Land of Ice

Before we went to Iceland, I read an article stating that only 20% of Icelanders deny the existence of elves.  After visiting the country, firsthand, I can now confidently count myself among the true believers.  If elves exist, if Frodo ever lead the fellowship of the ring to the very heart of Mordor, he must have done it in Iceland.

That's right peeps, it's time to recap our time in Iceland!

I'd like to start this off by noting a few travel failures.

1.  We went to Iceland in winter in order to view the elusive Northern Lights.  We failed.  Totally cloudy with a chance of meatballs the whole time.

2.  We went to Iceland in winter in order to see orcas in the wild.  We actually went twice to the area that is full of killer whales but due to a misunderstanding and then bad weather, we were skunked.

3.  I left my $400 Dr. Dre Beats Pro headphones on the airplane.  I was highly inebriated on a strong dose of ambian but still no excuses.  They were last seen in the pic below.  Ambian can be a scary stuff.  I pretty much don't remember arriving or clearing customs, seriously.


So to recap, no ORCAS or NORTHERN LIGHTS  will be making any appearances on this blog any time soon.  And I have to use my crappy iphone 5 headphones for a bit:(


We basically thought we'd freeze to death.  I mean who visits Iceland in winter?!  Well, it was actually warmer than our dear ol' Denver.  No need for the snowboarding clothes or suitcase full of body warmers that we brought.

The landscapes in Iceland are very different from any that we've visited before.  In fact, astronauts training for the apollo missions trained in Iceland because NASA felt like it's terrain most closely resembled that of the moon. 

Black volcanic sand for as far as you can see.  A little eerie and beautiful

We went a beach where glacier fragments are washed ashore.  There were huge waves breaking in the background.  It was totally gorgeous.

There is this bay that gets filled with massive blue glaciers.  Add some harbor seals and you have a very special place.

Bad picture below but proof that our dear Bilbo is alive and kicking. 

 The world famous Blue Lagoon was on our list.



 The blue lagoon water is supposed to be really good for your skin.  It's recommended that you cover your face in mud, that's exactly what we did.





The water is really warm but the air was cold.  It felt magical.  Below you can see that my eyebrows were freezing from the steam.



 Lava grotto!  What happens in the lava grotto stays in the lava grotto....



It's not apparent in the photos but the water is vividly blue (okay I'm color blind), the pix don't do it justice.

We rented a car and got to see a lot of the island.  There are more superlative waterfalls than you can shake a stick at. They're everywhere!

The pic below is just some dude's backyard.  Wouldn't that be the best backyard wedding reception ever?

We ate really well in Iceland.  The food climate is very pure.  All of the livestock is free roaming and no pesticides or chemicals are allowed in agricultural production.  It's like eating how our grandparents used to eat except rotting shark instead of meatloaf.

Rotting shark you say?  Why yes, ROTTING SHARK!  Ok, so let me drop some knowledge about the rotten shark dish.  Back in the day, there wasn't much for the vikings who settled Iceland to eat.  There was however a lot of icelandic shark in the surrounding waters.  The problem is that the shark's blood has something like anti-freeze in it and it will kill you if you eat it fresh.  So what were Sven and Bjorg to do?  Well, they finally figured out that if you let the shark rot in the ground for around half a year, it is eventually safe to eat.  Also, I love sharks (and felt guilty eating it) but want to make sure everyone who reads this understands that icelandic shark is not endangered, there are a lot of them.

 Ok, so here's a plate from left to right. In the bowl, dried fish (smells really fishy but tastes like fish jerky-good) you eat it with butter.  On the left hand side of the plate dried seaweed.  On the little plate minke whale (yes, I know I'm selling my soul but again not endangered), puffin (how could I eat a cute cuddly puffin-I am going straight to hell) and see that little jar?  That's the rotten shark.  They have to put it in a sealed jar because it smells so bad it would stink up the restaurant.  It smelled like ammonia and well, rotten shark, go figure but tasted like a firmer saltier scallop.  Not bad at all!  I'd eat it again.

Icelandic hot dogs are touted as the world's best.  Neither of us are huge hot dog fans but they were darn good dogs.  Remoulade, fried onions, fresh onions and ketchup.  Also, the dogs are made of lamb which was different and tasty.

Artic char with remoulade and artic char roe and dill.  One of the best dishes we had while in the land of the Viking.

 We hiked a huge glacier, our first time.  It should be mentioned that it's not smart to just go hike a glacier willy nilly.  First there are huge drop offs that are both seen and unseen.  See below.

Our guide threw a rock into this fissure and it was a long while before it hit the bottom.  If you fell into it, you'd be screwed.

Another blue hole of death

 You also need crampons (spikes on your feet) or you're not going to walk one step without falling and breaking that pretty little face of yours.

I felt especially dangerous with spikes on the business end of my kicks

We hiked to an ice cave.  This is the entrance to the ice cave and also to the Mines of Moria.  The streaks running through the ice are volcanic ash or when a nearby volcano exploded and covered everything with ash, including the glacier.

We sampled water right off the glacier.  Yep, it was soo good, oh, and it's hard to look like anything but a dork with a helmet on.  Unless that helmet is a viking helmet.

Maybe not even then...

With crampons on our feet all we needed was a pair of ice axes and a rope and we were good to try our luck ice climbing.  For me ice climbing was a lot more fun than rock climbing.  You can make handholds wherever you want to.  From what I've been told it's a lot more dangerous too (not while being harnessed in like we did it).

We also saw geysers.  Iceland is heated exclusively with geothermal heat.  Hot springs are ubiquitous.

This geyser is called Strker and it goes off every 5-10 minutes, 100 ft in the air.

The lodge at the geyser state park was very stylish and modern, way more so than any American counterpart that I've been to.

Custom egg chair at a state park?  This is the way Odin intended nature watching to be.

What so special about this little pony?  It's a breed the vikings brought over in 800a.d..  The horses and the sheep are advertised as a pure species no intermingling with other species for these thoroughbreds.


Air jumps anyone?  Yes please!

Iceland doesn't offer the same amount of spectacular architecture that most of Europe offers but it still shines with it's own nordic style.  Below, the opera house, one of the most inspiring buildings I've ever had the pleasure of viewing.

Below is the summer home of Samwise Gamgee

Reyjavik, the capital, offers a lot of great shopping.  Unfortunately, the shops are only open for 4-5 hours a day so we didn't have time to buy much. Having a life outside of work vs. consumer convenience or Europe vs. USA

A lot of cool street art abounded.

One of the downfalls of Europe is the lack of public restrooms.  I almost snyrted myself looking for them.

                                     One of the more beautiful rainbows we've ever seen.

                                  We thought this unadorned cathedral ceiling was a stunner.

Thanks Iceland, I swear by Odin's beard that we'll be back.  We definitely have some unfinished business.