Iceland: "Geography paradise"!

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Hæ, góður dagur!!!

I finally visited one of my top-3 countries I really want to visit: ICELAND!!!
Yes, a paradise for those who like geography like I do. With volcanoes, glaciers, geysirs, thermal waters, waterfalls and areas where two tectonic plates moved away from each other....Iceland is a "must" for everyone who loves geography!

I listed a couple of random things about Iceland, which I found interesting:
- Icelanders don't have a last name, they use the names of their fathers and add "son" or "daughter" behind. If I had a son called "Adam", his last name would be "Eltonson".
- Iceland is expensive, I think only electricity and water are "very" cheap!
- There is no Mc Donald's in Iceland, YES!!! It left the country after the 2008 crisis.
- There are almost no trees in Iceland because of the climate, except for a couple they planted in the city and some other (christmas-) trees along the road.
- Hot water from the tap has a smell of sulphur.
- Iceland is a very clean country in every aspect.
- Iceland is cold (obviously), but less cold than most people think.
- In the summer it doesn't become dark for more than a month (24h daylight) and in the winter they have about 4 hours of daylight per day!
- Icelandic is a very difficult language to learn. Some Icelandic names were very difficult for me to pronounce correctly.
- I found Icelandic people in general to be friendlier than Europeans from the mainland.
- In Iceland they eat some gross things; like sheep testicles, sheep head and blood pudding. They also eat shark meat, which they leave rotting in the ground for 6 weeks. I wanted to try it but just the smell blew me away....it STINKS!!!
- Iceland is proud of its viking heritage and maintained much of its original culture and identity thanks to its isolation from the mainland.
- There is at least one "yu Kòrsou" (Curaçaoan) in Iceland! Her name is Diahann Atacho, she just moved here for a period of 4 years and I met her on a Friday evening in Reykjavik! She writes a column every week in the newspaper "Antilliaans Dagblad".

All right, let's start. From Milan I took Germanwings to Cologne and then further to Iceland. After landing with one hour delay, I took the bus which dropped me at my hostel in Reykjavik. Iceland has an area of about 103.000 square km but just about 325.000 inhabitants of which more than the half live in and around Reykjavik.
Iceland has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Iceland is very expensive and was even more expensive before the economic crisis in 2008, when the local currency (Icelandic Krona) lost about 50%!o(MISSING)f its value. This made the country more affordable for foreigners to visit. Iceland remains a rich country though and the economy is recovering. Iceland was one of the poorest European countries before World War II but then became one of the richest thanks to its rich fishing grounds.

I found Reykjavik to be a small city, but if you include the suburbs it's quite big. My hostel was located on "Laugavegur", which is the city's main shopping street. The name of the street changes into "Bankastræti" and "Austurstræti" towards the west. During the day the city centre is quiet, not too busy. But in the evening during the weekend it's completely different. Laugvegur becomes busy with people going to bars and clubs. I was very surprised to see this scene. Drunk people (male + female) walking around, bottles and broken glass on the sidewalk and on the street...so you must look out when you're walking. There are two popular but small clubs, "B5" and "Austur" and they do not charge an entrance fee (YES!) but you'll need to dig a little bit into your wallet for the drinks. A beer costs about US$ 8,50 (1000 ISK). My last night in Reykjavik I went out with Margarita and her friends, a very friendly and nice Polish girl I met on Couchsurfing and whose living in Iceland. Saturday night was a bit rainy but still I had a good time visiting three different pubs/clubs.

I visited the "Hallgrims kirkja" church, where you could to go up the tower. From there you have beautiful views over the city. It was very windy the day I went and up there was even worse. A visit to the "National Museum" was also very interesting with an exposition of old pictures of Iceland (1870 - 1900) and a lot about the settlement and creation of Iceland. Norse emigrants settled in Iceland more than 1100 years ago and brought animals to the country. They brought horses to Iceland and these type of horses are only to be found in Iceland today: "Islandic horses". They implemented a law more than 1000 years ago that prohibited to import horses and this law still exists today. You can take such a horse out of Iceland but it may never be brought back to the country. Iceland had it's first parliament dating back to 930 AD, when vikings came together and made some agreements about their land.

