Last week, flew to Iceland for 6 days for camping, fjord-photographing, and fish-eating. Thanks to the guys at REI, we neither froze, starved, or drowned (though there was a scary night where we lost our tent stakes in a rainstorm). Pictures can be found
here. In brief:
Tuesday: Fly from Reagan to NY. Get spidey sense and make JP go back to the baggage claim with me to make sure our baggage isn't there -- but it is. At least part of it. Delta assures me the rest is on its way. Ha. Re-check onto Icelandair, and am treated to unidentifiable meatballs, yummy rice and unbaked brownie. Spend an hour in Keflavik Airport waiting for my bags before giving it up. Interestingly, Iceland has duty-free areas in the baggage claim areas. Anyway, Icelandair man gives me pretty awesome toiletries bag, complete with razor and big white t-shirt, and tells me to get a hold of them tomorrow. Find Jaimee and Matt, and book into a cabin close to the airport.
Wednesday: Cabin has a shower with a cute square window overlooking an airfield. Airport does not have my bags -- they sent it to the Reykjavik bus depot, for whatever reason. Ask to get it back. Go to the Blue Lagoon and cook in volcanic water for a bit. Put on some silica mask stuff, which I will regret later because all it seems to do is dehydrate your whole face. Retrieve bags. Drive east.
Thursday: Keep driving towards the eastern fjords, and start getting a little carsick. Learn a bit about modern Icelandic culture, which prominently features hot dogs and gas stations. Gas stations serve up hot dogs with grilled buns and awesome sauce and mustard, at fairly reasonable prices compared to usual restaurant fare (i.e. $50 USD for fish entree, fish being the inexpensive local meat). $7 USD for a slice of pizza is hard to take after NYC. Conversion from kroner to USD (64 kr to 1 USD) becomes my mental pasttime. Also prominent in Icelandic culture: swimming pools and trolls. Every town has a swimming pool with little bouncing blonde children. Drive back from fjords through Hofn, well past midnight with much arguing and screaming about trolls and fog. I slept through most of it.
Friday: Skaftafell National Park. Home of a really big glacier, big waterfalls (with basalt columns) and pretty alpine meadows. Hiked around for 3 hours and got a little wet. Reminds me of BC provincial parks, really, but with different flora. Tried to find a decent campsite along the south coast (heading back towards Reykjavik), but could only get to a free, crowded campsite by Selfoss. Cooked in an outdoor kitchen with a guy sleeping in the corner. (My camping stove can run on naptha, unleaded gasoline, butane, diesel and jet fuel. How cool!) Lost the tent stakes and had to weigh down tent with rocks. Terrified that we'd blow away.
Saturday: Eventually reach Reykjavik. Go out with Matt's friends. Get exhausted by 3 AM, but I seemed to be the only one getting tired -- the Icelandic folk go from 9 PM - 6 AM regularly, according to LP. Have an energy drink named Cult that must be poison. I go back to the hostel and to bed, while everyone else gets into debaucherous trouble.
Sunday: Can't get up. Have never felt so bad. Jaimee is a great sport and gets me Gatorade. Matt goes away, up north. Stay in bed until 5 PM, when promises of grilled fish and lobster soup get me out and about. Lobster soup is surprisingly Cajun-like. Really, really good.
Monday: Fly home. Luggage was waiting upon disembarkation. Thank goodness.
