Iceland – Page 4 – helenthura.com

July 6, 2006July 7, 2006

Iceland Megatrip 2005 – Day 7

July 1, 2005.We left HjÃ¶rdÃs’s house in Borgarnes with washing in the machine and clothes spread out over the heaters which she would bring with her when she left for the Moot. Today we spent time exploring parts of the SnÃ¦fellsnes Penisula.

1. We headed out of Borgarnes and onto the open road 🙂

2. We pulled off the 54 to have a look at the ruler straight basalt columns at GerÃ°uberg, this was pretty cool, it is really long escarpment that is all these super straight basalt columns

3. I have written down in my photo log that I took a couple of photos at BÃ¶Ã°varsholt but I have no idea what they were of, so we shall leave it at that.

4. Arnastapi.
This was a nice little fishing town that is linked to another little fishing town (Hellnar) by a 2.5km walk along the shoreline. Mum did the walk, whilst us three drove round to meet her. I wish now that I had done the walk with her and I know that if we had visited this place at the end of our trip and not the beginning I would have but I had not yet acclimatised to the Icelandic weather when it was drizzley 🙁 Behind Arnastapi is Stapafell which is can be used to get access to Snaefellsjokull which is where “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” by Jules Verne starts.

The rock sculpture is of BÃ¡rÃ°ur SnÃ¦fellsÃ¡s who is the protector of the region, if Pabbi was awake whilst I was doing this, I would get him to type up the story of BÃ¡rÃ°ur.

5. DjupalÃ³n and Dritvik
This beach was reasonably full of people exploring the kelp and wrecks, playing with the “lifting stones” and finding that perfect pebble. Karl also visited here about 3 weeks before us and also has photos of the area – Day trip exploring SnÃ¦fellsnes.

First up was the lifting stones, these are meant to weigh 23kg, 54kg, 100kg and 154kg but the smaller one didn’t feel like it was 23kg but less.

Then it was on to finding that perfect pebble, this was really weird because I am used to beaches that are covered with white sand, mudflats or very, very rarely black sand so visiting a beach that was all pebbles was really weird!

Then it was playing with the kelp, again I am used to kelp of the green variety so all this red and cream kelp was soo cool!

6. LORAN-C Mast and Ã?rskibrunnur
The LORAN-C Mast is the tallest structure in Iceland and some sources say the tallest in Western Europe. It was intially used as part of the LORAN navigational system but with the increased use of GPS in the 90’s it was converted into a long wave broadcasting transmitter for RUV. Ã?rskibrunnur is a well that was built by Irish Monks before the Norse settlement and uses a whale skull as the lintel. The second photo is taken just near the well of some whale bones.

7. Olafsvik.
We stopped in this largish fishing town to do some grocery shopping and the town also happened to be celebrating Faroe Islands Day so each light pole in the town had a little Lupin posy attached to it, with flags everywhere and there was a range of festival rides set up at the wharf.

This is waterfall near the town and the other photo is of a number plate I would love to have:)

After Olafsvik we fast tailed it up to Reykjaskoli (which is not shown on the above map) to start a weekend of fun, laughter and good cheer. There are some photos from the start of the moot but I will post them with other photos from the moot.

July 5, 2006

Iceland Megatrip 2005 – Day 6

June 30, 2005.

This is a day without photos, as is half of Day 7. Somehow when I was transferring the photos from the memory cards to the storage device I messed up somehow. I lost 87 photos and Mum also lost her photos from that day.

We made 8 stops today, which can be seen on the map below.

1. Pausing to admire Esja, with meadows in the foreground filled with grazing sheep and Soley (butter cups)

2. Watching some Salmon fishing and observing the mighty flow of the LaxÃ¡ river. (LaxÃ¡ I think might be one of the most common names for a river/creek in Iceland, as it means Salmon River; just like in Australia we have quite a few “x mile creeks”)

3. Wild flower hunting, playing in old sheep pens and looking at waterfalls at FossÃ¡. This was a fantastic place to explore, Mum and I traipsed around looking at various plants, taking photos and samples. Then as we were driving along we would identify them and mark them off in the book.

