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lemonbellaYes, I returned from Iceland two weeks ago and it's taken me a long time to do an update. Work crept up on me, assignments crept up on me and I was so exhausted from the holiday I only now feel like myself. However, I had an
If you ever have a chance to go to this country: take it. It is amazing and I'm going back to explore the rest of it as soon as I can. I was there with BTCV this time, (an experience I can thoroughly recommend if you're not afraid of hard work). The work was physically hard, with 2 hour hikes up the mountains of Skaftafell national park to the worksite on most of the working days. Add that to a five hour day digging footpaths, making steps, shifting debris and then a two hour hike home and it was pretty exhasting, but in the fabulous way. Factor in a ridiculous amount of chocolate spread and peanut butter on toast however, and it's not quite the weight loss regieme you'd assume. Although, I was by far the fittest of the group (despite being the 2nd oldest) leading the ways on all the hikes and heavy work - go me!
The group of volunteers was lovely - exactly the right balance of similar and different and providing a generous amount of comedy relief. Both leaders were also excellent, although adapted so much to the icelandic pace of life that we all assumed they were stoned for most of the first week. Until we learned about Icelandic Time, (anywhere between about fifteen minutes and three hours later than you'd expect it to be).
Camping in Skaftafell national park was our accomodation for the first 10 nights - based at the foot of the Vatnajokull glacier. Beautiful, alien, sometimes cold (but nothing my sleeping back couldn't handle), often rainy (but nothing my tent couldn't handle) and a generally wonderful place to be. Although not a single sighting of an arctic fox the whole 10 days. Being woken up by snipe and skua though was pretty fabulous and being in a tent is definitely the way to experience 23 hours of daylight.
On our day off we visited ingolfshoi - the first icelandic settlement - saw puffins and giant Scua. We went to Jokolsaron, a lake filled with glaciers on their way to the sea. So alien, stunning and close to the road that the guide books warn you not to crash. The pouring rain and biting wind just added to the atmosphere by the shore as seals swam 2 feet away. There was a second glacial lake, an eerie selection of cairns and not-the-smallest-church in iceland, as well.
We tranferred to Landmannalauger for the last few days - a base camp at the foot of eyjafallajokull(the volcano of all the ash, some of which I now have in a jar, and yes,I can pronounce it). If I thought Skaftafell was stunning, this place blew my mind. I swam in a hot river - heated (to much more than usual) by the volcano itself. The surreal experience of ducks swimming past me at 11pm at night whilst I swum in a river the temperature of a bath is definitely one I won't forget.
There were so many more excellent things - many of which aren't interesting or funny if you weren't actually there - that I can't write them all. A taster however:
1) Hitchiking! This was possibly the most exciting thing ever for three british girls convinced they were going to be axe-murdered. It's an entirely normal thing over there and our czech leader couldn't stop laughing at our tales of the dreadful fate about to befall us
2)Icelandic people really do all wear those knitted jumpers with the round neck design. I was accosted by a drunk man on a night out in reykjavic who was wearing one.
3)Waterfall apathy. They're everywhere. You become a bit dismissive of them after a while. Particular as a 6 hour coach journey contains approximately 5 different stops at waterfalls.
4)black and white sheep
5)Lupin and the walk across the moon
6)Being incredibly excited by a petrol station - the only shop for miles and miles. "Can we go to the petrol station tonight?
7) Pickle: the bizarre icelandic card game that occupied most nights whose rules I swear were made up on the spot by Gisli our resident icelandic (who also turned out to be incredibly racist).
8) Getting lost on top of a mountain as the evil mist descended, finally giving in and turning around to retrace my path and finding out the next day that had I gone on I had a 17km hike in front of me.
9) Lambhagi - the glacial pool we swam in.
10) Hiking a glacier, with crampons and everything
11) "Ross, look at your shoes"
12) "Dad, are we there yet?"
13) Being accosted, berated and poked by an elderly, naked icelandic woman because we refused to shower naked before getting in the swimming pool. Seriously, a costume isn't going to result in a terrible outbreak of infectious diease. Crazy europeans and their lack of personal boundaries
14) finding out that surnames in iceland are the first name of their father with he suffix -sson or - dotter, (so Gisli's son will be called baby gislisson). Don't get me wrong I understand that's the origin of many a surname, but i didn't realise it still took place, or that the population of iceland was so small it doesn't lead to terrible confusion. Although now Magnus Magnusson makes a lot more sense (go on, you think of another famous icelandic person). By the way if you don't know who the father is that poor child gets saddled with the surname Hansoon (his son) so the whole population knows you're illegitimate.
I didn't see a lot of Reykjavik but I can tell you that a) the flybus leaves for the airport at ridiculous time in the morning, and beware drunk men giving you their numbers so you can text them and remind them to catch it, b) staying at the reykjavik backpackers hostel is like trying to sleep on a club dancefloor c) Babaloo is an excellent place to wile away an afternoon d) cashpoints are very dangerous when the native currency has a confusing amount of zeros.
I have loads of photos, some of them even look like they were supposed to. What I don't have is the knowledge to upload them onto LJ.
