Sheep, Jeeps and Snow

Hello again! So from last saturday until this wednesday I was luckily enough to join in on a road trip a bunch of students had planned. I only found out about it two days before from a guy I had met twice and didn't know any of the others on the trip so needless to say I was a little uncertain how it would all turn out. It ended up being such an amazing trip and I'm so glad that I ended up going. There were 10 people in all who went between two jeeps. Jeeps are a necessity when travelling through central iceland, doing it in a normal car actually voids your insurance with rental companies and for good reason. The "highway" was smaller then any gravel road I've seen and we often had to drive through small rivers. The plan was to head up through the center of iceland between the two largest glaciers and then circle back through some of the smaller back roads that wind through the country. 

Thingvellir national park, the most green part of iceland and one of the few places with native trees. 

The landscape was unbelievable, quickly changing from lush and green, to snow capped mountains, to abandoned rock. At one point all there was as far as you could see was rock, no green whatsoever. This is the area of iceland known as "Mars", they actually sent astronauts here to train for the lunar mission. 

The highland "highway", this is why you need jeeps...

The wind ripped through and over the stones with gale force and it was at least 10C colder then Reykjavik. Luckily we happened upon a farm house (these can be sometimes HOURS apart), and they let us camp behind their barn which gave us some protection from the wind. 

Our two tiny tents. We ended up appreciating their size since it was a VERY long chilly night. 

It also gave us a chance to hang out with the most famous/ numerous residents of iceland... the sheep and horses. 

The farmers were just started the Rettir, (basically the sheep round up) and were celebrating with a VERY loud crazy icelandic party. This included them belting out "Ghost riders" in icelandic and the farmer falling over and smashing his face into a post. It made for an interesting night. Throughout the whole rest of the trip we were spotting farmers out on horseback or with trucks collecting the sheep. In iceland the sheep are just allowed to wander wherever  they want because there is absolutely nothing around to kill them. Which makes rounding them up hard since there is only one here, two there spread out over this vast rocky landscape. Not exactly an easy job...

Poor frozen farmers wrestling their sheep into a truck, in the middle of the highway.

The next day we stopped at a natural hot pot, which was basically a rock pool with pipes all over. I always imagined these being much more natural and picturesque. But natural the hot spring water here is above 100C, so cold water has to be pumped into most of them. But it was still very cool and absolutely in the middle of nowhere.

Everyone huddled around eating lunch at this weird pavilion with the nothingness stretching out for miles.

We hurried on the Akureyri because the farmer had warned us that a big storm was coming. Lucky we did because by the time we reached it the rain was already pouring, so we ended up heading to a hostel. 

The hostel was amazing and rented us out a cabin with a private hottub. Which ended up being a lifesaver because we woke up to find the ground covered in snow, all of the roads closed, and the power off. So we spent pretty much all of monday in the hot tub with beer, which was very traditionally icelandic haha.

The group in our rented cabin

Tuesday we took a day trip out to see a glacier lake, and some of the geothermal steam beds which was amazing. Steam poured out of piles of rock as the snow quickly became lakes surrounding them.

Me in front of one of the hot springs

The afteraffects of the storm were visible everywhere. Cars were buried in the snow all along the road and tons of power lines were snapped like tooth picks. On wednesday the interior highways were still closed so we had to take the main highway along the coast. Which was much less adventurous but we still got to go to Aspyrgi, a big canyon which is amazingly enough filled with trees. It is also thought to

One of the steaming rock beds

be a very important place to the huldre folk. For those of you who don't know the huldre folk or "hidden people" are one of three magic races here along with fairies and trolls.  All of these people have great influence still in modern icelandic culture. Believing in them is so common place that when a member of their government announced he was transporting a giant boulder from the other end of iceland to his house because it housed fairies that protected him, no one batted an eyelash. On top of that he transported it in slow daily increments so that the fairies (who would of course be on foot) could keep up. I watched for them while in Aspyrgi but I suppose a large group of 20 year olds is not exactly ideal circumstances.

We arrived back in Reykjavik Wednesday night to the whole town battening down the hatches because the remnants of a hurricane in the tropics was coming are way. Which seems so ironic really but let me tell you there was no hints of the tropics in the cold windy rain that hit us. But at least there is no snow in Reykjavik yet! It's starting to get dark at a more normal time, but it's going to be too dark before long. Though the daylight hours aren't too drastic currently we lose about 6 minutes a day, which means every week and a half another hour of light is gone. It's kind of crazy!
Tomorrow I am off to celebrate the end of the Rettir, so I will write again soon!