4. Full steam ahead to Glymur. This was a lovely walk that took us through lots of Lupins and heaps of Anjelica. Lupines whilst pretty are to Iceland what Lantana is to Australia. My dear brother Karl went up to Glymur a fortnight before we did and like all his trip reports he as written it up perfectly and includes heaps of photos 🙂 – Karl and Tanja visit Glymur.

5. Poked around some waterfalls near Geitaberg. Mum is a big waterfall person, which means that any trip we take will involve visiting local waterfalls.

6. Reykholt. This village is the home to one of the boarding schools where Pabbi went to school and also the home of Snorri Sturluson. Whilst we were in Reykholt we had a look at Snorri’s Bath and Pabbi entertained us with tales of his school life here including students long-jumping over Snorri’s Bath which is about 3.8m in diameter.

This was one of the great things about going round the place with Pabbi and later when we had two cars I would choose to drive with Pabbi to listen to the various folktales or his memories about the places we would drive past.

7. Â Hraunfossar and Barnafoss. I will not say much about these waterfalls this time as we would revisit in a couple of days with Margaret and I have photos from that visit 🙂

We then drove over the back roads as Pabbi told us more tales about the area, such as I worked on that farm one Summer,Â a boy I went to school with lived on that farm etc etc.

8. Borgarnes. Such a sweet place is Borgarnes. This was our final destination for the day and we would spend the night here with Pabbi’s sister HjÃ¶rdÃs who greeted us with many hugs and laughs. She is so Pabbi’s sister, just hearing the tone and mannerisms she would use to say PallÂ was a laugh.Â The night could only get better because for tea we had Fish Soup. I had never had Fish Soup before and have not since and I must say I went into it a bit wary but oh my, it was utter heaven!!!

Then after lots of chatting and looking at photos it was time for bed just like it is for me now. 🙂

July 4, 2006July 5, 2006

Iceland Megatrip 2005 – Day 5

June 29, 2005.

Today we explored the Reykjanes peninsula. Matthew stayed at Karl’s tugged up as he was not feeling the best.

A lot of the places we stopped along this trip were harbours that Pabbi had fished out of when he was on the boats. This made it similar to the trip I had taken along some of the same roads when I came through this area in 2002 with HafÃ¾Ã³r and PÃ¡lli as like father like son, PÃ¡lli had also worked on boats that came out of the harbours of the South-West.

Our first stop was at Vogar, where we had a look at the boats in the Harbour, took a few photos.

Next up was Keflavik, where we again walked round the harbour and took some photos. This was one thing I like about Iceland in general is that they are a large fan of art in public spaces.

After leaving Keflavik, we jutted up to GarÃ°ur for a poke round the harbour and then back down to Keflavik to head out to Hafnir. Our next stop after a poke round Hafnir was the “Bridge Between Two Continents” just south of Hafnaberg. This bridge is a bridge (duh) constructed over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which is slowly and surely pulling Iceland apart. You can visit the gaps in various parts of Iceland and some have crevices or they may be like the one we visted which was a sand filled gulf.

When we were here we pottered round exploring the local flora, taking photos of tourists for them and building cairns.

Our next stop was to head out to Reykanesviti and the cliffs of ValahnÃºkur. This area was amazing. There were birds everywhere, and they liked to sit on the road so as we drove up a swarm of birds would just take off before our eyes.

This area was just amazing, I mean sure it was lava rock, and bits of grass but standing on the rocks that form “the beach”, hearing the birds all around you and the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks near your feet is pretty cool.

If anyone is a Sigur RÃ³s fan or they have watched the video clip for GlÃ³sÃ³li, you should recognise the scene in the second photo. This is the hill they go up at the end of the film clip

We then headed into GrindavÃk for lunch and to visit the Saltfisksetur Ã?slands (Salt Fish Museum). After that we followed the 427 round the coast and made a couple of stops to look at flowers. The first one is a HoltasÃ³ley (Mountatin Avens). The next photo is Mum up to her nose in orchids, I had decided to stay in the car, as I had taken my shoes off as my feet were starting to get sore and I didn’t fancy traipsing over rocks and pebbles with barefeet.

