Iceland III, the northern country
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2008
1
20
23
Trip End
Oct 14, 2008
Akureyri,
Iceland
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
My morning flight heading to Akureyri was a true delight, finally had great weather, and the view of the icelandic interior from above was just phenomenal, like those pictures taken over frozen lands in National Geographic. There is the vast layout of barren black lava, laced with countless shiny patches of small lakes, tiny ponds and curly streams, in every and shape. Sometimes we pass deltas around sea with equally numborous and variable headlands popping out of blue water. Then the elevation gets higher. Dead volcanos, their cones choke full of grayish blue glaciers, stick out. At the end of those blue icesheets melt water form saphire blue ponds, a few stained brown by minerals. In the end, the greeness of Akureyri came as a total surprise.
Blessed with rather mellow weather, Akureyri is dotted with little gardens that the locals bring into flowering despite the coldness even in a summer evening. Many get their inspirations from the large communal garden with a famous collection of arctic and alpine plants, others complement the few flowers with colorful wind spinners, chimes or a clan of idiosyncratic gnomes. Since it is summer, many choose to eat outside, outfitted with heavy jackets and wool hats. Beer sipping in outdoor cafe is popular too, with the bonus of enjoying some sunshine till at least 10pm. The tour companies has a ready list of must-dos to be approached from Akureyri by day bus. Some of the sights are truly manificent. Dettifoss is the most powerful waterful waterful in Europe. The chocolate colored glacier water rushes with such speed it does not flow down the rock surface, but throw itself over the cliff in the hyperbolic curve. The tumbling water creates enough water mist to fill the valley for couple hundred feet, and forms a permanent rainbow downstream. Lake Myvatn, with its green, slowly sloping lands and blue water,is as close to British Columbia as is possible for a land with few inhabitants, in terms of being pretty in a civilized way. Others like Viti, the perfectly round volcano cone with a sulphourous blue lake at her bottom, deserves less time. All could be enjoyed for longer than the 10 minutes our BSI bus company decidied was sufficient for each sight. Like the rest of iceland, travellers here are drawn to the natual beauty but appalled by the hotel price, consequently hostel customers tend to be a more mature, professionally interesting group. One of my roomates was a Polish amature Dali style painter and professional fishing baitman- never knew such profession exists. Another a dynamite man from Australia where the demand to explode old houses is clearly strong.
Having seen the interior from sky, it was quite fun to take tour bus back to Reykjavik through the same area. The four wheel drive, dirt road winds through in between 2 vast glaciers, so big an hour's drive was needed to go from one tip of the glaciers to the other. We had a break at this most lovely bus stop ever at a campsite, with its own hotspring for soaking. The pool was artifically build from lime rocks, but the steamy sulphurous water could not be more authentic, leaving yellowish stain marks where it squirt in to the pool and depositing a thick layer of white minerals on the rocks around. Change into swimwear on the deck like everyone else does, slip in, find a spot with water temperature just right for you, and it is time for some glacier watching. Never thought I would say this, but we were lucky to had a cloudy day, so that light arrived as much from the sky as from the cold white reflections from the glaciers, creating these fantastic silhouettes of trees, buildings, people passing by. Oh as additional bonus, the bus also stops at the awesome Gullfoss and the Geyser, which gives all geysers of the world their name. So you could have a good laugh at those paying for a full day trip to come out of Reykjavik to see these sights.
