VIK, ICELAND
JOKULSARLON, ICELAND
The next morning I took a shower at Andri’s parents’
place and realized that the water from the taps smelled like sulfur. I knew the entire country utilized natural
geothermic energy to heat its homes but I was surprised to actually smell it
through the running faucets. Luckily I
didn’t mind the egg smell but I did have a problem with what it did to my
hair! Yuck- it felt like straw for the
entire 6 days I was there. If I lived in
Iceland I would have to shave my head!
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| Icelandic terrain |
I teamed up with Shai again, the 32 year-old from Israel
who I had met at my hostel a couple nights before. He was really nice and worked for Ernst and
Young so we exchanged stories from the corporate world. Shai was travelling alone but felt very much
at home here in Iceland. There was
definitely some kind of spiritual connection going on between Iceland and
him. He was loving every bit of the
landscape so I was happy to explore the southern region of the country with
someone so upbeat! He picked me up at
Andri’s in his AUTOMATIC car and we took off in hopes of finding the town of Vik
by nightfall.
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| Seljalandsfoss |
We leisurely made our way down the only real road heading
south and just took in the surrounding lava landscape surrounded by TONS and
TONS of Icelandic horses grazing among the mountains. I later found out that what looked like
mountains were actually active volcanoes! There are over 130 volcanoes in Iceland of
which 18 have erupted since its settlement.
There are also more waterfalls in Iceland than anywhere else in
Europe! Betcha didn’t know that. We saw a couple small ones on the way but it
wasn’t until we reached Seljalandsfoss that our jaws started dropping. There was a small hike that actually brought
me behind the waterfall and I was able to snap my most favorite picture from
Iceland. The next waterfall was my
favorite though- Skogafoss! It was just
massive! I was jealous of the few people
I saw tenting around the edges because that would certainly be a soothing sound
to sleep to. We hiked all around the
waterfall and there were some spots that really made me lose my stomach. I was really high and could just imagine the
Earth giving away beneath me!
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| Skogafoss |
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| Skogafoss |
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| Hiking Skogafoss |
Continuing on the theme of Earth giving away, we
continued our drive only to find some odd houses that were buried under the
land! The Icelandic people have been
known to believe in trolls and gnomes so I could only assume these were their
actual homes! Nah, it turned out they
were regular, non-enchanted homes for human beings that were fearful of lava
flow and falling volcanic rock and debris so they built their homes underground. Very cool!
As we neared Vik, we stopped off at the Black sand beaches of Dyrholaey. There was a natural bridge that was just begging me to practice my Karate Kid crane kick…so I did. There weren’t too many beach-goers since it was about 18 C but there were plenty of Puffins in the water. They were a pretty cute bird and I had never seen a real one but, thanks to American advertising, I could only picture them with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth. On our way out of the black sand beaches we picked up two hitchikers! Heather and ?? hailed from Toronto and were backpacking around Iceland for 2 months. They were living on the extreme essentials, which was amazing to witness. Their packs were only about 25 lbs each and that included clothes, food, tent, and sleeping bags. It made me feel like throwing away all excess in my bag that didn’t fit those criteria. They headed to their campground while we found that every hostel in the modest town of Vik was sold out. Shai and I paid too much for a hostel that didn’t have internet or linens so we took it out on the hotel down the road by scamming their internet for a couple hours. I’m pretty sure they were the only building with a light on in the whole town….and we stayed until it went out.
We picked up our hitchhiking friends in the morning and
headed for the main event- Jokulsarlon.
The landscape began to shift and the clouds engulfed the mountains. There was one area where there was a large
gap between the volcanic mountains and there was nothing in between them but
looming clouds that were somehow simultaneously welcoming and eerie. It looked like the gates to heaven…or maybe
hell…or maybe Mordor! I hope I never
forget that memory in my head. It was
amazing!
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| Glaciers coming down from between the mountains |
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| Black Sand Beaches |
The rest of the trip was filled with glaciers just oozing
out between the volcanic mountains. I
can’t believe they were so close to the road.
They were pretty dirty in color but just so omnipresent that my eyes
didn’t fixate for long. Shai loved
taking pictures (especially while driving) so he was in Zion. The four of us arrived in Jokulsarlon where I
took notice that every tourist in Iceland wore hiking boots. This was an adventurous vacation whether you
were hiking up glaciers or just watching them float down a river, which is what
we did in Jokulsarlon. The white
glaciers took on a magical light blue tint against the water and there was
nothing to rival the soothing pace at which they bobbed along toward the sea. There were a couple of brave sea lions that
surfaced around the thick blocks of ice and some even braver tour guides taking
people out on motorized rafts. On our
way back to the car, there was a loud crack and we witnessed a glacier split
apart and the remaining iceberg made its way down the river in cold pursuit for
the ocean. I don’t know what color shade
of blue you can call the Jokulsarlon glaciers but I’d like to see more of it in
this world.
