Day 5: Nesjavellir and Around

Dear Reader,

Isn't Nejavellir a beautiful town?

OK...well...town is a loose definition. But there was our hotel, a power plant, and a house within sight of each other. In Iceland, outside of Reykjavic, that's as close to a town as you're going to get.

Barrett and I took the morning to walk around the most active geothermal area in the country, which just happened to be around our hotel. Iceland's hiking trails are marked like ski trails. Educational/Easy trails are green. Blue trails are moderately exhausting, and black trails make you cry for your mommy.

We stuck to greens for our first outing, but don't let that fool you. If you get off of these greens, you'll be boiled like an egg!

Hot? Cold? Both? Barrett finds a glacial stream joining thermal waters. You can tell which stream is thermal by the abundant amount of greenery growing out of it.

After trekking around our hotel the whole morning, we decided that after lunch would be a good time to visit some other "towns" that were in our guidebook. The most interesting one we happened across was picturesque Skalholt. Granted the entire town consisted of 5 church buildings and a farm, but I could almost pronounce it. Victory!

Skalholt was the religious center of Iceland for hundreds of years. It fell into ruin from multiple fires and recent preservation efforts have rebuilt the church, excavated the foundations of previous buildings, and supported the building of a small museum. The interior of the church is crowned with a multi-hued mosaic of Christ.

Also of interest on the grounds are the remains of a sod house and two stone knights (they're really Catholic Bishops), and a tunnel out of the church basement (good for passing from building to building during harsh winters and being sneaky).

On the way back to home and food we stopped to make some new friends, and then called it a night to rest up for summiting the nearby volcano and tackling some black hiking trails.

Icelandic ponies came to the island over a thousand years ago. Those same horses have evolved into today's breed without the introduction of any outside horses. Consequently, the ponies are unique. They even have an extra gait that all other horses lack. It's a speed between a trot and a canter. These ponies were all too happy to let me pet them, but I fear they were disappointed by my rude lack of carrot or apple.

Tomorrow volcanoes!

Till then dear reader...

At Long Last!

Dear Reader I have missed you!

The internet at my house has been more unpredictable than a seven year old in the grocery store after a six-pack of Coke and three boxes of candy. Nobody move. Remain perfectly still. We're working on it...so without further ado...

Day Four: Ridin' Back

After a long day's drive out to Hofn, we had to make another long day's drive back to get Phech and Chara to Keflavik to catch their plane home. But as I'm sure you've already gathered, Iceland is just too beautiful to drive without stopping. We did manage to keep it down to only two stops. And I grabbed these sweet pics from the car.

Our first stop was Skogar Falls, known as the Black Waterfall because of the incredible basalt rock formations that it tumbles over.

There's a gorgeous park at Skogar with a great camp ground that we'd love to go back to! It's also a starting point for trips out to the glacier. A definite must on Iceland 2.0.

Our second stop was at...

...yeah well, you try to say it. Not only were there more amazing basalt rock formations, but apparently if you hang around here long enough you can hear the elves sing. Christian elves! They sing hymns!

Phech and I didn't see any elves, but we did see some very strange human looking creatures.

After we dropped our friends off at the airport, it got very quiet... Sad to say goodbye to such fine people. But we are soooo going to do this again!

Barrett and I drove to our hotel in the thriving metropolis of Nesjavallir. OK...so..."thriving metropolis" might be a bit of an overstatement. But there was our hotel, one house, and a power plant. For Iceland that's a big town!

The hotel was in a gorgeous location, so we stuffed ourselves and rested up for a couple days of hiking and sight seeing in the most active geothermal area in Iceland.

As long as the internet behaves, I'll post more soon. Till then dear reader...

Fast Forward: Day Three

Dear Reader,

I have not forgotten (nor am I afraid to admit publicly) what went down between the hours of 10pm and 4 am on our second night in Reykjavik. But an adventure of such monumental proportions deserves undeniable photographic evidence of its awesomeness. I was so caught up in the awesome that I forgot to get out the camera. Thank goodness for Phech! Another set of photos is on the way. So until then...

After denying our typical geriatric state of being (I love to fall asleep at about 10 every night) getting to bed at 4am on Monday morning, we decided the best idea would be to get up early for a little drive...to the other side of the country.

Hasta la vista Reykjavik!
I have no idea how to say "see you later" in Icelandic, and it would probably take so many letters that I would run out of bit space on my blog. So Spanglish it is!

