Iceland, Day 5 & 6 Recap – South Coast Tour, Hallgrimskírkja, Sundhöll

by Karen

(Note: finally getting around to posting an old draft! Originally written Oct 2, covering Sept 29 & 30, 2013)

To briefly summarize, we took another Sterna Tour to Iceland’s South Coast (a part of the famous Ring Road).

We saw:
– Seljalandsfoss waterfall (we could walk behind it, or as the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland says, “the backside of water!”)
– The volcano that caused massive flight traffic across Europe in 2010
– Reynisfjara beach (with black sand and basalt columns)
– Skógafoss waterfall & the Skógar Folk Museum
– a giant glacier that we could walk on

Volcanoes in the distance

This time around we had a different tour guide, she was young, and didn’t really interact much with the group, but she knew a lot of history. Although at the very beginning of the tour, she picked up the wrong people from a hotel and drove for an hour before realizing this! We had to drive back towards the city and meet up halfway with another bus that had the other tourists, and made a swap.

Our first stop was the Seljalandfoss waterfall. It looked gorgeous, and it was pretty neat to be able to walk behind it.

The backside of water!

Miraculously the weather was amazing that day. The sky cleared up, and we could see three volcanoes in the distance:
– Hekla, which is Iceland’s main volcano;
– Eyjafjallajökull (I’ll just call her “Eyja”), which threw up so much fine dirt and ash into the sky, it canceled a ton of flights across Europe for days;
– and Katla, still active

We went to a little museum that showed a short documentary about how the Eyja volcano affected farms and families that lived under it, and showed the aftermath of its eruption and the cleanup.

“Eyja”

Reynisfjara Beach was probably my favorite stop of the day, which had black sand beaches and impressive-looking basalt columns and caves. There were also rock formations in the water. Folklore states that the colums were trolls that got caught in the sunlight and turned to stone.

Trolls in the distance…?

Reynisfjara Beach

Basalt Rocks

Once we left the beach, we headed towards a glacier. This was probably the most exciting part of the day, because our driver took our minivan off-roading! I didn’t think the van was properly suited for such driving, but I buckled my seatbelt and threw my hands in the air. After about 15 minutes of driving on rocky terrain, we arrived at our destinaion, and took a short hike to the base of the glacier. There were a few groups already there in their full hiking regalia, but our merry crew was content with just touching the glacier, lest we fall into the cracks and face certain doom.

To be honest, when I think of “glacier,” I usually think of a giant chunk of ice just floating in the water. This glacier was receding into the mountains, slowly carving a valley into the rock. It was also very dirty, and covered in ash and dirt from previous eruptions. Once you brush off the black soot, you are greeted with a bright blue solid layer of ice.

Black glacier

Afterwards we headed towards a folk museum of Icelandic culture, Skógar. The history goes, some guy just randomly started collecting old items one day and eventually hoarded so much that he decided to make his collection into a museum. There were many quirky artifacts and tidbits of history taught inside. For example, I had never known that Iceland was once invaded by Turkish pirates(!!!) and many Icelanders were captured and forced into slavery in parts of the Middle East and northern Africa. The folk museum also had several recreations of old farmhouses, and they looked like Hobbit holes to me.

Old whaling boat

Hobbiton

Near the folk museum was a waterfall, Skógafoss, and you could either hike up to the top, or walk up to its base. We decided to walk to the base of the waterfall and, unsurprisingly, got drenched from head to toe.

Puny waterfall…

On our last day, we decided to take it easy again and just walked around town again. We finally decided to try some whale and puffin meat. We went to this restaurant on the Main Street, and although they only served puffin at dinner time (we got there at 3pm), we were able to convince the waitress to put in an order for us.

Puffin

…and whale

We came across Hallgrimskirkja, a large Lutheran church. Its architecture was inspired by the basalt columns of Reynisfjara. It’s at the top of a hill in Reykjavik, and supposedly has good panoramic views of the city. It looks great at sunset!

Hallgrimskirkja

Afterwards we checked out Sundhöll swimming pool. Not as fancy as the other one we went to, but much closer to our hostel (15 min walk, as opposed to 40), and had pretty much the same facilities. Along with more hot dogs, it was the best way to finish up our final night in Reykjavik!

Hot dogs and beer!

On an added note, we discovered a Filipino-Icelandic restaurant that served only one Asian-related dish.

Iceland, Day 5 Photos
More Iceland Day 5 Photos
Iceland, Day 6 Photos

Scotland: Signs and Symbols

by Mark

The interesting thing about Scottish signs in the Isle of Skye is that they are also written in the Gaelic language (pronounced “gah-lick” in Scotland, as opposed to “gay-lick” in Ireland). Our tour guide mentioned that it’s also a dying language and there is an effort to preserve it by teaching it as a second language in Skye’s middle schools. However, when we got to Glasgow and Edinburgh try stopped with the Gaelic.

