Pictures! Also, cookies.

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Woohoo! I can upload photos! I think I´ll make this one a relatively quick overview of the last few days, and do a few seperate detailed posts with pics for the past week.

I spent Monday hiking around Myvatn - through a small forest that looked like something that belonged in a dinosaur movie with rocky lava outcroppings, past a fissure that had a hot spring in it, through a desert, up a mountain that´s actually a crater, and finally down to a really cool place called Dimmuborgir, which is the Dark Castles. It´s a huge area with spires of lava rocks everywhere, forming caves, tunnels, spires, walls, and believable natural fortresses. Amazing! I spent hours here.

I also got attacked by some falcons that were defending their nest when they decided I had got too close. Excitement.

I gave in to the cravings and bought some cookies from the grocery store that night. They were typical pre-packaged fare, and were ok but certainly not up to par. They WERE made in Iceland though. I´d give them a 3/10, but at least they´ll hold me over until I can find a good bakery and some real cookies.

Tuesday I toured the so called 'Diamond Circle', which had me confused (is it a diamond or a circle?) until I realized they ment diamond as in beautiful and precious thing, not as in square placed on it´s side. Sights along the way included 'Hell´s Kitchen', a very smelly place with mud pots and fumaroles; Dettifoss, one of Europe´s most powerful waterfalls; and Asbyrgi, a canyon cut by massive glacial floods and now inhabited by thousands of birds.

Finally, today I hopped back on the ring-road bus to Egilsstadir, in the East Fjords, where I am now. Didn´t do much today, mostly just relaxing in the sun. My next bus tomorrow morning will take me south towards the massive Vatnajokull ice cap, so soon I should have some fun stories of glaciers.

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Photos

Hiking to Hverfjall crater
Apparently, I could advertise for Vibram.

Hverfjall tephra crater
Filled with rockart graffiti. I wanted to go make one that said MOOSE!

Dimmuborgir
The courtyard.

Dimmuborgir
The citadel.

Cookies!
Polo. 3/10, but they´ll do. And they did.

Myvatn at Midnight
Ok, it was 11:52pm or something like that. Close enough.

BEWARE OF SHEEP!!
There are lots of them.

Dettifoss
It´s pretty big. Yup.

Selfoss
A short walk upstream from the mighty Dettifoss is the smaller but more interesting Selfoss. Self portrait time!

Asbyrgi
'We made you think there was a town here, but it´s really just a gas station' seems to be a recurring theme in Iceland.

Asbyrgi
This canyon is huge, it´s hard to get a good photo of it. It´s a horseshoe shape, and legend is that it was formed when Sleipnir, 8-legged horse of the god Odin, set a hoof down here.

Northern Ocean
Looking across at one of the northernmost points of Iceland from Husavik.

Comments

[Edit, the Hungarian]

Good for you!
Hello Liam! Finally I got the chance to read your blog. Through. :) You seem to pick the perfect country of non-pronounceable names, sci fi views and good hikes. Thanks for the idea, we will follow you - later. But till then we watch you and your adventures, and of course the cookies. (wow, how much we loved your dad's cookies!) Take care and keep writing and posting pictures even though it is definitely a challenge there.