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Published: August 19th 2010
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A long weekend trip to
Iceland is a fantastic getaway from London. Iceland is very unique in that it offers something that you don't find anywhere else in Europe - vast amounts of space and interesting landscapes...the kind of thing you take for granted when you come from Australia and have travelled through South America.
We were happy just to get to Iceland after the volcanic eruptions of early 2010 which caused havoc across European airspace and required some fairly large scale clean up of part of Iceland. By the time we arrived there was no sign of volcanic eruption, well much of the landscape was already molten lava, so at least not any evidence of
recent volcanic activity.
Iceland has become considerably cheap since the global financial crisis. It isn't hard to understand why. A small nation of 300,000 odd fisherman decide to take up investment banking, place bets to the tune of their annual income, the bets go against them and bang, you're bankrupt. Having now been to Iceland, I can verify that Icelandic people are a little nuts. Maybe it's the isolation, maybe its the fact that they aren't as beautiful as their Scandanavian counterparts, the
Swedes or the Danes, or maybe its just the fact that it is light 24 hours a day in summer and 0 hours a day in winter - but these people clearly do have a screw loose.
We arrived at
Reykjavic airport quite late on Friday night, and the process of getting out of the airport and to the hotel took forever. It was strange to be checking into a hotel at 2am looking outside into broad daylight.
We wandered around the town in the morning, and with its one main street and rather large lake in the middle of the city, it really is a very sparse and eerie kind of capital city. We took off to see what Iceland is all about, the magical
Blue Lagoon. The blue lagoon is essentially a volcanic crater filled with water which fluctuates in temperature from 35 to 42 degrees that is full of white silica mud which gives the lagoon its bright blue appearance. The silica mud is also used for mud masks and is said to have skin healing powers. I'm not so sure but I gave it a go anyway. The lagoon was packed full of people
but there is still plenty of room to move around and walking around on the mucky bottom of the lagoon is a surreal experience.
Whilst it was only 10 degrees, I managed to get sunburnt in the 3 hours spent bathing in the blue lagoon. I guess the reflection off the water probably didn't help. There is a bar inside the lagoon and a few drinks also make it more relaxing. It certainly is a very unique place.
From there we went back to Reykjavic and out to a bar to watch the eurovision song contest, something the locals were really excited about. I didn't really get it and it is obvious to see the voting alliances. Sadly, Iceland didn't get many votes but each one got a loud cheer. The other crazy thing about this weekend in Iceland was that the local elections were on - and the hilarous promises of the
best party which won the election included free towels for locals!
Iceland is built on very unstable land, and the geothermic activity is something to behold. There is random steam spurting out of the ground in numerous places and all homes are powered by
Hallgrímskirkja church
This photo was actually taken after midnight - and it was still light! geothermic power, harnessing the energy source that is so close to the surface of the earth. Talk about high-risk living!
We also went to
Þingvellir national park, a UNESCO world heritage site (which made me wonder how on earth things qualify for UNESCO world heritage status!). The national park is essentially the cause of the unstable land in Iceland, it is where 2 very large plates meet, and are shifting apart each day, creating a larger and larger valley. In the valley is also the historical Iceland parliament buildings, which were established in around the year 970.
The golden circle tour also took us to the
Gulfoss waterfalls, a very impressive fall that you could walk right out to, and then to
Geysir, where, yep that's right, there is a massive geyser that spurts hot water in the air roughly every 3 minutes and every now and again very high into the air. It is fairly impressive to see and makes you realise how powerful the earth is.
All in all, Iceland was a great weekend getaway. If we had more time, we would have hit up the glaciers on the eastern side, but they are a
long way to travel from Reykjavic. Considering it was May, it was quite cold in Iceland and I don't think I would complain about London weather after being to Iceland. But I guess it is the adverse conditions that they constantly face that make Iceland the cool place it is and Icelandic people a little crazy.
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