Horse-back Riding in Iceland January 18, 2009

Friday, January 16, 2009

I am on a train heading back to Paris from a brief trip into the country side. It’s been a few days since I’ve written, so please allow me to trace my steps.

 

the mountains used to be the cliffs of the ocean until a volcano erupted and lava cooled when it hit the sea forming the plateau

me riding the horse named Glow in Iceland

Icelandic horse named Glow

 

Icelandic horse farm

coffee and tea cakes after a very cold morning riding

an Icelandic house and barge from the bus to the airport

 

Icelandic town and mountain/glacier from the bus on the way to the airport

these stone piles were all around that town

Iceland from the airport

 

 

 

 

Iceland

I believe the last time I wrote was the night before I left Iceland. I had some time and spent the night hanging out in the hostel with fellow travelers. Among the people I met and spent time talking to over my few days there were two hostel workers, three roommates and a fellow tour hopper. Of the two hostel workers I made friends with, one was an American from Cleveland who is in the process of working to open another hostel downtown in the city of Reykjavik (better location, although will probably be noisier and not next to a heated pool) (shout out to Megan… he asked about the photo booth at Big Fun and was disappointed to learn it’s still not functioning… he said there’s only one guy in all of Ohio that fixes those machines). The other hostel worker was from Holland and was interested in going around the world herself. Of my three roommates, the first (and the one I got to know the best) was, ironically, from a small town outside of Utica, NY. Heather is a student at RISD, the Rhode Island School of Design, and is spending her winter semester (a month) in Iceland doing an independent study project. Of the other two roommates, one was French and played the violin and looked a lot like Tara. The other was German but lived and worked in the countryside of Iceland helping a town with environmental issues. Last but not least, I met Mok, an economics grad student at Yale who is originally from Singapore, but studied in London for several years and has a girlfriend who goes to Cornell. It really is a small world. We compared notes on the tours we were taking and whether or not it was a good night to see the northern lights (it never was). Mok and Heather and I ended up having a long intellectual and international conversation that night in the hostel lobby.

I tried the buried shark, an Icelandic specialty. I had no intention to try it, but Mok had picked some up in the flea market and had offered some. They were tiny little pieces in a small plastic container the size of a side of ketchup. I tried one. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good either but it just tasted like a chewy fish. I could taste the salt used in the preservation process. Then afterwards came an incredibly pungent and not too pleasant taste. Even after a hot chocolate I could still taste it. I had to brush my teeth before it fully went away. Mok told me about a fruit I can find in Thailand which has a taste so strong it stays with you for weeks. I can’t imagine what kind of special foods I’ll find there. Icelandic food consists of this shark, which they bury as a form of preserving it (something to do with the ammonia naturally found in the shark) as well as whale and other types of fish. Icelanders raise their own meat and produce their own dairy products on the island. Another Icelandic food is skyr, a kind of cheese which looks and tastes a lot like yogurt. It can be found in most yogurt flavors next to yogurt on the shelves. I had vanilla. It was good, but a little richer than yogurt and not quite as liquidy. I ate a full serving of it, which I think was too much for my stomach. It was good but should be eaten in moderation.

That night I was still craving an Icelandic adventure since the dogsledding fell through, so I booked a horseback riding tour for the next morning. The Icelandic horse is a unique breed descended from the horses the Vikings brought over when they originally came to Iceland. The horses are small, the size of large ponies, with thick coats and sure footing. It is said that every color of horse in every breed across the world can be found in these horses. They are considered so special that no one is allowed to bring any other types of horses onto the island. They also have five gaits, including the tolt gate, which is like a slow comfortable trot (no posting necessary). I was picked up at the hostel and we arrived at the stables just before dawn. I was matched up with, ironically, two other New Yorkers (from Brooklyn and Queens) and a Danish guide from Copenhagen. My horse’s name was Glow (translated to English). We rode through water across a small river three times and through fields on the flat ground of the plateau. Our guide explained the cliffs surrounding us used to be the edge of the sea. The volcano erupted and the lava flowed out into the sea forming the plateau we were riding on. It was quite cold and we were wearing jumpsuits over our coats. I had 3-4 layers on. At the end we walked over to the hotel near the stable and had hot coffee and tea cakes on a heated floor so our toes would warm up. All in all, it satisfied my craving for adventure and it felt good to be on a horse again. I’m glad I went.

