Iceland: Part 2, Lakes, Fjords, Rivers, Mountains, Pools

Góðan daginn,

My homestay family has run away for the weekend, so I'm left sitting here listening to three enormous cruise ships in the harbor blowing their massive horns incessantly; they must be arguing over who gets to empty their thousand gallon tanks of human waste next to the Akureyri marina. The weather has been 50's and fog just about everyday here, except for the days when we have gone on day trips nearby. We've been quite lucky to catch these sunny days when we most needed them, as there are great mountains everywhere which will easily become covered by low clouds within minutes. Monday ends our 3 week stay here in Akureyri. It is a nice city, but by now we have started running out of things to do around town. When we are not stuck in a classroom at school all day, we're either out at cafes downtown or hiking around the nearby mountains. The best part about the city is the swimming pool. It has about eight different pools/tubs that are heated to different temperatures, some are too hot to be in for more than a couple minutes. And due to their strict controls about cleanliness (there are attendants in the showers to make sure you clean yourself adequately(!)), there is very little chlorine used. There are also nice sunsets around here when the clouds recede around midnight.

One of the first places we drove to here was a small farm north of the city called Skarð. We hiked up a small river there to a waterfall, then went to these old earth-covered houses at Laufas. On our first weekend here we rented a bus and 14 of us went to Reykjavik for the free Nattura concert which was pretty awesome. Later the fam took me to a cross-town rivalry soccer game. The kids were constantly making cacophonous chants with drums and buzzers, it was quite exciting to see how much people are into it here. I think the next weekend four of us climbed Mt. Sulur, which sits just above the town. I'm still trying to learn a few key points about hiking, including that paths are better than no paths (this apparently isn't a 'path'), boulders aren't anchored to the ground, and snow is slippery (which makes it more fun).

The next weekend was awesome, we went away to Lake Mývatn and its surrounding areas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BDvatn). We stopped at the huge waterfall called Goðafoss in the middle of the country, then a second underground hydropower plant. This place was built in a cave that felt like something Disney would have built, and even had an art exhibition going on right inside the plant! After going to a geothermal plant at Krafla, we hiked in two lava fields that had formed in fairly recent times. The first had paths and some interesting natural caves, and the second was formed in the 1970's and was covered with extremely rough, black rock. That evening we went swimming at an awesome hot pool/lake called Jarðböðin; you could lay near the drainage point and see mountains across the entire lake. We stayed in a cabin by the lake that night, and hiked on another lava field adjacent to it up to the lake. This rock was very weak, but was covered in the softest moss you could imagine, so we laid around for a while. The sun continued to set for a few hours, casting the greatest light on the lake and field; later after the hike back the sky looked amazing 1 2 3.

The next morning we went to some hot springs beneath a long crack formed from tectonic plate shifting. There was a newly drilled geothermal borehole dug nearby; these things have such immense pressure beneath the earth that they have to let them blowout for several days before they can use them (there is video link here as well http://www.flickr.com/photos/42461994@N00/2656818056/in/set-72157606062029995/). Our awesome guide Karl took us to a small crater that had been formed by an explosion of magma while workers were taking a coffee break after drilling a new borehole. When they returned, the drill (looks like an oil drill) was gone, and only some fragments of it were found miles away. Karl is also a relative of Dr. Evil. Next to this is a larger crater lake named Viti (Hell in Icelandic) which was really pretty. We then went over the hill to a field of bubbling mud pools that smelled so strongly of sulfur that we were getting headaches. Our last stop of this trip was at the southern end of the lake, which was covered with small grassy craters.

This past week we went disc golfing up the fjord. The course was unlike any I've seen in the US, it was covered with brush & trees, and holes could go up the mountain or over streams. It was alot of fun though. On Wednesday we took a 3 hour ferry to the island Grimsey, the northernmost point of Iceland. The island has about two things going for it: it crosses the arctic circle, and lots of puffins live on the cliffs. Other than that, it is a tiny place without a single tree, 100 inhabitants, and birds which try to attack you.

On Tuesday we fly to Reykjavik for a week. More precisely, we are staying outside of the city at the old US military base which was suddenly abandoned. We will then head north to the West Fjords to this tiny city built in the middle of a fjord; should be awesome. All these photos so far (plus many more) are in the Part 2 and (not by me) albums here. Hope things are going well back home, see ya later!