Monday:
Our last day in Reykjavik before heading out for three days in the countryside started slow, Lance needed to sleep in after a long first day in country and we were out quite late on Sunday, so we agreed to meet up fairly late, after breakfast. Though i kind of felt like I was wasting time a bit, it was nice to sleep late and have a lazy morning.
Around lunchtime we met up, grabbed a bite and headed to the National Art Museum. The majority of the museum was dedxicated to one Icelandic artist, though there were several other artists featured as well. It was pretty interesting, if a bit small. I suppose Iceland doesn't have the longest artistic tradition and much of the older stuff (carved drinking horns, wood carvings, etc.) is in the National Museum.
We headed back to the hostel and began planning out our excursion into the country. My original to do list included driving the Golden Circle and taking a ferry to the Westman Islands. We sat down at backpackers, pulled out the map and started plotting our trip. After we discussed everything roughly we started talking to the girl at the hostel about our plan to make sure everything would work as we wanted. Unfortunately she gave us the news that the new ferry terminal to the Westmans was having major issues with the harbor filling with sand and was regularly being diverted to another harbor. Apparently conditions can change from day-to-day and if the main terminal is unusable the ferry runs only once a day each direction, as well as extending the trip from 30 minutes to 3 hours. We decided we had better scap those plans in favor of more reliable conditions. The final course we settled on would take us east out of the city, first to Thingvellir, home of the first Althing and the point where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are moving apart. We arranged our lodging and a car for the next two nights and three days.
Plans made we sat around for a bit, relaxing before dinner. A bit later Ben and Yuen, the two guys from New York (who originally come from China) whom we had met the previous night. We invited them for dinner and they came with us to get fish and chips down by the harbor. Dinner was great, perhaps not the best fish and chips I've ever had, but very good. We spent dinner chatting with Ben and Yuen about our lives and homes, they're nice kids with pretty interesting things to say.
After dinner Ben, Yuen and I returned to backpackers while Erin and Lance went back to their hotel. It was still quite early and I really didn't feel like sleeping yet so I ordered a beer at the hostel and sat down to read the net some. A few minutes later Paul, the London homocide detective originally from Wales came down. He sat down and we started talking. It was his last night in country and didn't feel much like packing or sleeping. A bit later Ben and Yuen came down after showering and they joined us. It was fun as hell, its always fun to talk to people from different places and backgrounds and this turned out to be a nicely diverse group. At 11 the girl working the desk and bar at Backpackers gave us the news that it was time to finish our drinks and clear the bar. None of us really wanted to as we were having a good time (and starting to get rather buzzed...), but rules are rules. I said my goodbyes to Paul and headed off to bed.
Tuesday:
In the morning I got up a bit later than I had planned, due to a rather quiet alarm on my iPod, which was ok, but didn't give me as much time as I wanted. We had booked our car pickup for 815, so I told Erin and Lance to meet me at 8, calculating that would give me time to walk to the bakery next door for some breakfast. Of course I was ready at 8, but they were about 10 minutes late, leaving me with (what I thought) was too little time to get food. Turns out the rental company had misunderstood that they were supposed to pick us up and when 840 rolled around we had the hostel call them to see what was up. They quickly sent someone up who explained the mix up. No big deal, we got our Subaru Impreza rental and were on our way.
Heading east we soon realized how quickly Iceland goes from large city, in Reykjavik, to wilderness not more than 20 miles from the city. The barreness and quiet were the first things to strike us, followed quickly by the realization that the roads were very slippery after several days of snow. The road we were travelling was well maintained and well travelled (by Iceland standards) but there were very few cars and it was completely iced over. It wasn't long till we came to a car, driven by (damn) tourists that had slid off the road. Luckily for them a large SUV with a winch had beat us there and was already pulling them out of the ditch. After a few miutes they were out and on their way.
Not too far from there we started finding signs for the Thingvellir and our GPS seemed to be leading us in the right direction. That was when it turned us down a road that quickly became far too deep for the little car. Keep in mind, the GPS was taking us to the correct place, but doesn't know road conditions. We powered through and eventually found a turn around. We barely made it back to the main road to turn in behind a tour bus, which we decided to follow to the park. Minutes later we were parking at the historically and geologically significant Thingvellir. Not much to look at in winter, though the cracked earth and deep, crystal clear, springs were impressive.
The road after Thinvellir was much better, though still slippery and a bit treacherous. Fortunately, although the area seems very isolated, its actually very well travelled and it wouldn't take long to find help is need be. Luckily we didn't run into a situation where we needed to find out how hard it would be to find out.
The road took us forward Geysir, a geothermally active area, sporting several geysirs and hotsprings. Geysir itself is the namesake of all geysirs and apparently is a very impressive sight, though it only goes off intermitently. There is another geysir, Strokkur, that goes off regularly. We were able to see it blow several times. Here again we were quite entertained by lack of safety restrictions in Iceland. The geysirs and hot springs proper were roped off, but you could get close enough to the geysirs to be sprayed and close enough to the springs to stick your hands in the boiling water. From what I recall of Yellowstone you're not allowed to get anywhere near as close.
We stopper at Geysir's visitor center for a lunch of Icelandic soup. That had to of been one of the best bowls of soup I've had in my life. Big chunks of lamb, cabbage, carrots, onions, maybe some leek and barley in a salty and strongly lamb flavored broth. The flavor was strong and the bowl was filling, great food for the road.
Just a few kilometers north of Geysir lies Gullfoss, or Gold Falls, hands down the most impressive waterfall I've seen in my life. A huge volume of glacial runoff flowing over several cascades into a narrow canyon. The overlooks were cold and windy, but afforded incredible views of this natural wonder. Again safety eqipment was at a minimum here. Overlooks hundreds of feet over the gorge and falls had no railings, only ankle high stakes with a small rope between them.
Going back south we passed through Geysir park again heading for the town of Selfoss. At around 6,000 people it would be the last town of any size we we see for two days. Here we picked up the Ring Road, the main road that rings the entire country. When you first pick it up, the Ring Road appears to be much like many of the state highways in Washington, two lane but fairly wide. However as you get further east the road becoms progressively narrower, until there's just enough space for a car heading each way, with little space to spare. Never with any shoulder and often with a steep enbankment or ledge on either side. This makes for somewhat more stressful driving than in the US, but the road is very well maintained and our travel was easy and uneventful.
Ack! The droid blogspot app sucks... doesn't want me to continue... stay tune for PART 2!
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7
No comments:
Post a Comment