Blogs from Iceland, Europe - page 130

Saturday August 9 Well my second and third day in Reykjavik went off pretty smooth. After my rain out night, I stayed at the hostel the second night and then used a hostel tent the third night. The third day I spent laying in a hot tub at the natural pools next to where I was staying. They are a lot like the ones at Radium. Then I walked downtown and bought a bus passport which allows me to go around the country once on the major road using any number of buses and stopping at any town I want. This morning (it is Saturday that I am writing this in MS word) I got to the bus terminal and got on a bus headed for the second biggest city in Iceland called Akureyri. I told ... read more

Avui és dijous, dia 7 d'agost, i és el sisé dia de viatge. Aquests dos últims dies hem estat a la zona est de l'illa. A partir de dema ens dirigirem cap a la zona nord, la qual, a priori, sembla ser una de les zones més interessants de l'illa. El paissatge continua essent espectacular, i el temps sembla que millora poc a poc, tot i que les temperatures continuen sent més baixes del previst. El que continua sent un misteri és la poca vida que transmeten els pobles de l'illa. Són pobles inospits, i en els que practicament no es veu gent pel carrer, i on, fins i tot, és difícil trobar un lloc per poder prendre un café. Tot i aixo, el viatge continua sent molt complert. I aixo que encara ens queden tres ... read more

Portem tres dies de viatge i costa trobar adjectius per definir tot el que estem veient i sentint. Islàndia és pura màgia. És com visitar diferents paisos (per no dir planetes) en un mateix. Un es sent minúscul enmig de la inmensitat de la naturalesa, pura, incorrompuda de la la illa: volcans, cascades inimaginables, terres àrides, paisatges impossibles, glaciars, icebergs, llacs inabastables, rius....En molts moments del viatge tenim la sensació d'haver arribat a la fi del món. Les pringades, d'altra banda són vàries. A l'episodi conegut per alguns de vosaltres de l'aeroport (vam sortir amb 8 hores de retard), cal afegir altres incidències, com un clima més advers del previst i del descrit a les (males) guies de viatges consultades. D'altra banda, l'amabilitat dels islandesos és com el sol, brilla per la seva absència:són uns bordes ... read more

I guess i'll pick up from where the last entry left off and continue through to my departure. I am going to put a ton of pictures up and I suggest you check them out. The Icelandic countryside is ridiculously stunning. When this trip was initially booked, I did some research and found that Reykjavik despite it's reputation for crazy nightlife is really only a party town Thurs-Sat. As a result, I was a bit worried that I would only get one really unnecessary night of binge drinking in. Unbeknownst to me, Monday was a national holiday (I think "commerce day"), this led to two things. 1. A large % of the natives of Reykjavik were on vacation in the Westmen Islands grilling puffin, hanging out and drinking beers and 2. The people who were ... read more

Don't be fooled by the standards of Air France, British Airways and certain others if you fly them first class across the Atlantic and assume all European carriers are quality. Icelandic Airlines is one of the few airlines flying into Reykjavik (I flew JFK---Keflavik), in fact I didn't see any other airlines parked at the very small single terminal of KFK. I don't have time to go into details now and i'll try and post some pictures later so just the quick run down: "Saga Class" is Icelandic Airlines First class and it is somewhere between a domestic carrier's idea of Coach and 1st class on Sub-3 hour flight; it's not comfy when you're on the plane for 5+ hours. Even though Mighty Ducks II taught us all that Greenland is covered with ice and Iceland ... read more