Somewhere Between Isafjorður and the Ring Road...

I took this picture. Check out the sky.

I´m back in San Diego now, but a part of me is, and will always be, in Iceland. Stay tuned, I took over 500 pictures. There must be a few other good ones in the batch I can post here.

Thanks to everyone who's out there reading this, and especially to Randy, Mione and Bere for watching the boys while I was away!

Last Day in Iceland

I´m in Reykjavik today, the one place I´ve been before in this country. It´s a very cool city. They have this thing called 'the runtur' that they do on weekend nights. Basically, you go out and bar hop until the wee hours of the morning. It´s easy to do when it looks like this at 3 a.m.


Before that, I´d been in the most touristy spot in Iceland, Lake Mývatn, which translates literally to "Midge Lake" (a midge is a black fly). I went to an area of "new lava" - less than 30 years old - called Leirhnjúkur. This was pretty crazy. The ground all around us was steaming (it´s considered "active") and there were signs posted saying we were there at our own risk, yadda yadda.

But the belle of the ball is the lake itself. This is the view from the dining room (and my tent) at Guesthouse Dimmuborgir (Dimmuborgir means "dark castles"). Tons of little islands and inlets make this lake something really special.

Here´s a view of the south side of the lake, where I ran into my friends Francesco and Marina who I´d met in Akureyri. We´re having dinner tonight in Reykjavik, and I´m having drinks with my friend Mæja and her husband Mads, so I´m booked for the whole evening. Not a bad way to spend my last day in town (and, by the way, the weather here is gorgeous today!).

Akureyri

If ever there was a version of San Diego here in Iceland, I think this is it. Hip but not full of itself, seaside (like pretty much every other town in Iceland), and totally down-to-earth despite the fact that they´re referred to as 'Iceland's Second City,' Akureyri has a lot going for it. This is a picture from the rooftop restaurant near the harbor called Strikið. They´re famous for burgers with hollandaise sauce and spicy fries (on the burger) and hollandaise sauce-laiden pizzas. The burger was actually really tasty, don´t knock it until you´ve tried it (though I wouldn´t make a habit of it).



This is a picture of Akureyrarkirkja - the church of Akureyri. It was designed by the same guy who designed Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik. There´s a picture of that (that I did not take) below.



Also went to Lystigarður - the botanical garden here in town. Lots of beautiful stuff, if you´re a flower nut, you´d love it.


All for now, this 15-minute time limit is really, um, limiting!

Back To Civilization

Yesterday was a very, very long day. Lots of driving in and out (and in and out) of fjords. Makes you appreciate straight roads and bridges sooo much! Not a lot to see, until these two snaps I took not long before the unpaved road met with the Ring Road again.



I also took this shot of Esja, the gigantic, forbidding mountain I climbed on my first day in Iceland, after only 5 1/2 hours sleep the night before leaving and *maybe* two hours on both planes in total.



As you can see, it's pretty menacing. You can't even see the top of it in this shot! I can't believe I climbed the whole thing :) (EDIT: You cannot even see anywhere near the top in this picture. The last thing you can barely make out is maybe 1/6 of the way up, at most. Hun er stór.).

Off to check out the Botanical Gardens (supposed to be excellent here) and take a few more pictures before dinner and hitting the town pool. I don't normally swim, but when in Iceland...

Guesthouse Kiðafell - June 30 and July 1

This is the view from my guesthouse the first two nights I was here. I only went about 30 or 40 miles north of Reykjavik, which was actually a pretty good call, as you can see. My hosts were Norwegian, as it turned out, and were extremely hospitable.




On my first day in Iceland, I decided to climb Esja, this gigantic mountain. There were actually a lot of others climbing as well, but not so many that I felt crowded. The bad news was that I forgot my GPS, binoculars and hiking boots. So I made it all the way except for the last 30 or 40 feet, where the top of the mountain turned to a series of stone blocks. I was pretty paranoid about getting back down in my second-string running shoes, and for good reason as it turned out. I never fell, but trying to regain my balance one time I almost threw my left arm out of socket. It still hurts a little today, five days later.




Day two, I headed inland to see some lava caves. This is a picture near the entrance. I hiked in six kilometers, did the cave most of the way, then returned, and hiked the six k back.

Yes, I am doing a lot of hiking on this trip!



Day three, I travelled around the Snæfellsness peninsula by car, and ended up in Grundarfjörður. It´s a very laid-back and cool place. This is a picture of Kirkjufell, a giant mountain in the ocean just off the coast.




Just before I got to Stykkishólmur, I took a short detour through madness... Berserkjahraun. This is probably the most alien landscape I´ve seen in this county, and that´s REALLY saying something.

Standard disclaimer: The pictures do not do it justice. You´ll just have to see it for yourself ;)

Stykkishólmur to Breiðavik - Friday, July 3

Started in Stykkishólmur, spent most of the day reading on the hill. Not much to do, but tried to catch the early boat over to the westfjords. No luck.


Ended up in Breiðavik, over some of the worst roads I´ve ever driven in my life. Seriously feared for my life, holding my breath around one particularly harrowing turn (no guardrails, blind corner, sheer drop, potholes and rocks).

This second picture was taken at 1130 p.m. This is truly a magical place. Despite the fear I felt driving in, I´d love to go back one day.

View Over Isafjorður

It´s a pretty amazing place. An amazing, dangerous, wonderful place, this Iceland. I´m serious when I say that I´ve had several experiences so far where I could have plummeted to my death quite easily. Is it worth it? Umm, jáááá.

This was my hike this morning. It´s a pretty famous view, and luckily the weather cooperated perfectly. I still have yet to use my rain gear, though I´ve been through some storms in the car.

I had some of the best fish I´ve had in my life today at a place called Tjöruhúsið, right on the bay. You can see it in the picture. Actually, you can see the whole town in this picture. I think this is the 3rd or 4th largest town in Iceland and it´s only got like 1300 people or something.

Sadly, I´m not sure I´ll be able to get up to the very remote Hornstrandir nature preserve on this trip. They don´t do day trips to Hesteyri, the ghost town on the shores of Hornstrandir, but there might be a five hour tour I can squeeze into tonight. If not, I´ll console myself with another piece of fish there.

Was out until 2 a.m. this morning, the sun never set. It looked lighter than dusk as I drank Viking and spoke Icelandlish with the locals at the only place that was open, a makeshift bar (no name, mind you), attached to the local information center.

The Thai restaurant in town is everything the guidebooks say it is. I wish I could eat another meal at both places. I might actually leave later tomorrow afternoon, instead of morning, to do just that.

The great thing about almost dying on a daily basis is that it makes you feel great at the end of the day, when you can merely say, "I survived."

404'd in Icelandic

Too funny. Check this link to a non-existent page I found when trying to find a ferry up to the westfjords area:

http://www.seatours.is/404error.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/ferrybaldur.php

Back to Iceland!

So yeah, I'm going back. June 29th through July 13th I'll be rockin' the Ring Road again, doing a full two weeks of exploring and speaking Icelandic, however poorly.

This will be my view out the window of the plane just before landing in Keflavik.

YEAAAAAHHHHH ICELAND!!!! HERE I COME!!!