Sometimes when I am traveling about, I can't believe I am not getting any sort of sponsorship. I just had a week in Iceland that could be developed into a promotional tourism video. Alas, I have a voice only a drunk can appreciate and a body that, at best, can be described as nonthreatening. Man, if I looked like my friend, Niki, I would never hurt for cash. Ah well. With beauty would come fans and then I'd need a film crew and... At least it's easy for me to get around without a fuss.
I had a rough idea of things I wanted to do or see in Iceland but no hard plans. This was one of the few times I travelled with someone, my coworker from China, which made things easier overall. Financially, we are pretty even and had the same budget. We arrived in Iceland on the same day, split the cost of renting a car and petrol, and flew out the same day. She arranged for the rental car; I made the schedule and the accommodation reservations.
So, two teachers, one rental car, and six nights. Every single day a new square or two on my mental Iceland Bingo card got coloured in.
Day one: embrace the sticker shock of Reykjavik. Arriving at 17:30 didn't leave much time for exploring the city. Monica had arrived at 06:45 that day and picked up the rental car. Now, her original plan was to spend the day exploring the city, check out Blue Lagoon, maybe walk around the harbour area... Instead, she was too tired to function, got a hotel room before breakfast, and slept. Her magical Day One's highlight was picking me up at the airport. Hey, I'm pretty awesome. This saved me the $25 bus ride into town. We dropped my stuff off at the AirBnB, parked the rental at her hotel, and walked the main drag of Reykjavik. I'm not one who enjoys dropping $35 for a bowl of soup and a beer, but we found a place that was a) open and b) had something under 1,990 kronors ('bout $20). Good enough! Walking in and sitting down, ordering was simplified due to the late hour (8-ish) and the restaurant only have one thing available. Meat soup or nothing. Well. I just had a hankering for some meaty goodness!
We managed to walk a good chunk of the downtown area before the hour got too late. 'Round 10:30 I dropped Monica off at her hotel and walked home with a 09:00 pickup arranged.
Good morning, Iceland!
My alarm, still being on Hungarian time, woke me up at 06:45 so I had a lazy morning waiting for the sun and Monica to rise (the sun showed up an hour after Monica). AirBnBs in Iceland, the five we had, were closer to hostels than the usual shared-space-with-a-host I've had in Asia. Three places were two-level houses were the host (and their family) lived while the downstairs is a mini hotel with 3-5 rooms. I slunk out of my room before anyone else was awake and set off with Monica to our first leg of the journey, The Golden Circle.
Monica had no idea the entire trip what the plan was, so I settled into the copilot chair about 80% of the time to get us from one general area of interest to another. We drove up through the national park, to Geyser, and back down to the national park where we had a scheduled snorkel trip.
Geyser? Neat. I mean, not magical, but neat. Boiling water on the surface and geysers that have the smallest eruptions unexpectedly brief compared to what I've seen before in places like Yellowstone. Okay. Still cool. And it was these geysers that give all others their name. Okay. Cool. We could have hit Gullfoss Falls while we were in the area, but we just kept pulling over along the way for photos. Iceland is obnoxiously, on-goingly gorgeous.
The snorkel trip was a bit more interesting. It was Monica's first time snorkelling, and I have never worn a dry suit before. Being a couple of minutes late, we had to track down our snorkel group in our car, but after 40 minutes of awkward tugging, pulling, zipping, and wiggling, 20 of us waddled like penguins bound in rubber bands to the glacier water over the Silfra continental rift. I'm an idiot and couldn't find my contacts so I did most of the swim border-line blind. With my ill-fitting, lobster-claw-like mittens, operating my tiny GoPro seemed like a risk not worth taking at first (if I dropped it, it had a 45 meter drop in some places), but eventually I found a shallow bit of water to fiddle with the damned thing and got a few pics. Plus, using the camera allowed me see what my myopic eyes couldn't.
After the dive, it was back in the car and up to Gullfoss Falls before sunset and then an hour drive down to Selfoss for the night. We were delighted to find a cheaper (comparatively) grocery store and stocked up (only $4 for iceberg lettuce how... Well. Expensive but doable!) $30 in a bag but now we are no longer dependant on food sources outside our car.
Day Two's contributions to the TV episode that should have been filmed? Listening to Sigur Ros while driving Route One, diving where two tectonic plates are pulling apart, visiting Geisyer, and seeing Golden Falls. Maybe our hotel/hostel/inn of six rooms that night with its six Americans, four Germans, and three Chinese could make the show, too, 'cause we were an interesting and loud crew.
