Iceland Trip
Last month, I had a 11-day trip to Iceland, and spent most of it taking a road trip around the country. A few unprocessed pictures taken by my phone don’t quite capture how amazing my experience was. This slideshow is my attempt at sharing some of it nevertheless.
Reykjavík from above. Colourful rooftops seems to be a distinctive feature of Icelandic buildings.
Þingvellir, where North American and Eurasian plates visibly part, and where the first Icelandic parliament was formed in 930.
Geysir. Geysers are named after this, but it's currently dormant.
Strokkur, Geysir's little sister that squirts boiling water up to 20-30 meters every few minutes. Tourists are solemnly awaiting the next squirt, while the gusting wind makes a creepy noise.
Gullfoss; the gold waterfall. Majestic, isn't it?
Dried fish [bones] to be sold to the developing countries.
The wind on the Southern side of Iceland was exceptionally fast, as you can see. It was categorized as class 7, where class 10 is a full-blown hurricane.
A remote shot from Eyjafjallajökull, whose eruption cancelled many European flights in 2010.
A black sand beach.
Dyrhólaey. I was hoping to see some puffins on the cliff, but they were all gone.
One of interesting tourist attractions seems to be created by tourists. I'm guessing hitch-hiking hippies.
This comfortable bed took a river of lava to flow on the field, centuries for it to cool down, and decades for the moss to grow on them.
An Icelandic turf church. The turf provided great insulation when the technology hadn't caught up with the harsh climate.
A glacier hike on one of many "tongues" of Vatnajökull glacier; Europe's largest glacier. The occasional thunder-like sound was an indicator of the glacier moving 5-50 cm every day.
Drifting ice bits on the shore.
A lagoon formed by the melting glacier. The icebergs are usually very huge, and what you see is literally the tip of the iceberg.
Hiking at Hvannagil. The loose, flat rocks make it fun to descend gliding.
The valley was full of cascading falls.
Seyðisfjörður. A beautiful city on the East Fjords, protected by avalanche obstacles.
A remote view of Seyðisfjörður, with the all-too-common farm sheep on the loose. The winding road to the city was featured in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".
Dettifoss, view from the East side.
A pond at Ásbyrgi, a horseshoe-shaped depression. Sigur Rós performed one of their free concerts in this area.
Honeycomb rock formation.
kirkja or church. A cave formed by honeycomb-shaped lava rocks.
A mud pit with boiling water. The yellow colour around the pit is caused by sulphur sediments.
Getting a kick out of hydrogen sulfide, a gas smelling like something between rotten eggs and flatulence.
Mývatn nature baths. The naturally-hot torquise water coming from a geothermal power plant makes for a relaxing swim at around midnight.
A dormant volcano crater.
A natural hot water bath in a rift. An earthquake decades ago strangely made the water too hot for bathing.
Mývatn lake, a definite attraction to bird watchers and biodiversity researchers.
Can't get enough of waterfalls!
Interesting rock formation, and yes, a waterfall in the background!
A view from Akureyri, the capital of North Iceland. It lies on the shores of Eyjafjörður, the largest fjord in Iceland.
A church.
Inside the Harpa concert hall.
Sunset in Reykjavík just before midnight.
An example of failed legislation: Iceland's laggard lift of prohibition in 1989 was followed by banning all advertisement or bar signs mentioning any "strong" beer. Businesses conveniently advertise their "light" beer as a result.
Slideshow plugin by Pixedelic.
If you liked this, you may also like my Chilkoot Trail post.