The Land of Ice and Fire (but mostly just ice) - part V

After the morning's fantastic glacial lagoon experience, we broke for lunch (simple soups and sandwiches) and romped around on the beach, posing with the colossal ice structures that had washed up on shore.

Our gracious friend Jerry was throwing pebbles at us while we were trying to get a photo.

Sketchy dealings in the mean streets of Eyjafjallajökull

I did a very undignified army crawl to get this picture

Pretty sure this is how Icelandic people are born.

Then it was time for our afternoon tour, this time of the glacier itself.

We wrestled on our crampons and took childish delight in wielding our ice axes.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

Our tour guide's name was pronounced like Aileen but I'm sure it was spelled differently. She was a fantastic guide and taught us all about the features of the glacier.

Measuring the depth of the stream with her ice axe. Some of them were surprisingly deep. Eep.

A small glacial kame. Kames form when glaciers melt and streams carry sediment that pile up as a delta.

A deeeeeep crevasse. We had to tread very carefully to get photographs of this!

At one our guide asked if we were thirsty and suggested taking a sip of pure Icelandic glacial water from one of the many streams we encountered. Of course, the proper Icelandic way was to lower oneself over the ice axe, sip the water, and do a pushup to get back up.

Phil takes a gander 

The boy showing off with his raised leg

My form needs some work...I blame all the hot dogs.

If the background looks familiar, it's because this glacier is a popular backdrop for film and television. Game of Thrones (the wall scenes) and Interstellar (Matt Damon planet) are among two of the more famous productions that have stopped by.

I was pleasantly surprised by how different the glacier appeared depending on the angle and light. It wasn't just one massive ice formation; there were different textures and colors everywhere. It was a visual smorgasbord of ice.

We even practiced using our ice axes on some of the walls and pretending to ice climb.

Our tour came to an end all too soon. We packed into the van, dozed off on the drive back to our cars, bid farewell to our guides, and headed to the town of Hofn for dinner, as we'd heard it to be described as "lobster capital of Iceland".

Well, lobster was a bit of an overstatement - Icelandic lobster is actually langoustine, which are smaller and lighter than their coveted cousins. They were still very delicious, but our ravenous appetites weren't quelled with light seafood so we found a convenience store and ate more hotdogs and soft-serve ice cream. I felt like a five year old kid. It was awesome! 

It was yet another fantastic day in Iceland filled with good food, great friends, and jaw-dropping views.

The Land of Ice and Fire (but mostly just ice) - part IV

After a long hiatus, the Iceland series returns! I'm determined to finish it out, even if I'm ninety years old and exhaling dust by the time I write the last part.

Parts I, II and III can be found accordingly and are like, so last year.

Our next adventure in Iceland took us to glaciers of Eyjafjallajökull (now that's a mouthful), where we encountered a whole lot of the namesake of the country. 

To begin, we got measured into ice-friendly shoes by beautiful blond people, as one does when in Iceland.

Now glacier-ready, we hopped on a bus along with other tourists and soaked in both the incredible views and the much-appreciated rays of Icelandic sunshine.

The views didn't get worse once the bus stopped.

Next, we got suited up...

...and tested the aerodynamics of our new outfits.

There's an old, wise saying: for every one jumping picture where everyone is in sync, there are ten others where they're not.

Sufficiently warmed up, it was now time for us to get in some super serious sightseeing. We boarded our glacial lagoon vehicles and took our seats.

Our captains also served as our tour guides. They navigated through the glaciers effortlessly as we took in the ever-changing views. I definitely felt like I was in a James Bond spy movie and that at any moment we'd pull into a secret lair in the ice where Christoph Waltz would be waiting. That sneaky little man.

We got extremely lucky with the weather and our timing, as that day was the second to last day that the lagoon tour even operated for the entire year. Winter comes really early in Iceland; go figure. 

We learned a lot about the glaciers in this part of Iceland; how the water level has been rising, how the gigantic formations we see above water only consist of a tenth of what was beneath, and even how to spot stress points in some of the glaciers that would inevitably break off over time, so that no two days on the tour were ever the same. 

