Runtur

Runtur is Reykjavik's big pub crawl that starts tonight around midnight and lasts until the morning hours (which light-wise makes no difference, as we find waking up around 1 am every night to bright twilight that never transforms into complete darkness). The plan was to stay up until then and watch the spectacle for which Reykjavik apparently is known, but at the moment I doubt that will happen. We're both back in our coffeeshop, hanging out on a couch, reading and writing and daydreaming. I have a feeling we'll just go to bed when we get back to the hostel. Seems our wild days are over ;-) Let's blame it on the jetlag and the weather... it was an absolutely dreadful day today - rain, gusty winds, "slugbelly grey sky" (a couple from Seattle just taught us that phrase ;-)) and cold. More like January in Nashville than JUNE. That alone made me decide that I would never emigrate to Iceland...I don't know how people stand the fact that this is the warmest season of the year and it's barely warm and sunny enough for the snow to melt.
Luckily, we had decided two days ago that today would be our day at the Blue Lagoon. Even that, though was rough at times. The whole lagoon is outside and the wind blew heavily over our heads. Being out of the water turned into an arctic experience, so we soaked in the pools for about 5 hours straight, lunch and bathroom breaks aside. Now we look like raisins with baby-soft skin :) I'm attaching some pictures for you to see... the lagoon is in the most surreal landscape you can imagine...all dark rocks and nothing else. Really looks like I picture the moon in parts. The lagoon itself is this fancy thermal pool that advertises its mineral and algae water and silica mud that is supposed to be really good for your skin, body and soul. Naturally, all our ailments are gone now ;-)
Tomorrow is our last day in Reykjavik and we'll try to see more of the city, hoping that the weather will be a bit kinder.

1. Our hostel (The Salvation Army Guesthouse) from the outside


2. The Blue Lagoon, part I

3. The Blue Lagoon, part II

4. The two of us looking 10 years younger after our spa day ;-) (note that what looks crazy about Patrice's hair is actually a shadow and something in the wall)

Where's Waldo (aka Patrick)?

Forgot this...

1. This is the home of the best hot dog in the world..according to Lonely Planet, the city paper... and now Patrick.

Reykjavik trivia 102

Found a nice little coffee shop in a bookstore (not Starbuck's and not Barnes and Noble, thank goodness, but "te og kaffi") and I will use the remaining minutes my battery grants me to tell you about our day today. Let's start with Reykjavik/ Iceland trivia, 102, shall we?
- One of the traditional dishes is putrified shark meat. No joke. In this case, I think we'll pass on "When in Rome, do as the Romans"...
- About 70% of Iceland's population live in the Reykjavik area...so the country (the size of Kentucky) is pretty much empty. There are only 300.000 people total, which makes it the least densely populated country in Europe. And: Only 2 % of the country is forested. Other than that, there's rock and grass and lots of dandelions.
- The welfare system is similar to other European countries: High taxes, but free schooling, free healthcare, money for children until they are out of school and all that good stuff.
- About 75 % of the country uses geothermal heating for heating houses and water.
- Icelanders have the highest life expectancy in Europe, possibly in the world (depending o where you look Japan might be higher for women). Must be that putrified shark and all this clean air. I was a bit surprised about that as fruit and veggies seem to be a luxury here ...almost all of it has to be imported (although, we learned today, the Iceland School of Horticulture grows bananas in a greenhouse nearby. Sounds like that should make them cheaper, but that's actually not the case. In the winter the shortest day has only about 4 hours of daylight, so much electricity is needed to provide the bananas with the sunlight they need.)
Alright, now about our day. We fell asleep right away last "night" at 6 pm after a nice long soak in one of the many geothermal pools here. It felt fabulous after that fairly long trip to be out in the rough, cloudy early spring cold and to sit in a jacuzzi (one 104 degrees [41 C], the other a bit cooler). We slept like rocks until about 1 am, at which time we were wide awake (and it was light enough outside to fool you into thinking it was at least 5 am). Somehow we managed to go back to sleep, though, and woke up to our wake-up call at 7 am in order to get ready for our tour on time. Our tour today took us all along the golden triangle I talked about yesterday. We saw craters and waterfalls and geysers and the midatlantic rift (Iceland should really be two islands by now...only volcanic eruptions fill in the gap enough to "glue" together what the tectonic movement pulls apart.). The latter goes through the Thingvellier National Park, where the parliament of Iceland used to hold its meetings for two weeks every year until the 18th century (if I recall correctly). Pretty cool stuff. Only downside: We ended up choosing the tourbus over the rental car for financial reasons (although let's not talk about what we ended up paying for the day today...) and tourbuses are just never cool. You always have to stop and go wherever everyone else stops and goes and that way you never get off the beaten track. You end up in more souvenir shops than sights, but alas. Iceland on a budget is kind of like Dubai or Japan or San Francisco on a budget - either you spend all your money eating real food and staying at a decent place without bunk beds or you sacrifice your healthy diet for a few days and stay in bunk beds so you can at least see some of what you came for. Or you wait until you're older and more established to come here...which most people seem to do, as we rarely see backpackers and lots of older folks instead.

Enough said for today... below some pics...




1. Reykjavik's main drag...really

2. Our room
3. Look closely at the roof of the car!!!
4. One of the volcanic craters right by Reykjavik (Kerid crater)
5. Gullfoss waterfall - one of the most visited waterfalls in Iceland.
6. Gullfoss again (it was FREEZING!!!)




7. ...and again

8. The geyser crater before it "spits"



9. ...and right at the beginning (my camera wasn't fast enough to let me get the whole deal)

10. And, last but not least, the midatlantic rift. Look to the left and you can see the edge of the plate quite well...

"Bless, bless"...

Back in Europe

Greetings from Reykjavik, everyone. Patrick impressed me earlier this morning with telling me that the name translates as "smoky bay" and is the city with the most bookstores per capita worldwide. Ah ha, now we know our trivia!
We got here early this morning (6.30 local time) and are now hanging on to an iron will to stay awake until at least 4 or 5 this afternoon. First impressions include "Wow, this DOES look like the moon" (other than dandelions and tulips we haven´t seen much green here...mostly rock, water and ice, really), "Shit, this is expensive!" ($85 for a bunk bed room that is about as small as the average pantry; $ 4 for a CUP of coffee; $360 for a rental car for three days [didn´t take it]) and "Is this really almost June in the northern hemisphere?" (the air is so crisp, it´s beautiful, but it feels more like late February than late May).

Tomorrow we´ll probably go see the geyser (Old Faithful´s European brother), an impressive waterfall and one of the most visited national parks around here (all together called the Golden Circle). I´m really excited about our Friday plans, though... a day trip to the gigantic natural spa, the Blue Lagoon. Supposedly you can hang out in the thermal water for hours, then go to the sauna, put some mineral mud on your face (apparently really good for your skin, as we read everywhere) and just r e l a x. Finding a thermal puddle to sit in really isn´t difficult here, it seems. The map is covered with locations...so we might just skip the shower and check out the local pool tonight.

I wish I could upload some pics already, but it seems I schlepped my laptop over here for nothing at this point. Wi-fi isn´t accessible, resp. it costs you an arm and a leg (now we´re in the library for $2.50 for 30 minutes), so that´s out as an every-day activity :( I´ll update you guys at the latest when we get to London (hoping that one of the airports will provide a fast internet connection). Anyway...we´ve got to get back outside and moving or else we´ll fall asleep. More soon... Bless! (Icelandic for good-bye)