Tales from the Icelandic Glaciers
1. Moonscape – a biting wind blows the soil so it is very difficult to grow trees resulting in a barren lava landscape that looks like the moon.
2. Icelandic horses. Delighful!
3. Snow Angels on Glaciers
4. Geysers – that heat up the water for the entire country.
5. Pools everywhere – from the blue lagoon to public pools, the locals swim, enjoy hot tubs, and saunas on a regular basis.
(This is really a geyser, but the picture is nicer than my pool one, so pretend this is a pool.)
6. Waterfalls
7. Jeeps and Handbags on Ice
Iceland Adventure
Seeing as it is summer and I had once read that Iceland was really nice and Greenland was really cold and the countries had been so named to keep the tourists away from Iceland, I packed a few sweaters and some socks. Oh. My. Gosh. Was I wrong! I should have packed a woolly mammoth to wear. I was absolutely freezing so for three days wore my all of my clothes, including my pajamas and my boyfriend’s swim trunks underneath my clothes.
The weather was very strange. On the first morning, it was bright and sunny, then within 15 minutes, it was hailing! I did not sign up for rain or HAIL on this trip. Absolutely not. I hadn’t been feeling well (this is a vast understatement), so when my boyfriend and I found our way to the tourist office, I was so happy to get out of the hail that I said yes far too quickly to the two tours he wanted to go on.
We found ourselves an hour later (first a stop for warmer socks and hat) on the first tour – 6 hours on a bus venturing in for 3 hours into the mainland of Iceland to see a natural geyser which shoots boiling hot water into the air every 5 minutes. (Some crazy lunatics actually stood underneath this – how they did not get scalded, I have absolutely no idea!) We stayed there for 45 minutes, then zoomed over to the cascading waterfall for another half hour, got absolutely soaking wet when the wind changed direction, and hopped back on the bus for the 3 hour journey home.
Day 2 – My boyfriend is actually lucky I am still dating him. Really lucky. I have a very overactive imagination and a number of my fears were realized – actually fears I never knew existed. In my antibiotic/aspirin fuelled high, I had agreed to a tour that let me experience TERROR - complete blackness to complete white.
In one, I was underground in a cave rock climbing and I do not do rock climbing. Think Sarah Jessica Parker in a cave. Completely inappropriate but cute shoes. We experienced pitch blackness. My head light was broke.
(this was before the top of the glacier while we could still see)
An hour earlier, I was in a jeep in a white out on a glacier. My fellow travelers were urging the guide on to the top of the glacier. The snow swirled around us, the jeep got stuck, GPS stopped working and I was the voice of reason pleading to go back down. Did we? Oh no, we were only at 1,200 meters of 1,400 total high. My eyes were playing tricks and I could see the horizon just in front of us, we were about to plunge to our deaths – PLEASE CAN WE GO HOME!!!??? No, we had to get out and make snow angels on the glacier.
I actually did get out of the jeep, but didn’t move much until the guide stomped on the snow and told me to move around. I couldn’t let everyone make snow angels without me, so finally I threw myself down and made my snow angel on the glacier. The snow was dense and hard so it was really difficult to do, but I dug my arms and legs in and darn it, made the best angel there. I showed the gal from South America who had never seen snow before how to do it. And you know what, it was absolutely beautiful. When I stopped panicking I realized that the snow had a blue tinge to it because it was reflecting the sky. It was white (with a bluish cast) as far as the eye could see. I didn’t know if I would ever get down that darn glacier, but darn it, my snow angel was the best one that glacier had seen.
Crafting & Cod in Iceland
There were two crafty shops I fell in love with in Iceland. One was a knitting shop on the main shopping drag. They have knitting classes on Saturday mornings, so if you happen to be there on time, drop on in. The selection of yarns was absolutely amazing. The colors and textures and weight of the wool were divine. It was only the cost that kept me from going mad and spending all my money. If I lived in this country, I'd have to have my own sheep so I could make my own wool. The ladies ranged in age from 13 to about 76 and were knitting the usual socks, sweaters, etc. Didn't see any boobie warmers, but I did see these cool pouf ball hats. They remind me of something a Dr. Seuss creature would wear.
The fashions in Iceland mainly included hats, scarves, jumpers, boots, anything to keep warm, but yet, they also seemed to sell pouf ball dresses in the window. Where anyone would wear them, I have no idea. August is their hottest month, but I don't even think the temperature gets to 80F.
Below is the typical dress (notice the pointy elf like hat again) and this woman must be absolutely freezing because she is practically naked in comparison to all of the clothes I was trudging around in.
(Photo compliments of The Viking shop)
There were numerous other craft shops selling bits of everything, but my favorite was what seemed to be the largest. Litir og Fondur had everything from black lava beads (which I bought) to pelts of fur in a multitude of colors (which I did not buy). If anyone happens to be going to Iceland and would like the address, do let me know.
As for food - whale kebabs were on the menu at my most favorite ever restaurant - Saegreifinn (The Sea Barron). I didn't try this however and opted for the lobster soup which was absolutely to die for. Huge chunks of lobster meat in a creamy, buttery sauce. I was a glutton and added a lobster kebab to this. The thick, juicy pieces of lobster fell off the skewer and actually did melt in my mouth. I was in heaven. I could eat there every day of my life...well, not the whale.
Take a raw kebab from the counter - scallop, whale, cod, haddock, shrimp, salmon, lobster, pay for it at the register and they'll cook it for you. Oh yes, back to I was in love with this place...
...until I found the Icelandic fish and chip restaurant and I was in love all over again only with a different fish.
This time it was the huge chunks of haddock lightly battered in an almost tempura light batter topped with large crystals of sea salt and garlic rosemary chunky chips on the side, all slathered with lashings of a gloopy malt vinegar which was so delightful, I could have guzzled the entire bottle.
And of course, wash it all down with an ice cold Polar Beer (get it, polar bear?), that is if you like beer. I tried their endless assortment of mineral waters.
And here's a photo of breakfast in our guest house. This pig is everywhere in Iceland. It's the logo of the piggy back saver grocery store. I find it rather obscene and revolting, don't you?
p.s. - we did manage to get off the glacier , but had to reverse out of the ditch we'd spun ourselves into and apparently everyone has GPS now, so if one system breaks, there's always a back up.
