Ring Road Day 7

This was the final day of our tour around the Ring Rd. We spent the first part of the morning playing with all the animals at the farm we were staying at. There was a hilarious little family of animals, all of whom seemed a bit confused about their identity. For starters, there were 4 dogs - two black labs and a border collie (?) whose fur had more white than black and was very dirty (but very cute), and a very fat pug whose name was Fiona. She was funny. The border collie really liked me and refused to let me pet anyone else while he was nearby. Second, there was a little brown cow, actually a calf, who may have thought he was a dog. He would sit around under the picnic table/near people's feet, or would walk up behind you to get you to pet him. Lastly, there was a VERY cute little grey arctic fox named Mora. She was hilarious/adorable. A friend of the owner had hunted her parents, so he took her in and is looking after her for the time being. She kind of looks like a kitten from afar, but when you see her face there is a pointed snout. Every time you would pet her, she would try to nip you (mostly just playful I think?) but boy was she cute. Always exploring or pestering the other dogs/biting their tails/ears while they were trying to relax, or coming up to sniff/try to eat your shoes, etc. It was really funny, because the animals all loved attention. You would be petting one, and meanwhile another would walk up behind you and through your legs, another would be trying to push the other ones out of the way to get attention, and a cow would walk right up behind you. Corree and I were in heaven. We probably could have spent the whole day with the animals. It was also very cute seeing all of them cuddle/lie together. (Note: the farm also had lots of horses, dancing goats - that's right, apparently the owner taught them to dance and there's a youtube video to prove it - bunnies, cats, and chickens.)

Alas, we had to take our car in to Selfoss to get the tire replaced, so we had to leave the cute little family behind. Fortunately the tire place did have the tire we needed, but the question as to whether we would have to pay for it was still up in the air. Meanwhile, we were discussing how different parts of Iceland (which we had just passed through) were said to be haunted, and how we now had various instances to prove it...While staying in Reydarfjordur, the power mysteriously went out, which apparently it never does. In the middle of the night while Corree and Daren were sleeping, Daren's electric razor randomly turned on. It is battery powered. We also blew a tire, and the hub cap was never to be found again (Icelandic trolls? Sheep?). Daren finally said, "maybe I am going to have to believe in ghosts now", and right after that moment, the mechanic came and told us that the car rental company was not only going to pay for the one tire, but 4 new tires! The changeover was completed in about 10 minutes, and we never had another hiccup in the journey!

We then back-tracked to some sights we had skipped the day before. We tried to drive to Porsmork, a natural area which is supposed to be "one of the most beautiful places in Iceland". We thought we would have no trouble reaching it, as apparently it is quite a popular area with Icelanders in the summer, and buses go there. We drove on a crappy gravel road for about an hour only to get to a forbidden "F road", which had rivers running right across it. I reallly wonder what kind of buses they have going there. So we had to abandon that idea, and headed to some waterfalls. One was quite exciting - Seljanderfoss - because you could walk on a path behind it.


The final sights composed the so-called "Golden Circle", which is a very popular tour for people visiting Reykjavik. First stop was Gullfoss, a giant 250m wide, three-tiered waterfall which poured into a canyon. It was very beautful, although touristy. Next stop was Geysir, which was found in a geothermal area. Geysir is what gave geysirs their name - that's right, a hole in the earth through which water occasionally blasts out of (NOT very often though...mostly after earthquakes/every 10 years or something). Unfortunately we never saw Geysir go off, but we did get to see Strokkur, a nearby faithful geysir which goes off every 5 minutes or so. The first blast was very disappointing and about 1 metre high, and I laughed out loud (a little too loud) after. However, the one that followed shortly after was something like 10-15 metres high, so it was cool to see.