We spotted a seal as well, but I wasn't quick enough with my camera to capture its little head before it popped back underwater.

Towards the end of the tour, our guides encouraged us to scoop up some ice and give it a taste.

Our ride around the glacier lagoon was definitely one of the neatest things I've ever experienced, and the views were some of the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. It was one of those mornings where all I could think was, damn nature, you're awesome!

The Land of Ice and Fire (but mostly just ice) - part III

Day two of our vacation brought us to the Westman Islands, an archipelago off the southwest coast that is home to a little over 4,000 residents.

Iceland is roughly the size of Ohio. Ohio has 12m inhabitants. Iceland, 320K.

While waiting for our ferry, we explored one of Iceland's famous black sand beaches.

Flappy Derek

The classic Captain Jack Sparrow pose

On the ferry ride we caught a glimpse of the house on Elliðaey island, which is also sometimes referred to as the loneliest house in the world. We actually had no idea that the island was part of the Westman archipelago so it was a real neat, hey-would-you-look-at-that, just-look-at-it moments.

As the ferry pulled in closer to the main island, Heimaey, the views got better and better. It felt like Scotland and Mars made an island baby and plopped it in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

First order of business: find one of them famous hotdogs that people here are so nuts about.

The verdict: very good. They add lamb meat for extra yumminess and the topping choices include two kinds of mustard, ketchup, and two kinds of onion - raw and crispy. All of it was delicious and terribly convenient. And at $5 apiece, inexpensive by Icelandic standards. 10/10 would scarf down again.

Bellies full, we turned our attention to learning more about the Westman islands, which came to international attention in 1973 when one of its volcanos, Eldfell, erupted without much warning. (Sidebar: Eldfell means "Mountain of Fire" in Icelandic. That's like naming a waterfall "Water falling down a ledge") Everyone on the island had to be evacuated to the mainland and much of the town was destroyed following the eruption. According to Wikipedia, the lava flow from the eruption was threatening to destroy the island's harbour, which provided the island's main source of income as a fishing hub. So the Icelandic pumped 6.8 billion gallons of sea water to cool down the lava and slow its path of destruction.

We rented bikes and checked out some of the houses that were destroyed by the eruption and preserved in their original state. It sounded like a cool idea in theory but it was actually rather depressing to see these ruined homes and to imagine what they would have been like before the eruption.

After that we biked toward the coast of the island to see some puffins. Heimaey was a joy to bike around on - the roads were well paved, there were very few cars, and there were enough hills to keep things interesting (and my back sweaty).

One of my favorite areas where we stopped was at Herjolf's Valley, where we explored a replica of an old Icelandic home.

Hobbitses

The inside reminded me of Crastor's Keep from GoT

We reached the coast just a few short minutes later (the island of Heimaey is only around 5 square miles), admired the view and scanned the skies for puffins.

We ended our day on the islands with a good old hike up the valley. There was no trailhead or anything, just a small, steep meandering pathway that led us to increasingly breathtaking views of the island. Ad-hoc hikes with zero expectations are always the best.

Ravenous, we returned the bikes and headed to downtown (a little strip of restaurants and stores) for a meal. We found a cafe that was absolutely excellent. I didn't take pictures of my chicken burger because I was too preoccupied with consuming it as fast as humanly possible. Then we boarded our return ferry where I think all of us fell asleep in about five minutes' time.

Our evening began with a journey to yet another epic waterfall. Along the way, we passed by many smaller waterfalls. They were inferior only in comparison to the huge and incredible ones elsewhere in this country; I would have stopped for and taken a zillion pictures of the smallest ones if we were anywhere else in the world.

Skogafoss - flawless.

I woke up like this

Too good not to share

We ended the evening with a visit to an unmarked natural hot spring which required quite the trek to get to. It was dark and absolutely freezing by the time we found it. Slipping into the warm water felt amazing and we had it pretty much all to ourselves. We stayed for an hour or so, admiring the stars above and taking turns sitting on the "throne" where the hottest water was gushing from. I don't have any pictures from the experience but it was one of the best things we did in Iceland, and a stellar way to finish an amazing day in this otherworldly place.