Avalanches and other exhilirating Adventures in Iceland!

The Magical Mystery Tour of 2006 began with a blast of Fun and Adventure (with a giant capital "A") in early May in Iceland! I made it to Reykjavik for the first four nights -- not fully prepared for my trip, but then again are we ever fully prepared for such adventures? (friendly advice: if you wait for the perfect time, it will never come! follow your dreams NOW!)

I arrived in the morning and took the Flybus to the hostel. The landscape in Iceland is so surreal, lots of lava rocks covered with moss and all sorts of crazy and cool landscapes. You'll have to see all the pictures!! (soon!) The busride to the hostel was gorgeous and a nice introduction to the Icelandic countryside.

suddenly there was a REALLY LOUD BOOM...I ducked, covered my head and hoped for the best....

I left my luggage at the hostel and in a sleepy stupor managed to grab the local bus into town, despite being short on sleep. Locals say that Reykjavik is laid back, and I would have to definitely agree, given that after 9:30am on a Tuesday morning, there was still no one in the street expect for a man washing windows and one other local woman. "Where was everyone?" I wondered as I wandered. Tourist information didn't even open until 10am. I guess it's a sleepy city -- everyone sleeps in late, even the tourists! But they were all out by mid-morning, and the city was bustling again. And there's practically no crime! People don't yell at you to keep away from this, or stay off the dock, or whatever. I can dig it. :)

One of the things hardest to fully fathom about Iceland is just how FEW people there are in the ENTIRE country! There's 310,000 people in ALL OF ICELAND! (and 100,000 horses!) Now I dare you to go google how many people live in your own city or town, just for comparison's sake. Greater Reykjavik holds most of the population, and the second largest city in Iceland has only 25,000 people! I saw a whole art exhibit in one of the museums about 10 women who had left Iceland and gone to Europe to study art at the end of the 19th century/beginning of 20th century, and then returned. None became famous or even made a living at art. It wouldn't be a big deal for any other country. Yet for Iceland it really WAS such a big deal, given their small population, that they set up an exhibit dedicated to it!

Iceland is VERY environmentally conscious. There are recycle bins everywhere, and they're successfully testing out a hydrogen fuel station, and are expanding the test from their city buses to their fishing fleet also. Also, they use their geothermal energy for heating houses and water. So all the geysers and hot steam that naturally comes out of the ground, is put to good use heating 80% of the homes in Iceland. It makes sense that Iceland is environmentally-conscious, because Iceland itself is in fact in a state of developing. Yes it's a continent that's still being formed, with lots of volcanic activity and earthquakes. They get 185 earthquakes a day there!!! (most they never feel) Iceland is on a very active fault line. Volcanoes (yes lots of live, active volcanoes), earthquakes, steam rising from the ground.... And you think Californians are living dangerously?

So the first day I wandered around Iceland, saw some cool wildlife and stuff in the city, and even tried a museum (though it turned out to be difficult with my needing sleep). But a funny thing happened as I was buying postcards in a tobacco shop. Yes, my first day in Iceland and already my first daily pickup attempt. But this time it was a 27 year old cute Pagan-turned-Christian guy. So I guess that's an improvement over the 50 year old weird guys who barely speak English. ;) But it was a strange conversation, as he was telling me he had turned to Christianity right after I told him that I thought it was strange that all the Pagans in Iceland had voluntarily turned from Pagan to Christian. This Icelandic guy seemed confused and looking for something. I suggested perhaps he was looking for answers in the wrong places and he might try looking inside, and various other stuff like that. Sometimes I just say whatever comes up and I'm quite sure that sometimes people think I'm weird for it. good thing I don't care what people think, right? ;) Something I said must have resonated with him as he gave me a huge hug and thanked me, though I didn't do anything. It was one of those intense, strange, awkward exchanges which I sometimes manage to find myself engaged in, but I guess it worked out in the end. :)

The deal is, way back when Christianity was becoming powerful in Iceland and elsewhere, the big Pagan leader had decided it was in the Pagan's best interests to turn Christian voluntarily for various reasons. So just like that they all turned voluntarily -- the only country to turn voluntarily virtually overnight!) But the weird thing in the museum is that they kept refering to the Pagan ways as "heathen". In America that word has such a negative connotation, that I couldn't help being bothered by it everytime I heard a museum recording use that word, like "they gave up their heathen beliefs and customs and became Christian" So try going up to your friendly local Pagan and start talking about giving up their heathen ways and see how he/she reacts! ;)

Iceland has a lot of sagas - stories of their olden times and their heroes - that are interesting and turned out to be very accurate per today's researchers! I liked hearing about their history, like how Irish monks were living there until the heathen Vikings arrived and the Irish monks said "oh no, we're out of here, they're too beastly for us!" And so Icelanders are proud of their Viking roots, because the Vikings stayed and settled, unlike the wimpy Irish monks.

