| |
[Mar. 2nd, 2006|05:23 pm] |
Day 4
I got a late start due to last nights sleeplessness, but there was no big rush. Most of the sites I wanted to see today are concentrated in an 150-200km range just East of Akureyri, so I decide to tell the alarm to fuck off since I only needed to get up to move the car by 10:15. Akureyri has a weird parking system in their downtown area, where sections are marked by how long you can park there: 15 minutes, an hour, 2 hours…but the restrictions are only in effect from 10:00-16:00. Not so weird so far, right? Well, all of the cars have this little cardboard dial, some have a clear plastic one stuck to the window. The dial has 09:30 to 16:30 marked off in 15 minute increments. All of the instructions for using this wheel are in Icelandic, so I have no idea if I am using the one I found laying around the Guesthouse correctly, and there is no on to ask, so I just assume it marks the time you parked in the zone. I have not been ticketed or towed yet, so I guess it’s either being used right or going unnoticed.
When I finally got up and showered, I moved the car and headed a couple doors down to the Paris Café for some breakfast. It must have been pastry day because I had a croissant, and coffee before heading to the bakery a couple more doors down to grab some stuff for eating on the road. I was trying to keep it light since I was planning on being back in time to get a nice meal since I’d heard a couple of the restaurants in town were really great. Everything I got at the bakery was really good, so I will likely get more road food there before I split tomorrow.
The road out of town takes you across the bay of the fjord and up the side of the mountain it forms. With the snow from the previous night on the road, I learned an important Icelandic driving tip from some of the other cars I saw: if the middle of the road is the clearest part, drive in the middle of the road, if the lane going the other direction is the clearest part of the road, drive down the middle of the road. I don’t think it was necessary since the road was paved the whole way, but I drove most of the way in 4 wheel drive.
My first stop out of town was a huge set of falls known as Godafoss. The story is that when one public official got the job of deciding if Iceland should be a Christian nation or stay with it’s polytheistic ways. When he made his decision, he threw his pagan idols into these falls, thus God’s Falls. They call Iceland the land of fire and ice in all the brochures, but I think they need to call it the land of water and steam based on what I’ve seen these past couple days. Sure, there’s plenty of ice, and plenty of evidence of past fire, but there are cubic meters of water per second falling and flowing around every corner. This set of falls had 2 huge sections flowing up into the same area from a wide rolling river that I was able to walk right up to. The path was rocky and snow covered so I didn’t realize when I was walking up to it that I was actually walking on a section of that river that was frozen over and then got kinda scared that I could be washed down the falls. Needless to say I wasn’t, but I sure as hell did take the fastest path back to solid rock that I could find.
Next I hit Namafjall, which is a huge fissure area at the base of some fairly active volcanos where sections of the earth are literally tearing themselves apart (insert maniacal laughter here). The result is a smelly mess of steam infused with sulphur and other chemicals shooting out of the ground. The sound was incredible, like being on the side of a highway with cars rushing by. Really smelly cars. The path lets you walk through the entire site, and right up to some of the steamiest sections of the fissure, and past some bubbling mud pits. It was odd to see a big snow field with these patched cleared by the heat bubbling up from the earth. I finished my visit there by getting onto the platform over one of the steamiest ones and getting a smelly facial. It felt good as it was -7 C out and the steam was over 100 C (obviously) but it made my face, glasses, camera, hair, and everything all wet (and smelly) and it all froze up on the short walk back to the car.
I thawed, dried and drove off to see Lake Myvatn. Really a series of lakes all broken up by various geological features, but all called Myvatn. It was all frozen and snowed over, and I don’t know if you’ve seen a frozen snowy lake, but it looks like a really flat section of snow. White…Flat…as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately that makes all of the features I’d been there to see were kind of covered and not easy to get to. I took the 30 km route around the lake area, and saw some cool things, but this is a feature I will put on my list if I ever get here during the summer.
My next hopeful site was really not something I thought was going to happen since it was flanked by 2 mountain roads and I was pretty sure they would be closed. Turns out they were, so I hit my backup plan, which is a huge heated lagoon of mineral rich water.
It’s an artificial lagoon, built as a pool type thing for the community. It’s fed by the naturally heated waters that also pour out of the fissure I mentioned previously and there is a huge machine there that is used to cool the water not to heat it. There are warning signs stating that the water can get up to 100 C and it was damn hot in parts. There was a family there with 2 small kids who would yelp when they hit a pocket of hot water. It was steamy and relaxing and I’m pretty glad I made the decision to do that.
After that, daylight was running out, but I was passing right by Godafoss again, so I took the opportunity to take a few more pictures in sunset light instead of the odd backlighting I had when I was there in the morning.
I got home as the sun was going down and set out to have a nice fancy dinner with some Icelandic Lamb that I had heard some much about (and actually had almost run over as they crossed the road in front of me earlier that day). It was good and expensive, just like I had thought it would be, but I think it may have been my only meal spurge here, so I miss it already, knowing I won’t see it’s like again for a while. |
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
anuisance2you's journal
quixotic
For years now I have been wanting to go to Iceland. It's the Volcano chaser in me. I have a thing about volcanos and volcanic landscapes. So far, I've done Hawaii, Mt. St. Helens, A vast part of southeastern Oregon and it's volcanic fields and Costa Rica.
working