As we got closer to Kleifarvatn, we stumbled upon this cairn garden on the side of the road and we knew we had to stop and have a look round so we could tell Karl about it when we got home as he is a fan of stacking the rocks.

After stopping off at Kleifarvatn to have a look at the lake, we kept on making our way northish on the 42 and after a little while another familiar view greeted my eyes. Back in 2002 when I was going over a pretty similar road trip we were driving up this hill and there on the side of the road was this patch of grass that held a pretty good resemblance to the map of Iceland well apart from the fact it was missing the SW corner. Two and a half years later I was eager to see if it was still on that hillside and sure enough as we came over the hill there she was 🙂

Our last stop for the day was another place I had stopped on the first trip and that was at these fish drying racks. Whilst it would have been cool to see actual fillets drying the lines of fish heads was still pretty cool 🙂

After that it was time to head back into the city to start packing for the start of our big trip in the morning which would see us start our big trip round Iceland.

July 3, 2006

Iceland Megatrip 2005 – Day 4

June 28, 2005

This was our laziest day to date. I mean we did jack all.

In the morning we must have hit up Smaralind, the local shopping center and cruised round the shops waiting for them to open, withdrawing mula from the ATM and hitting up the Hagkaup to get some lunch supplies so we weren’t always stealing Karl’s food as well as buying a bath towel for me to use in Iceland (I had intended to leave it behind when I left but it was pink) and buying The Holy Grail of chocolate bars – Prince Polo. Helen + Prince Polo = very happy 🙂

In the afternoon we went over to TÃ³ti’s and had a blast of course.

Bringing home the photo fights, Matthew, Silja and Birta going camera crazy.

This is what happens when Birta gets too close to the lens. Hello distorted perspective 🙂

The following photos are some of the photos that Birta took when she was in charge of my camera. As soon as Birta and Silja but mainly Birta learnt how to use my camera it was almost in their hands more than mine. Not that I minded 🙂

After the four of us rough housing around in the girls bedroom we moved out onto the patio where there was much more room 🙂 The first photo is of Birta and me – duh! and the second one is a crack up beacuse Birta wanted me to give her the camera back but I said it was my turn 🙂

The evening ended with the girls giving us a concert with TÃ³ti on the guitar. Some of the songs we recognised as they are songs we have in Australia as well, some Mum remembered from when she was living in Iceland and it was just the perfect ending to a fun afternoon.

That was our day. Just like I said a pretty non-adventurous day. 🙂

July 2, 2006July 3, 2006

Iceland Megatrip 2005 – Day 3

Hello Iceland! June 27, 2005.

The previous night before going to sleep we had pulled all the blinds down in the living area because it would take a while to get used to the idea of 24hr daylight. I had no problem with getting used to the reverse of say 6 or 7 hrs of light when I was there in Winter because then you still had a defined night and a defined day but when you just have various stages of daylight for 24hrs, that is pretty interesting.

Understandably ReykjavÃk and Iceland in general has changed since my parents were left in 1980, you know new roads are put up; new buildings are built all the usual things that happens with time.

For Pabbi however this was the cause of utter confusion. You see my father and a map, my father and memory of streets yeah they aren’t a real happy equation. You ask my father to go anywhere in Brisbane even which he hasn’t been to 10000 times before, yeah you are looking at chaos.

So here we are, we have just picked up a rental car and we are following TÃ³ti back to Karl’s place to pick up Matthew. All we have to do is go back the way we came and TÃ³ti would be just ahead of us in the traffic anyway. Dude, total chaos. I think we can just leave it there. Matthew, Karl and I all got our navigation skills from our mother, take me somewhere once and that is pretty much all I need. This can be a point of conflict especially when we start provoking each other.

