Whale of a Tale, Part II

It wasn’t so hard to get myself out of bed on Monday as there are only about six hours of darkness this time of year, (of that six, only about 2 are really dark). I got up, ate breakfast at the hostel, and boarded a bus with Semi for the “Golden Circle” tour. The Golden Circle refers to the most visited areas of Iceland that journey into the center of the country, which was still mostly frozen around the time of the year that I traveled through the country.

On the bus, we were forced to digest the anecdotes of the world’s worst tour guide. I don’t remember her name, but it was something in the same category as Hulga in regards to its aesthetic. Whats-her-name was a very large Icelandic woman with a propensity to get disinterested in her own sentences, only to finish them moments later. The problem was that the end of the sentence was never as interesting as you’d hope it would be. She’d come on the microphone and say things like, “Iceland has many…

…HORSES.” Sometimes she wouldn’t even say anything. Perhaps it was when she would turn on the microphone and just breath heavily that haunted me the most. Either way, I could hardly stay awake with the commentary.

Additionally, as the tour was driven by profit, the bus would stop at only the expensive and uninteresting places to eat and the most touristy places with the tackiest of gift shops. One of which was a greenhouse with overpriced Icelandic wool called “the Garden of Eden.” I have to be honest, I know I hadn’t been too far out of the city, but I was already starting to wonder if I would regret coming to Iceland. This just felt like a watered down Williamsburg tour and I had paid good money for this trip.

The soulless Garden of Eden

Then, we went to our first real destination, Gulfoss. Gulfoss, literally “Golden Falls,” is the most enormous, and beautiful waterfall in Iceland. Because there is so much energy that is given off as a result of waterfalls, many aluminum plants have been brought to Iceland in hope of harnessing this raw power. Luckily, Gulfoss is protected by the government and no one will allow the companies to touch it. At least one country has the insight to protect its natural areas.

Gulfoss

Following Gulfoss was Geysir, the area of the most active and accessible geysers in the country. Some of them would go off almost every ten minutes. The water was over 100° C. What would happen is that the steam would build up and, as steam has more mass than water, a burst of steam and water would spray from the ground to release pressure. Pretty cool stuff.

Geysir, this is where the word geyser actually comes from

The last two stops, Keriđ crater and Thingvellir national park were also nice. The cause of the gigantic crater is still unknown, although there are many theories. The park was were the first parliament of Iceland was formed, some 1000 years ago.

Keriđ crater, (note the people in the upper right gives perspective of how massive the crater is)


Thingvellir national park

On our way back to Reykjavik, I sparked up a conversation with a couple from Brooklyn behind me. They were Jeremy and Nadia Lachance, young and hip travelers with a knack for photography. Unified for our hatred of the tour, we exchanged e-mail addresses for the off chance that we might be able to rent a car and drive into the countryside.

When we came back to the city, Semi and I walked around Reykjavik a bit before heading back to the hostel. We saw a lot of the city and bought some food before calling it a night.

Hallgrimskirkaja Church in Reykjavik

Whale of a Tale, Part I

Rotted shark meat, surly horses, and a kooky photographer. My journey through Iceland was quite an epic adventure.

I suppose I’ve wanted to go to Iceland since I was a real youngster. Around the time that Sigur Ros’ album “( )” was being advertised for realse, I developed a small obsession with Icelandic culture.

Since I’ve been living in France, I had spoken of going somewhere with a lot of snow—be it in the Alps or even farther North. I also considered fulfilling my long dream of going to Iceland, but had really accepted it as impossible due to finances and the fact that I knew I would never be able to get my friends make that kind of a financial commitment.

However, when Spring Break was nearing, I decided to check Plane tickets on a whim. I’ve done this several times for different flights and I’ve found great rates on round trip tickets to other places. I checked for a random schedule of April 13 through the 21, figuring that 8 days would give me plenty of time in Iceland. The tickets I found were really cheap! As fate would have it, if I tried to adjust my travel plans by one day on either end of my vacation, the rate more than doubled.

My predicament was that I could not invite anyone to join me as my vacation was two weeks, and all my friends only had a single week of vacation. As I could only get good rates for my first week, I just bought to tickets and made a prayer that I made a good decision to fly to Iceland on my own.

I immediately began to prepare my trip there. Looking online for stuff to see, learning about the country and it’s culture, I discovered that many people had recommended just going there and making up your trip as you go along. I’m usually not so whimsical, but I decided that it might be better going there and letting myself get into trouble this way. Turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.

I flew IcelandAir, the Icelandic airline that anyone can justify flying. The company is one of the only air companies that designs their jets to try to reduce exhaust and they also offer you an option when you purchase your ticket to plant a certain number of trees depending on the number of miles you have traveled. I usually hate flying, but I found it kind of endearing when I heard the safety instructions read to me in Icelandic.

Arriving in Iceland was pretty remarkable. The first thing you see off the coast of Iceland is a snow-covered desert of volcanic rock. We flew over beautiful cliffs and wacky formations and would only see signs of human life sparingly. When we landed at the airport in Keflavik, I noticed that there were only 18 gates—all in a straight line. It was a very small, charming airport.

I took the flybus, a cheap shuttle service that drove me directly to my hostel in Reykjavik, (The capital city whose name literally means “Smoky Bay,” a name coined by a Viking who witnessed the steam from the natural geysers and volcanoes on the coast). I started talking to the girl in front of me, who I had noticed at the airport in Paris. Her name was Semi, and she was an art student in Paris and she was here to do her final project in Photography. She, too, was going to the hostel and I also learned that she had found the same cheap tickets I did because her arrival and departure from Iceland to Paris was also the same as mine. Small world.

We checked into the hostel, (who had an extremely friendly and beautiful Dutch staff working for them), and put our stuff down. Semi and I met up in the common room to discuss our week. We scheduled a tour together for the next day and decided we would kind of take things as they come for the rest of the week.

We went to the local super market to grab some grub, ate a small dinner in one of the Hostel’s kitchens, and then we went for a walk. Now, it should be said that Iceland is the safest country in the world. Additionally, there are only 300,000 residents, and roughly 75% of that number lives in Reykjavik. So, we went walking around a really artsy city half the size of Cleveland. We walked over to the coast to watch what was left of the Northern lights in the distance. It was quite cold, even with all my gear on, so we decided to get back to the hostel and get some sleep. I was fortunate enough to have the room to myself the first night, so I got a good night’s sleep in preparation for the tour the next day.


Reykjavik coast at night