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Goodbye for Now!
Today was our last day in Iceland. We got up in the morning and decided to walk around and get breakfast/coffee at some of the local places. Braud and Co was recommended to me from a friend who had visited in the past - and it was absolutely delicious. It is owned by two French people, and the pastries are to die for. Iceland has about a million cafe’s and a very strong cafe culture. They seem to drink coffee about 6x per day, and there are no major chains including Starbucks. Strangely, they also do not really serve decaf coffee; It is just not an option. A lot of the cafes serve a dual purpose (laundromat, art galllery, etc). The one we went to was also a bookstore. Look at the chalkboard sign they had posted - this is very typical Icelandic humour.
After that, we were picked up and driven to the Blue Lagoon. This is one of the more famous places in Iceland, and unlike many hyped-up spots, it didn’t disappoint. The water there has a high silica content, which looks milky blue when the sunlight reflects off it. Unlike the hot springs yesterday, it is not a “natural” hot spring. The lagoon was formed in the 1970s because of a power plant. The power plant drilled deep down to get to naturally heated geothermal water, that is then filtered and pumped into to pipes/radiators that heat people’s homes. The silica rich water is filtered out (the silica would gum up the pipes), and flows out into the lava field nearby. Eventually the silica was deposited onto the lava rocks, and formed a thick white layer that contained the water. The water there naturally renews itself in the pools every 48 hours, and maintains itself at 39 degrees celsius.
It is super luxurious, and outfitted with a swim up cocktail bar, as well as a swim up mask bar (silica, algae, and mineral masks provided). It was a perfect way to spend the afternoon before what turned out to be the longest airport experience of my life (we were delayed 2h and customs in Canada took about 2 hours too).
Overall it was an awesome trip, and we saw everything we wanted to see, except the Northern Lights, for which the weather never cooperated. Oh well, it gives us an excuse to go back!
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The land of Ice and Fire
Today’s weather forecast was reported to be horrible since the day we arrived. Mom and I were NOT looking forward to being soaking wet and freezing all day. We almost didn’t even get out of bed on time to meet our driver, Biggi. But I am so glad we did! We started out the trip with me wearing leggings and a t-shirt, and today I wore fleece lined adult snowpants, two sweaters, a puffer jacket, hat, scarf, and mitts. The weather here changes on a dime. Icelanders have a saying, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.” It snowed for some of the morning, but it made for some really pretty landscapes, and was better than rain, because we didn’t get soaked!
We drove to Þingvellir ( pronounced Thingvellir) National Park today. It was the site of the first parliament. The speaker would stand in the rock crevices and use the echo they created to amplify his voice. Thingvellir is located at the junction of the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. They are slowly pulling apart from one another, and the rift between is widening about 2cm per year. You can see it in some of the pictures!
The lake at Þingvellir is glacier fed, and never reaches more than about 2 degrees celcsuis. However, the area around it is volcanic rock, and has geothermal hot springs and geysers throughout. We watched Geysir erupt a couple of times. It goes off about every 4-5 minutes like clockwork. Our guide advised us to stand upwind so that we wouldn’t be sprayed in the face with boiling hot water (!). Solid advice, Biggi.
We also got to see Gullfoss, a beautiful, very large waterfall with multiple tiers. It was a steep, icy walk to the lookout directly over the falls. The rope to hold onto was entirely encased in ice, and so many people fell. Once you got to the bottom, you were rewarded with beautiful views, but also small pellets of frozen water being whipped at your face, and winds so strong you couldn’t hold a camera straight. Still beautiful and definitely worth it, but we were really glad to get to our next stop, the “Secret Lagoon”.
Full disclosure, mom and I signed up to see this lagoon thinking it was a natural lake we would look at from afar. Boy were we glad to be wrong. Turned out to be a hotsprings fed by a geyser on the property. We swam around, toasty warm despite the snow, and finally thawed our frozen fingers and toes. They call Iceland the land of ice and fire, and now we get why! Its glaciers and snow capped mountains are in stark contrast with its volcanos and hot springs.
After we got back to the city, we went for dinner at Matur og Drykkur. It is a tasting menu style restaurant that serves a modern take on traditional Icelandic dishes. It was absolutely delicious, but our favourite course was probably this potato foam with an onion jus. Similar to mashed potatoes with gravy kind of. Common Icelandic Ingredients include fennel, potato, beets, seaweed, cabbage, parsnip, blueberries, and fish and lamb for the non vegetarians. Overall kind of a basic assortment of ingredients, but they make them taste delicious.
Seeing as it was our last night in Iceland, we then went out for some cocktails at Kokteilbarinn. The bar had a cement building portion, but the part we sat in was a remodelled old-fashioned dining car from a train. It was really beautiful, and the cocktails were to die for. I have noticed that the cocktails here are all quite sweet, which the bartender confirmed for me. Icelanders apparently have quite the sweet tooth when it comes to drinks. This suits me perfectly.
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Smoky Bay
Today we spent the day in Reykjavik. The city’s name translates to Smoky Bay, which is what Ingólfr Arnarson, the first permanent settler of Iceland, named the place when he landed. The “smoke” was actually steam from the warm geothermal waters/hot springs.
We had the world’s most efficient covid test 72 hours prior to our flight home. We were honestly in and out of the building in about 60 seconds. Canada could NEVER be this efficient. After that, mom and I went and did some wandering and poked in and out of some of the local shops. Most things here are independently owned, rather than chains, and it was nice to be able to support local artists. We bought some paintings, some beautiful ceramic coffee mugs, and mom even convinced me to buy this beautiful, but somewhat impractical arctic fox fur headband. I feel (and look) like a Russian oligarch.
