Ever since I moved to NY 9 years ago, I talked about making a trip to Iceland for a long weekend. The reasons are numerous; it is a shorter trip than going to California (4.5 hr flight), 24 hours of daylight in the middle of summer, fascinating and exotic landscapes/terrain and, last but not least, a fun, intelligent, attractive and cultured people who almost universally speak English and are extremely welcoming. My 1st year adviser at Stanford was Icelandic and he was one of the smartest and nicest guys I've met. It also didn't hurt that the Vegas gate at JFK neighbored the Icelandic one for many years. Every time my buddy Jay and I went to Vegas on a Friday night we'd watch the Icelandic stewardesses run onto the plane which each time triggered the same thought and conversation that we should switch gates.
For whatever reason, that trip never materialized. Then the banks in the country failed (and were NOT bailed out) causing the largest banking collapse of any country ever relative to the size of its economy. Soon after, there was an unpronounceable volcano that disrupted air travel so mightily that airlines were claiming to lose $200mm a day in aggregate and many passengers were stranded and angry. Iceland was in the news (albeit not for the best reasons), but it rekindled my desire to visit. I was also secretly hoping that the whole country was on sale due to the bankruptcy and that I could buy snowboards and Viking ships for $10 but that did not turn out to be the case.
After a disastrous couple days in getting to Iceland that cut my trip time in half, I finally landed at 12:30am just after midnight.
The view 10 minutes before wheels touched down. I'd call it a beautiful sunset, but the sun never actually set. It just poked below the horizon, still illuminating the sky all night before rising again. Around the summer solstice the light never goes out, even for a few hours which is terribly cool unless you are one that needs total darkness to fall asleep. I was able to get in touch with my former adviser, Sverrir, and he was nice enough to clear his schedule that afternoon to give me an extensive and crash tour of Reykjavik and Iceland in the 28 hours I had there. It is not a stretch to say that without Sverrir, I most likely would have not made it out of my first few quarters at Stanford. I hadn't seen him in 10 years, but to this day still remain indebted to him for having the kindness and patience to guide me through a challenging time.
After having lunch, we hopped in Sverrir's car and away we went. I had assumed, incorrectly, that the infamous volcano was not reachable by car in a day. When I found out that it was (it's about 1.5 hours from Reykjavik) the hunt was on. Along the way I learned a bunch about the Icelandic folk and how they make use of and harness the unique natural resources they possess. For example, it is almost unheard of to heat water there for any reason. They instead tap into all the natural hot springs and reservoirs not just for everyday hot water, but also as a source of energy for the people there. They strive to coexist with nature and not alter or pollute the landscape where possible. This line of thinking is also common to the Scandinavian peoples as I am learning and is a breath of fresh air.
The volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, sits atop a large glacier. The name means Island-mountain-glacier with the island part there because it is very close to two large islands just off the coast. One fascinating result of the eruption was that it, not surprisingly, caused large parts of the glacier to melt. Pools of water collected on top of the glacier with nowhere to go. When these pools got sufficiently large all around the glacier, the entire glacier would start to lift and float. This gave the water a chance to escape and sent massive waves of water streaming down from to lower lands. These short bursts of 'flushing' happened 4-5 times before a consistent channel was made on the glacier for water to escape continuously. One result of this was that roads down below were washed out in places.
These are two examples of large river basins that were full of rushing water as the glacier water ran out to sea. At the base of the Volcano were a few waterfalls that we got a closer look at.
I was told, that behind these waterfalls, lives a gnome that controls the eruptions of the volcano and that if you piss him off he will ground European air travel for years.
I looked for him but must have been on break. I did feel like I was in a video game. There's always treasure behind the waterfall. Alas, there was nothing valuable there, just a lot of mist and water vapor that froze me in the 50 degree weather.
It's no Iguazu but it was very cool.
Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day when we visited so the best pictures of the volcano are obscured by the cloud cover.
After that, Sverrir took me to one of the famous geysers of Iceland. It's name was, well, Geysir. It is believed that the word geyser came from the Icelandic word. This one went off every 10-15 minutes and was the first geyser I've seen.
A cool and noisy spectacle to witness. My favorite though was the geyser just a few steps away from the famous one.
My Icelandic is not the best, but that says "Little Geyser". He is basically a smaller hole in the ground with constantly bubbling water inside but no eruptions. He does not get the attention of big brother but I found him entertaining.
With that we headed to our final destination, the famous Blue Lagoon. It is a large pool of steamy waters inside of a lava formation. The waters are part of the water output of a nearby geothermal power plant. They are used for recreational and medicinal purposes (they are said to help people suffering from skin diseases like psoriasis). The mud mask comes from the shores of the water and is supposed to be also be very healthy for the skin. After 5 hours of driving and traversing mountains, paved and dirt roads, avoiding sheep and birds in the road we arrived there 15 minutes after the close. We whined our way in + got a solid 20 minutes. Pictures like the first one above are on some of the NYC subway advertisements so I was definitely keen to check it out.
The waters were warm and salty. It is definitely a unique and special place that I would like to check out again when I have more time to enjoy the natural wonder and relaxation that come with spending time there.
We had dinner and afterward I checked out some of the famous bars and clubs that dot Reykjavik before my early morning flight. The natives are a lot of fun and definitely come to party. They like their cocktails and have no problem bumping into you either in line for a club or on the dance floor which takes some getting used to. All in all, it was a spectacularly beautiful trip and I do not hesitate in recommending it for a few days layover or even a trip on it's own if you want something slightly off the beaten path.