Anyway we get back to Karl’s and pick up Matthew who had wisely decided not to come with us to get the rental car. We then head off to the ReykjavÃk Cemetery to visit the grave of our Amma, her sister (our great-aunt) and our brother. This cemetery was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It wasn’t at all like the one we live near and I walk past daily nor was it like the ones I saw in the town I lived in when in Germany. It was almost like an open forest which was littered with graves each lovingly tendered. I met my Amma once when I was 3 and spoke to her a couple of times on the phone since then. It is is an interesting thing having never really gotten to kn ow her but still knowing her very much through how my parents talked of her or the cards she would send each Christmas with GleÃ°ileg JÃ³l on the front and a parcel of dried fish if were lucky. We always knew was inside the parcel before we had opened it as it would have been opened by Customs and then closed up with all sorts of stickers saying “This parcel has passed customs”

After the cemetery we headed into downtown to have a stroll round and to show Mum, Pabbi and Matthew the ultra cool 3d scale relief map of Iceland in the ReykjavÃk City Hall. HafÃ¾Ã³r and Sigga had brought me to see the map when I was in Iceland in 2002 so I knew I had to bring the others to see it because it really is ultra cool!

Helen with AxarfjÃ¶rÃ°ur at her right shoulder

After we had poured over the map and further planned our travels we headed out for a walk round the area. Matthew and I lagged behind the “grown-ups” and he was even in a silly enough mood to tell me to take this photo of him with this wall of graffiti.

Just across the street from where the photo of Matthew was taken is AusturvÃ¶llur and a couple of days before we had arrived an utterly amazing fantastic photography display by Ragnar Axelsson from his book Faces of the North had been installed in the square. This is an utterly amazing document of life in Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

In the gardens bordering the square there was one thing that left me bemused and one thing that made me smile.

The first was Ornamental Kale in the gardens, this really had me stumped as I could not figure out why on earth there were cabbages planted in the garden bed, then Mum told me that they were designed for eating. The second was this bed of Pansies; a flower that very much reminds me of Iceland because a) you see it everywhere and b) it was one of Amma’s favourite flowers.

Cue some more cruising round the old town and then we were off to TÃ³ti’s house to meet up with his family, look at photos, chat, laugh and giving me some time to be a 7 year old again. It was just so great seeing his family again, so great.

I got roped into playing a game of bingo with the girls and to hell with the language barrier it still worked out fine. When the one of the girls was spinning the dial the other would make sure that I put my piece on the right tile and when I was spinning the dial I would just make the noise or movements of the animal. It was a barrel of fun.

After hanging out at TÃ³ti’s we made our way home via HafÃ¾Ã³r’s where we all got to meet the ultra cute little DanÃel SmÃ¡ri in all his 23mth glory for the first time, Matthew and Mum got to meet Sigga and SÃ³ley as well for the first time and I got to hang out SÃ³ley who is my “twin” and happens to be my niece and a few years younger than me…

July 1, 2006July 2, 2006

Iceland Megatrip 2005 – Day 2

June 26th 2005, our plane lands at London Heathrow just after 6am.

Since all four of us would be coming back through London at different times, we split up to make the trip out to London Stansted. Matthew and I took the tube into to London and then caught the train out to Stansted whilst Mum and Pabbi caught a direct bus from Heathrow to take them to Stansted.

Matthew and I hopped on the tube at Heathrow and then got off at King’s Cross/St Pancras at roughly 7:30am on Sunday June 26, 2005, to say the station was dead would be an understatement. Since we only had one trip tickets and had already passed through the turnstiles trying to find a map we decided that since we had plenty of time to kill why not just put our bags on our back and walk to Liverpool St Station, because what a great way to see the sights and to save money! Right …

We exited King’s Cross and walked across the street and picked up a bite to eat in the McDonald’s, we then found a street map of the local area and planned our route.

We walked up Pentonville Road, before coming down Goswell Rd, then along London Wall till we reached Old Broad St and then Liverpool St Station was right before our eyes.