Oh, there was a workcamp at the hostel I was staying at. It's a brand new group from Iceland, Seeds, that was training leaders for 6-8 workcamps lasting up to 6 months. I ended up hanging around with some of the workcampers from France, Columbia, Spain, etc. (they were super-friendly) and so it was fun to almost be vicarously in a workcamp while I was in Iceland.

An interesting note, 555 is a popular exchange in Reykjavik. I saw a lot of businesses with 7-digit 555 numbers, like 555-1345. just like an American number, but what's wrong with this picture? Strange, huh? Our movies/TV fictional numbers are Iceland's reality.

The original title of my email update was "Freezing my butt off in Iceland" so as you can imagine it was quite cold, even with my 4 layers of clothes.  It was actually just the wind that made it so cold, as there were brief periods when I could wander about with only 3 layers and feel fine. oh the luxury! So after my first day wandering Reykjavik, I spent the next 2 days on organized tours.

The first was the Golden Circle tour, which is the classic one that all the tourists go on. It was very nice, with a gorgeous waterfall, a HUGE crater caused by an alien spaceship landing....errrrrr....I mean a volcano, and a stop at the geysirs that go off every few minutes. The geysirs were really cool (actually, there is a geysir there called Geysir which is where our English word comes from). It was neat to watch and wait, and be rewarded with a really tall burst of hot water to stun and amaze.

But even better, on that tour we also visited a national park (something like thingviller but with a different character instead of a th). The park has awesome scenery and a geothermal plant (one of 7 in Iceland I think) that captures hot steam to make heat and hotwater for Reykjavik residents. But even more fascinating was the history of the park, as it was always very important, THE place where the politicians gathered in the olden days to make laws and deals and such (like, "you killed Harry? well that is okay, but let us now agree on how much Harry was worth. You pay his family that amount and all is forgiven." Seriously, they discussed this very subject!!)

But when the leaders gathered, everyone else tagged along and it turned into a huge campout and party for a few weeks. That was when everyone in Iceland got to see faraway relatives and friends, and got the news of the people and the land. Not to mention it was a good place to scope for a mate -- the ancient singles scene. ;) It was really cool to be in this gorgeous place and imagine all this going on many years ago. I loved all the interesting stuff about Iceland we learned on the tours.

But the things we experienced the first day was nothing compared to the tour on the next day!!! The next day's tour was probably the single most KICKIN' day I had so far on my trip!! (if I had to pick a single day). The Golden Circle tour was a bunch of middle-aged people on a big tour bus, but was nice nonetheless. I showed up for the South Coast tour the next day expecting something similar. But instead of a big tour bus there were 6 of us crawling into a Landrover with HUGE tires - 44 cm. We were off to go where no tour has gone before! (at least not ones I've been on). "Do you want to explore a lava cave?" our gracious guide asked. ah, of course!! silly question! ;) But I wasn't expecting him to turn off the road and head down into a field of lava rocks for a ways before parking. We got out and scrambled over the lava rocks, feeling like explorers as we made our way through the cave, taking pictures and having a blast. It was very cool.

A bit later we checked out the black sandy beaches of the southcoast, saw interesting bird and wildlife and such. Sadly, I was a tiny bit too early for the Puffins. oh well. We stopped at a really tall and nice waterfall which we hiked up to and then behind. Yup, checking out the waterfall from the rear end, or the inside out. :) Then we grabbed lunch at a store and headed for the best part: Thorsmork! A national park with a funny character in the name (no, not just the muscle-bound god with the ax.) ;)

So we turn into the road that goes into the park. A short time later we are not going on a paved or gravel road, but just rolling over rocks after rocks after rocks. The park was a huge field of rocks with gorgeous high mountains on both sides. Then there was a stream in our path. No problem, we drive through the stream. It was pretty deep too! We continue like this for a while, over rocks and through stream after stream, the next one deeper and more rushing than the previous! We only got away with it because of our huge tires; many tourists with smaller tires regularly get stuck and have to be rescued. We checked out the caves where horse herders used to sleep and the really awesome volcanoes and rock formations. Then we stopped at a glacier! Now that was cool, a big hunk of ice on the mountain. In fact, it was under the dirt too so we were walking on it for a bit. The glacier is a really pretty light blue in parts that just broke off and/or were exposed to oxygen, and which in other places. We even crawled into a glacier cave. Pretty chillin'. Actually, ALL the landscape was totally gorgeous and really surreal.

