If I had to pick a word to describe Iceland, I would say that it's absolutely enchanting. It's a place like nowhere else in the world - being situated between North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, it has a lot of volcanic and earthquake activity that creates its beautiful landscape, and many geysers and hot springs (i.e. the Blue Lagoon!) The population is a mere 300,000 people, 70% of whom live in the capital, Reykjavik, so once you drive out of the city covered with quaint red roof houses, it's nothing but snow and moss covered mountains, fields of lava formations, and grand pastures. Because of the variations in elevation, you can find yourself driving through a snow covered mountain, then through a moss covered lava field, then through a pasture, all within the span of 20 minutes...and all the views are spectacular!
Speaking of pastures, Iceland has only 3 industries - fishing, raising cattle and thermal electricity production (nothing grows there as summer temperatures reach only about 10 degrees). This means lots and lots of yummy fresh fish and farm raised meat! In fact, all food in Iceland has been spectacular - we tried lamb soup (that even I had 2 servings of, and I don't eat soup), lobster, lobster soup, scallops, shrimp, cod, salmon, antelope, steak, various pastries, sandwiches, the-best-date-cake-I've-ever-had-in-my-life, and even local delicacies such as dried fish and...whale meat...which we rejected...and we are not the bunch who gets grossed out by food, but whale meat is seriously not edible...and this is why people shouldn't eat whale, amongst many other moral reasons of course.
Here's a recap of our Day 1 adventures (in pictures, of course ;)
The gang: Anna, Carmen, moi, Jessie the birthday girl, Bela, Rachel and Vi in our signature Russian hats
P.S. I think that the whole town thought that we were either crazy or celebrities, because everywhere we went we were recognized as the hat girls
On the edge of the North American tectonic plate
This was uber cool, as we stared down a ridge that separates one tectonic plate from another.
Icy Waterfall
We actually walked all the way from the elevated observation platform to the waterfall down an icy path. Some of us escaped unharmed, while other not so lucky with bruised hands and knees from falling.
Geyser valley
Pretty neat place to be in, as the whole valley is filled with erupting geysers. We saw 3 eruptions!..and managed to catch them on cam (we were pretty proud of ourselves hehe). Most geysers are roped off, as the water that comes out is 80-100 degrees Celsius. The eruptions are usually followed by a giant cloud of sulfur, that doesn't smell very nice.
Icelandic landscapes
As I mentioned, the landscape changes from pastures to snowy mountains to lava fields. The sun rises at about 10 and sets at about 3, and the middle picture is of the sunset.
Evening feast
That's the rejected whale meat on our forks. Safe the whales and don't try it!
I'd so eat the whale!
ReplyDeleteLOL! No meat goes wasted, huh?
ReplyDeleteSuit yourself man, it's gross!!