ICELAND: PART II

Who’s ready for their next Icelandic language lesson?? We started to notice some similarities in a lot of the places we were going. For example, all the waterfalls ended in “foss”… So here were some things that helped us:

• á = river
• foss = waterfall
• fjall = mountain
• fjörður = fjord or inlet
• gata = road or street
• hlíð = mountainside
• jökull = glacier
• kirkja = church
• sárlón = lagoon
• vatn = water

So, as complicated as Icelandic sounds (and looks), a lot of words are actually multiple words pushed together into one, which now makes more sense as to why we saw “beercheesedip” on more than one restaurant menu. Example from last week’s post: if gull = gold, and foss = waterfall, then Gullfoss = golden waterfall. It was so named because at times, the water looks golden brown because of the sediment that it carries from the glacier. Another example, from today’s post: Eyjafjallajökull is the name of the volcano that erupted in 2010, causing air traffic trouble from the unpredictable ash that covered Europe. Well, eyja means island, fjall (as you saw above) means mountain, and jökull is glacier. Island mountain glacier. Another glacier nearby is called Svínafellsjökull, which translates to pig mountain glacier. Not because pigs live there, or because it looks like a pig, but because the Norwegian settlers brought pigs… I didn’t say it was scientific.

As we continued our way around the Golden Circle, our next stop was Þingvellir. In it, we walked around to see Öxarárfoss (a waterfall) and Drekkingarhylur, the drowning pool. We also wandered through Lögberg, or Law Rock, home of Alþingi, the longest running parliament in the world that started around 930 AD. Because of this history, Þingvellir became Iceland’s first national park in 1928.

The area that I was most drawn to is called Silfra. It is a rift formed in the divergent tectonic boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates. The plates move about 2.5 cm farther away each year creating ravines that fill with the meltwater from Langjökull glacier, which has travelled underground for decades through porous lava rock, undergoing a very thorough filtration process. When it enters the ravines, therefore, it is pristinely clean and crystal clear. It’s beautiful. And as much as I hate that people have thrown coins into a natural creation like this, the water is so clear that when viewed from above, the bottom floor kind of look like gems and treasure because of it.

Once we piled back into the Smashin’ Vagon we went on a hunt to find Þórsmörk, the valley of Thor. On the way, we found what I think was my favorite waterfall (and there’s a lot to pick from!), Gluggafoss. It looked like so many others that we almost didn’t stop, but it had a parking lot and a hill we thought we might be able to walk up a bit and get a good view of the valley. As we got closer to the waterfall, I realized that you could walk behind it!!! I acknowledge that might not be a big deal to a lot of people, but it’s one of those things that I find so much pleasure in. So, obviously, we all explored behind the water, hiked higher to the bulk of thefalls, took my favorite group photo from the trip (what up selfie stick!), and talked to some feisty sheep on the way back down. Oh, and because I forgot to mention before, Iceland has all the sheep! The sheep population is more than double the human population of the island and, unsurprisingly, lamb is a popular dish to eat.

Our day of waterfalls continued when we stopped by Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss while driving around Eyjafjallajökull on our way to our accommodations in Vík. At Skógafoss, you could get to the top by climbing the 427 steps on the side as well as get pretty close to the base if you were brave enough. Matt went for it and got soaked. Luckily, our next stop was our Airbnb for the evening.

The next day we backtracked a little bit to check out the Dyrhólaey Lighthouse (our best chance to see puffins, but were sadly already gone for the season) and the amazing Reynisfjara Beach. This black sand beach was created by lava flowing into the ocean which cooled almost instantly as it touched the water. Opposite of the sea is an enormous natural pyramid with caves made of basalt columns that looks like a staircase to the sky. There are also some basalt cliffs that rise from the sea. They’re called Reynisdrangar. Legend has it that the Reynisdrangar formations are actually two trolls. One night when they were trying to pull a three-masted ship out of the sea, the sun began to rise. And, as all us fairy tale fans know, trolls caught in daylight are turned to stone, so these two guys got stuck as craggy rock forms for eternity.

