Iceland is not a country one can visit again mainly because of its astronomical prices, but our recent holiday to this country was simply the most memorable! It is not a popular destination for the brown skin and when I say that, I mean it literally - validated by the fact that A and I were almost the only two 'brownies' in this land of fire and ice. Nestled alone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, this land provides some of the most stunning landscapes - with active geothermal springs, Glacier Mountains, waterfalls, black-sand beaches and an extremely vibrant remoteness to existence. It boasts of the world's oldest functioning parliament (established in 930), midnight sun in the summers, northern lights in the winters and most importantly, its 'Icelandic' way of life. Of course, it is a misnomer that due to its economic crisis, the country is ‘affordable’, nevertheless, our visit for a week was simply the most amazing! What better way to relive every moment of the trip than by sorting pictures and essaying on them –
Blue Lagoon
Since this is close to the airport, it made practical sense to begin our trip with this site. The Lagoon is a geo-thermal spa, man-made by accident, thanks to the water from the geo-thermal power plant in close proximity.
The water that was run off the filter from the plant was assumed to have been absorbed in the nearby grounds but it actually got collected in the surrounding lava and thus formed a Lagoon – an amazing aqua-blue color created due to the mix of algae/silica formed in the geothermal water.
The lagoon is surrounded by a misty landscape and lava fields abound.
Maintaining this backdrop, the building is a low-key standpoint close to the plant that seems like a star-trek satellite base of sorts. One of the main touristic destinations turned out to be the most under-rated! The lagoon itself is considered to have curative properties typically, this experience involved slopping into the warm 30C water and grab hand ful of silica – from around the pool area – give yourself a scrub and then let it run through under an enormously hard waterfall - a natural form of ‘swedish massage’ one can ever get!
Maintaining this backdrop, the building is a low-key standpoint close to the plant that seems like a star-trek satellite base of sorts. One of the main touristic destinations turned out to be the most under-rated! The lagoon itself is considered to have curative properties typically, this experience involved slopping into the warm 30C water and grab hand ful of silica – from around the pool area – give yourself a scrub and then let it run through under an enormously hard waterfall - a natural form of ‘swedish massage’ one can ever get!
Golden Circle
We took a day-trip around the Golden Circle – mere collection of splendid wonders and historical sites and called golden because of the region being encircled with the most vegetation in the country. Also ironic is the fact that this site is a park where continents have met and collided to form fire and solidify into ice!
Silfra - We started off by taking a ‘dry-suited’ snorkeling ‘tour’ (thanks to Tobias from Dive.is) of the Silfra – the crack between Eurasian and North American tectonic plates visible in this glacier, clear-transparent and purest form of water.
The sensation of snorkeling, at first intimidating, was the most impressive especially since the water current literally swayed us through the two ‘continents’ in 2C water. This clearly was the highlight of our trip!
Thingvellir National Park - Apart from being considered as the site ‘in-between two continents’, this is also the world’s first Parliament (930). We took in its various elements – the visible fault line where the plates meet in the form of a long ridge. We walked partly through the ridge with stunning views of the Althing.
Geysir - At first, this site let out an awful smell – the likes of ammonium peroxide in a chemistry lab. After a while, you get used to it especially when seeing Geysir Strokkur erupt every 7-8 minutes or so, a precision of super-hot water that shoots right into the air from a hole in the ground.
A stated that these are caused by hot water colliding with the cool one and thus thrusting towards the surface!
You would think this place would be quite touristic and lots of people strolling around – surely so, if existed in the vicinity of North American territories – long queues, with least proximity to the actual site and ushers flagging ‘no-entry’ zones, screaming crazily! Thankfully, this place had a café, souvenir shop and beautiful landscape, untouched by crazy-flocking brochure-driven industry. Gulfoss (Golden Falls) - Same was true here where there were absolutely no security measures stopping us from going to the edge of the falls – and the experience was oh-so breathtaking!
There are two sets of these falls – each as magnificent (as Niagara) yet the wind and water with the stunning backdrop made it memorable.
Snaefellsnes Peninsula
We drove to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula – west of Iceland ridged by extinct volcanoes, landscape of glaciers, open beaches and sandy shoreline. It was this place that was referenced as ‘The Journey to the Center of the Earth’ by Jules Verne.
Budir - Visit to Snaefellsnes would not have been complete without a stay in Budir, 28-room hotel, set amidst a visceral surrounding with unspoilt view in all directions – lava fields, snow-capped Snaefekksnesjokull glacier and a wooden black chapel.
It is also one of the most romantic hotels with fancy food and to reiterate, a location to die for.
Glacier - The Snaefekksnesjokull Glacier offers some of the best hiking trails and while we nearly missed out on snowmobiling (the off-road driving on the glacier that was to lead us to the site became one of the scariest but wildest experience ever),
the view from the top was stunning!
the view from the top was stunning!
Rural Iceland – About 20 minutes from Budir, is Arnarstapi, a small village of collective dozen homes with a tiny harbor – typical fishing community –
offers a quaint feel with rock formations at the seashore, caves carved in the cliffs with amazing arches and bird cliffs galore.
Another similar town is Hellnar that offers one of the prettiest restaurants on the base of the cliff, overlooking the ocean. These towns share similar impression in that, there are lego-typed homes nestled at decent proximity to each other with remote access to civilization (except for regular tourists flocking around) and yet, savvy with the Internet. Here we got to ride on the Icelandic horses – more so as a pleasure-ride through the sandy beaches and river streams.
It was strange in such a harsh land to see sheep in flocks including the black sheep of the family.
Reykjavik (Reh-Kah-Vikh)
We never got the pronunciation of this city right, until we got there. Nearly 60% of the country's population resides in its capital and a trip to Iceland does call for getting a flavor of its 'urban' lifestyle by staying in the capital. Apart from exploring the ‘wild’ side of the country, we also got a taste of the world’s northern-most capital. The city had a pretty look-and-feel with narrow streets opening up to the harbor, upcoming high-rises and buildings painted in shades of blue, yellow, red.
These streets are popular for the graffiti art that adorn walls of the small buildings.
At the center of the city and standing tall is the Hallgrimskirkja Church gifted by the US to the country honoring the 1000th anniversary of the Althing. Unfortunately, we were unable to go inside or enjoy this site due to the on-going scaffolding work. A statue of Leif Ericson (the first explorer to visit Iceland) stands in front of the Church and offers a pretty view of the city in the background.
Then there is a mock-up version of a Viking Ship that at first looks like a multi-legged insect!
Another site further away from downtown city – Perlan (The Pearl) –a glass dome structure consisting of museum, art gallery, revolving restaurant and an observatory with a stunning view of the city and far beyond.
The main shopping streets in downtown Reykjavik - Laugarvegur and Skolavoroustigur – with boutique stores, souvenir shops and cafeterias galore. We frequented one of the popular retaurants – A Naestu Grosum (meaning First Vegetarian) – that provides a plethora of vegan meals, mess-like food but amazingly delicious and fresh. And how can Indians miss out on Indian food - so visiting the northern most Indian restaurant in the world was a must – visited the Austur Indiafjelagio literally meaning The East India Company for some delicious desi khaana. One of the weirdest things we experienced is the concept of water – drinking and otherwise. Hot water from the tap smells of sulphur and egg mixed together BUT the cold water is the purest form of water one can ever get. So the first piece of advice we got as tourists was to NOT buy bottled water in Iceland.
Overall, Iceland has a wonderful blend of luxury and adventure which, thanks to DTW, we were able to experience both. The sights it offers do tend to take the breath away and the remote existence was extremely romantic.
So would we visit this country again? To see the Northern Lights, most definitely!
