The Iceland Saga

We made it there, and we made it back. And it wasn't too cold, nut nothing was open. We left the north of England the Thursday before Easter, hit London for a couple of nights and flew out to Reykjavik on Saturday night. When we got there the northern lights had just appeared and gone again!

Was good to catch up with a few of the crew from the Egypt trip in London, smoke some sheesha again and get a curry down Brick Lane before hitting the Big Chill Bar.

Have just posted the photos from the trip on flickr so feel free to have a look, I hope you've alll worked it out by now! Start a slideshow! Nevertheless, Iceland basically closes down over Easter as they have a few more stautory days holiday than everyone else. Plus the Thusday after we left was the first official calendar day of summer - big party! Crack out the jandals and the SPF Factor 15+!! So pretty much nothing open, no cafe's, no restaurants - just really shabby supermarkets. We needed our coffees! Sadly it was not to be, and continued to be a struggle for the rest of the holiday. Went to a few museums that first day, saw some pretty cool sculptures around town, saw the big ugly concrete church and missed the ride in the elevator to the top. By this stage we had our car, a very respectable VW Golf which I gladly drove for the entire time on the wrong side of the road! We then set our sights on Pingvellir the site of the oldest parliament and a point where the two tectonic plates meet very visibly - its basically a rift valley. Saw the first of our many waterfalls!

Next stop was Arnes hostel which we had to ourselves for the two days we were there. Brilliant. Sadly the hot pool close to the Hostel was closed the day we got there. Crack out the standard pasta for tea and put my feet up and watched Lost on the crackling tele. Perfect conditions for the aurora borealis but no joy. Proceeded to demo a bottle of gin with a few convenient G and T's. Next day we hit the rest of the popular tourist attractions, Gullfoss waterfalls/cataracts and Geysir - smells like Rotorua. Gullfoss was immense, and is exactly like you see in all the photos, must be amazing when eerything else is totally frozen around it. The spray from the falls were damn cold and we got sucked in by the tourist centre and me by a huge baguette sandwich which I struggled to finish. The food was really disappointing, considering we were looking forward to a bit of seafood and other such delicacies like hangi-style shark!

Later on that afternoon we hit Hengill, an area just out of Reykjavik with a lot of walking tracks. Forded a few freezing cold streams without my tramping boots which had conveniently blown themselves up the previous day! Thanks for sending them over anyway Ma and Pa!! We trekked up to some hot pools hoping for a dip, but none were of a suitable temperature or were easily accessible. I jumped in anyway.

We also climbed in this 1km long lava tube, basically a cave formed by lava rcing through it and the roof cooling first. Was very cool, a bit icy though so made climbing too far in very difficult. Didn't get to use the torches!

Next day we moved on the turf roof Hostel in Fljotsdalur which was magic. A beatiful valley surrounds you, and if we had a had more time, a 4WD we would have headed into Porsmork which is meant to be amazing. We instead hit the coast and saw some pretty cool rock formations and patterns and sea stacks near Vik, had a dodgy sandwich picnic in the car and trekked onto the glacier. That was cool. I clambered up and sought out the magical blue ice, hoping for some magic potion like 'WaterBoy' and didn't fall in any crevasses. Fell in the quicksand at the toe of the glacier though...basically due to water running under windblown sand and gravel. I think.

Skogar and Skogafoss were nice too. Went to a cool museum run by an 82 year old dude who had collected everything in it. He was there and showed us around, taught us how to spin horsehair into rope, played 'Oh come all ye faithful' on the church organ for us. Bit of an eccentric! The town did only have 12 people in it, and a few more buildings than people. We weren't expecting this to be opne so was really special.

The night in Fljotsdalur was brilliant, as there was only one other couple in there. Again no northern lights. But what a setting, and a great view from the dunny even!

Just before we jumped on the plane the next day we hit the Blue Lagoon, average name for it and sadly no Brooke Shields to entertain me, but a very relaxing experience. I tried my first mud pack (free) and sauna. Well worth a visit. Pretty much knocked me out for the flight home to London town. In fact the last few days have been a struggle all round really, Friday at work I could hardly keep my head off the desk. Ahh bring on more holidays!!

Over and out.