Iceland 2
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2007
1
3
29
Trip End
Nov 25, 2007
Reykjavík,
Iceland
Monday, July 16, 2007
We drive the scenic way, through a massive lava field, and up to a rocky black cliffs overlooking seagulls nesting on cliffs and rocks in the water, and take a few pictures, frightening ourselves by standing as close as we dare on the overhangs.
Blue Lagoon is amazing - it's a large commercially run place, but that doesn't detract at all. The first pool we see is a weird milky blue, from a combination of algae and silica in the water. As the weather warms up it changes to green. We do the usual routine - shoes outside, strip off, shower, bathers on, then into the main pool complex. It's a fantastic sight - hundreds of people in a large green pool, some with white clay on their face, and in the middle a rock cairn with scalding hot water bubbling and steam hissing out in great clouds.
It's beautiful getting in the water - it's warm and soft on the skin. We go and plaster ourselves with white clay over our faces and upper bodies, and work our way over to the rock cairn. As you get closer you feel the water temperature rising until it becomes scalding hot about 2-3 metres out. Some people get even closer - they must have asbestos skin. Basically everybody is just lounging around chatting and relaxing amongst all the steam. There's lots of facilities - steam room in a grotto (feels like you're in a cave), saunas (with clear windows so you can see out), massage areas, and a sort of shower/waterfall - a huge volume of hot water falls and you can move your body around to get a massage.
Cliffs near airport
We while away a few hours then shower and we're off back to Reykjavik. I love the showers here - there's a large open shower area and you just walk in and plonk yourself under a shower (I got a corner one which had a body shower as well as the shower head). The water pressure is excellent and I don't know how long I stay under, but what with bathing in the Blue Lagoon and the shower my body is definitely getting water-logged. There are 2 liquid soap dispensers but I don't know which is soap and which is shampoo and I find out later I have soaped myself up with shampoo and washed my hair with soap, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.By this time it's about 9pm and we're all hungry, and Barbara and I have ben saving up to go to Vid Tjornina, supposedly the best seafood restaurant in Reykjavik, and Bjork's favourite. We have decided we will just close our eyes to the cost and do it.
We walk up the stairs to the restaurant and have a quick look around, then a mature gentleman comes over and asks if he can help us. I ask if he has a table for 3 - there is a long pause, he looks us up and down, pauses again, and says 'no'. We are disappointed of course (I am shattered :) and I ask if there might be a table later. He says no. I persist in my friendliest and most ingratiating way and ask if we could make a reservation for another night. He walks away and just as we are about to go down the stairs with our tails between our legs, he comes over to me and says he may have a table for us in 15-20 minutes, if we'd like to wait in the bar.
We sit down a little later at our table and study the menu.
How far down is it?
I have grilled scallops with red & green dressing (perfectly cooked and delicious), then roasted breast of Guillemot (a black seabird). It has very dark meat and a strong flavour - the meat is quite tender and tastes a little like liver. I have a half litre of Chilean white wine (Maipo) which is excellent. I am enjoying this so much that all caution has been thrown out the window and I order dessert (Skyr with cream topping and redcurrants, cherries and raspberries, and finish off with a glass of Hungarian Tokai liqueur. We get the bill and I don't even look and just pay with my credit card.Our waiter is a scream - he does everything with overdone flourishes and he has a mellifluous voice with an accent that none of us can work out. It finally gets the better of us so we ask him where he's from and he asks us to guess and says we'll never get it. He's from Quebec and he's been living in Iceland for 6 years.
The background music has been an extremely curious mix - Edith Piaf followed by a song we used to sing at primary school called Valerie - Valera (with a knapsack on my back), but it's sung in German, which is rather weird, and various other songs. I comment (archly) on what an interesting mixture of music it is and that I'm waiting with bated breath what other interesting songs are going to come next, and the waiter smiles and takes this as a compliment and proudly says that he personally made all the music choices.
Barbara goes back to the hostel and Claude and I later wander around the city centre watching drunken youths and Icelandic 'Essex girls' having a Friday night out.
Sitting on overhanging cliff
We see a horribly drunken businessman, about 35, wearing a suit and carrying a heavy briefcase stagger right across in front of us then watch in fascination as he lurched his way across to a couple of women having a drink outside a bar - he tried to chat them up, then threw his business case on the ground outside and tried to enter the bar. Needless to say the door guys stopped him, retrieved his case, and sent him away. At about 2.30am we went back to our guesthouse at which time it was as dark as it was ever going to be (still plenty of light).Next morning, we took the lift up the spire of the Cathedral, then came down and listened to a performance by an Italian organist. The Cathedral organ is a fantastic affair - a bit like a Harley Davidson designed by a Nordic engineer - lots of exhaust pipes - but in brushed stainless steel, not gaudy bright chrome.
It was already well past midday and Claude wanted to go right around Iceland, walk on glaciers, see whales, bathe in thermal pools, scramble over lava fields, as well as drive all around Reykjavik, taking photos of the arcitecture.
In case I haven't mentioned it Claude is a professional photographer - this accounts for the excessive number of pictures of me in this entry.
I gently tried to explain to him that Iceland is a big island and you could only do a limited number of things in 2 days, so we extended our stay another day and got cracking.
First off we went on a whale cruise in the bay - we were out on the water for a while looking for Minke whales, and finally after about 1 1/2 hours we managed to get a few glimpses of them gracefully arching through the water.
