Imagine

Hey guys! Every week there is some new experience or adventure to undertake. Two weeks ago I tried out Icelandic horseback riding. The horses are adorable, they are very small (technically ponies, but don't tell the Icelandic's that) and have very cute long fuzzy hair. Icelandic horses are famous for their extra gait called the Tolt. Which I am a big fan of, it is faster then a trot but amazingly smooth. However, when you ride Icelandic horses you don't post, you sit even when trotting and they like to move really fast. Which I am not used to, so I was in a lot of pain in the morning, haha. It was really fantastic riding through the lava fields though. 

Group riding

I also went on a field trip with my class where I got my first sight of boiling mud. Which is very alien looking, it seemed completely unnatural. 

Boiling mud pot

The area was one of the most martian locations I've been to.  Not to mention a little terrifying because this was once of the hottest lava fields, with temperatures over 200 C and the only thing separating you from it was a rickety little wooden walkway... 

We also went to see an old volcanic crater. It was beautiful because of the variation in colour in the rocks from blue to red. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but to give you an idea of how huge it is, those little dots at the top are people... 

A Huldrefolk (hidden people) farm :) 

Then completely randomly I got invited to go watch the lighting of the Peace Tower. I had no idea that this was such a big event. The Peace tower is a gift from Yoko ono to John Lennon and it is lit every year on his birthday and kept lit until the day he died in december. 

 The tower itself is made up of many beams of light and is so bright it can be seen from the opposite end of the city. Tons of people showed up to watch it being lit, including Yoko Ono herself which was very cool. They played imagine as they slowly turned on the lights and the whole crowd sang along ( haha in some semblance of english). 

Sorry this was all so quick and not very detailed but I am desperately trying to get up to date so that I can give you all a better idea of all the amazing things I'm seeing but I'm keeping wayyy to busy! So that's all for now folks!!

Average weather: 6C  

Sunrise: 7:55 am

Sunset: 6:34 pm

Hours of light:  10h 38 min

Family Visitors and the Golden Circle :)

Hello again! 

Still playing catchup unfortunately. Two weeks ago my very loving Mother, Father and Brother came all the way across the Atlantic ocean to this teeny island to visit me. :D Jared came first and we headed up north to visit Akureyri again. The drive up was beautiful and Jared got his first views of the lava fields and the stark emptiness that is Iceland. We also came across this amazing waterfall in the middle of nowhere. It was huge and yet the only thing preventing us from jumping into it was a tiny little broken cord. Which made Jared REALLY happy, not. This is apparently all the safety needed, I’d really like to know how many tourists die in Iceland every year. What with the waterfalls, and boiling hot pools that all have essentially no barriers. I’m sure some stupid tourists have been boiled here, haha. 

That night we stayed in Akureyri which despite being Iceland’s second biggest city is pretty darn tiny. We wandered around town searching for a restaurant that wasn’t painfully expensive ( very rare) or a store to in that was open after 6 o’clock on a saturday night (turns out there isn’t one). The next day we tried out one of the more famous natural hot springs in the north. 

It had an amazing view and was nice because there were so much less people there then you see at the more famous blue lagoon. We also checked out a whale museum in a town called Husavik, where they had some awesome whale skeletons and info on whaling. Whaling is still legal in Iceland though currently only Minke whale is caught, and only for local consumption but they are trying to find a market to export it. This is a pretty big controversy here though the fact that everyone that I know that has tried whale thinks it is delicious makes me wonder if maybe the Icelanders are on to something... 

Killer Whale skeleton

Sunday night we picked up Mom and Dad and we spent Monday exploring Reykjavik and I got to show off some of my Icelandic tour guide knowledge. That night they tried out some of the more... interesting icelandic food, whale and puffin. For those of you who are wondering I’ve been told whale tastes pretty much like beef, and that puffin is not at all similar to chicken but has an salty ocean taste to it. I can’t say from personal experience though... Haha, I have yet to see anyone try out the fermented shark though. 

Mom, Jared and I posing with a the Viking Boat sculpture in Reykjavik.

 The next day we did the “Golden Circle” which is essentially the 4 major sights in Iceland, Gullfoss (the golden falls), Geysir (the original geysir thank you very much! :p), Thingvellir and the Blue Lagoon. I won’t go into to much detail, I’ll just give you the readers digest version. 

 Gullfoss is a very big waterfall that some woman made a national park by threatening to throw herself in it. It’s called the Golden falls either because some rich man threw his gold in it so no one would have it when he died, or because of the rainbow that is often seen there.

Thingvellir is the sight of the originally icelandic parliament back in Viking times. It seems a guy would stand on a rock a spew out the laws of the time and then they all fought a lot as far as I can tell. But it’s pretty neat to have such ancient history kept up today. They still have some important events in the same location. Mostly though now it’s just a national park. However, it also is the sight of the continental divide. Iceland is one of the few places the continental plates are actually splitting apart, making iceland a few cm bigger each year. The cleft is so big it pretty much engulfs the whole valley, the cliff on one side being the north american plate, the other the eurasian plate. When you stand in Thingvellir park you are technically on neither and are standing in the middle of no-mans-land. It’s kind of creepy when you think about it... This area has up to 15 earthquakes a day, though mostly you can’t feel them. 

