Reykjavik On arrival training weeks
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2005
1
23
38
Trip End
Ongoing
Reykjavík,
Iceland
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
I will try to do my best to do a summary of what happened the last week. Hard Job !!!
This on arrival training is based on 8 hours daily courses : lectures, workshops, activities, Icelandic courses... To this time plan, you can ad the common tasks as cooking for 20 persons, cleaning and the typical evenings... A bit of sport, crazy parties and few hours of sleeping.
Icelanders confirm us that they are very friendly but also really crazy guys. Spontaneous meeting can happened at 3 in the afternoon or 5 in the morning and you never know how you will end up ;)
Last Monday, we enjoyed our 1st trip in the nature
Huge Machine
! It was good to escape for a little while from the backpacker, the kitchen and the meeting room ! Terrific landscapes, open spaces, mountains, volcanoes, waterfalls, sea, snow, hiking trails... Iceland is a paradise for Nature lovers !We started early in the morning by visiting the surroundings of Lake þingvallavatn.
We went after in þingvellir National Park. Amazing place where the American tectonic plate and the European one are splitting... The rift is enlarging itself of approximatively 2cm per year. Now the gap created a valley of about 7km between this 2 giants. Absolutely unique !!!
We kept on going to the Gullfoss waterfalls. Biggest falls of Iceland, 32 meters high. The hydroelectric industry try to get this land but fortunately it is a protected area.
Geothermal plants and hydroelectric industry is quiet a big deal here in Iceland. Said as "Green Energy", big companies are trying to develop this kind of business which is a shame for the nature respect. Aluminium smelters try to implant more and more factories. Huge consumer of electricity, they find here a cheaper way to produce... (Iceland is the biggest producer of aluminium in the world)
Design Boutique
. Questions about the production of CO2, needs, impacts on the nature are more and more common. A natural way to see the geological activity of this place is to go to the famous Geyser. Watter is blowing up at 15 to 30 meters every 6 or 7 minutes. The spot is getting one of the touristic highlights. No way to get a cliche without an other tourist around :(
We end up this journey at the edge of a volcano crater just before heading back to the hostel for a well deserved BBQ ! MMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmh !!!
The week kept on going on the lessons tempo ! We shared Icelandic evening, Spanish evening and good fun.
The weekend was Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat and confirmed that Reykjavik's parties are crazy... The daylight is more and more present, parties are going mad from 5 to 7 a.m. Clubs are free of fees and there are all located in the same street.. I let you imagine what is going on here :D
Today we visited the Parliament! Such a tiny place for a small country. There are only 310 000 icelanders, 12 ministers for 12 ministries. Historical note : Iceland was the 1st country in the world who develop a Parliament. It was in 930 !!! Good Vikings !
An other week to go here in Reykjavik and the 1st workcamp will start ! Let's enjoy !!!
