Iceland

It is so crazy that we are in Iceland. Seriously. Ever since I saw that one Sigur Ros music video (not the one where the school kids pull off their gas masks exposing themselves to nuclear fallout, but the one where the school kids jump off the cliff into the ocean), I have wanted to see the beauty of this island for myself and, hopefully, somehow, figure out what makes their musicians so tweaked.

Like Steveyann mentioned before, it really is amazingly beautiful here. It is a relatively new island, being continually added and subtracted from through tectonic collision, glacial sculpture, and geothermal pressure bursting from below the surface. The in-flight magazine for Iceland Air reminded us that Reykjavik boasts a milder winter than New York City, but after a few days here in the wind and rain, we are only partially convinced. It definitely is green here, and apparently much more temperate than its neighbors Greenland and the Faeroe Islands. But this place is beyond comparison. The ground is covered in that ubiquitous orange-green of permafrost, but it is punctuated with volcanic rock as far as the eye can see. The sharp and unpolished rocks reminded Steveyann of snorkeling a coral reef. (I could use an hour on a tropical island about now). It is seriously other-worldly. We already wish we had more time to spend here!

Today was our day to explore the wilds of Iceland...not that Reykjavik is much of an urban jungle. It is a city of about 200,000 with rarely a building more than 30 feet in height. The design is typical Scandinavian, reflecting the settlement and reign of the Kingdom of Denmark until World War II. It is a cosmopolitan city that masquerades itself as a rustic postcard fishing village. It was such a treat for us to see elements of refined Scandinavian modernism permeating the overwhelmingly traditional architecture and streetscape.

But enough on Reykjavik...the draw for most who visit here is the landscape and today we went out of town to discover it ourselves. We rented a car for the day and drove ourselves to a few of the major sites. First stop, Thingvillar National Park. We loved this place...I am sure partially because we hadn't been rained on yet at that point. Thingvillar has been a significant place for Icelanders for a thousand years. Plate tectonics are on display here, forming a series of sharp valleys that lead to the largest lake in Iceland. At this geologic site is where the Viking and early Icelandic governments sat, passed laws, and handed down judgment. When Iceland gained its independence in 1944, their new president signed their consititution in this same place. Our second stop was Geiser. This is the name of a Geyser (apparently where the term "geyser" came from). We had seen picutres on postcards about this geyser showing the water spouting a hundred feet in the air. What the postcards didn't mention is that this has only happened twice in the last century. There were a few smaller ones and some geothermal pools to walk around, but overall we were unimpressed. Our third stop was Gullfoss, an exceedinly powerful waterfall just up the road from Geiser. This was pretty spectacular, albeit difficult to take in given the torrential downpour that had developed. After the 20 minutes we spent walking out to the falls and back, Steveyann and I were drenched and freezing cold. Our next stop would be the Blue Lagoon thermal baths, and our shiverring bodies were pretty anxious to take a dip. The Blue Lagoon is ridiculously surreal. Google image search this place, seriously. It provides a great photo, but a pretty mediocre bathing experience. The water was, for the most part, lukewarm, and the rocks surrounding the pools were covered in this weird white gooey film. Every once in a while as we soaked in the pool, a current of unsettlingly warmer water would move past us. We also imagined that this surreal place was a distinctly natural phenomenon. In reality, the pools (and the white goo) exist because of the effluent discharge from a nearby power plant. Great. All in all, it was a fun experience and we were happy to have been able to check it off our list.

Next stop, Stockholm...the land that brought us boiled herring, IKEA, and hot dogs topped with shrimp salad.