The North-American side of the continental divide

Finally we went to the Blue Lagoon, a giant hot pool made from the runoff water used in the steam electricity plant. To make electricity here they pump hot water from the earth, use that water to heat fresh water and then use the steam from the fresh water to make electricity. The original hot water is then pumped into this pool. It’s suppose to be full of minerals that are good for you and they even have buckets of goop on the side of the pools that is high in silica that you are suppose to use as a mask. However, the best part is definitely the bar inside the pool. There is nothing quite like a glass of wine while you soak with your face mask on. :) 

Enjoying our drinks that we payed for with these cool high-tech wristbands that also controlled the lockers. 

Everyone trying out the mud masks. The mud is free in buckets around the pool, and is made from natural ingredients from the water.

 Geysir is the name of a large geysir here. Icelandics get very touchy about the name because the word “Geysir” orginated from the name of this uh... Geysir. The icelandic word geysir means gusher and this term spread around the world. However, very few people know this and that gets peoples noses out of joint. Now you know! Anywho Geysir doesn’t even go off very frequently anymore but the nearby Strokkur (churn) goes off every couple of minutes. It took me like 40 minutes getting the whole eruption videotaped from beginning to end though, I’m very proud :)

The next day we journeyed east to see some amazing waterfalls ( I won’t mention all of them because there are a LOT of amazing waterfalls here), beautiful sea cliffs, and most famous of all the Eyjafjalladjokull volcano and glacier. Also known as the tiny volcano that caused all the trouble in 2010... The volcano is pretty unimpressive to look at though the glacier was pretty crazy. At home the glacier is so high up in the mountains, you have to go out of your way to see it. Here the glacier is at ocean level, you are literally driving down the highway, ocean on your right, glacier on your left. 

This is Eyfjallajokull, though you can't really see it. This farm was almost destroyed in the eruption. You should all be very proud, I have finally learned how to pronounce the name properly. :) 

We hiked up to the glacier walking past the signs talking about all the dangers (quicksand? who knew?) along with a sign with two names on it saying “missing since 2008, from your loving families.” So we were feeling very safe. I did however get close enough to touch it though not actually walk on it...  

Me touching the glacier

 The next day we arrived at Jokulsarlon, a giant lagoon full of icebergs broken off of the glacier. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Nearby there was a black sand beach where many of the icebergs washed up on, so we could stand on them and get a close look at their crazy bright blue color. 

We got back in time for some shopping and museums. Mom and Dad's last day here we got to go to a concert at the Harpa concert hall, which is one of the most famous architecture buildings in iceland. It's pretty impressive looking. On top of that the concert was a disney symphony, so it was obviously fantastic. :p It was very fun. 

Note: All the credit for the photos in this post goes to Jared and his bran-spanking new camera. 

Average weather: 8C  

Sunrise: 7:23 am

Sunset: 7:13 pm

Hours of light:  11h 49 min

Rettir Adventure

The one I was at was considerable bigger then this.
But this will give you an idea of the shape of the pen. 

 Hey there! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything! I have lots to catch you up on. On the 15th of september I got the chance to attend a local Rettir, which is essentially a sheep round-up. Every year the sheep are released to spend their summer wandering around the island. In my last post I talked about how in the fall the farmers then spend weeks going around on horseback or with quads rounding up all the sheep. Once the sheep are all collected they have to be separated by farm. The sheep are placed in a center circular pen that has other pens branching off of it like spokes. Each outer pen belongs to a different farmer and the sheep are herded into each one.  

The pen I was at was ancient and made of stone. It was very cool.

However, this is no simple organized thing. It could probably be done in half the time except for the fact that the whole family joins in. Mothers stand around holding their babies high so they don’t get squashed, 5 year olds attempt to wrestle their first sheep, older kids have sheep riding competitions, teens stand around drinking beer, grandparents give advice. Basically the pen is filled with almost as many people as sheep and most of them are just watching, drinking and singing icelandic songs. The Rettir was once one of the last chances to socialize before winter, so it has become more of a party then a job. 

 So after having had a lovely relaxing summer the sheep are put through a years worth of stress in one day. Once all the people have arrived crowding into the center pen, hundreds of sheep are herded into the pen and the free for all begins. The goal is to grab a kicking running sheep, read the ID number on it’s ear, grab it’s horns and swing your legs over the sheep. Then you attempt to hop/ shuffle your sheep to the location, weaving through people and animals all while the sheep is desperately trying to get away. I attempted once and got about 5 meters with it. :p

This is how you catch a sheep

All the crowds of people, and the sea of sheep.

These guys were just so cute and typically icelandic with their white blond hair and icelandic sweaters :)

This video shows a new group of sheep being herded in, and the sheep going insane haha.

 It was really neat getting to be part of such a real icelandic tradition, though I definitely felt like a stupid tourist who was mostly just getting in the way. It was pretty insane, loud and hilarious and I have never seen so many icelandic sweaters in one place before, hahaha. 

My attempt at catching a sheep...

I'm going to put the info for the date of the rettir. Not for todays date. 

Average weather: 10C  

Sunrise: 6:52

Sunset: 7:52

Hours of light:  13h 00 min