Iceland Part 1

I spent my first few days in Iceland in Reykjavik. I was told about 2/3^rd of the country’s population live in and around the capital city, and after seeing the rest of the country, I can see why. Most regions were very sparsely populated, except for a few farms and fishing villages. The only areas with any real size seemed to derive most of their business from tourism; whale watching boats or guided glacier tours and the like.

I found a studio apartment in the city center called Apartment K. 5 days here set me back $677, so like everyone says, Iceland is VERY expensive. While I could have gotten a hotel room for a bit less, by the time I added in 3 meals, it would have been a lot more than $135 a night. Lunch at a low-end restaurant cost about $20 a meal. These are restaurants where anywhere else in Europe you would pay $5-10. I might add, I saw no chain restaurants until I was on my way to the airport, so they are definitely not places the Icelandic people want tourists to eat at, which I liked.

The city center was very walkable and filled with tourists and locals alike. The weather was unseasonably warm, which no doubt contributed to the influx of locals. There are the typical souvenir shops, most of which carried plenty of souvenir puffin memorabilia. There are plenty of puffin viewing tours and the cheeky little birds are everywhere. A few restaurants even offered puffins to eat. No thank you, I just couldn’t bring myself to try it. I was there during pride week and there were brightly colored rainbows everywhere, included 2 huge pathways painted on nearby streets.

I did a free walking tour with a company called www.Followme.is and guide Eyvindur or Eyvi. He was a hoot; joking his way through the entire 90-minute walk and giving us plenty of local tips on where to eat and which bars were the best. There are lots of murals and street art to see as you walk around the city. One such example is an exhibit called ‘Trophies.’ It’s an installation piece by renowned Icelandic artist Steinunn Þórarinsdóttir. The display is 11 life sized aluminum men, spaced out along the rooftop of the Ministry of Finance. While the men are faceless, our guide Eyvi said they were modeled after his best friend, the artist son. He wondered if the men weren’t actually poised to jump off the building at the next economic crisis, which he said occurs pretty often in Iceland.

I walked along the seaside on the Sculpture and Shore walk. This paved pathway took me along the Faxafloi Bay and around to the Old Harbor where all the puffin and whale watching boats leave from. Walking back through the city, you pass several museums and plenty of restaurants. You can enjoy the famous Icelandic hotdog and sit in Ingolfur Square and watch people all afternoon.

I rented a car and headed out to Ring Road, an 828-mile, 2 lane road that circles Iceland and connects most of the inhabited parts of the country. Luckily, some of the most popular tourist attractions in Iceland are along this route; what a coincidence. I headed counterclockwise, toward the Golden Circle. This is the most common tourist destination with daily tours leaving from Reykjavik by the droves. My first stop was Þingvellir National Park and the Almannagjá Gorge. This is the boundary of the Mid-Atlantic Rift, which runs through Iceland. It is basically where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. During an earthquake, the edge of the North American plate broke free, creating the Almannagjá Gorge between the two segments. It was a visual reminder of just how violent the forces of nature can be.

The next stop in the Golden Circle was the Kerið Crater. Kerið is a 3000-year-old volcanic crater lake. The slopes are red, rather than a volcanic black, due to iron deposits. The crimson rocks contrast dramatically with their surroundings, particularly the intense azure color of the waters within the crater lake. Or so the website said. When I visited, I didn’t find the dramatic lake I expected, rather, it just looked like a crater lake with blue water and sparse vegetation.

On to the Gullfoss waterfall, one of the most iconic falls in Iceland. The water in the Hvítá river travels from the glacier Langjökull and tumbles 32 meters (105 feet) down Gullfoss’ two ledges. I was lucky enough to see a rainbow on this and many other waterfalls I visited. Also like some other waterfalls, this one was so powerful as to soak visitors who got too close.

Geysir is a famous hot spring in the geothermal area of Haukadalur valley. In fact, this is where the term geyser comes from. Sadly, this one is no longer very active. The nearby Strokkur geysir is however and what a sight! Strokkur shoots jets of boiling water from 20 to 40 meters (65 to 130 feet) high. The best part is it erupts every five to ten minutes. I stood there for 3 eruptions; its pretty easy to tell when it is ready to blow, you see the water recede a few times, then a huge blue bubble boils up and explodes. As you walk around the area, you see plenty of boiling mud pits. It actually looked a lot like Yellowstone, but this geyser was better than Old Faithful because it was smaller and you could get closer.

My last stop of the day was the Secret Lagoon. After a long day of driving and hiking around to the sights, I was ready for a nice hot soak. I opted for the Secret Lagoon over the more famous Blue Lagoon because of the cost, the crowds, and the location. The Blue Lagoon is really crowded because most of the bus tours doing the Golden Circle stop there. The cost is about $55 and includes a towel, a drink, and a mud mask. While I would have done that, the Blue Lagoon was just outside of Reykjavik, meaning I would have had to go there first and that’s when all the tour busses go. I’m told its really, really crowded unless you go in the early morning or late evening. If you ever have a layover in Reykjavik, you can take a bus from the airport. The Secret Lagoon was about 30 min from my hotel in Selfoss and fit in perfectly location and time wise. I got there around 7pm and it wasn’t crowded at all. The cost was $29 which included a locker and a towel. The water was very warm, which at first was nice, but I couldn’t stay in more than 30 min.

