Spring Break: Part Un

ICELAND!

Rated as the "Best of the World 2012" by National Geographic, Iceland is where we are spending part of our spring break.

Flying to Iceland from Italy is quite difficult. We, for reasons I will not get into, flew from Pisa to London Stansted on RyanAir, and then Gatwick to Iceland. It was actually quite cool connecting through London because we then got an Iceland stamp in our passports. By now, you should know I'm a huge sucker for pictures from airplanes of clouds and mountains and general natural forms. Here are some of my favorites (Pisa to Stansted):




And here are my favorites from Gatwick to Reykjavik:




Anyway, Iceland is actually awesome. It's so different than any place I've ever been in my entire life. It's kind of like Mars + Snow. Many of you might be thinking, "Isn't Iceland green (And therefore Greenland is ice)?" So technically, I guess Iceland is green, but people forget that it's still winter here. So right now it is quite icy. And cold for that matter. Alright, let's get down to business.

Friday, March 16.

Evening:

We land in Reykjavik, and take the bus to our "apartment". Here, they have apartment/hotel sort of deals. So we are staying in a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment, with a kitchen, living room, and dining room. It's quite large and quite awesome. If you have travel plans to Reykjavik, I highly recommend our apartment-hotel place. It's called Room With A View Apartments. You can check out some pictures of our apartment here. It's big, and wasn't expensive at all.

Anyway, after we got to the hotel, we went on a "tour" to get to see the northern lights. I say "tour" because we literally went on a bus with 12 other tourists including a few British people and a group of four women who were on a bachelorette trip. I felt bad being an American. These women--or should I say, girls--were so obnoxious. They kept on talking about going out and alcohol--It really seemed like they needed to grow up. They also mentioned that they were renting a little car and doing the golden circle tour themselves. We initially thought they were college students. Anyway, we went to see the northern lights, and ended up seeing not too much of the northern lights. We did see a little bit though, which was pretty cool. And the stars are so incredibly clear from Iceland, it's really amazing.

Saturday, March 17.

All day:

Wake up, and we went on a jeep tour of the Golden Circle with Super Jeep--a company that specializes in day tours from Reykjavik in big, badass Land Rover Defenders with enormous tires.





As I said, pretty BA. Our guide was a 21 year old Icelandic gentleman who had been driving since he was 5 years old. He is exactly what you would imagine a 21 year old Icelandic kid to be--fair skinned, blonde, outdoorsy, badass, and loving towards Americans. He was actually really cool. He was saying that the best way to pick up girls in Iceland is by telling them you live in Hollywood and are an actor. Anyway, he was our guide for the next ten hours of touring around the Golden Circle. Also, in our jeep was a Romanian couple who lived in London.

Stop 1: Shell Gas station

We had to buy some water and snacks for the road. I also got a double espresso (Italians really know how to make the best espresso).

Stop 2: Lake

We stopped at a big lake. It was actually quite beautiful. Apparently, the prime minister's house is there. On a semi-related note, our guide made a special point to note that the Icelandic prime minister is a lesbian. Also, the first female head of government was in Iceland.




Stop 3: Horses

We stopped at the side of the road to see some Icelandic horses. I can safely say they weren't quite fond of me. Maybe I smell bad? Who knows. Anyway, they look more like bigger, fluffy ponies than horses. But apparently they were quite friendly.




There were about five or six horses of all different colors. In the first picture it is difficult to see them. The white one was my favorite. So Icelandic.

Stop 4: Geyser

We saw a geyser. It was very geysery. As you know (or will know), the island of Iceland is located on a very active fault line where there are earthquakes and volcanoes, which lends itself to the formation of geysers. There were a few geysers in the same area--the "new" geyser was active every five minutes or so. It was actually quite awesome.








The geyser was actually quite breathtaking. Really amazing scenery.

Stop 5: Lunch

We stopped for an early and quick lunch across the street from the geyser at the "Geyser Café". For the record, I don't believe that was the actual name of the restaurant. But anyway, they also had an enormous gift shop where they sold Icelandic things--coats, gloves, hats, furs, little beanie-baby puffins, and this...


So for roughly €6.5 (or $8.60 for my dollar loving friends), you can buy a can of nothing but pure Icelandic air. I must say, the air is quite fresh; however, seeing that the can seems to be a product of a mass produced good, it was probably sealed in a factory, and I would never pay €6.5 for factory air. Never ever.

Stop 6: The drop off/The house

We dropped off our Romanian British friends on this hillside in the middle of nowhere to go snowmobiling. When given the option to do it earlier on, we opted out. Once we got to the snowmobiling place, I really wanted to do it, but--as foreigners say--"it was impossible to experience it without a reservation." Damn. Next time. During their hour long snowmobile ride, we took the car to the old snowmobile house. There wasn't a distinct road because the ground was covered with two 2-3 meters of snow. We got to the house and this is what was there:



We made it our job to dig out the house. Oh, just in case you were wondering, the picture is of the second story of the house (which was at ground level). We ended up breaking off a lot of the enormous icicles from the roof and playing around with them. I felt like I was five again, which was extremely fun. Benny and I are holding two enormous icicles. It's kind of hard to see, but I ask you to try.


And here are some more pictures from the area. All the little black dots in a row in the last picture are people on snowmobiles.




It was actually quite funny because apparently our guide--who had a baby face and very little facial hair--told Benny that we should go because his "mustache was cold and that's saying a lot because he didn't even have a mustache." We then went back to pick up our jeep buddies who went snowmobiling. But beforehand we stopped on this hill overlooking the snowmobile area.




Stop 7: Scenery

We stopped for a second to reinflate the tires (in order to drive on top of the snow, we our guide had to deflate the tires to allow for more surface area between the tires and the snow so the jeep doesn't sink into the snow), and I was able to take more pictures of snow, sky, clouds, and mountains.



Part 8: Waterfall Numero Uno

We then got to stop at a big waterfall. I would say it was like Niagara Falls' little sister--cute, but still nagging and can pack a punch when needed. It was absolutely gorgeous. Apparently, a private British investor wanted to build a hydroelectric generator there. However, the plan for reasons which I cannot remember fell apart, thanks to this one girl. The waterfall is named after her. It's actually quite beautiful. There was a path going up to the waterfall that was "closed for the winter". It was quite easy to jump over the little rope and walk down the path.







And a picture on the ledge and from the ledge...




Stop 8: Baby waterfall

Self explanatory. If you can see on the left hand side there is a sort of waterfall "staircase"--this is so the salmon can effectively swim upstream.



Stop 9: Crater

Self explanatory. (But not really, it was created in a volcano that erupted a long time ago. Björk had a concert on a floating stage in this crater a while back.)


All in all, the Golden Circle was awesome. We initially had reservations to do the grand tour on a bus, and not by jeep. I think one of the best decisions we made on the trip was to do the GC by jeep--it made all the difference. You really can't access a lot of the things we saw by bus. Unless you're in a bus like this...



Dinner:

We went to a dinner at a place called the Seafood Grill. It was conveniently located a two minute walk from our hotel, which is always nice considering the weather is always changing.


The meal was excellent. While we were waiting for our apps, we were served bread in a little can and butter served on a piece of lava rock. You would NEVER see that in Italy. And we also got an amuse-bouche of veggies, sunflower seeds, with a little bit of dill mayo. Delish.




As an appetizer, we got a sushi and sashimi platter. Salmon and tuna. Very raw. And a lot of it. It was delicious.



And for a main, I ordered the salted cod. I can't tell you exactly what was in the dish, but it was very kosher and excellent. The pictures speak for themselves.



All in all, day one was a success. Stay tuned for day two...