Frost and Fire Guest House Hveragerdi

... yet described the incredible numbers of Icelandic horses, but I will.  Anyway, the hotel was extra comfortable and pleasant.
The next morning we drove the short distance down to some of the coastal fishing villages.  It was Sunday morning and everyone was sleeping in.  The only person we saw was the local guy out with his friendly labrador retriever emptying the town trash bins in the public areas.  In a little park area at the foot of the seawall was this ...

... beautiful and unique), and whites of snow peaks and crevices from where cold sinks and waterfall mist rises, and purples of moors and yellows of straw grasses and moguls of peat. Even the rocks were all colours. Harsh and stark and barren. We felt so isolated in that iselandic countryside.
We saw ridges of lava, honeycombed and some was tumbling away like dominos. We saw deep crevices and caves and valleys and meadows. Fields of green and horses (hestar) roaming.

This geothermal pool, near Reykjavik, is said to have healing powers. According to the official story, it was opened to tourism after a worker at the nearby geothermal energy plant began bathing in it and found that his psoriasis cleared up. Even if your skin could care less about magical healing powers, the Blue Lagoon is an enchantingly beautiful place to relax in comfortably hot water, especially during the chilly winter. 

... as well as the guys who sang Bohemian Rhapsody before me. But then they had a a group of ten friends to cheer them on. You make do with what you can get though. It also seems that New Yorkers are not without a relatively keen sense of irony, because I noticed a `Please Enjoy Alcohol Responsibly` disclaimer on the beer pong tables they had set up... I had a quiet chuckle at that. Yesterday I dragged myself out of bed with an hour to shower, pack and check out. I made it ...

... walk in the continental divide (where the Eurasian plate is moving away from the American plate), saw geyirs, walked on a glacier, saw a magnificent waterfall, a volcanic crater and lots and lots of rocks! Of course we got lots of pictures and video of everything, but due to the cost of wireless internet (as opposed to the free computer in the lobby), we ...

... it give it a hippy, country vibe. It's also home to Iceland's horticultural college and a large naturopathic clinic. One large greenhouse, called Eden, is open to the public and is kind of a tourist trap but it has some charm. It serves the town's own icecream, which was pretty delicious, and it has a bunch of plants on display, a playground for kids, and a "hall of ...

... John Cage's masterpiece 4'33". I was in a bar, an Irish bar, drinking my pint of Beamish stout whilst listening to a guitar player. He was playing classic Icelandic standards like "Here Comes the Sun"and "Layla" when all of a sudden he started on aversion of Zappa's "Bobby Brown". Well, this woke up the crowd as everyone in the bar including yours truly started singing together. There is nothing like a bar full of Icelanders, Fins, Germans, and Chinese singing ...

We landed at Kefalvik airport just after 11pm but didn't get into Reykjavik until the early hours. Thankfully we had decided to book into a hotel for the first night. It may have been bright but I didn't fancy putting up a tent at 1am after spending the whole day at work and then travelling

I got up at 7:00. Some people had already struck their tents. Motley and Curtis had returned around 5:30. The girls had returned before 1:00. All had adventures too numerous to recount here. Camp was struck and ready to load by the time Magnus arrived. We loaded up and were on our way to the Bláa Lonid (Blue Lagoon) by 9:45. A lot of us dozed a little on the way out. I took some fotos of the shoreline and Reykjanes lavas as we went. Þorleifur confirmed that the Blue ...

... It was pretty easy to find our way around - Air Iceland it seems has maybe two flights per day.....and the line for ours was already full of people. Somehow we ended up with the most horrible parents possible standing behind us and their two somewhat bratty children. The father talked and looked like Elmer Fudd, and he was so mean to his daughter that at one point I wanted to adopt her and take her home with us instead. The husband and wife were the "stupid Americans" you so ...