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| Crane kick! |
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| Glacier lagoon- Jokulsarlon |
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| Jokulsarlon |
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| Jokulsarlon |
I had hit the end of my time with Shai since he was
moving further south and I had to make it back for my 8am flight to Amsterdam
the next morning. The Canadians were also
heading in a different direction so we all said our goodbyes and nice-to-meet
yous. I had missed the last bus back to
the city of Rekjavik so I knew that I would be hitchhiking my way back. I had spoken to plenty of people, including
the Canadian couple we had picked up, and was told how incredibly safe Iceland
was. According to Sven, with only
300,000 people on the entire island and half of them living in the capital
itself, nothing happens. Ever. You’d hear about anything that was going to
happen before anything could even have a chance to happen. And the road leading 300km back to the city
was full of tourists that would pick up hitchhikers. So I waited 40 minutes and watched a lot of
people make strange faces and gestures that must have meant “I would love to
pick you up but, as you can see, I’m not going to.” Finally two German students stopped and said
they could take me about 50km before they had to leave me to find a
hostel. I had waited 40 minutes so I
thought this was a pretty good offer since it was at least heading in the right
direction. They thought I was insane for
not already being in Reykavik considering my flight left in 15 hours! I started to worry a little bit when they
said that!
They let me off at a somewhat busy-for-Iceland roundabout
and I started running over a bridge to get to a nice spot on the other side
where I could look pleasantly desperate enough and people would stop. Instead clouds swirled in and started dumping
down rain…HARD! I thought this was the
worst thing that could have happened but rain actually makes people feel sorry
for you! The next car to pass pulled
over and the guy helped me with my bag.
His name was Joi (Icelandic for Joey) and he was AWESOME! He was 42 years old and was driving back to
Reykjavik from his job working on machinery around the southern region. His working van smelled like my dad’s (oily,
machine parts mixed with dirt) so I felt pretty comfortable. We had an absolutely blast in the 3 hours it
took to get to the city bus station. He
had a few kids, a girlfriend, and was just a fantastic guy! He also thought I was absolutely crazy for
leaving such a small margin of error between myself and my destination over
300km away! He admired my adventurous
spirit though and I even posed for a picture to commemorate our trip. He stopped for me to grab some food, offered
me two Coca-Colas, took a detour to show me the country’s geothermic power
plant and even mailed a postcard for me. What a guy!!
I took the last bus to the airport and spent the last
night in the airport. I figured I’d come
full circle on my Icelandic trip. I
stayed up most of the night but there was a strange man from ‘Belgium’ but ‘now
lived in the south of France’ that asked me to watch his bag while he went
somewhere. I didn’t want to but it was
hard to say no. It was clear he was in
the backpackers’ area but I didn’t even know him. He tried to talk to me around 4:30am and was
saying that he was here to visit some girl he met over the internet. She had come to France and now he was coming
here. But it wasn’t his girlfriend. When I asked why on Earth she didn’t come to
the airport to pick him up he said it was late and she was sleeping. Then he said that she was a little
strange. And I thought that birds of a
feather flock together. Then he asked me
to watch his bag while he got a coffee.
I went up to a couple nearby and gave them a long-winded story about how
this guy was weirding me out and would they mind watching me (and my stuff)
should I get tired and fall asleep. They
looked at me like I had ten heads and finally said they didn’t understand
English. The weasel came back 5 minutes
later with no coffee and tried to tell me that he had drank it quickly. I got the hell out of there and told some
security guards about him. What a creep!
Finally it was 5am and I was allowed to check in to my
flight. I pulled out my sleeping bag and
lied across a few chairs right in front of the gate and slept a bit. I awoke to some old, grumpy man hitting my
feet and swearing at me in German. I
moved but gave him a nasty face as he continued to swear at me to his two
friends. Finally I shot back, ‘I’m right
here. I can hear you.’ He kept saying stuff that I could only assume
was ‘no’ so I just kept saying, ‘Yeah.
Yeah.’ So it went back and forth like
that for awhile until I blatantly pointed my camera in his face and took a
picture for ‘Friend or Foe Friday.’ Haha- I didn’t even care.
To conclude my trip, I made my way onto the plane and
couldn’t wait to shut my eyes for the 2 hour flight. I found a 13 year old girl in my window seat
and her mom in the middle. I let them
know that the seats were wrong but I didn’t mind the aisle. Then the mom told me she planned to go to the
bathroom a lot so she’d be asking me to get up during the flight. I waited a minute and thought, hells no. I wanted to sleep. So I explained that I hadn’t slept much in
the airport that night and would like to sit in my original seat. You would have thought I asked her to cut off
her own arm! She made a big fuss and,
once I was in the right seat, asked if everyone was happy! What a JERK!
Although the trip started with a lot of anxiety and
self-doubt, I found my groove thanks to a lot of very nice Icelandic folk. Yeah, it was pricey but the landscapes and locals
made up for it. Sven, Andri, Steini,
Meredith, and Joi turned my 6 days into a very fun and memorable
experience. They were more than kind to
me and I can’t thank them enough for a great start to my European trip. Did you know Iceland is considered
Europe? I didn’t think it was since it’s
strangely not in my Europe 2011 guidebook but it is indeed. Next stop:
Mainland Europe…Amsterdam to be exact.
Click on this link to see all the other great pictures from Iceland (you don't need a facebook account to view the photos):http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.899343391487.2358770.1611207&l=1b309d96c9&type=1
FOODS I TRIED- Skyr, dried fish, Lyfrapylsa (I still think it was dogfood)
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