The final stop was Pingvellir National Park. It's a vast area with lava rock covered with moss, but through the centre is a very important site for both Icelandic history and geology - a place where the North American and European continental plates are separating, creating giant rifts through the earth. There was a path that ran through two cliffs (which I assume were created by the rock splitting). Here was the location where Icelanders would gather for parliament. I believe they would stand up on the cliffs/between, and someone would recite all the laws, etc...there were lots of signs explaining the history but I didn't have much time to read them, as it took me so long just to walk through the place (and it was getting late). Oh, I think this was also the place where Icelanders voted to all become Catholic and give up their other "pagan" religions. Iceland was one of the first democracies I believe, if not the first. There was also a place where you could stand over one of the fissures in the rock...ooooohhhh. The crack went very deep. It was a very interesting place.

Afterwards, we had the pleasure of navigating a car through downtown Reykjavik and all its one-way streets to find our hostel (not easy). The Salvation Army Guesthouse turned out to be a bit weird...they blocked Skype/msn/etc with their internet, and the website where you could look up the number for calling collect to Canada. However, it did have a very central location and an equipped kitchen... It turns out that skype doesn't seem to work very well out here anyway, and causes the wireless internet to cut out a LOT (perhaps why they blocked it?)

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Just a quick note on the next day in Reykjavik: In the morning we moved our stuff to the apartment where we would be spending the next week. It is very cute and homey, with lots of antique furnishing and a cute little loft. I have really enjoyed spending time there. That day was a cultural festival in Reykjavik, and it was PACKED with people. There were some street performers and things, and a special Seattle exhibit (wtf?). At night there were fireworks, although they were lame compared to Vancouver's Celebration of Lights. Near our apartment is a very cool, tall church which has pillars shaped like hexagonal basalt columns forming a triangle to the ground on either side. Hard to describe, but will post a pic. Anyways, mom and I took an elevator to the top of it and got a nice view of the city. Reykjavik is a cute city with lots of little townhouses/buildings with solid, bright coloured roofs. Looks cool from above. That night I had a little night out - Reykjavik style with a couple of friends. People here tend to party pretty hard on Fri and Sat nights and "crawl" from bar to bar. It was a good time :).

We have had an enjoyable conference/stay in Reykjavik. Tomorrow will be our last full day here before a long trip home. That's all for this trip! Thanks for reading!

Ring Road Days 5 and 6

Day 5:

Most of today was spent driving around the East fjords. They were absolutely stunning, lined with rugged, terraced mountains with peak formations that looked like ancient moss-covered temples. I was mesmerized the whole drive. There was very little civilisation along the way, and we saw one lady drop her drawers on the side of the road due to the lack of bathrooms for several hours! We stopped at a vast, grey and black pebbled beach (Hvalnes Nature Reserve).








Later on we arrived in Hofn, a very cute little seaside town famous for its “lobster” (actually langoustine, which I think is similar to lobster but smaller?). We found a cool little “local food store” in a warehouse near the wharfs, which had a museum-like display of old fishing gear in the bottom, and a little store and coffee shop in the top. There we had a cup of tea and a piece of cake (Icelanders love cake. I am in heaven) and bought some lobster soup base and lobster (again, actually langoustine). Our accommodation for the night consisted of a little cabin on a farm. With no internet, it gave us time away from our computers. I spent the night studying (boo). Corree and Daren spent the night taking apart my fried hair dryer, and temporarily fixing it by replacing the burnt fuse with a paper clip. (Mom uploaded/looked at our pictures for the trip.) We made the langoustine soup, and it was pretty good but a bit bland. I have decided I like langoustines better than lobster.









