Iceland & Conclusion

Well, we've been back stateside for almost a month, but the following was written in a notebook at the Reykjavik airport. I guess we got caught up with life and didn't really look back. But here it is, for completion's sake:

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We both awoke with excitement and melancholy: we had access to a car and thus, to the Icelandic countryside - and also, it was our last full day of our 10-week world trip. After discussing the significance, we remembered how much we have to look forward to back home and how we're excited to see everybody back in the states.

So we once again hopped in Fran and drove northward, around Hvalfjordur fjord to the small city of Reykholt, the home of eleventh-century Icelandic author and icon Snorri Sandelaurt. He recorded much of what we currently know about Norse mythology.

From Reykholt, we drove further northward to some impressive waterfalls for lunch along the way to Husafell. We learned that several of the more "scenic" routes don't open to the public until July - until then, the rivers are too high, and the gravel roads aren't mended - perfect for a 4x4 off-roading experience or monster truck (we saw several).

We searched for an hour for a fabled lava cave and ended up throwing in the towel, since our maps weren't precise enough to guide us there. We were pretty bummed, since "lava" and "caves" are both extremely cool, and when you combine them into "lava caves," well - that's about as cool as it gets.

Alas, we made a wrong turn on our drive back, saw a small sign, and boom: lava cave.
Outlaws used this particular cave as a hideout. Yeah. Even cooler.

Substantiated with our northward jaunt (which, we realized, was the farthest north we've ever been), we drove back to Reykjavik via an underwater tunnel beneath the Hvalfjordur fjord. The toll was a whopping $15.00, so the whole tunnel ride we made astonished faces, acted really excited, and took a lot of pictures to help justify the payment. We're good at that.

...which brings us to "today", the last (half) day of our massive trip. "Tonight" we shall sleep in Minnesota, in the most comfortable bed we've seen in months.

We began this day with our last all-too-familiar packing episode:

Scott: Okay, you sit on the bag, I'll zip.
Sara: No, I think we can fit another pair of shoes in there.
Scott: You must be crazy.
Sara: Look, if we just elbow the bag this way, it makes more room.
Scott: Wow, you're right!

Yeah, we have a lot of stuff. If these bags could talk, packing would sound like medieval torture.

On the way to the airport, we stopped at the Blue Lagoon Spa for four hours. The entry fees and the prices of the products testify that this natural spa is arguably one of the most elite in the world.

But it was certainly worth the visit - beside the massive, cloudy-blue crater pools they have silica mud, which you're supposed to smear on your face, and they have a natural steam cave where we spent most of our time.

We arrived at the airport for our 22nd flight in ten weeks, and the last of our trip. We went through our normal airport routines - Sara applying lotions from the tester bottles in the duty free shops, Scott half-shopping and half checking the clock.

Thanks to everybody for keeping in touch throughout our trip - sharing our experiences and knowing you were watching and responding motivated us to do even more and go the extra mile.

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So, we'll probably still use this page to post meta-adventures and big life updates. We wouldn't presume that our everyday lives are important enough to warrant your time, faithful reader.

However, we're finalizing our big "travel video" with all the interesting video footage we accrued during the trip. We'll upload it to Google Video and post it up here.

Thanks.

Why Hello, Iceland

What a delightfully bizarre Island.

Our IcelandAir jet landed Southwest of Reykjavik, in a brown, rocky, mossy, terrain, without a skyline or tree in sight. Many of our travel resources have spoken of ¨lunar landscapes¨in references to areas such as Mt. Kilimanjaro or Cappadocia, Turkey - but this one takes the ¨lunar¨ cake.

It was a dreary day and we had a 45-minute commute to our guesthouse in Reykjavik, so we were sorta bummed. To add to the bummer-osity, we didn´t have our checked luggage (it arrived 24 hours later), the storefronts were mostly closed up since it was Sunday, and the food was outlandishly expensive. After an hour of searching, we settled for the cheapest sustenance - a $30.00 pizza that probably wouldn´t pass muster at a nudie bar.

Yes, this island is expensive. Not just the food, either - hardback books on sale for $60.00, a sushi platter for only $120.00. Sure, most big cities such as Tokyo, New York, and Paris have wallet-draining districts, but they also have cheap local markets and bargain baskets - no so in Iceland.

When we turned in that night, we realized that we had reached the safest country in our itinerary (and possibly, in the world), but we were most afraid of being stranded here, due to the inescapable inflation of food and goods over the United States. And so we slept...

Zzzzzz. Zzzzzzz.
Hey, give me back those blankets!
Zzzzzz. Zzzzzz. Zzzzz....

We awoke to a bright blue sky and a great buffet breakfast, we rented a car (a white Toyota hatchback we named ¨Fran¨for no apparent reason) and we were on the road East of Reykjavik by 10:00AM. And there was nothing ¨Bummer¨ about Iceland anymore.

We spent the day in the ¨Golden Circle¨ region, seeing mostly geological sights. We began at Thingvellir, the site of outdoor Icelandic Parliamentary assemblies from 930AD to 1700AD. When the region was first settled by the Norwegians, the representatives of each village assembled at the site and a speaker stood on law rock (near the pictured church) to recite the region´s laws to the rest of the assembly. The government was minuscule and law was based on trust between the populous and the chieftains. We know libertarians who would shed a sentimental tear.

We continued to Geysir, where we walked along naturally colored pools of geothermally heated water and saw the largest active geyser in Iceland - Strokkur. We watched it for about thirty minutes and saw a handful of massive eruptions from only feet away.

Gulfoss, the Golden Waterfall, was breathtaking, especially because the sun caught the spray of the water and created a bright rainbow - so bright, at times, that it sometimes interrupted our view of the falls. We ate lunch overlooking the falls, and were pretty damp from the spray by the time we stood up.

We wrapped up the day with a drive to Hengill and a two-hour hike up the rocky, mossy, peaks. At the apex of our climb, we laid down in the sun atop the moss - it was perfectly dry, but had the cushiony quality of a lamb´s coat. But the time we pried ourselves from the hillside, we had to drive back to Reykjavik.

After a day on the Icelandic countryside, we certainly wouldn´t mind being stranded here... for a little bit.






Another day in Iceland up next!