Except the Chinese room. They pissed everyone off by hogging then flooding the bathroom.
Day Three: Big Drive Day. We needed to get from Selfoss to Höfn, about 420 km/260 miles away. That's not a hard day, but the sun rises at 10:11, sets around 16:45, and some of the roads are icy. Plus, we aren't driving to get somewhere. We are driving to see Iceland which means we made horrible time, but HAD a great time, stopping every few kilometres because of waterfalls.
Or beaches.
Or volcanic landscapes.
Or old ruins.
Or blue ice in grey waters.
Iceland bingo on day three? I took one of my Icelandic horses photos (and the horse let me pet him/her!), saw the classic Icelandic church on the hill, played about on a black sand beach, and saw both seals and blue icebergs in Glacier Bay. We ended the day with reindeer meat for me and, because she possibly has no soul, some sort of sea creature related to lobsters for Monica. I dunno, man. Some people are gross. She did join me for a locally brewed Christmas beer, and have you ever had a bad Christmas beer?, and a nice walk back to the house we shared with two groups of Koreans.
Oh. And then 'cause the universe likes me, we saw the lights. In hindsight this is even more incredible than it was at the moment because that tiny window I dragged Monica literally out of bed was one of the only moments--MOMENTS--of the trip where we had clear skies. The six nights there were mostly rainy. But, it's not just clear skies. You need clear skies AND activity. Well, I was sitting in bed looking at different forecasting sites, looking at clod-cover maps and KP readings (I don't know what that stands for either), and I just felt it. All around Höfn were clouds, but we had a moonless sky and a 46% of seeing aurora activity. That one hour was the only night, which we didn't know at time, that we even had a chance. So I go back in the house, convince Monica to come, we drive a few minutes out of town and then--
From one side of the sky completely across to the other, a solid green light like an amplified view of the Milky Way is instantly visible. For minutes the green fades in and out of intensity, a portion to the east making a pattern like a double helix and to the west a small patch of actual dancing lights. Then it fades out. Dimming in and out. We got there just in time and, for the rest of the trip, it was rain or no activity.
But THAT in the promo video. At the airport, everyone talked about whether or not they saw the lights and, most of the people I spoke to, did not. Weather was friend to no one this week.
I found a great APP in the ITunes Store. "Aurora." Very useful!
Sleep, eat, and get back in the car. I had booked an ice cave tour before leaving China, but the uncommonly warm weather resulted in a flooded cave and our tour cancelled. Now, I am not devastated but... This is really gonna hurt my travelogue I'm filming in my head. How do you go to Iceland and not walk on a glacier? We need to regroup. Okay, maybe you won't get to walk on Vatnajökuls, but surely you can find another piece of ice to stomp on. Yeah, it'd be cool to climb about on the largest glacier outside the Arctic, but any ice would be fine for me. Do you need to see the blue ice up close? Weren't the glaciers in the bay amazing enough? We put on our happy faces and with, I think, an upbeat and positive mind frame, get in the car (me driving) to try to fill in some more Bingo squares.
Like reindeer spotting.
Or middle-of-nowhere hot tubbing. I got a bonus point here 'cause Monica opted to stay warm'n'dry while I stripped down to my skin to have a quick dip overlooking an incredible visita with the angry ocean growling and scratching audibly in the distance.
I think today was the day we realised that, for the rest of our life, whenever we talk about a mind-alteringly beautiful stretch of road, there will always be an asterisk.
"Oh my god. These mountains! This is incredible*!"
*i mean, don't get me wrong. This is the stuff that makes professional photographers pant, but I've driven on Route 1 in Iceland so...
It's not just the majesty of the land. It's not just the variety of landscapes. It's not just the dramatic lays of light or play of colours across the land and sky. It's the scale. It's the scope. It's the proportions and the abrupt changes and the minute details. Step back or zoom in. It gets better.
The next day was time to head back toward Reykjavik. A bit of a lazy start to the day brought us moseying to another hot spring I found for us. Today Monica joined me, our swimsuits being in our bags in the car today, at a collection of private pools near a horse-ranch pressed up against a blue-ice glacier. We did the right thing, 'cause we aren't assholes, and dropped our 500 Kronor each in the box before easing into the hot water as a herd of horses galloped by.
I'm telling you. For an English teacher, I'm doing alright.
As we adjusted to the temperature, we looked at the glacier in the distance, our front-wheel drive station wagon with summer tires, and the muddy, rocky road ahead of us and decided that, well, our car could make MOST of the drive, but we'd have to walk the last mile to the glacier. Okay. We need the exercise anyway.