Also noticed that the metal lids on the street seem more functional than decorative compared to Iceland. Many of the street signs are similar though.

Iceland, Day 4 Recap – Perlan, geothermal beach, and public swimming pools

by Karen

Today was our day of relaxation, so we woke up late and decided to head down to The Pearl, or “Perlan“, which is located inside a nice state park area. It’s a giant glass dome sitting atop four big hot water tanks, and supplies much of Reykjavik’s hot water.



Inside is a cafeteria, a restaurant, balcony viewing area, and the Saga Museum, which is like a Madame Tussaud’s for viking history. We opted to skip it and instead headed to the balcony for gorgeous panoramic views of Reykjavik.


After lunch at the cafeteria (decent food & price, free refills on soup!), we took a short hike through an elfin forest down to the geothermal beach in Nauthólsvík. It’s free to the public, but was closed when we arrived. The water itself is cold, but there’s a man-made hot tub right next to the water that is heated during open hours.



Speaking of hot tubs, in Iceland they are called “hot pots”. Makes me think of people being cooked and served.

If you look at tour books, you will always find ads for the Blue Lagoon, which is a nice man-made geothermic spa 40 mins outside of Reykjavik. We had considered going, but the only way to get there is to 1) charter a bus, 2) hire a taxi, 3) drive there yourself. A normal charter bus (“tour” bus) would cost you approx. 3700/person, not including the cost of admission to the spa (another 3500/person, for the basic package). The cost of lockers & towels are also not included. On the plus side, you could stay as long as you want.

Since it was far and pricey, we decided to skip it. Instead, we heard that Reykjavik has 7 public swimming pools that also offer geothermic spa-like facilities, and only cost 550/person, including locker rental. As opposed to the Blue Lagoon which is heavily frequented by tourists, these swimming pools are frequented by locals. Iceland has something of a “swimming pool culture,” where, similar to how friends meet up in a pub or coffeshop during the week to catch up and chitchat, the locals will go to the pool and discuss matters.

In Reykjavik, there are two swimming pools within reasonable walking distance (ok, maybe one) of the city center: Sundhöll, which is located near the main street, and Laugardalslaug, which is the biggest and most populat of all the pools.

It was about a 40 min walk to Laugardalslaug from our hostel, and on a Saturday night it was pretty popular (I wasn’t allowed to take photos, so I’ll post generic ones). There were 6 outdoor hot pots (one was salt water), 2 big pools, 3 waterslides, a steam bath (sauna), and that’s just what we saw outdoors. There was a big indoor pool/hot pot area, but we couldn’t go in since they were hosting a “swim cinema” event. There’s also a cafeteria and gym as well.

It was amazing. I could see why Icelanders are happy despite the miserable weather. It was very relaxing and refeeshing to be inside a hot pot!

One thing I felt weirded about (Mark as well, respectively), but eventually got over: I’d heard stories of public baths where people would have to shower naked in front of others, but I’d never had to experience one, ever. Imagine my culture shock when I walked into the locker room and saw a bunch of naked women standing around like nobody’s business. It was definitely something I wasn’t used to, and admittedly I was pretty embarrassed about it. I thought about looking for an empty row of showers but there were none, so I decided to bite the bullet and just go for it; if the locals were doing it (and not caring about nudity), then I should adapt and do it too. Eventually I got over my embarrassment when I realized nobody cared, and nobody was looking. I did feel a bit uncomfortable when little girls were in the showers though, but I’d just look away and go about my day.

In all, we spent almost 3 hours there, and it was definitely the best part of our day. The steam baths were fun (a bit masochistic), it was a long corridor with futuristic-looking pods for people to sit and sweat. The hot pots were great as well, each had a different temperature between 100-110 degrees Farenheit. I’d highly recommend anyone to visit this particular swimming pool if staying in Reykjavik, it’s a good way to get a glimpse of the locals’ culture and get some R&R at the same time.

Iceland – Street Signs and Symbols

by Mark

It’s my first time outside of the US and Iceland feels familiar, but just slightly different. I know its weird taking pictures of ordinary things, however I found the signs and symbols of Reykjavik city the most striking. I also noticed that each district has their own sewer lid. One of our tour guides was an “Odd Fellow” and I wonder how many other Masonic symbols I missed during this trip.

Iceland, Day 6 – Downtown and Hallgrímskirkja Panoramas

Our last day in Iceland concludes with an afternoon stroll through downtown Reykjavik, and a stop at the Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran Church before sunset.

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