo fun to walk on it.
We also stopped a couple of times to see the Iceland horses, the ONLY breed of horse you will see in Iceland. They came to Iceland in the 9th and 10th centuries and there are something like 90,000 in Iceland today. There are 40ish colors of the horse and they have a funny shaggy mane, AND their full grown figure is actually pretty small. I had to hold my tongue a few times and call them ponies, which I heard is utterly offensive . They are so unique to Iceland because they do not import ANY horses and if an Icelandic horse is taken abroad, they are not allowed back in. Another interesting fact, they are also one of the rare breeds of horses that actually lie down when sleeping. Kinda funny.
Besides horses, we saw plenty of sheep. I don't know if it was just me, but they looked definitely well fed!
Here's a cool thing we saw, the Thingvellir Lake, or as we called it, "the Thing." Basically in it is a fissure that dividing the American and the Euroasian continents! You can actually scuba dive or snorkel in the actual crack, which some of my friends did, BUT again I was a wussy and there was NO way that I was going to suffer in -2 to -4 C or 24-28 degree F water temperature. Eek! And I thought the 30 something degrees that people jumped in the Greenland Sea was cold! NYET!
Finally the last day in the morning I went to the Blue Lagoon, the most famous attraction in Iceland. It is a combination of geothermal and sea water mixed together deep under the lava fields of the Reykjanes Peninsula. Again, this is known to have positive effects on the skin because of the natural minerals, silica and algea in the water. The avg temperature is between 100-104 degrees and because it is in a big open "pool" you actually come across many different temperature as you are waddling along. I, a couple of times, would yelp out loud because it suddenly got so hot, and then I would move about a foot over and then it would be comfortable again. Besides them having little buckets of natural mud to put on your skin, it was just nice to waddle along and enjoy the atmosphere and beautiful scenery around. It is also nice because it happens to be a mere 20 minutes from the airport and they specifically cater towards those people to either come there in transit, or before flights. Awesome, huh?
Above do you see me behind the lava rocks near the bottom right? :-)
After maxin' and relaxin' in the lagoon, Dawne and I met up and did some pow-wow souvenir shopping/window shopping! It was a lot of fun and being that the "shopping center" consists of about 3 streets that we had passed through many times, we had an idea of where to go. We both bought volcano rock jewelery and volcano rock candles, amongst other little things. I guess Iceland used to be even more expensive than Norway (which is EXPENSIVE), but because of all the recent mishaps, people say it is 50% cheaper than what it used to be.... which I couldn't even imagine how expensive it must have been. I wouldn't call it "cheap," I would probably say it is comparable to the States.
And finally, as again, 1/2 the ship stayed a few extra days to sightsee, we frequently ran into and had meals with our Expedition friends.
So there you have it! Can't believe I was in Iceland! There is soooooooooooooooooooo much to do (cool fjords and waterfalls, glaciers, quaint villages, volcano's, horseback riding, 4-wheeling, hiking, more hot pots and thermal areas, on and on!) and although I don't like to visit a place twice, I would probably re-visit Iceland again... I just couldn't get enough of the fresh air and again, the beautiful landscape.
Final thoughts: Funny how Greenland is all ice and Iceland is all green!
p.s. Below is a video I took of the erupting geysir, check it out!
