The Land of Fire and Ice
Welcome to Iceland!
You guys, drop everything you are doing right now and book your tickets to come see this place! Yes, it’s cold (it’s winter), yes it’s longitudinally equidistant to Healy, Alaska (so we are a ways up) and it’s only 6 hours from New York. A hop, skip and jump from home. It’s magical, dreamy, and totally whimsical. Go ahead and throw in a dose of I-can’t-even believe-places-like-this-exist-on-earth kind of beautiful. Hello real life episode of Frozen, which includes the people truly looking like Elsa as well. Matt has started to count the number of people with dark hair vs. light hair when we go places because he doesn’t have to count very high. Everyone looks like me here! Now, the language though, nothing is in English (yet everyone can speak English) the Icelandic language is something else. I can’t even begin to learn even basic phrases it’s just so different. After exploring Iceland for the past few days, I’m going to sum it up as a hybrid combination of a larger ski town (in the USA) blended with the topography and ocean-side demeanor of that in Nova Scotia. The weather tends to be around a balmy 24-36 degrees (with 14 mile an hour winds) with snow accumulation somewhere between 1-3 inches per day.
Iceland is so desolate outside of Reykjavík, it makes me wonder who those tough people are that can sustain during these harsh winters out in the middle of nowhere like that. I’m sure it’s a rough go during the winter, but the beauty surrounding them all year round is likely worth their isolation decision. While here we drove up (back to driving on the right side of the car and the street) a few hours north to explore some of the coastline and beautiful scenery. We stopped at the local famous hot dog stand (this is considered one of Iceland’s famous foods), Baejarins Beztu Pylsur, in Reyjavik, where we had a quick lunch. They were really good hot dogs, and one of the most inexpensive things we’ve come across here. I’ll just quickly say that food and gasoline are two of the most expensive things in this country. You can’t get a single burger for under $25.00 here, a coke is generally around $3-$4, and beer, well about $12 a glass, but again the scenery is worth it to me, Matt on the other hand, he almost can’t stomach these costs for such odd, random food options they have here.
We ventured out to the local ski lodge to see what skiing in Iceland was like, as it’s just about 25 minutes drive time from town. If we had some extra time one afternoon we would come back, but we wanted to see if the skiing would match my abilities. Well, my abilities could probably handle the slope, but that rental car, that was something else. It really wanted to get stuck in the snow, note to self take a 4 X 4 to the mountain top, not the Suzuki bubble car. We made it out (without assistance) and ventured back to less snowy ground. As the evening came to be, we went down to the Old Harbor area to take a boat out to see the Northern Lights. The Northern Lights, like many things aren’t on demand, so we wanted to try and get a glimpse of them before we left, so we started on our first full night here. Three freezing hours later on this boat, low and behold we got to see them! She wasn’t “dancing” as the boat operator kept calling it, but she provided a lovely shade of green for the night. Another bucket list item-checked!
We had planned to drive the Golden Circle route on Wednesday, seeing the Thingvellir National Park, the geyser area, the Gulfoss waterfalls, and bathing in the geothermal pools along the route. Unfortunately, the weather had alternate plans and due to the extensive winds and blowing snow, the roads were closed and access was denied, just as we were entering the designated area. Bummer, so we decided to try again in the next day. We made the best of the rest of Valentine’s Day by doing sightseeing in and around Reykjavik, had dinner at an interesting little restaurant and had a date to go and see a documentary about the volcanos in Iceland at The Volcano House here in town. Low key and fun, twenty years later that’s generally what I’m looking for on Valentines Day. If in town, check it out, it’s about time for another eruption to occur here, as the last one was about 3 years ago. Now see, this Valentine’s Day Matt let me down a bit. The past few years, Matt and our sweet cat, JuJu have been putting together some pretty entertaining Valentine’s Day productions including various activities, menus and treats, so he had a lot to live up to this year. Unfortunately, he didn’t find a stray cat to put in a costume here, or arrange any strange valentines extravaganzas, so I’m holding him to making it up to me by making Easter real fancy this year, cat costumes must totally be included. Matt’s always so thoughtful, me on the other hand, not so much. I’m hoping Walgreens in New York still has some of those nasty conversation hearts available when we get there, as that is what Matt usually gets from me each year (why he loves these I have no idea, probably because my grandma used to have them and would give them to him every year). And, I’ll take a double high-five if I can them for 75% off since it’s just a few days past the holiday, now that’s #romantic and #adulting all at the same time.
Thursday’s weather turned out great, so we loaded up the car and headed out to the above mentioned places we tried to go to on Wednesday. We stopped to see the fissure (crack) in the earth where Iceland is separating due to tectonic plates moving apart. We got to see the one geysir go off fairly consistently (I have a video I’ll upload later), and we made our way to the Secret Lagoon, a geothermal pool (it’s one of the oldest “pools” in Iceland). It was a nice way to relax and take in the scenery at 104 degrees. This route is a very known route and contains some of the best nature viewing you can expect. I look forward to coming back here in the summertime, as I know this place would be just as beautiful then as it is now. Experiencing Iceland has been great. I never thought I would want to travel during the winter months places (outside of going to Colorado to go skiing), but I’ve enjoyed seeing a different side to all the places we have been. Now to make the transatlantic transition home….to the Big Apple we go….again….
Happy Friday All!
