Iceland
Sam and Non-LJ Mike went to Iceland, and this is what happened. Like waking up from a dream, some of it already seems distant and unreal and it's getting harder to actually remember at all..
Saturday. Flight to Iceland takes off late due to congestion at Heathrow. Lands at Keflavik airport. First impressions are that we've gone on holiday to a Scottish moor! We get tickets for the airport flybus which takes us to our hotel in Reykjavik. After settling in it's off into town to find some food.. we end up at First Vegetarian (I'm not strictly vegetarian anymore, but Mike has to avoid dairy if possible so veggie places are easiest). We then go off to explore the city. Reykjavik is the capital if Iceland, but Iceland is only 300,000 people half of which live in the capital. For comparison, Swindon is 150,000 people and we began to worry that we'd actually go on holiday to some kind of Swindon ghost town. The streets are almost deserted and most of the buildings are made of concrete or corrugated iron. After some wondering we find a pub (the highlander, I think) and watch Eurovision while I try some of the absurdly overpriced local beer (650 Ikr for a pint! That's £4.50 at a good exchange rate). Eurovision was a lie by the way. When you saw the Icelandic vote given by the lady standing outside in the dark with the northern lights behind her... it was broad daylight. In late May it doesn't get dark until gone eleven (Iceland is on GMT) and gets light again at 3am.
Also, we missed the UK song but it looked awful - what were we thinking?!
Later on it got kind of noisy. Alcohol was banned in Iceland until 1989 and since then they've developed a habit of working hard during the week and then partying like crazy on Friday and Saturday nights. Since the booze is so expensive they drink at home until 11pm and then go out in their best clothes and party until the small hours, finishing off with a hotdog.
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Sunday. Off to the tourist office to figure out what to do all week and book some trips. We ended up whale watching in the afternoon. Four hours on a boat and no whales! This is quite unlucky since there's supposed to be a 98% chance of seeing a whale. It is thought that whales can sense an earthquake before it happens. Back in 2000 three days before a major earthquake all the whales vanished inexplicably.
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Monday. The Golden Circle tour. This is the classic tour of Thingvellor (national park, and where the parliament of the old Icelandic republic used to meet), Gullfoss waterfall, and the Geysers. We also stopped off at a geothermal power station on the way back.
Monday evening we did something extremely cultural - we went to an Icelandic cinema and watched Indiana Jones and the Improbably Ant Deterrent. This was in English with Icelandic subtitles, and we discovered that Icelandic cinemas have an interval. It was also reasonably priced (no dearer than England).
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Tuesday. Nothing planned for Tuesday so we did the sights in Reykjavik. These included the national museum (quite interesting) and two art galleries which both turned out to be full of modern art. Helpfully they've put all the junk into one gallery and the really good stuff in the other, so had we known we could have just skipped one of them! The good modern art included a roomful of kinky hammocks made of chains and leather which you can sit on.
We also took a free guided walk of the town in the afternoon. The guide said he was a cheap date so he showed us a few ways to save money in Reykjavik. I put one of his tips into practice the next day by buying an icelandic jumper - not from the tourist shops, but from the Red Cross shop. 3,500 Ikr which I think was a relative bargain, although it does need a little bit of darning on one sleave!
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Wednesday. Went to the Blue Lagoon, a naturally heated outdoor spa. This wasn't really to Mike's interest so he read his book in the restaurant while I floated about in the lagoon. It's a geothermally heated outdoor natural pool and it's very relaxing.
Taking the bus on the way home we met some Welsh football supporters, so I guess there was a football game going on. Apparently Iceland usually lose, although they do like their football. And golf. They have 38 golf courses in Iceland.
Killing time in the afternoon we went to the Volcano Show. This is an hour long film shown in a small rickety shed of a cinema. All the footage is shot by a father and son team who have spent the last half century filming eruptions in Iceland. They're currently waiting for the next big one, which could be years or could be tomorrow. This was when the earthquake struck Selfoss - 6.1 on the Richter scale. We felt it in Reykjavik, although at first we thought it was a special effect for the film!