We both noticed a number of adults wearing full size onesie snowsuits, like little kids wear in Canada. A) I don’t think it’s that cold and B) it seems a little impractical for popping in and out of stores and cafes in the city. Adults here also get around on electric scooters, similar to the bixie bike program in Toronto, but it looks like way more fun, and way less work. I’m going to get mom to try one on Monday.
Our favourite bit of Icelandic Folklore so far has been the Yule Lads. There is a mean old troll, Grýla who knows which children are naughty, and hunts them to make stew out of at Christmas time. She is married to heruseless/lazy husband Leppalúði, and they live in the mountains with their 13 sons, the Yule lads, and a Christmas cat, that eats children who don’t receive any new clothes for Christmas. Icelandic folklore is somewhat more violent than our version of Santa. The yule lads visit one at a time for the 13 days before Christmas. Children place a shoe in the windowsill, and receive a gift in the shoe each night. Naughty kids might receive a potato! We have been laughing and assigning a yule lad to each member of our family:
Sheep-Cote Clod: Harasses sheep, but is impaired by his stiff peg-legs. (Dad)
Stubby: Abnormally short. Steals pans to eat the crust left on them. (Mom)
Door-Slammer: Likes to slam doors, especially during the night, waking people up. (Michael)
Skyr-Gobbler: Has a great affinity for skyr (Laura)
Doorway-Sniffer: Has an abnormally large nose and an extra powerful sense of smell which he uses to locate laufabraud. (Kelly)
Window-Peeper: A snoop who looks through windows in search of things to steal. (Katie)
Gully Gawk: Hides in gullies, waiting for an opportunity to steal milk. (Avery)
Spoon-Licker: steals and licks wooden spoons. Is extremely thin. (Malcolm)
After our shopping, we went on a walking tour of the city. Our guide was Icelandic and has lived here his entire life. He knew tons about the city and how it has changed. Highlights include Hallgrímskirkja, the iconic church with architecture that is reminiscent of the basalt columns in Iceland. It has a statue of Leif Ericson, the Viking who “discovered” North America, outside. Icelanders joke that he had enough good sense to leave and turn back once he found it.
We also went to the Perlan museum, which is high atop a hill in Reykjavik. It is a science centre-esque museum dedicated to natural phenomena in Iceland. We watched an Imax Northern Lights experience [since that might be all we actually get to see :( ], one about lava and volcanos, and visited a man made ice cave, which was way less cool than the real one we visited.
Dinner tonight was delicious again, and we are both looking forward to tomorrow!
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“Just in Caves”
Today mom and I spent the day in a series of caves, which was much cooler and more beautiful than it sounds. The first cave was in Vatnajokull National Park. We took one of those Monster-vans (and yes, mom made it inside) into the park. The ride was SUPER bumpy and you definitely couldn’t have done it in a regular car. We hiked for about 30minutes to reach the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. The suffix -jokull means glacier in Icelandic.
The glacier is receding at a fairly significant rate because of global warming. Our guide was saying that in the summer, the entrance to the caves are noticeably farther week to week! The “cave” actually changes each year. Although plenty of these ice caves in the glaciers exist, the guides need to find on that strikes a balance between having a roof so thin it caves in, and so thick that no light gets through. When the balance is right, you get this beautiful glass-like ice with turquoise hues, that is absolutely breathtaking.
The snow line (altitude above which snow does not melt) os about 1100m in Iceland, and this glacier sits at 1300m. For every core temperature increase by 1 degree, the snow line rises by 100m. Doing the math, if the world can’t meet the Paris Agreement (1.5 degrees), this entire glacier (the largest in Europe) will melt. This could be potentially disastrous, as the weight of the glacier is preventing large volcanic eruptions that could wipe out Iceland, and significantly pollute the air quality. When Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010, the air quality was so poor that air traffic was suspended in Europe for over a week; and that was just one eruption! The caves were beautiful, but a sobering reminder of how real climate change is.
Apparently much of Iceland used to be forested in Birch trees, but they are a rare sight nowadays. The vikings used them to build houses (see the picture of the traditional Icelandic turf house with a grass/sod roof), and cut most of them down. They never really regrew because of all the sheep that are free-roaming in the country. The sheep eat everything in sight, including the young saplings.
After that, we started to head East. The drive was beautiful, and there were so many different landscapes. There were moss covered boulders, grassy fields, and lava fields. The black sand from the lava field are dangerous in high winds, and can strip the paint off the car! Our next cave was mom’s favourite. It lies in the Hjörleifshöfði mountain. From the outside it didn’t look like much, but from the inside, the opening looks like Yoda.
We stop what feels like every two hours along the way for coffee. Icelandic people love their coffee even more than North Americans do. All of the coffee we have had is delicious, even the stuff from the gas stations, which I did not expect. Each gas station has a full little cafe/restaurant with a nice seating area in it, and people take a nice break with food and coffee every time they stop.
Lastly we stopped to see the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. It’s beautiful, and much bigger than it looks in the pictures. The drop is over 200 feet! You are actually able to walk behind the waterfall, which is super cool, but you get absolutely soaked. There is actually a second waterfall, Gljúfrabúi, which is much more hidden. The name translates to something like “in a canyon”, and you do, in fact, have to go up the stream and through the canyon to get there. We were already soaked, so it didn’t bother us.
We arrived in Reykjavik tonight, and had a delicious dinner at Apotek. It is a restaurant and hotel built on the site of a pharmacy (Apothecary) for most of the 1900s. The bartenders are called “pharmacists” and they have cocktails to cure what ails you: “painkillers”, “stimulants”, “tranquillisers” and even “placebos” (non alcoholic). They are absolutely delicious and have such unique ingredients. I had one with gin, pomegranate, cinnamon, lime and champagne, and another with vodka, grapefruit, butterscotch, green tea, and yuzu.
We’re headed off to bed now so we can get up in the morning for another full day!
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