The whole group (minus the guy taking the picture) in the canyon

Average weather: 10C (in Reykjavik that is, freakin' freezing up north :p) 

Sunrise: 6:49

Sunset: 7:56

Hours of light:  13h 6 min

Becoming Icelandic

Hey all!! I have finally settled in after more then a few complications and can actually starting sharing some of my icelandic adventures!

My arrival was amazingly painless, I stepped off the plane and some nice icelandic guy came up to me and showed me where the booth was to buy bus tickets. I asked the man at the booth what was the closest stop to my hotel and he responds “Oh we can take you straight to it if you like.” Another man helped me carry my stuff to the bus and eventually into the hotel. And that was it, easy peasy. 

Harbour right by my apartment

I’m pretty sure iceland was just lulling me into a false sense of security though because from that point on nothing was particularly easy. I woke up the next morning with a fever and after a few hours of walking (I got a wee bit lost) when I finally found my apartment no one was there. So I had to go back and get a hotel room for another night.  Then over the next few days I had to go from one government building to the next filling out this form and getting pictures taking and hundreds upon hundreds of scans of my passport. Iceland is based on a ID number system called a kennitala, which is kind of like our social insurance number on steroids. Without this magical number I can’t register for school, sign my lease, I can’t even load money on my phone card. Which has been a pain because without registering for school I can’t see my timetable or change my classes. Unfortunately I am STILL waiting on my papers to go through so I can get my kennitala. Which is very frustrating. 

Also annoying was the fact that having finally gotten to my apartment I had to move out again to a hostel for 4 days because my landlord had rented it out for that time. Luckily there happened to be one around the corner so it wasn’t too inconvenient but still involved a lot of time spent sharing a room with 11 other people one of whom snored... 

However, once I got past all the little annoyances the transition has been pretty easy. Reykjavik is really beautiful, colorful and cute and full of little eccentricities. The people here speak english really well, overall the best english I’ve ever experienced in a non-anglophone country. I spent the first few days asking “do you speak english” to which most people respond with “ of course I do” and a look that said “stupid tourists”. The icelandic are very friendly in a nordic way. They are very brusque and do not waste time tip-toeing around. My very first night I went to a restaurant and two Italian tourists in front of me asked the waitress how long it will be, she responded with “I can’t tell you how long it will be! Either people will eat fast or they will eat slow!” So I walked up kind of freaked out thinking what a grump she was, but when I said I would wait she took me out to the backyard, gave me a blanket, brought me a beer and preceded to sit and chat with me for 10 minutes. People have some bark, but are willing to go far out of their way for you. 

I haven’t started classes yet because of the registration issues. Though I was fully intending on going to a class today only to spend the hour wandering around between the two campuses trying to ask people where a place called Stakkahlid was. Except that I can’t pronounce Stakkahlid so half to people probably had no idea what I was talking about. Haha, I really need to start that icelandic class! But the exchange student program at the school is really great. They have over 600 exchange students this year which is crazy. I guess the school makes up a lot of it’s student population with international students. So they have lots of programs and clubs available to us. Already there have been three parties with live music at them and a rafting trip. 

The rafting trip was very fun, though the water (being glacial water) was freakin’ FREEZING!! There was one part where we jumped off a cliff into it and all I could think of was “ I finally understand what the people on the titanic went through” :p I was sure my feet were never going to defrost. 

These are geothermal rivers in a hill we passed on the way to rafting. It was almost eery seeing what looked like smoke in the middle of nowhere. 

Speaking of cold, I know Iceland is known for being cold. But everyone was told me it wasn’t that cold, especially during the summer. So I had high expectations. Let me tell you, people lie. It IS cold in iceland. The winters may not be that bad but the summers are COLD. Though it’s only 12C the wind is either off the ocean or straight off the glaciers. I would like to thank my mother for having the thought that a winter coat is good and all, but not so great soaking wet. Because it has rained probably 7 of the 10 days I’ve been here. Were it not for your wise advise I would be trucking around in a very soggy down jacket. On the plus side, it drizzles not pours, so you can still get around. But it rains pretty constantly all day long, with no breaks. However, when the sun does come out it’s like a holiday. Everyone hits the streets, and they set up “tanning” beds in the square so you can soak it up. 

Anywho, tomorrow I am off on a trip to the center of iceland (aka no mans land) with a bunch of people I just met. The center of iceland is so sparsely populated that we have to tent (no hotels) and buy enough food beforehand for the whole trip (no grocery stores.) So all in all it should be an interesting trip. Wish me luck!! 

Average temp: 10C

Sunrise: 6:32

Sunset: 8:17

Hours of sunlight: 13h 45m