ETA: #14
If you ever have a chance to go to this country: take it. It is amazing and I'm going back to explore the rest of it as soon as I can. I was there with BTCV this time, (an experience I can thoroughly recommend if you're not afraid of hard work). The work was physically hard, with 2 hour hikes up the mountains of Skaftafell national park to the worksite on most of the working days. Add that to a five hour day digging footpaths, making steps, shifting debris and then a two hour hike home and it was pretty exhasting, but in the fabulous way. Factor in a ridiculous amount of chocolate spread and peanut butter on toast however, and it's not quite the weight loss regieme you'd assume. Although, I was by far the fittest of the group (despite being the 2nd oldest) leading the ways on all the hikes and heavy work - go me!
The group of volunteers was lovely - exactly the right balance of similar and different and providing a generous amount of comedy relief. Both leaders were also excellent, although adapted so much to the icelandic pace of life that we all assumed they were stoned for most of the first week. Until we learned about Icelandic Time, (anywhere between about fifteen minutes and three hours later than you'd expect it to be).
Camping in Skaftafell national park was our accomodation for the first 10 nights - based at the foot of the Vatnajokull glacier. Beautiful, alien, sometimes cold (but nothing my sleeping back couldn't handle), often rainy (but nothing my tent couldn't handle) and a generally wonderful place to be. Although not a single sighting of an arctic fox the whole 10 days. Being woken up by snipe and skua though was pretty fabulous and being in a tent is definitely the way to experience 23 hours of daylight.
On our day off we visited ingolfshoi - the first icelandic settlement - saw puffins and giant Scua. We went to Jokolsaron, a lake filled with glaciers on their way to the sea. So alien, stunning and close to the road that the guide books warn you not to crash. The pouring rain and biting wind just added to the atmosphere by the shore as seals swam 2 feet away. There was a second glacial lake, an eerie selection of cairns and not-the-smallest-church in iceland, as well.
We tranferred to Landmannalauger for the last few days - a base camp at the foot of eyjafallajokull(the volcano of all the ash, some of which I now have in a jar, and yes,I can pronounce it). If I thought Skaftafell was stunning, this place blew my mind. I swam in a hot river - heated (to much more than usual) by the volcano itself. The surreal experience of ducks swimming past me at 11pm at night whilst I swum in a river the temperature of a bath is definitely one I won't forget.
There were so many more excellent things - many of which aren't interesting or funny if you weren't actually there - that I can't write them all. A taster however:
1) Hitchiking! This was possibly the most exciting thing ever for three british girls convinced they were going to be axe-murdered. It's an entirely normal thing over there and our czech leader couldn't stop laughing at our tales of the dreadful fate about to befall us
2)Icelandic people really do all wear those knitted jumpers with the round neck design. I was accosted by a drunk man on a night out in reykjavic who was wearing one.
3)Waterfall apathy. They're everywhere. You become a bit dismissive of them after a while. Particular as a 6 hour coach journey contains approximately 5 different stops at waterfalls.
4)black and white sheep
5)Lupin and the walk across the moon
6)Being incredibly excited by a petrol station - the only shop for miles and miles. "Can we go to the petrol station tonight?
7) Pickle: the bizarre icelandic card game that occupied most nights whose rules I swear were made up on the spot by Gisli our resident icelandic (who also turned out to be incredibly racist).
8) Getting lost on top of a mountain as the evil mist descended, finally giving in and turning around to retrace my path and finding out the next day that had I gone on I had a 17km hike in front of me.
9) Lambhagi - the glacial pool we swam in.
10) Hiking a glacier, with crampons and everything
11) "Ross, look at your shoes"
12) "Dad, are we there yet?"
13) Being accosted, berated and poked by an elderly, naked icelandic woman because we refused to shower naked before getting in the swimming pool. Seriously, a costume isn't going to result in a terrible outbreak of infectious diease. Crazy europeans and their lack of personal boundaries
14) finding out that surnames in iceland are the first name of their father with he suffix -sson or - dotter, (so Gisli's son will be called baby gislisson). Don't get me wrong I understand that's the origin of many a surname, but i didn't realise it still took place, or that the population of iceland was so small it doesn't lead to terrible confusion. Although now Magnus Magnusson makes a lot more sense (go on, you think of another famous icelandic person). By the way if you don't know who the father is that poor child gets saddled with the surname Hansoon (his son) so the whole population knows you're illegitimate.
I didn't see a lot of Reykjavik but I can tell you that a) the flybus leaves for the airport at ridiculous time in the morning, and beware drunk men giving you their numbers so you can text them and remind them to catch it, b) staying at the reykjavik backpackers hostel is like trying to sleep on a club dancefloor c) Babaloo is an excellent place to wile away an afternoon d) cashpoints are very dangerous when the native currency has a confusing amount of zeros.
I have loads of photos, some of them even look like they were supposed to. What I don't have is the knowledge to upload them onto LJ.
ETA: #14
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-22 06:21 pm (UTC)Swimming With Ducks would be a great native American name, wouldn't it?
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Date: 2010-08-22 06:50 pm (UTC)Swimming with Ducks is now my official unofficial native american name
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Date: 2010-08-22 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-22 07:06 pm (UTC)Yay - trip report!
Date: 2010-08-24 10:41 am (UTC)Sounds very interesting.
Regarding your "most excellent things" number (4) - are these two different sheep, or truly multi-coloured members of the ovine genus? As a closet welshman I find this interesting....
Occasional commentor on foreign climes, currently trying to avoid spending 28 hours in Calgary next week.
Re: Yay - trip report!
Date: 2010-08-24 04:58 pm (UTC)Calgary's dull, but they do have those butter pecan lattes. God, I *still* miss those.