Day 2 on the ring road, my first stop was the waterfall Seljalandsfoss. This was a really cool waterfall, in fact, it’s the most photographed features in the entire country. It is part of the river Seljalandsá, which starts underneath the glacier Eyjafjallajökull. The volcano beneath this glacier was the one that erupted in 2010 and caused havoc at airports across Europe. It has a 200-foot drop; by itself it isn’t all that spectacular. What makes it unique is that you can walk behind it. There is a non-stop stream of visitors on the trail that goes into the cliffs behind the waterfall. The spray is quite strong and most people came out the other side a bit wet. The rock face that the waterfall runs down actually has several other waterfalls, although they are much smaller.

If you follow the trail for about 10 minutes along the wall, you come to a real hidden gem called Gljúfurá. Or as one child exclaimed to everyone he passed, there is a big secret up ahead! This waterfall is hidden behind a cleft in the cliff. There was a line of people waiting to approach the narrow opening; you have to cross the freezing stream by carefully stepping on very slippery stones. I got all the way to the opening, took a few photos and bailed. I think I’ve written enough about my poor knees and many injuries, I figured why chance it?

The next waterfall was Skógafoss, one of the biggest in Iceland. It’s 82 feet wide and 197 feet tall. Due to the amount of spray it kicks up, you are almost guaranteed to see a rainbow and I was not disappointed. There is a steep staircase to the top, which of course, I skipped.

Enough with the waterfalls, my next stop was the Dyrhólaey Peninsula. This is a 120-meter plot of land known for its staggering views of Iceland’s South Coast. In order to get up there, you drive up a very steep dirt road. I was more than a little worried that my small rental car wouldn’t make it, but I finally reached the top. The views were in fact as staggering as promised; a black sand beach on the right, the famous Dyrhólaey arch to the left, and behind me were impressive mountains. There is a lighthouse and plenty of colorful puffins, as well as other sea birds. We were pretty high up and the weather was more than a bit chilly. Making it downright miserable were the gale force winds and a bit of misty rain. I truly believe a small person could easily have been blown off the cliff.

I quickly made my way back down to sea level and headed to the nearby Reynisfjara Beach, a beautiful black sand beach with soaring basalt formations just off the coast. In 1991, National Geographic voted Reynisfjara as one of the Top 10 non-tropical beaches to visit on the planet. I can’t see it ever getting warm enough to swim, but it was beautiful none the less. Also dangerous. This beach is well known for something called sneaker-waves, and they can appear when least expected, even on incredibly still days. There are no significant landmasses between Antarctica and the shores of Reynisfjara, meaning waves have thousands of kilometers to build. Once a wave crashes onshore, the hapless tourist is swept out to sea. If the violent wave or the freeing water doesn’t kill you, there are horrific rip currents. The last death was just 2 years ago.

Reynisdrangar is the name given to the massive basalt formations jutting out of the sea, just off the beach. These pillars were in Season 7 of Game of Thrones, at Eastwatch by the Sea. Iceland has a rich history of legends and folklore, with trolls and elves playing an important role even today. According to local stories, these large basalt columns were once trolls trying to pull ships from the ocean to shore. However, these trolls were dim witted and went out too late in the night; dawn broke on the horizon, and the trolls turned into stone. Another legend tells of a husband whose wife was kidnapped and killed by two trolls. The man followed the trolls down to Reynisfjara where he froze them, ensuring they would never kill again.

Even today, Icelanders take their trolls and elves seriously. Elves are called Huldufolk or "hidden folk". Due to public outcry, construction projects have been delayed so often that the road and coastal administration has come up with a stock media response for elf inquiries, which states in part that "issues have been settled by delaying the construction project at a certain point while the elves living there have supposedly moved on". One person summed it up like this: "I got married in a church with a god just as invisible as the elves, so what might seem irrational is actually quite common [with Icelanders]."https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/22/elf-lobby-iceland-road-project

As if the pillars and black sand beach weren’t enough, you also have Hálsanefshellir cave. While it’s a pretty small cave, what it lacks in size is more than made up for in its unique features. Outside and all along the cliff face are uniform basalt pillars. Apparently these are pretty easy to climb as the cliff face was dotted with the brightly colored jackets of tourists. A bit higher up were equally brightly colored nesting puffins, who, in typical puffin fashion, seemed totally undisturbed by the interlopers. The roof of the cave was hard to describe, but essentially, it was the black bottom of the pillars that made up the cliff. I thought it looked like chalk covered geometric shapes, randomly attached to the cave roof.