Iceland is a fantastic landscape of nearly unlimited expressions of barren. Lifeless lava fields; glacier capped mountain peaks; fields of sea grass with crippled shrubs, bent and twisted from a never-ceasing wind; eroding volcanic mounds. It seems that any tree growing here has been planted by man. The only native mammal is the arctic fox, who until the introduction by man of mice and rats subsisted on fish, birds and berries. Nearly any area of land containing enough soil to allow for grass to grow has sheep grazing there, resulting in nearly endless crisscrossing barbed wire fence lines. Lonely houses and farms dot the landscape.
John and I spent the first week of October exploring some of this marvelous island. Three days driving around the southern and western parts, then another 3 walking around the capital, Reykjavik.
Of particular interest to me are the greenhouses heated with volcanic steam, allowing for the production of numerous and various vegetables. In fact, the same energy source heats the buildings of Reykjavik as well as other cities. In the first night Hotel room in Hveragerdi, the bathroom tile floor was nearly unbearably hot from the heat pipes directly under. The shower had no curtain, and whatever water didn’t reach the small floor drain evaporated nearly immediately creating quite the sauna effect.
It was raining when we arrived at six in the morning and raining the day we left, but every single day between those contained only full sunshine and starlight. And wind. There is always wind, in some places it’s only moderate, in others it’s gale force. With chilly temperatures, the combination made for some discomfort, but the sunshine definitely helped temper that. Given the geology and topography of the Island, there are water filled volcanic craters, immense waterfalls, hot water geysers and other such phenomena. We also stopped and gawked and felt grateful that prime tourist season was finished because there was still a bucket-full of people at the popular destinations.
The second night we spent in Stykkisholmur, about 150 miles north of Reykjavik. A lovely tiny, tiny little town, but the largest in a vast area. “Downtown” consists of a commercial corner that has a grocery store, pharmacy, hardware store, and bank. Just up the street is the gas station also containing a “fried foods” restaurant. Listed in the “Happy Cow” directory of vegetarian and vegan option eateries was the only other restaurant in town, but sadly that one was closed for vacation, so dinner that night was another round of peanut butter sandwiches. (I’ve learned to bring a jar of peanut butter along on all international trips, bread can be bought anywhere, and this was our breakfast every single morning).
Not just Stykkisholmur, all the towns we saw and also Reykjavik are immaculately clean and tidy. Houses for the most part are practical and small, many bound up in an attractive colorful metal siding. Some with just the smallest hint of Scandinavian style gingerbread ornamentation. Larger towns have many utilitarian style apartments, but interestingly, most with balconies. There is a sense of complete orderliness. Stykkisholmur also has what has been called one of the most beautiful modernistic churches in the entire world! Our hotel (the only one in town) was next to it.
The Icelandic people apparently spend much of their time at home. Outside the capital, restaurants and bars are few. I suspect that the cost of everything plays a large factor. A dinner meal, almost regardless of what it is, costs at least the equivalent of $25. At one restaurant suggested to me by a friend, the prix fixe of a meal is $260! (Granted that was a really special restaurant.) Speaking of costs, the exchange rate of the Icelandic Krona – the country is part of the European Union but doesn’t use the Euro – is about 130 to 1 US $. For that reason, the price of anything is high and it’s very easy to get lost in the translation.
The population of Iceland, a country about the size of the US state Ohio, is less than 400,000, 80% of whom live in the Reykjavik metropolitan area. Perhaps for this reason many services are unattended by a human. Gas stations, parking garages, even our hotel in Reykjavik, which can create enormous problems as we discovered when it became apparent that we hadn’t been sent the door code for the hotel and were unable to access our room. That eventually worked out, but not without some considerable stress. I had chosen the hotel because of its downtown location, which really was quite perfect. The room had a nice-sized terrace, which despite the cold weather we took advantage of.
Reykjavik is a beautiful city, geared toward tourism (which has now become the #1 “industry” in the country, surpassing fishing and aluminum smelting). There is another rather fantastic, modernistic church, the front façade of which is designed to resemble lava flow. There are beautiful residential neighborhoods just a block from the main streets, a tremendous selection of vegan food options (our favorite was a tiny place offering vegetarian and vegan Polish dumplings about 2 blocks from the hotel), lovely promenades along the ocean, a fantastical huge, modern concert hall, charming government buildings and art deco hotels surrounding the old town square. And it’s all very compact, in our three days there we walked much of it (one day my device registered about 16,000 steps or 7 miles).
Reykjavik is also the home of the world’s only phallological museum, which of course we had to go through. More than 200 different mammal penises are on display either dehydrated or mostly in various sized clear glass chloroform-filled containers. There are well designed informational placards about the displays, as well as videos. And, yes, one human male, an elderly Icelandic gentleman (who died at the age of 94) donated his member to be displayed for all eternity. (Interestingly just yesterday the New York Times ran an article that the building housing the museum also contains numerous organizations engaged in nefarious internet scamming and identity theft operations.)
Most businesses, including grocery stores, only open at 10:00 in the morning, or even later. We speculated that perhaps this was because for much of the year, it’s dark. When we were there, daylight was split almost evenly, light by 8 dark by 7, but this will quickly shift to nearly full darkness by the end of December.
Yes, we saw the northern lights. The first time up north. We had gone out around 9:00 to look and there wasn’t anything. About ½ hour later, lying in bed relaxing suddenly we heard a commotion in the hallway, someone was knocking on doors yelling “northern lights”, so we also got redressed and went outside. Interestingly to the naked eye they were no more than white cloud-like streaks, but through the camera vivid colors could be seen. Later on the trip, while in the capital, around 9:30 one evening John got an alert from a “northern lights social group” which he had joined, that the sky should light up in 20 or 30 minutes, so he got himself dressed. I thought that he was just going out to our terrace, but in fact he walked down to the waterfront (along with many other people) and enjoyed a dazzling exhibition there.
It was a beautiful trip and vacation. We were able to experience aspects that make our precious planet so wonderful and unique. The starkness and power that lies beneath our feet, come up to the surface, eventually to wear down and become the life source for future layers of existence.
May all our journeys be filled with hope and joy!
With love,
Zintis
