As most of you probably know, Cat will be starting a PhD study at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in August. She got an NSF-funded IGERT fellowship (this probably doesn’t mean anything to most of you). Her IGERT is called the MESAS (Marine Ecosystem Sustainability in the Arctic and Subarctic) program. For the first year of the program, she has to live in Fairbanks, Alaska (aka Palinville), so we will be living apart for nine months or so. The plan is for Cat to come back to Iceland at Christmas and then again for the summer. Her project will most likely be in Iceland and Alaska, so depending on what is happening with Cat’s research (and mine), we will be moving around a lot.
In order for Cat to have a car in Fairbanks, we’re going to be driving there (not from Iceland). At the end of July we’re flying back to the US and making quick stops in Peoria and Des Moines, and then we’re driving 3300 miles (5300 km) to Fairbanks. Assuming that we don’t get shot by a redneck, eaten by a grizzly, or trampled by a moose, we’ll be staying in Fairbanks for one or two nights and then I’ll be flying back to Iceland and Cat will be flying to Kachemak Bay for a three week marine sustainability course.
Now that that is out of the way, I can get to the more interesting stuff. Cat’s and my friend Anup is a rafting guide in a town about half an hour from us. At the beginning of May, Anup took Cat and me and six of our friends out on the river for free. Anup’s company is always booked solid during the rafting season, so we went the week before the rafting actually began.
Cat and me getting started:
The group getting ready to jump into the river:
Jumping:
When Cat and I said that we were moving to Iceland, everyone said that he/she would definitely be coming to visit. After living here for ten months, we have had a total of two visitors. My parents came to visit us on June 13. Due to their busy schedules, they were only able to stay for a week, but you’re about to see what can be accomplished in one week in this country.
Day 1: We picked my folks up at Keflavik International Airport (40 minutes from Reykjavik) at 6:30 a.m. on June 13. We immediately set off for the Golden Circle. The circle consists of three main stops: Gullfoss, Geysir, and Lake Þingvallavatn/Þingvellir. Gullfoss (translation: golden waterfall) is the largest waterfall in Europe. Icelanders are strong believers in common sense, so they don’t have any railings or ropes or anything separating people from the water.
Moments before Cat dove into the river:
I guess I lied, there was this one rope that was placed specifically to aid people in tripping and falling into the river:
After Gullfoss, we headed off to the geyser named Geysir. The English word geyser actually comes from this place in Iceland. Geysir itself hasn’t erupted since 2003, but when it does erupt, it apparently puts on an amazing show. There is a smaller, more active geyser about 300 feet from Geysir named Strokkur.
Geysir:
Strokkur:
Next on the list was Lake Þingvallavatn and Þingvellir National Park. Þingvellir (translation: parliament meadow) is where the chieftains used to meet hundreds of years ago to decide how to run the country. This area is now a national park containing the largest lake (by area) in Iceland.
After the Golden Circle, we hopped back on the Ring Road , which is Iceland’s main highway that goes around the entire country, and drove up to Hólar where Cat and I live. We rented a cabin for my folks, and they made their first attempt at sleeping in 24 hours of daylight:
Day 2: This was the most relaxing day of the trip. We got a chance to show my folks around our village a little bit. We climbed Gvendarskal, which is a point on a mountain behind our apartment (there is more information on this in my first post), and then we went to the Hólar Beer Club. The Beer Club is an illegal bar run by my advisor. I would post pictures of it on here, but it’s sort of like Fight Club, and I really shouldn’t be telling you any of this. After the Beer Club, we headed off to bed and got ready to get back on the Ring Road.
Day 3: We took off for Lake Mývatn (translation: midge lake, and the name doesn’t disappoint) where we had guesthouse accommodations for the night. On the way to the lake, we stopped at Goðafoss (translation: waterfall of the gods). Goðafoss got its name when Iceland originally converted to Catholicism. Iceland is the only country to have converted to Catholicism without any violence. This came about when Iceland was given the choice of Catholicism or violence and then Catholicism. Icelanders are very peaceful people (unless you count the Vikings) and they didn’t want violence, but they also didn’t want to give up their Norse pagan tradition, so they put the decision to one man: Þorgeirr Þorkelsson Ljósvetningagoði. After spending a day under his thinking blanket, Þorgeirr decided that it was best to keep the peace. He took all the Norse pagan paraphernalia and threw it off the waterfall, and the waterfall became known as Goðafoss from that point forward.
Goðafoss:
Moments before Cat dove into the river:
After Goðafoss, we got checked in at our guesthouse and relaxed for a while before heading off to the nature baths. The outdoor mud baths in the Mývatn area are the same as at the more famous Blue Lagoon near Keflavik. The water in the baths is the effluent from a diatomite plant, and the silica content gives it its bright blue color.
My father at one minute until 11:00 p.m. He was still blown away by the daylight at this point:
After the mud baths, we had some birthday cake before my mother’s birthday ended at midnight. I don’t know if this was better than when we celebrated her birthday in West Africa, but it was pretty good.
