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Published: June 18th 2009
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Hold me up.
I have just been to the most amazing country on this planet. Well, that I have visited anyway. I have always wanted to travel to Iceland since I was a wee little boy, associating the exotic country with eskimos and polar bears and that crazy singer Björk. Instead, we were greeted with cyan-coloured hotsprings, ginormous geysers, thunderous waterfalls, volcanic craters, breathtaking landscapes, humpback whales and non-stop partying in the 23 hours of daylight.
Aaron uncannily has relations who live in Reykjavik, who were kind enough to put us up for the week. Dennis and Eyrun live in an apartment in Reykjavik and also have a summer house near Selfoss in the Grimsnes area. Dennis was a wonderful host and tour guide, first taking us to the Blue Lagoon for some much needed R&R after our Europe Extravaganza, where its eerily cyan coloured water was reminiscent of some sort of chemical plant spill…. We then spent our first couple of nights in their beautiful summer house, surrounded by beautiful landscapes, eating great food (thanks Dennis!) and generally having a really relaxing couple of days. We saw hotsprings, we saw glaciers, we saw mountains, we saw volcano craters,
we saw plateaus of volcanic ash (black, green, red, yellow), we saw geysers, we saw hot springs, we saw snow-capped mountains, we saw rivulets and lakes…. No other country on earth can boast such a broad spectrum of natural beauties.
It is actually quite overwhelming writing this because I now associate Iceland with an overwhelming level of sensations and a surreal sense of experience, which is so hard to describe in words or even pictures. It was literally like being on another planet. Surrounded by Icelandics whose appearance, customs and traditions were so unique and exotic. Reykjavik town is the smallest capital city in Europe in terms of population (only 280,000 inhabitants), but its quaint houses, cobblestone pavements, controversial architecture, radical churches and pumping nightlife make it one of the most peculiar but unique city we’ve been to yet. Dennis and Eyrun’s children Claire and Jakob kindly took us out for a world-famous Reykjavik pub-crawl (though we only made it til 4am and 3 pubs because somebody puked outside the last pub…and for once it was not Aaron nor I…) and for once we did not feel guilty for coming out of a club after daylight broke.
It
is a shame we could not experience much more of Iceland, because of a lack of time and funds, but we will be back one day and Iceland has my word. The country is currently going through serious economic downturn and hence it is now the best time to visit, to help the locals get their economy back on track at very reasonable costs due to the much deflated Kronar. We did however manage to go on a whale-watching trip where we also saw some cute puffins (which some Icelandics stew and eat!) and tried our hand at deep sea angling. Seeing a humpback whale was one of our highlights - seriously how many people out there have seen a freakin humpback whale!?!
I was so sad to leave Iceland, it honestly was a surreal dream-like experience that one can never forget. There is so much potential in this city, in terms of growth and foreign recognition, and the city’s council is working hard to establish the city as an economic, sustainable, cultural and social hub of Europe. We did not see polar bears or Eskimos or Björk. But a nice Icelandic boy at a CD shop helped me
choose some funky new local tunes to listen to.
I can’t wait to go back.
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Elise
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Iceland appears to be soooooooo wonderful! Your photo's are amazing...and some very funny!!! hehehehe pimp daddy Jian! Im so glad u had a lovely time there after ur Paris trip! I can't wait to visit iceland...hopefully u boys will show me round one day! =) Love and miss you's xXx