Taking a picture
By the time we got back, had dinner at the Icelandic Organic Fish & Chips Cafe (fried pollock - what a funny name for a fish), it was about 10pm and we couldn't find a bed in Reykjavik, so around 11.30am we decided to drive north and take our chances, driving through the night and sleeping in the car if need be (have you ever tried sleeping in a tiny Matiz - I'm glad we didn't get the chance to try it). We turned up at 12.30 at Kidafel, where Barbara and I had stayed a few nights back and they had a room so Claude and I slept together in a double bed (after not seeing him for years, here I am sleeping with him now).Next day we pressed on north and I took a wrong turn so we drove around 350kms to Patreksfjordur in the remote north-west of Iceland. Most of the trip was on dirt roads and there were no towns en route. It was a beautiful day and we drove all day past a myriad of waterfalls and streams, through vast valleys, and along fiord after fiord until night, then stopped for dinner and to hopefully find a bed - this is peak tourist season and there's a limited number of places to stay in these regions.
We ate at a place called Porpid, on a sunny deck looking out over the sea, and when the waitress came Claude said slowly and in his best diction, do you speak English and she answered in a strong Manchester accent 'I am English'. She and her boyfriend had got employment at this restaurant for 6 months as cook and waitress. We scanned the menu and asked her about some of the dishes (don't have the fish balls she emphatically told me 3 times) and pretty well everything had melted cheese and ham on it.
Icelandic faraglione
Claude had an omelette and I had a dish of shredded cod and potatoes in a sort of white sauce, and we both had a Greek salad for the fun of it (lettuce leaves, canned olives, a few specks of fetta and rings of red capsicum.By the time we had finished dinner it was 11pm, so we decided to drive to Latrabjarg, Iceland's (and Europe's) most westerly point and largest sea cliffs (14 kms long and 440 metres at their highest) about 50kms away.
It was a fantastic drive - the narrow, rough, dirt road wended it's way through valleys, climbed steeply up mountains. snaked along cliffs with rockflls on one side and a vertical drop into the sea on the other, and at one place drops down to a long sandy beach with sheep grazing on it. Eventually we reach our destination and walk up to the cliff. We see our first puffins and carefully creep up to them so we won't frighten them, but we needn't have bothered as we find we can just walk up to them as they are completely unafraid.
The cliffs are an amazing site at midnight - the sun is just setting and the sky is all yellow and orange and deep blue and there are thousands of bird perched on the cliffs and flying around - puffins, several types of seagull, guillemots, etc. The waves are crashing into the cliffs and there is a cacophony of bird noise.
We are at 65 degrees north, about 200kms from Greenland, and close to the Arctic Circle. A cold wind is blowing, and as usual I'm under-dressed and I can barely feel my hands - but I'm exhilirated and jump and skip back down to the car.
We get back to our guesthouse about 2.30am and there is already more light, which you can't block out through the thin curtains.
We have a big day ahead of us next day as we need to back in Reykjavik, and Claude still wants to have a thermal water bath, see whales, and walk on a glacier.
Swirling seas
We make it to the ferry at Flokatoftir with 5 minutes to spare, then anxiously wait to see if we can fit on it - we are the last in line and there are buses and 4WDs towing caravans ahead of us. We are the last vehicle on the ferry, about 30cms from the back, and fastened by a strap. The ferry trip is 2 1/2 hours and Claude and I horse around taking photos for much of the trip. We land on the Snaefellnes peninsula and drive in the reverse direction to what I had done with Barbara a few days before. We decide to take the 4WD track which climbs up to the glacier and provides a short cut to the south of the peninsula.The road is rough and steep but the mighty Matiz is unstoppable (although burning smells come from the engine). At one point we have to stop because a car ahead of us is stuck halfway up a hill and the driver can't get it going - the front wheels are scrabbling and slipping and can't get any grip. We walk up to see if we can help and as soon as he finds out we speak Italian he lets fly with a string of colourful Italian swearing at the driver who came the other way and forced him to stop. Claude gives him a few tips and he manages to take off and in a short time we are at the edge of the glacier. According to a brochure we have this glacier is considered to have tremendous magical and healing energy, and by some to be a meeting ground for aliens.
We linger for a while enjoying the view and then Claude gets a wet bum sliding down a snow slope in his jeans (wait till I tell his mother - he'll be in trouble).
Natural thermal area
We veritably fly back to Reykjavik (the speed limit is 90kmh but I push the Matiz to 140kmh when I can) and we arrive about 11pm. We have a bed for the night but we go to restaurant after restaurant and the kitchens are closed, until we eventually find one around midnight that's open and have a bit of a feast as it's our last night in Iceland.Claude has a mixed antipasto of reindeer carpaccio, lobster salad, duck, marinated raw whale and I have cod prepared in several ways, surrounded by beetroot foam. Claude's main is grilled fish, while I have roasted puffin breasts and baked vegetables. We both have dessert. I don't want to even think about the cost but it would probably suffice for a week in Mexico or Argentina.
Finally, we wander around looking for the Ice Bar for a drink, where the temperature is kept at minus 6 degrees inside, but it's closed as it's a Monday night so we get to bed about 2am, and have to be up at 4.30pm for our flight back to london.
We drop off the car at the airport - the engine is making noises, it is covered with dust both inside and out - I'm sure no Matiz in the world has been where our one has, or been driven so hard (I'm happy to do ads for them for a fee).
So, the Iceland adventure comes to an end and I can tick off a lot of things, some expected, some unexpected - thermal baths, waterfalls, volcanoes, geysers, glaciers, whales, guillemots and puffins (both seeing them and eating them), running off the road, etc. It feels (and is) far from the rest of the world, although Reykjavik could be anywhere in the Nordic countries, except for its setting.
If you ever come to Iceland I advise a minimum of 10 days (2 weeks would be better) - 2 days in Reykjavik and the rest in the country (and bring plenty of money).