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Thursday. Thursday morning was the highlight of the week for me as we went riding on Icelandic horses. There seems to be some argument as to whether they are horses or ponies (Icelanders say horses, everyone else says ponies). They're very cute and friendly though; mine had some unpronounceable name beginning with Rrrr and I think he was a little more spirited than some of the others since I said I had a little experience. We rode in a big long line doing sit and trot to a pond where we stopped for the horses to have a snack. My horse seemed determined to eat the entire countryside and also kept on standing on me. Then we split into two groups - a fast group and a slow group. I was the second person to go "me! me! I want to go fast!" so I went back in the fast group. This was great but my horse kept wanting to go in front!
Thursday evening we did the Reykjavik Haunted Walk. This was lots of fun and well recommended, although I didn't see any ghosts!
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Friday. We failed to agree on anything to do today (most of the tours we hadn't done either didn't appeal to one or the other of us or were way too expensive) so we took the hotel concierge's advice and took the bus down to Hafnarfjordur which is near Reykjavik. There we found that there was nearly nothing to do! The town was celebrating its one hundredth birthday so there was a big kids party going on but I don't think we'd have been allowed on the bouncy castles. Hafnarfjordur is the Icelandic capital of the Elves (lots of Elves live all around Iceland) so we took yet another guided walk to find out all the Elvish stories from the town, which was quite fun.
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Saturday. Flight back. First though a swim in one of Reykjaviks geothermal swimming pools. The one closest to the hotel wasn't outdoor as many of them are, and the water isn't actually that warm.. but it was good. Icelandic pool customs are different to Britain - you take your shoes off before entering the changing room, and then you have a proper shower without swimsuit before entering the pool. Afterwards you mostly dry yourself in the shower area so you don't drip loads of water into the dressing area. It seems much more civilised than the British way.
Photos are gradually trickling into facebook so if you friend me on facebook you should be able to see them.
Saturday. Flight to Iceland takes off late due to congestion at Heathrow. Lands at Keflavik airport. First impressions are that we've gone on holiday to a Scottish moor! We get tickets for the airport flybus which takes us to our hotel in Reykjavik. After settling in it's off into town to find some food.. we end up at First Vegetarian (I'm not strictly vegetarian anymore, but Mike has to avoid dairy if possible so veggie places are easiest). We then go off to explore the city. Reykjavik is the capital if Iceland, but Iceland is only 300,000 people half of which live in the capital. For comparison, Swindon is 150,000 people and we began to worry that we'd actually go on holiday to some kind of Swindon ghost town. The streets are almost deserted and most of the buildings are made of concrete or corrugated iron. After some wondering we find a pub (the highlander, I think) and watch Eurovision while I try some of the absurdly overpriced local beer (650 Ikr for a pint! That's £4.50 at a good exchange rate). Eurovision was a lie by the way. When you saw the Icelandic vote given by the lady standing outside in the dark with the northern lights behind her... it was broad daylight. In late May it doesn't get dark until gone eleven (Iceland is on GMT) and gets light again at 3am.
Also, we missed the UK song but it looked awful - what were we thinking?!
Later on it got kind of noisy. Alcohol was banned in Iceland until 1989 and since then they've developed a habit of working hard during the week and then partying like crazy on Friday and Saturday nights. Since the booze is so expensive they drink at home until 11pm and then go out in their best clothes and party until the small hours, finishing off with a hotdog.
---
Sunday. Off to the tourist office to figure out what to do all week and book some trips. We ended up whale watching in the afternoon. Four hours on a boat and no whales! This is quite unlucky since there's supposed to be a 98% chance of seeing a whale. It is thought that whales can sense an earthquake before it happens. Back in 2000 three days before a major earthquake all the whales vanished inexplicably.
