My latest travel adventure took me to Iceland for a week-long New Year's extravaganza. I had never really thought much about going to Iceland, but when my sister told me a couple of months ago that she was planning a trip with some friends and friends-of-friends I thought, "that sounds pretty cool". So, I joined her group and brought a friend from Sweden, and the 13 of us had an awesome week in Iceland. Those of you who are visual learners can skip straight to the photos at the end of my 2013 album...
We rented some apartments and based ourselves in Reykjavik, which is about the population of Ann Arbor but by far the biggest city in the country. From there, we took a bunch of bus/van tours to see as many of the sites as we could: the Blue Lagoon, the Golden Circle, the Northern Lights, and the South Coast.
Day 1 we went to the "Blue Lagoon", which is a naturally-heated pool/spa/tourist trap that's open year-round. It was really windy and cold the day that we were there, so the goal seemed to be to keep as much of one's body submerged in the warm water as possible. The surroundings were absolutely beautiful (check out the pictures), and despite chilly noses and ears it was a really awesome place. Day 2 we took the popular "Golden Circle" tour, which was a van ride out to a number of natural wonders outside of the city. Due to a lack of abundant daylight at that latitude and time of year, we left Reykjavik when it was pitch dark at 8am, and finally started to see some sites once it got light out around 10:30/11. We stopped at a couple of very impressive waterfalls, saw an active geyser (Strokkur), hung out with some furry Icelandic horses, and walked through a national park at the rift between the North American and Eurasian continental plates.
That night we also did a Northern Lights tour, where the 13 of us plus 2 random Australians got driven around in a van in search of the aurora borealis. The forecast that night was a 2 on the scale of 1-9 (though apparently it rarely goes above 4), so our chances of seeing anything and the intensity of the lights weren't super high, but our driver/guide was determined and we spent around 6 hours driving around with him and chasing the lights. We made four stops and stared at the sky for long periods of time, but it wasn't until the third stop that we really felt like we saw anything, which was just a greenish glow in the sky. At one point, for about 10-20 seconds, there was a brighter spot that sort of seemed like some dancing lights, but that seemed to be about it, and the driver said he was going to take us home. We started to doze in the back of the van thinking we were on our way to bed, but then the driver decided to give it one more shot. He drove us somewhere, went outside, and proclaimed that in 20 minutes the clouds would be gone and we would see it. So, we waited like 45 minutes, and at the end we could really see some much more noticeable green glowing in the sky. It was pretty cool, but also very exhausting (recall: 6 hours), creepy (recall: driver without much of a plan), and mildly disappointing (while we saw the lights, they weren't very strong or as beautiful as the photos we've all seen). However, I'm really glad for the experience, and the long-exposure photos came out way better than what the eyes could see!
The next day was New Years Eve, and part of group did a South Coast tour while the rest of us took a tour of Reykjavik. We reunited in the evening, made and ate dinner together, had some drinks, and went for a walk out to the top of a hill where we could see fireworks and bonfires being lit. Apparently from 9-10:30pm, however, everything goes dark as all the Icelanders watch a comedy show on tv. Not knowing Icelandic, we didn't watch it, but instead we went back to our place and continued the party, and at midnight we went to the main church on a hill in the middle of the city and saw ridiculous amounts of fireworks going off all around the city. It was probably the most impressive display of disorganized pyrotechnics I've ever seen.
New Years Day was for recovery, plus a lot of tours and stores were closed, so we slept in and hung out in the apartments. The next day, a few people left, and the rest of us did the South Coast tour. There were a bunch of options with this tour - we could have gone snowmobiling, taken a glacier hike, done some ice climbing, or seen a city and some black sand beaches. We opted for the glacier hike, and we got to put on crampons and walk around on the glacier Sólheimajökull, which was very cool. That took up the bulk of the day, and after that we saw the sunset over the sea and a bunch of impressive waterfalls, then headed back to the city. The next day was our last full day, and having done all of the tours we wanted and being reduced from 13 to around 6 remaining people, we spent the day in Reykjavik and then went home the following morning.
All in all, this was a really cool experience, I made a bunch of new friends, and I got the chance to see some of the natural beauty of the small country of Iceland. I'd really recommend a trip there. You can find some pictures, some taken by me and some "borrowed" from others, in the 2013 album (even though some of these were technically in 2014...) linked on the right or here: https://picasaweb.google.com/115872916923607849736/SwedenTravels2013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNa0m8etr8_gWA&feat=directlink).
Happy 2014!
Steven
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