Iceland, South Coast Tour

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Runtur on Saturday is like Runtur on Friday dialed up. Glasses being thrown from balconies, security kicking in doors of restrooms because two chicks were in there for about 15 minutes together doing God only knows what, an old dude getting punched in the face while moshing to Rage Against the Machine, an 18 year old girl revealing that she has slept with 30 guys at that point in her life. Runtur is crazy folks. It reminds me of New Orleans with a younger age demographic and involving people from all over the world who have a Vegas, what happens in Reykjavik, stays in Reykjavik attitude.

I had decided to hang out with the group of Americans that I had met the night before. Aaron and Lindsay were going to watch a few metal bands and I wasn’t feeling it. Luckily neither was Amber, she was actually trying to go to bed. So I met here at their hotel and we made a trip down to the “convenience store.” We bought six different tall boys of beer and two red bulls and came back to my room and drank them over some great conversation, while listening to Icelandic MTV. Decent start to a night right? We had gotten a pretty late start as I needed a nap after diving, we finally made it out to meet her brother and Lindsay at about 1:30-2:00. We checked three different bars before deciding that they did not want to be found. One of the cafes turned club was playing some suite, (yes I use suite instead of sweet. It makes way more sense to me. Try it.), 90’s hip hop so I suggested we go in and dance. We ordered a drink and danced for a bit. This is the place where some dude jacked some guy in the face while moshing and two girls got a door kicked in on them. They all stayed out partying though, as we saw them much later in the morning. There was broken glass everywhere; on the dance floor, on the streets… everywhere. There was some idiot, wasted, girl who wasn’t even wearing shoes, or carrying any for that matter. Probably ended up with stitches that one.

After a few drinks and some dancing Amber finally got a hold of Lindsay via walkie-talkie. (Think for one second how suite that is. Cell phones don’t work and they brought effing walkie-talkies that have an eight mile range… genius.) Anyhow, we met up with Aaron, Lindsay, and a newcomer, Harold, or something like that, from Iceland. Harold makes/fixes nets near the harbor. We went to B 11, which is short for whatever 15 syllable street it is on. It was crazy packed. Booze zombies bumping into everything, dropping glasses, trying to sing the words to old US rock and roll songs. I don’t think I saw Lindsay the rest of the night. Aaron was meeting “three smoking hot 17 year olds.” One turned out to be 18 but she had had sex with 30 guys, so forgiven. Some of the most random, idiotic stuff comes out of 17 year old drunk girls’ mouths. Actually that was happening all over the place. I was ready to call it a night as I had to get up about 7:30 for my South Iceland tour, Amber wanted a hotdog, so we left Aaron, and his three girls and found one of the famous Icelandic hotdog stands. I walked Amber to her hotel and I was off to bed, buzzed and exhausted.

I was up bright and early this morning to tackle the South tour. This was by far the hardest time I have had getting out of bed yet, but I made it down early and even had a bit of breakfast before I loaded up on the shuttle and headed out on the tour. There were 13 of us on the van. Seven Americans, including myself, five Welsh, one German and also the driver who made 14. The morning was drizzling, cold and foggy. I did not have high expectations. The day actually stayed like that the entire time. (See what I did there? Now I don’t have to do any stupid weather transitions the rest of this entry.) We started the day at a beautiful 73 meter waterfall, Seljalandsfoss. One could walk around the entire fall, if they don’t mind getting wet and a bit muddy. I of course do not so I made the trip around. All I could think of is wanting to dive into it. Even with it being a bit gloomy, the fall was spectacular.

Next onto the southern most village in Iceland, Vik. Here we had a quick bite to eat, I had the fish and chips and they were excellent in case anyone cares. After eating we headed over to Reynisfjara beach. The beach had amazing black sand close to the water and large smooth black rocks dotting the sand farther away from shore. Andre, our guide, explained to me how the beaches here are ever changing, that a year ago the beach stretched out some 100 meters farther, but a storm one day changed that. He told me that is the way it is with all of the beaches here. The whole island is in constant flux. The rock formations here were incredible. The rock wall looked like the qbert board. I was sure to get a photo of that and then I saw an opportunity to race around some waves, jump across a few boulders, run through a cave and get some great photos. One of the other guys followed me, incident free I might add. After capturing a few shots the guide started shouting for us to come and that we shouldn’t be back there. Whatever right? So I jump across the boulders and make my way to the other side of the cave. I wait for the water to recede and I make my move. Really bad timing it turns out. There was a three series of waves coming. I am about to jump up onto the thin rock ledge when I get hit by the wave. It catches me about mid back and pushes me against the rock wall. I was able to hold my footing easily enough as the wave retreated back, by holding onto the rock wall, but the damage had been done. I was completely saturated from my ribcage on down. Being hit by an artic wave in Iceland on a cold, dreary, rainy day is no one’s idea of a good time. I was actually in great spirits about it. I made sure one of the guys took a photo and made my way back to the van. The rest of the group appreciated the recounting of the story and we all had a pretty good laugh about it. Andre offered me a pair of wool socks and a pair of pink wool long underwear. I took the socks and thanked him.

Our next stop was the largest glacier in the world save for the polar caps, Solheimajokull. This thing is massive. Over a kilometer thick and weighting something like 300 billion tons according to my guide book. After I emptied my boots of water and donned the new socks I ran on down to catch up to the group, actually I ran past. I like to be the first one so no one else is in the photos I want and I don’t have to wait on anyone. This moving, ever changing natural wonder was amazing. One can hike on it if they have the necessary gear, we didn’t have the gear for it. I walked up on it a bit and got some great photos of this incredibly thick and old glacial ice. Blue in color and being melted away in a spectacular way, the glacier made for a really interesting stop in the tour, even if I was still soaked.

Our last stop on the tour was another great waterfall, Skogafoss. Brilliant name right? Sounds so imposing. This guy is evidently famous, there is some current commercial in the UK that has this fall in the background. I could not walk around the back of this one, but one can walk as close as they are comfortable with. There is a ton of spray coming off this fall. There were a set of stairs that led up the hillside to the top of the fall. I made the trek up to the top to take a few photos and then back down. Waterlogged boots and jeans made this hike a little bit difficult. Not to mention the chaffing that was starting to occur by this point.

I made conversation with the group on the two hour drive back to Reykjavik. We had a really fun interesting group. I was very happy to have met them all, some I’ll even see on the trip to the Blue Lagoon tomorrow or on the flight back to the US. I was absolutely ecstatic about getting out of my wet clothes and taking a long hot shower.

Tomorrow Blue Lagoon and flight home.

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Photos

Me at Runtur
B 11

Runtur on the Street
I missed a photo of a Storm Trooper hanging out of a van painted like they were going to Woodstock.

Cave on the Ocean
This is the cave I ran through to stay dry.

Comments

[anonymous]

so cool im doing a thing on iceland

[Ujwala dattatatray Hardikar]

good
very good wallpaper.