Then we headed further to where we FINALLY got to the entrance to the park. We checked out the cool cabins to stay in during the summer. We took a hike up a hill and our awesome guide told us cool stories of some of the magical creatures and tales of Iceland. Iceland has "hidden people" which are real people but are invisible unless they want to be seen (of course there are legends/sagas to go along with things like "hidden people"), and of course Iceland has an abundance of trolls, elves, fairies, etc. Now our guide does not believe in magical creatures, yet he told us these stories of really strange experiences he had related to these magical creatures. Some of them were group experiences, where several people saw/experienced the same impossible thing. According to him, everyone in Iceland has such stories, even if they think magical creatures are ridiculous and don't exist. It is hard to explain away something as nonesense when you have experienced it for yourself! (this reminds me of so many other things that science cannot prove yet people swear they have experienced) Someday when I have more time I may share some of his stories, as they were fascinating.

So after that exhilirating hike and a feast of stories about Iceland and magical encounters, we headed to a gorge (?? rocky path with steep sides) nearby and walked to the end, where we got to a cave with a waterfall. Actually everything around the park was rocky -- just picture mountains and rocks small and large with plants and trees, but not really much dirt around. So we climb the rocks for a while to get deep into the cave to take pictures of the waterfall. It was very beautiful, with streams of ice interwoven with the water, tumbling around the rough and smooth rock walls.

So Doug (from New Zealand) and a couple of us are practically right under the waterfall taking pictures when suddenly there was this REALLY LOUD BOOM!! It sounded louder than a gunshot, like thunder right in the cave. I had no clue what was happening. I was next to the wall so I just ducked and covered my head and hoped for the best.  Doug ran for his life and ducked into the wall. We were showered with big chunks of ice for a short time and then the dust cleared, so to speak. We turned around and looked at our guide who had this expression of HORROR on his face! Apparently this was not a common occurence. He looked pale white, but relieved. hehehe

The ice had cracked and we had a mini-avalanche in the cave, but luckily we were all ok and had not been hit directly by any huge chunks. Doug had actually pressed the button on his camera to take a picture of the waterfall just before the boom, so he got a picture of ice chunks coming down on us. He said he would email it when he gets back to England (where he is studying) so if I get it I will be sure to share! How cool is that photo -- what it looks like to be under an ice-avalanche as it crashes down on you??!! So this was the pefect daytrip for me, where we could really get out and climb and explore! I loved every minute of it!! Being under an avalanche, eh, just an awesome, exhilirating bonus. ;)  Some might say "scary" or "close call" but I say "exhilirating" -- it's all about perspective!! :)

So back at the hostel...well, the whole stay I met some cool people. I already mentioned the workcamp folks, Seeds, but I had a great dormmate too, Betsey. She told me she is going to school in Cambridge but said "no, not one of the big two schools," so I thought, "hmmm...does she mean Harvard and...Lesley??" but she actually meant MIT as the second school. ;) She is a graduate student at Emerson and was happy that not all hostelers were 18 years old as she feared. hehehe So Betsey and I hung around in the evenings, which was cool because she was quite into meeting folks, so it seemed like she knew everyone in the hostel.  We went downstairs and played poker with these three fun guys from Denmark and tried some of their Icelandic vodka (yuck!). We ended up gambling, not with money but with red and white pegs from the Battleship game. :) By the end of the night we all ended up in a big group hanging out with the workcampers. Ah, I love the comraderie and friends you can make in hostels. :)

So my last day in Iceland I wandered about the botanical garden (a path in the back of the hostel led right into it) before I caught the bus to the airport. But a visitor to Iceland cannot just go to the airport if they haven't experienced the Blue Lagoon yet! So yup, I left my backpack in the bus and wandered into the mystical land of the Blue Lagoon, which is this really large pool of salt water that is heated by underground thermal springs. The pool is shaped naturally by lava rocks, and there is steam rising up out of the pool which makes it look really surreal. Being is the pool is sooo nice because it's hot and feels soooo good and relaxing, and there are lots of nooks and crannies to hang out in, without being crowded on top of everyone else. The water is very healthy for our skin, as their are lots of natural minerals in the water, and some parts are hotter than others (some too hot to stay long!) because there is always fresh hot healthy water coming into the pool. The pool has natural mineral mud around for us to put on our face and skin, so it was fun to see everyone relaxing and wandering the pool with white goop on their faces. It was really an atmosphere about relaxing and feeling wonderful instead of being self-conscious. I loved it. It was the perfect stop before heading to the airport. :)

So where was my plane headed? I will give you a hint; as we neared our destintion, we flew over the Faroe Islands which were absolutely stunning!! Normally the Faroe Islands are covered in clouds but the pilot said we were really lucky to get a glimpse. There were HUGE cliffs on most of the sides of the islands -- I wondered how people ever landed there by boat! Now I want to check out the Faroe Islands from the ground too. :)

P.S. After I wrote this update for my friends, but before hitting "send", I noticed a brand new email in my inbox from Steen in Denmark.   hmmmm...   At the very same time I was composing the email to my friends telling them about our playing poker, one of the Danish guys was sending me photos of that very same poker episode. hehehe  How funny is that? I had totally forgotten that he was sending photos.   We do look like we're having so much fun. ;) synchronicity....