Of course I couldn't miss the "Blue Lagoon", a geothermal pool and spa with light blue water. The water temperature is between 37 and 40°C. It was a nice and unique experience...very relaxed!!! There is a white, silica mud available for free, which you can apply on your face and wash off after 5-10 minutes and it cleans your face. Both the water and the mud are rich in minerals. Blue Lagoon is probably one of the most famous attractions in Iceland. Entrance fee is EUR 33 (EUR 40 in the summer). Luckily enough the price includes a locker. Towels need to be rented if you didn't bring your own (I had mine), and you're not allowed to bring your own food or drinks!!! Well, I had my sandwich and fruit in my backpack and I ate everything in the locker room! I took a look at the cafeteria and took notice of the exaggerated prices. A simple sandwich costs almost ISK 1000 and a small bowl of caesar salad 1900 ISK. Beer at the bar costs ISK 1090 (1 USD = 120 ISK approx.)

I took a tour to the southern part of Iceland which was great. We had to drive a lot but it was worth it. Most of the southern shore is flat and there is some agriculture here. There were a few little towns along the way, most of them were very isolated from rest of Iceland until they built bridges in the 70's connecting them to Reykjavik. We visited the "Sólheimajökull" glacier, which was the second glacier I've seen in my life since Switzerland in 2003. I found it stunning! We visited the "Skógafoss" waterfall and another waterfall you were able to walk behind it, but I forgot the name. A visit to the small "Skogar Museum" was very interesting, with a lot of artifacts and objects used by the locals in the area during the period they were isolated. It has also a small outdoor museum with the typical, small hay houses and also a small school and church.
A short visit to the small town of "Vík í Myndal" I found rather "funny" as there is nothing going on there. The town has about 300 inhabitants and is the southernmost town of Iceland. We went near the long beach with black sand which I found beautiful. The rock formations in the sea, "Reynisdrangar", were cool! A bit further we went to a place which is near the southernmost point of Iceland. There were these beautiful columnar basalt formations and the rock formations "Reynishverfi" and "Dyrhólaey", which has the form of an arch.

I also visited the so called "Golden Circle". The first stop was at "Gullfoss" waterfall, a big powerful waterfall which was impressive. There is a little drop first and then a much bigger drop into a deep valley. There is a path leading to a viewing point near the little drop and you will get wet when going there. I brought my rain jacket so I had no problems.
The second stop was at "Geysir", an area with several geysers. Everyone stood around the geyser called "Strokkur" with their camera pointing and ready to shoot as soon as the water to gushes into the air. Stokkur is the only geyser in the area that works all the time (every 4 minutes on average). Because of their proximity to magma, groundwater boils up, the pressure rises and the water gushes out of the geysers. This is the second geyser area I've seen after "El Tatio" in northern Chile in 2010.
The third stop was at Þingvellir National Park. This is one of the most important places in Iceland because here is where the first parliament was installed 1083 years ago. It's the place were Iceland's independence act was signed in 1944 as well; they were occupied by Denmark. This park is also a place where you can observe the effects of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the landscape. Iceland is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is a mountain ridge with volcanoes on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It's where the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates are moving away from each other.

One of the greatest experiences was the "aurora borealis", northern lights. I went twice to be able to see them. The first time it was very weak but the second night it was brighter and much more active! The bus took us a couple of km out of Reykjavik to be away from the light the city produces. We stopped somewhere in the dark away from the road and waited until the lights would appear. It was cold so I waited inside the bus. The lights are simply amazing and I'm very happy that I could see them because the weather was clear!

Well, all I can say is that Iceland is so far one of the most interesting places I've ever visited and I'm very glad that I had this opportunity!!! It was one of the countries I had on my Top-3 list; two more to go....hopefully both within the coming 5 months!

Thanks for reading; "bless bless"!

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Comments

[Carmen]

Prachtig om te lezen dat daar n Yu Korsow woont! :-) En wat betreft t eten: Jullie eten ook mondongo, kabez cu higra en bloedworst hoor ;-) Yakkiebah

[Marilyn]

nice to see
I had a affair wih an icelandic when I used to live in Adam and always told him Iwill visit once te awe ........ ketu I love island s do but I always think of them as paradise sun coconut trees, very green areas, pinapples , lot's of trees..............

[Hyro Oduber]

Very nice Blog Elton. My father was in Iceland last year and both his and your photos look amazing. Who knows, maybe I will visit one day. Thanks for sharing.

[D MJ Binkley]

We loved our two weeks in Iceland
We enjoyed the hot dog stand