Alas and alack, a good body of mud and deep water separated us, after we walked to the base, between us and the glacier. So close. So close! I frolicked in the mud slide near the water while Monica continued to be the mature adult sticking to the moss ridge overlooking the muck below. An hour after beginning our walk, it's already 1pm, we have 420-370 kilometres to go (not sure of our route), and still wanna stop by Glacier Bay one more time.
And then.
I'm feeling it.
We get to Glacier Bay and I'm like, "hey. I know the tour group confirmed all tours are cancelled today too but... Wanna just go check over there and see if maybe...?"- me
"See if some independent guides are operating? Sure! Why not?"- Monica
I may have the body and face of a fat goose, but I am also one lucky ducky. We found a private guide who took us out in his super Jeep (or is that Super Jeep? Apparently a Super Jeep is a real thing and not just a Jeep you choose to paint blue and invest a lot of confidence in) for $190 each (the tour group were part of was $210. And that was with a group on a timetable).
I say, "take us out." What I mean is he took us to the glacier we wanted, the largest glacier in Europe, took us TO the flooded Crystal Cave where we could peak in and see the blue ice, took us to the back of the cave so we could touch and photograph that same blue ice, AND took us to Black Diamond cave and through Black Diamond tunnel, a shockingly pitch-black tunnel I would have thought you only saw in deep mines.
But it was ice!
Black, black, black volcanic ice where the roof was so low your head and back scrapped the top even crawling in places and you were damned happy to have your stupid helmet on.
Did we get the classic blue ice photos you get from Crystal Cave? No. Can I just google those pics and go, "wow, pretty?" Yes. Did we have an entire ice cave to ourselves? Yes. I popped a piece of ice in my mouth as the golden light of sunset made the clear ice between all the black and blue glow gold. I don't have a camera that can do justice to what we saw.
That Iceland Bingo card is filling up pretty damned fast.
After our two hour trip in, on, over, and under the glacier, we skipped across the street to the narrow opening that connects to the sea, where big chucks of that blue-ice glacier break off and wash up onto the black sand. Just as the sun had given up the ghost, slunk away for the day, and the competing blue light of evening set in.
But now we really, really need to get going. Roads are icing now that the sun is set and we have... Wow. We have a long drive ahead of us.
Whatever. What part of the day should we have skipped?
Last full day. Today was an easy day. Hvolsvöllur to Reykjanesbær, just outside the airport. Again, no set plan so we roll into Reykjavik to walk around the town in the light before heading down to Blue Lagoon.
Which you need reservations for.
Damnit!!!
Well. We got in the building. I touched the water. For the same price of doing the Blue Waters experience, I got presents for all my family instead. Blue Lagoon ain't cheap. This was probably the only part of the trip that didn't work out. And so, with tears in our eyes, we got back in the rental and explored the nearby coast which is also a Geopark (those are always fun!) Got some fun pics of the coast and random features, but Monica has been feeling a bit poorly all day, so we call it an early day.
Where our AirBnB host is all, "Iceland only has 330,000 people. Of course everyone knows everyone. My son went to school with Jonsi (the singer of Sigur Ros). Oh, you like Olafur Arnalds? I used to see him in town a lot."
So. I have shaken the hands of the person who has shaken the hands of the singer of my favourite band. Pretty sure that counts as being engaged in some cultures.
Late to bed and late to rise, the Hungarian red wine I shared with Monica wreaking havoc on her stomach from the night before, we have time for just a quick (an hour) pop into the Iceland Museum of Rock and Roll where I geek, Monica is bullied into geeking, (She geeked. I have pictures), and exercise extreme restraint in the gift shop buying nothing.
So. Icelandic Department of Tourism. I expect to be hearing from you shortly. With your blessings, I can expand this to include restaurant, accommodation, and business names. I can offer along-the-way driving tips and access to some HIGH QUALITY videos of your landscapes and the developed humour being delivered through the sonorous and universally pleasing sound of my voice. Anthony Bourdain, Rick Stevens, and Samantha Brown will consult with us for production tips. Hell, let's film a follow-up where you bring me out there to compared and contrast the benefits of a summer or winter trip. Although, to be thorough, we should do a spring and autumn report, too. Also, we really ought to have me attend a concert of some famous Icelandic musicians. Your choice, but aside from musicians I've mentioned, I do love Of Monsters and Men, Johann Johannson... For the good of your expanding tourism market, I'm willing to make myself available whenever you are ready.
So, everyone else, as we wait for that one last square to be filled in to have a complete black-out, Happy Chinese New Year and I'll see you soon!
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