We spent as much time as we could at the beach, but then rushed out because we had an appointment to make in Skaftafell for a glacier tour that we booked. Well, we apparently needed to rush a little more because we missed our group. When they say that they are going to leave at 1, they mean it! But, in truth, we were mistaken and thought our tour was at 1:30. Luckily, they transferred our booking (and money) to the following day’s tour, leaving at 1:00 p.m. So what did that do to our schedule? As fate would have it, we were planning on camping that night so after some conversation over a delicious meal at the cafeteria, we ultimately opted to stay at the campground on site, at the base of the glacier. We didn’t lose any money on the campground we had hoped to get to that night, so it worked out rather well. The downside was we were going to have farther to drive after our tour the next day. So, we set up our tents, and headed out to the nearby Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón, glacial lagoons, and Diamond Beach. Watching these huge masses of ice floating in lagoons that only exist because of rising temperatures is surreal. I watched part of one iceberg break and fall into the water, thinking it was such a unique thing to see, but then realizing that it probably happens more and more… Jökulsárlón was also a viewpoint for many seals, there to catch fish.

Across the highway we stopped at the Diamond Beach, where a lot of these pieces of ice that make it through the lagoon end up. Note: it can take up to 5 years for an iceberg to make it to the ocean from the lagoon, only to end up on that beach. It certainly was beautiful! And we ended our trek by hiking to Fjallsárlón and just enjoying the space as the sun went down. Once we got back to our camp site, it was dinner time and then sleep! Campfires didn’t seem like an option at the campsites we stayed at, so that definitely affected how late I was willing to stay outside of my sleeping bag after the sun went down…

Since getting to Iceland, I was sleeping well, but waking up with a sore lower back. I blame it on the fact that it happens every time I travel and don’t sleep on our mattress at home. Plus, in Iceland, we were sleeping somewhere new every night, so I didn’t get a chance to adjust to any new bed before moving on to the next. I slept well while camping, but once I woke up, there was no going back. So, I figured since the sun was rising, I would go on a hike to the nearby attraction of Svartifoss—you guessed it, another waterfall! Matt opted to join me once I told him I was heading out, which was pretty cool of him given that I had no idea it was only 6:15 a.m. Even though we were visiting Iceland just outside of their busy season, there were still people everywhere; but not on this hike. Matt and I passed four people in two and a half hours, and another four in the last half hour. Svartifoss was another attraction made even more beautiful by the basalt formations around it. Once we got up there, I became curious about another hiking path so we kept going up it hoping to get to “that next ridge” where we might get a great view. Eventually we got to Sjónarsker, a viewpoint about 200-250 meters in elevation (oddly that exact information is extremely hard to pinpoint). It was stunning and I’m so glad we found this place.

On our way back down to camp, we took a path that led us to a a point of interest, which is marked all over the country by this symbol: ⌘. The point of interest we were headed to is a place called Sel, an old farm that was abandoned in 1946 but has since been restored by the National Museum and made accessible for visitors. We eventually made our way back, and when we did, we enjoyed some breakfast at the cafeteria (which had just opened at 9:30, so our timing was good!).

We took the opportunity that morning to take our time since we were only a few minutes by foot away from our meeting point for the glacier tour. Success! We made it! The tour was 5 and a half hours, and about 1 hour of that was taking the bus to and from the meeting point, and stopping for a snack–the rest of it was hiking. We lucked out and got a great tour guide who filled us with nerdy information as we trekked us all over the glacier in our crampons, carving steps wherever he felt like with his heavy duty axe. My favorite was walking through a crevasse! And it was unbelievable to be on a glacier adjacent to green grass. The glacier we explored is called Falljökul, which means falling glacier, because of its frequent and fast moving water that crashes down from Vatnajökull ice cap.

After the tour, our beloved cafeteria was closed for some special reason, so we did like the locals and ate burger dinners at the gas station on the way out of the area. Then, the male counterparts of Padmay and Kristake rocked our 4 and a half hour drive to Reyðarfjörður. Missing seeing Höfn in the daylight and getting to explore the town was an unfortunate consolation to our little scheduling mishap, but what we gained instead was an unforeseen adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed. Love, Shauna

 

All photos were taken by Kristake, Padmay, Matt, or myself. All rights reserved.