Day 6
Today was an interesting day. Twenty minutes away from our previous night’s accommodation, we felt the road get reeaaallly bumpy. Daren assured us it was just the road, but I knew this sensation from a previous time and indeed I was correct – we blew a tire. Completely blown. Destroyed all around the side wall. Hub cap exploded off, never to be found again. Rim resting right on the ground. Great. Luckily we had a spare, so we unloaded all our luggage from the trunk, took that out and put it on. From then our journey was a lot slower, at the now maximum speed of 80 km/hour. We also had to avoid gravel roads, which is pretty difficult in Iceland. We called the car rental company, and they told us to stop at this one tiny town that was a couple hours away to get a new tire. So we kind of rushed our sightseeing along the way to make sure we arrived in time. We stopped at Jokulsarlon, a lagoon that joins an offshoot of the giant glacier Vatnajokull to the ocean. The glacier breaks right off in large, bizarrely shaped chunks, which then float in the glacier and eventually out into the ocean. So basically it was a lake filled with cool icebergs, very neat. I would have liked to have more time to explore it via boat, but oh well. We also saw a sea lion swimming around in there.




We also stopped at Skaftafell park near the glacier, where there is supposed to be a really cool waterfall that pours over a backdrop of black basalt columns that is reached by a return 1.5 hour walk, but alas we did not have time to do it :( :(. I was very disappointed. Continuing on to Kirkjubaejarklaustur (I know, longest word ever – like all Icelandic names, it is merely a combination of descriptors - church farm convent), where we were supposed to get a new tire…but didn’t... They didn’t have the right tire. The next nearest town that had our tire, Selfoss, was another few hours away, after the place we were supposed to spend the night, so we continued on our slow journey with the spare. First, however, we stopped and looked at the “church floor” Kirkjugolf – a pile of flattened basalt columns that lie in the middle of a grassy field. The hexagonal shapes form a network of stone tiles that look like an old church floor. I forgot to mention that before arriving at K…klauster, we passed through a massive barren black sand desert, Skeidararsandur. I didn’t really think it was very black or sandy, it was more like grey pebbles, with occasional mini black sand dunes. It was formed by a volcanic eruption melting part of the glacier, and sending a river of “sand” all over the flat landscape, leaving miles and miles of useless land.







Next stop along the journey was Vik, a very cute little town near the ocean, which is famous for its interesting sea stacks that lie off the coast near the cliffs of the large plateau Reynisfjall, and its black sand beaches. There was a very pretty white and red-roofed church which sat up on a hill, and provided a pretty foreground for the backdrop of large, green mountains. Just after Vik, on the west side of the plateau, was one of my favourite places in Iceland – Reynisfjara. It consisted of a dark pebbly beach with a nice view of the sea stacks, towered over by basalt column covered cliffs, and a cave. The basalt columns formed a giant church pipe organ, and on the top of the pipes was a grassy area which PUFFINS flew back and forth from!!!! They would launch off the grassy area, and fly (they are funny little flyers) into the ocean below, and then come back and do it again. They also had little hobbit-like homes (burrows in the side of the grassy slope). With adorable puffins soaring overhead and the gorgeous natural wonders all around…it was a really amazing place. I also found some cool volcanic stones there, which I am taking home with me.



The landscape following was reminiscent of the Shire (in Lord of the Rings). The surrounding mountains were smaller, with light green moss covering, and frequent waterfalls broke through the rock and trickled down the slope. Grassy sheep covered hills with little red and brown farmhouses formed the foreground, and there were also several hobbit holes!! i.e. dwellings built into the hillside, with triangular front walls with doors. Iceland is actually the place that inspired the setting of JR Tolkien’s books. He took a tour around Iceland in a horse drawn carriage, which at the time was the only way to get around the country. We could definitely see the different scenes from the books in the landscape throughout the journey. The final stop on our very long day was at the giant waterfall, Skagafoss. A flat rectangle of water pounded over moss covered cliffs into a river bordered by black sand (actual black sand this time). It was stunning.