---
Monday. The Golden Circle tour. This is the classic tour of Thingvellor (national park, and where the parliament of the old Icelandic republic used to meet), Gullfoss waterfall, and the Geysers. We also stopped off at a geothermal power station on the way back.
Monday evening we did something extremely cultural - we went to an Icelandic cinema and watched Indiana Jones and the Improbably Ant Deterrent. This was in English with Icelandic subtitles, and we discovered that Icelandic cinemas have an interval. It was also reasonably priced (no dearer than England).
---
Tuesday. Nothing planned for Tuesday so we did the sights in Reykjavik. These included the national museum (quite interesting) and two art galleries which both turned out to be full of modern art. Helpfully they've put all the junk into one gallery and the really good stuff in the other, so had we known we could have just skipped one of them! The good modern art included a roomful of kinky hammocks made of chains and leather which you can sit on.
We also took a free guided walk of the town in the afternoon. The guide said he was a cheap date so he showed us a few ways to save money in Reykjavik. I put one of his tips into practice the next day by buying an icelandic jumper - not from the tourist shops, but from the Red Cross shop. 3,500 Ikr which I think was a relative bargain, although it does need a little bit of darning on one sleave!
---
Wednesday. Went to the Blue Lagoon, a naturally heated outdoor spa. This wasn't really to Mike's interest so he read his book in the restaurant while I floated about in the lagoon. It's a geothermally heated outdoor natural pool and it's very relaxing.
Taking the bus on the way home we met some Welsh football supporters, so I guess there was a football game going on. Apparently Iceland usually lose, although they do like their football. And golf. They have 38 golf courses in Iceland.
Killing time in the afternoon we went to the Volcano Show. This is an hour long film shown in a small rickety shed of a cinema. All the footage is shot by a father and son team who have spent the last half century filming eruptions in Iceland. They're currently waiting for the next big one, which could be years or could be tomorrow. This was when the earthquake struck Selfoss - 6.1 on the Richter scale. We felt it in Reykjavik, although at first we thought it was a special effect for the film!
---
Thursday. Thursday morning was the highlight of the week for me as we went riding on Icelandic horses. There seems to be some argument as to whether they are horses or ponies (Icelanders say horses, everyone else says ponies). They're very cute and friendly though; mine had some unpronounceable name beginning with Rrrr and I think he was a little more spirited than some of the others since I said I had a little experience. We rode in a big long line doing sit and trot to a pond where we stopped for the horses to have a snack. My horse seemed determined to eat the entire countryside and also kept on standing on me. Then we split into two groups - a fast group and a slow group. I was the second person to go "me! me! I want to go fast!" so I went back in the fast group. This was great but my horse kept wanting to go in front!
Thursday evening we did the Reykjavik Haunted Walk. This was lots of fun and well recommended, although I didn't see any ghosts!
---
Friday. We failed to agree on anything to do today (most of the tours we hadn't done either didn't appeal to one or the other of us or were way too expensive) so we took the hotel concierge's advice and took the bus down to Hafnarfjordur which is near Reykjavik. There we found that there was nearly nothing to do! The town was celebrating its one hundredth birthday so there was a big kids party going on but I don't think we'd have been allowed on the bouncy castles. Hafnarfjordur is the Icelandic capital of the Elves (lots of Elves live all around Iceland) so we took yet another guided walk to find out all the Elvish stories from the town, which was quite fun.
---
Saturday. Flight back. First though a swim in one of Reykjaviks geothermal swimming pools. The one closest to the hotel wasn't outdoor as many of them are, and the water isn't actually that warm.. but it was good. Icelandic pool customs are different to Britain - you take your shoes off before entering the changing room, and then you have a proper shower without swimsuit before entering the pool. Afterwards you mostly dry yourself in the shower area so you don't drip loads of water into the dressing area. It seems much more civilised than the British way.
Photos are gradually trickling into facebook so if you friend me on facebook you should be able to see them.