Our first stop was Skogafoss, a 62m high waterfall with a walking path behind it!

That's Barrett in the blue jacket.

As if waterfalls weren't beautiful enough to begin with, the constant sunshine created rainbows at every foss we visited. That's a word in Icelandic I can say. Hooray for multicultural me!

Next stop was halfway down the Southern coast in Vic. A place known for it's black sand beaches.

These three gigantic rock formations are called sea stacks. The local legend is that they were three trolls who were caught by the sun while pulling their boat ashore. And as everyone...yes, everyone...knows, sunlight turns trolls to stone. It's true. Read The Hobbit.

Just outside of Vic is Dyrholaey, a great place to find puffins and take in the view. We managed to find puffin, as in one singular bird. Apparently puffin mating season had just ended so all the little momma puffins were in their cliff side burrows sitting on their eggs.
Good for the eggs.
Lame for the tourists.
I mean what kind of bird digs a hole in a rock and hides! Really puffins? Really!

But all was not lost. The view was incredible. I especially enjoyed photographing the rock bridge and splashing water as the ocean pounded up the shore.

Looking below the rock bridge.

We drove on to what was possibly one of the most beautiful places I've seen in my life, Jokulsarlon (that name should include an umlaut and two accent marks, but you get the idea). Here icebergs calve from Breithamerkurjokull (right?...that's one name, and I substituted our letters for their funny d-flag letter and left out the umlaut) part of the Vatnajokull glacier (I swear the crazy names never stopped). I might not be able to pronounce any of this, but seeing these giant icebergs slowly floating out to sea was beyond words anyway.

As the sun reached its lowest point, the sky blazed pink casting purple shadows over the already surreally blue ice and water. Barrett found a small glacier of his own, and quickly learned an important scientific principle...

Ice is very cold on bare hands!

Remember that dear reader.

Staying warm,
Megan

Day Two, Part One: The Golden Circle

This title might get you thinking...

Wait just a minute! What's all this part one business? Pick the good parts and get on with it lady! We haven't got all day.

The problem with picking the good parts is that there were so many of them. During this time of year the sun never really sets in Iceland. Oh sure, it goes below the mountains, but there is sunshine 24/7. And when you're in a place as gorgeous as this, you can't stay indoors or go to bed at a decent hour.

Oh. Well in that case, get on with it then!

Thank you. I will...

Day two got kicking with lots of caffeinated beverages and picking up the rental car. We were headed to The Golden Circle, a trio of Iceland's marquis natural wonders.

First on the list, Thingvellir National Park. Iceland had the world's first democratic parliament. Snore inducing? Not quite! They chose the most incredible location for tribal chieftains (aka Viking-esque men) to meet and talk a little policy, on the shores of a glacial lake where two continental plates (North America and Eurasia) are very slowly drifting apart.

After soaking up some national history (and clearing myself of being a witch, they would drown you at the bottom of the falls back in the good ol' days), we headed to our second stop, Geysir.

Now Icelanders are lovely people, but as I mentioned previously, their national tongue is quite difficult. All geysers in the world are named after this one, but they say it like gay-sir. Yes I am, and proud of it! You might reply. But they're really just talking about geo-thermally heated water that turns to steam and blasts out any cooler water trapped above it, so don't get too frisky yet.

The government there is a big believer in social darwinism. While there might be paths to keep you from trampling nature, there are not any blockades or ropes to keep humans out of harm's way. The idea being that if you are dumb enough to get close to the boiling hot water then you probably need to learn a lesson and nobody is interested in paying your medical bills afterwards. We actually saw a group of kids get totally drenched (the water had cooled, so no worries) when their parents urged them to stand on the down-wind side of one of the geysers for a picture. Everyone laughed and ran away from the water without the thought of a lawsuit crossing anyone's mind. How do attorneys here stay in business?

The third and final stop on the Golden Circle tour was Gullfoss, the mother of all Icelandic waterfalls!

The dot standing on the cliff above the massive rush of water is actually Barrett. Mother Nature made us feel pretty tiny that day.

After all of our hiking, oohing, and aahing we drove an hour to what was reported to be the best lobster dinner in all of Iceland. Reports are true!

A starter of lobster bisque, 2 pounds of lobster for 3 people to share, and delicious slices of chocolate cake should have equaled a total food coma. But it was only 10pm, and the sun was still shining. Time for an hour and a half hike to a thermal river! But that is a blog for another day...

Happy Reading,
Megan