Day 4: In the morning, we got up and went around the lake. Lake Mývatn is a spring-fed lake that only gets about nine feet deep at its deepest point. The lake is one of the largest migratory bird habitats in the world. We walked around the shore for a while and tried to identify some birds:
The midges were ridiculous in this area:
Some pseudocraters at the lake:
We left the lake and head off to Dimmuborgir to see some lava formations:
This one is called Kirkja (translation: church), and it's the most famous natural lava formation in the area:
After Dimmuborgir, we hiked up into Hverfjall, a giant blast crater:
Next on the list was Námafjall. Námafjall is a large area with a lot of geothermal activity. The two most interesting features of this place are the boiling mud and the fumaroles (steam vents).
Mud:
Fumaroles:
Hvíti (translation: hell) is another blast crater that we went to. This one has a lake in it though:
Just down the road from Hvíti is Leirhnjúkur (I don’t know what the translation is for this one. I tried to ask an Icelander once, but I injured myself trying to pronounce the rhnj portion of the word, and decided that it’s not worth knowing), which is a lava field that was formed from an eruption in 1984:
Finally, we headed off for our guesthouse in Egilsstaðir.
This is our license plate when we left the Lake Mývatn area:
Day 5: We woke up in Egilsstaðir and got on the road to Skaftafell. This drive was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The first two hours of the drive was made up of winding mountain roads and waterfalls. We stopped off at a beach where there are some pretty good bird cliffs, but the clouds were low so we couldn’t see many birds:
This day was Iceland’s Independence Day, so lunch came with a little flag:
After lunch, we went to Jökulsárlón, which is a glacial lagoon. As of two days ago, it is also the deepest lake in Iceland:
The chunks of glacier in this lagoon are from Vatnajökull. Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Iceland. It is also the largest glacier in Europe. If that’s not enough for you, it is the largest non-polar glacier in the world. Parts of the Bond films A View to Kill and Die Another Day were filmed there, and so was the beginning of Batman Begins.
After we left the lagoon, we checked into our guesthouse and went to Skaftaell National Park. In Skaftafell, we took a little hike with various geological features and booked a glacier walk for the next day, then we called it a night.
Guesthouse:
Parts of Vatnajökull from Skaftafell:
Day 6: We headed from our guesthouse back to Skaftafell in the morning and took a hike out to Svartafoss (translation: black waterfall) before our glacier walk.
Svartafoss:
Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling so hot (sorry, Rodman):
Glacier walk:
We waved goodbye to the glacier and went to the coolest place I’ve ever been in my life (besides West End 2000-2003). The bird cliffs at Vík are crazy. They’re a lot steeper than I can show in the pictures. There are the main cliffs that you arrive at originally, and then there is another cliff that sticks out on its own and you cross a little piece of land to get out to it. Out past all of this is Dyrhólaey (translation: doorway island). I’m fine with heights, and this place almost gave me a heart attack a couple times. My father is not so good with heights, but he was a champion and did the whole thing with us.
The birds live in the side of the cliffs, and when you’re at the top you can watch them hover in the wind:
Top of the main cliffs:
The other cliff and Dyrhólaey out past it:
People walking out onto the other cliff:
From out on the other cliff:
There is a puffin flying by in the lower left:
This is from the end of the other cliff looking back toward the main cliffs. My parents are in the middle of this picture (in blue) climbing the last little bit back up to the main cliffs. Keep in mind that my father isn’t great with heights:
After the bird cliffs, we headed back toward Reykjavik with just one more waterfall stop, Skógafoss, before the city. We actually saw a lot more waterfalls than the ones that I’ve shown here, but we wouldn’t have been able to complete the Ring Road if we had stopped to take pictures of all of them. The only big waterfall that we missed is Dettifoss because the road conditions to get there aren’t great, but by the time you come visit, the road should be paved.
There was some serious frolicking going on at Skógafoss:
Skógafoss:
People who have spent too many hours in the car really love rainbows:
After I got the rainbow brigade loaded back into the car, we headed to Reykjavik. We stayed just outside of the city in a town called Kopavogur.
Day 7: We got up and went into the city to do some shopping. After getting souvenirs and 66º North gear, we headed to Keflavik for the 4:30 p.m. departure.
This thing has gone on long enough, but I want to throw three more items on here and then I’m finished.
Icelandic Easter eggs are way better than chocolate bunnies. You get a candy-filled milk chocolate egg. The eggs come in six sizes (1-6). The egg pictured below is a three and it’s about nine inches tall:
All the stuff that’s in the chocolate egg:
The second item shows why a love living in Iceland. These are pictures that Cat and I took when we woke up on a Saturday and felt like taking a hike (to the top of a small mountain in a neighboring valley). We didn’t have to drive a car to get to this place; we just loaded up our backpacks and walked out our door. An hour and a half later we took these pictures from the top:
This one is just to prove that I was there too:
The final item is Cat’s birthday gift from me. She asked me for an indoor compost bin and then didn’t get mad at me when I gave her one. Cat’s awesome, and I’m really sad that she’s leaving.
Indoor composting is really easy:
You made it! Thanks for reading. I really enjoy sharing our experiences, and I hope you enjoy hearing about them and learning about the country.
--Dan (The Hairy American)