Too tired and limited by the late hour that was approaching, we skipped the remainder of the sights along the way, deciding to backtrack once we had our new tire the next day. We arrived at the farm accommodation we were staying at, Vatnsholt, at 9:30pm. It turns out the website was wrong, and there was no kitchen, but a restaurant which was just closing. Mom insisted that we had to cook our lobster and eat dinner, so they let us use their restaurant kitchen! That was quite an experience. The head chef was super nice, giving us utensils and pots to use, and even garlic and spices. We made an AMAZING meal of lobster, onions and peppers cooked in a cream thai chili sauce, served over quinoa. Even the chef liked it. The dining room at the restaurant was magical, with beads of white lights strung across the ceiling, and a large, spherical white lamp rising from the ground. Our table was covered in a white table cloth strewn with candles. It was a nice end to a long day.

Ring Road Days 3 and 4

Godafoss Waterfall

Ring Road Day 3

Great start to the day – slept in again, checked out late, stopped at the grocery store, waited for a cow to cross the road, and drove 20 minutes in the wrong direction…put us a little behind time. However, that didn’t stop us from seeing a lot of exciting things during the day. We drove past a spectacular waterfall called Godafoss. In Iceland there are no ropes or anything preventing you from climbing right up on the rocks to the edge of the falls, so that was exciting! Stepping stones across a little creek in my boot was interesting!





We then entered the Myvatn Lake area, which was full of AMAZING sights. First we stopped and saw some pseudo-craters on the side of the lake. I couldn’t stop thinking about what a crazy golf course the area would make! We then saw an area with many cool lava formations.



We walked up to the rim of the massive Hverfell crater (a bit rough in the boot, but worth it). Within it was a giant gaping hole that was very cool, and there was a great view of the surroundings. Unfortunately I forgot my camera for this one, so I will have to get pics from Mom/Corree & Daren.








We then drove over to the Krafla volcano area. At Namarfjall were very cool (actually very HOT) bubbling mud cauldrons, lunar-like red landscape and mountains surrounding, as well as steam vents. It was spectacular. Nearer to the Krafla volcano (an active volcano which is ready to blow!) was a geothermal power plant with long tubes leading to different futuristic-looking domes. It reminded me of something out of James Bond.



We were able to drive right up to the Viti crater, which had a beautiful blue lake in the middle. On the way back down, we encountered plenty of wild sheep crossing the road, and a toilet/shower in the middle of nowhere. The shower was actually functioning! (It drew water from the thermal water below the ground.) We are not sure if the toilet was functioning, but it was definitely used! Oh, Icelandic humour.



Viti Crater



That night we stayed in this little campground/cabin place which had tiny portables with rooms with bunk beds. The rooms were pretty tight and beds creaky, but very comfy! We had to share the communal kitchen with a group of 10 old Dutch people who claimed one entire side was theirs, and wouldn’t let anyone else inside. They also claimed about 4 tables for themselves, and one for their drinks/coolers, while a giant group of ~20 Italians had to squish around 2 tables, and a few Germans had to sit in the hallway. The Dutch buggers were the most inconsiderate people I have encountered on my travels. Everyone else was very nice though.




Ring Road Day 4



Today we went to Husavik for some WHALE WATCHING!!! We went out in a reconstructed old fishing boat. We got to wear giant snow-suit like things with long coats, and good thing, because it would have been quite cold! The sea had huge swells and the boat rocked back and forth a lot. I was thinking how great it was that I got whale watching and a roller coaster like ride in one! The boat was very slow, but eventually we made it out to where a couple other boats were sitting, and low and behold – we saw several spouts from the blow hole of a BLUE WHALE (they were about 1 m high spouts of water) !!! (PS that is the largest animal on this earth.) And a little while later, it actually breached quite near our boat, so we could see about 10 metres of its back!! It was amazing. Unfortunately, after doing that couple times, it decided it didn’t like us anymore and started diving down and swimming away from us. We followed its spouts for the next few hours, but we never got close to it again. Still very cool though. We also saw some puffins floating in the water and flying near the boat. They were cute!