Some of the interesting things we saw on our walk included a mastectomy wear shop (Nicola Jane at 150 Goswell Rd, London EC1V 7DU), a strange looking ATM and way too many Starbucks and McDonalds.

Whilst we did not have many streets to travel on, it was still quite an adventure, at each bus shelter we would check our progress on the map and we would stop every so often to readjust my bag which is not designed for carrying on your shoulders for great lengths. It is a large duffle bag and the straps on it are just seatbelt webbing so when your bag has 20kg plus in it, those straps really start to dig into your shoulders! The pain in my shoulders from the straps would stay with me all day as we waited at the airport.

Matthew was luckier as you can see in the picture above, he has an actual hiking pack but his daypack was not nice to him and one of the straps broke which meant that we had to do some running repairs on the road.

Matthew just near Liverpool St Station outside The Railway Tavern.

The whole walk ended up at about 3.2km and took us about 1hr or so with us each porting at least 20kg.

We arrived at the station at the right time as a couple of minutes after we had bought our Standsted Express tickets, our train departed 🙂

The train ride was quite a nice ride, Matthew fell asleep fairly soon after we took off which left me to have my eyes glued to the passing scenery and as we left Greater London and entered the Essex countryside it was super cool to see rabbits hopping through some of the fields we passed!

Whilst Matthew was sleeping I took this picture of his reflection.

Once the train arrived at Stansted, we disembarked and started our way up the endless sets of stairs to get up to the entry of the airport. It is when you are travelling up/down stairs with luggage that you really appreciate having a backpack as you just power up the stairs whilst everyone else struggles pulling their suitcase up the stairs.

By potluck a couple of minutes after we arrived inside we saw Mum and Pabbi walk past and were greeted with awful news, our plane had been delayed. I was ready then to leave my bags with my family and hop tail it back into to London to see some sights or hit up some shops and as we would later find out, that would have been a really good idea.

Because with our plane been delayed and delayed we ended up sitting, lying or walking around Stansted for 13+hours.

The delay did mean however that we were given food vouchers 🙂 and as the plane was delayed for a second time we ended up getting a second set of food vouchers. The food vouchers I think were each worth Â£7 and had to be used in full each time, so we spent a considerable amount of time before we used the vouchers scouting all the food shops to see where we could get maximum utility value.

We spent our time waiting, waiting, waiting by reading, reading, reading, sleeping, window shopping and walking around aimlessly. Later on in the afternoon when most of the passengers on our flight were sitting in the same area awaiting our next update we spent some time chatting with the passengers around us exchanging travel plans and offering tips etc.

We ended up arriving in KeflavÃk just after midnight on June 27th and thanks to the wonderful thing called midnight sun it gave my heart the biggest smile when we passed over breaks in the clouds and I could see the lava, moss, roads and lakes below and when we stepped off the plane and had were greeted by the Icelandic air my heart started doing back flips 🙂

Once we had passed through immigration, received the stamp in our passports, collected our luggage and visited the toilet, we were greeted by one of the most heart-warming sights in the world of three brothers with large smiles on their faces and then lots of hugs. The bummer was though because our plane was delayed and delayed only Karl, TÃ³ti and HafÃ¾Ã³r came to collect us as the young children were all tucked up in bed fast asleep. This was the cause of much heartache for Soley and in turn for me, as she was looking so forward to seeing me and if our plane had arrived when it was due she could have made the trip out to the airport with HafÃ¾Ã³r. As a consolation however she drew me a picture and wrote me a letter which HafÃ¾Ã³r brought to the airport with him which said that I am her favourite aunt 🙂

We then piled into the cars and made the trip to the flat where Karl and Anika lived which is where Matthew and I would be staying, HafÃ¾Ã³r picked up his car to return to his flat and Mum and Pabbi headed off with TÃ³ti to his house.
Then after a bit of chatting amongst the four youngest PÃ¡lssons we hit the sack after a very long day.