Whale watching didn’t leave us a ton of time, so we pretty much drove straight to our next destination, Reydarfjordur. However, we saw some very interesting and variable sights on the way. We passed a very desolate, expansive grey/brown/black/red landscape with almost no vegetation, which was surrounded by towering, barren mountains of the same colours. In one pullout, people had built many cairns/inukshuks from the rocks. We then drove through a valley between mountains with scattered green moss/grass and trickling waterfalls, hiding under a sometimes thick layer of mist. While the fog obstructed our view in parts, it made the whole area seem surreal and mystical. We then made it to the town on the edge of the fjord where our hostel was, to be greeted by some sort of large and unattractive plant. We are hoping for more natural, beautiful views of other eastern fjords tomorrow though.

Ring Road Day 2

We all slept in fairly late today (pushing our checkout time a little), and weren't on the road til 12. Weather was very windy and a bit rainy today, with lots of low clouds preventing our view of what probably were very amazing mountains :(. We drove out around Vatnsnes peninsula (yes, the combination of consonants in many Icelandic words just doesn't seem to make sense) to see "Iceland's largest seal colony", which mom tells me was a total of 6-7 seals (it was a long way down the path, and about half-way, after seeing some birds sitting on the rocks, I decided it wasn't worth withstanding the horrible weather, and returned to the warm car). Along the way we saw a lot of green farmers' fields, and the bottoms of green mountains. Tons of sheep and horses of course. We also saw some sort of contraption where people had hung fish to dry, so that was kind of cool. They were dried whole, and looked like freaky deep-water fish. Daren decided to take us on a "short-cut", which ended up being a narrow gravel road with some steep grades, which wound around and over a bunch of hills. It reminded me of Mike's and my trip to find the chasm in the Otago peninsula in NZ, but anyways... it was an exciting drive.

We stopped at a gas station which had some fast food, and I tried an Icelandic favourite...the hot dog, or "pylsur". Mine was extra exciting though, because it was wrapped with bacon. It was longer than a normal hot dog, and came with onions and the usual toppings, but you could also get chili ketchup and some sort of un-translatable sauce (which I didn't try, though it looked like an orange-y mayo). It was quite tasty. I know that Iceland people love their hot dogs, because I read a magazine there which had an article on 8 different ways to dress up your hot dog. And just about everyone in the line ordered one. On another food note, candy here seems to contain a lot of marzipan and licorice. Ew.



Afterwords, we stopped at Glaumbaer, where we saw an old-fashioned (preserved) turf farm. It consisted of a number of little joined huts with walls made of slabs of earth, and roofs of turf (grass). Very cool, looked kind of like hobbit holes. We also stopped at a little store selling Icelandic crafts (mostly wool stuff, some purses made of FISH SKIN, and keychains of all sorts of bird feet...ew). It was really interesting. I just remembered another little interesting fact - since wood is scarce in Iceland, they use driftwood to build things such as fences. When a piece of driftwood washes up on a farmer's land, they can put their mark on it and claim it.

We continued on to the coast and drove along Skagafjordur, which was supposed to have spectacular views. The coast was quite nice, and again lots of green farmers' fields with sheep and horses, and we could see that there were bottoms of what probably were spectacular mountain ranges...unfortunately couldn't see the tops of many of them though. At one point along the coast (I think it was near the fishing town of Hosfos), we saw some very cool black basalt columns...hard to describe but I will post a pic later. Near the end of the peninsula, we got to take a series of VERY LONG tunnels which went under this giant mountain and joined with the fishing town on the other side. The tunnels were very cool...not rounded out on the inside like our tunnels, and often one-way (they had pull-outs for passing all along though).


Black Basalt Columns on the Coast of Skagafjordur
Tonight we are staying in a cute apartment in Akureyri. We went out for dinner, and I had a traditional Icelandic meal. It was fish hash (not sure of the Icelandic name) - a combination of fish and potatoes with cream sauce in a casserole dish, topped with cheese. It was sort of like a creamy baked macaroni and cheese. It was delicious.