I was dropped off back at my hostel with barely enough time to grab my bags and catch the bus to the airport, but I did make it. There I met back up with Tara and Lorie, who had gone back to the Blue Lagoon for the morning. Tara and I said goodbye to Lorie as she boarded a plane to Boston and we boarded another plane to London.

Seeking a Beach January 11, 2009

 

Icelandic ocean

me at the Icelandic beach

 

Sea Baron on the docks

fish for dinner

downtown Reykjavik

 

 

 

No, dog sledding didn’t happen.  I know it’s disappointing.  I was looking forward to those pictures too.  I missed the booking by 15 mins.  Oh well.  Maybe it was for a reason… I defaulted to Plan B- sleep in (i.e. get a full night’s sleep for the first time on this trip) and find a beach.  I took a bus to the west of Reykjavik and found the ocean.  I found a walking path around the tip of the peninsula.  It wasn’t quite beach-like but it did satisfy my craving.  After that I found a seafood shop that had been recommended to me.  The lobster soup at Sea Baron (think seafood shack on the docks) was okay, but the lobster itself was amazingly delicious… probably best ever….

The reason I wanted to come to Iceland is very random. I read a book called “Pretty Little Mistakes” which is a choose-your-own-adventure book written for girls graduating high school. The first choice is whether to go to college or travel. If you choose to travel, do you go to California or Europe? If you choose to go to college, do you major in Science or Art? etc. Well, after reading several different endings, such as living happily on a boat in Paris, marrying and having a wonderful European career and family… or traveling the world with a husband on a cruise ship and meeting my demise choking in a restaurant in a foreign country after leading a well-lived and happy life… After reading several different endings I thought would make me happy, I found myself strangely unsatisfied. I kept reading.

Eventually I chose to become an art student and study with an artist in Iceland. She was very superstitious and I found that fascinating. Then a geneticist came to the school I was volunteering at to collect DNA from the students for the government (Iceland has a very small gene pool so they track it closely). We hit it off and I chose to marry him and settle in Iceland. It came time to have a child and he insisted on having it tested for genetic disorders. Wouldn’t you know, the unborn child tested positive. Following the choice to have the child instead of abort, I ended up living a surprising life. The child, who had (I think it was) down syndrome, turned out to be a wonderful sensitive and touching being who was giftedly perceptive. Every time we walked together on the beach the seals would follow him. The husband, formerly a strict scientist with no belief system, suddenly found a spiritual path in life. I ended up organizing special olympics and stuff like that, meeting other children from around the world with similar issues and being touched by all of them. When I died, I turned into a seal and swam along the coast, watching my boy walk along the shore. For reasons I can’t explain, this ending struck a chord in me. Perhaps it was the idea of a spiritual enlightenment that appealed to me… something more meaningful out of life. Perhaps it was the balance of science and superstition (they really do believe in elves here). Whatever it was that appealed to me so deeply, I knew I needed to come to Iceland. It was a calling.

I do love it here. We drove by many little houses in the middle of nowhere on one of the tours… the equivalent of camps in upstate New York. I would be very happy with one as a studio. I love the city of Reykjavik too. It has an international feel but the buildings are not very high, which makes it very intimate, and the Scandinavian design influence everywhere is simply wonderful.

The Golden Circle Tour January 11, 2009

Saturday, January 10, 2009

 

houses under the moon

 

geothermal power plant

 

Lorie and I at Gullfoss waterfall

 

Gullfoss waterfall

 

erupting geyser

 

natural hot spring

my staredown with a gnome Thingvellir National Park with the parliament buildings

The Great Atlantic Rift with a blurry me

 

brrr... breathtakingly beautiful

so beautiful there's no justice in pictures

 

I’ve heard it only takes fifteen minutes of sun for a person to get their daily dose of Vitamin D. It’s a good thing, because that’s about all Icelanders get at this time of year. The daylight lasts for about four hours, but since I’ve been here it’s been mostly cloudy. The sun peaks through for about fifteen minutes while the sun sets. Still, the dramatic landscape makes this place beautiful even on the cloudy days. Both Bjork and Sigur Ros are Icelandic and as you might guess from listening to their music, this place has a moody and emotional landscape… in a good way.

Today I took the Golden Circle Tour through Reykjavik Excursions. It came highly recommended. Everyone said the features of the tour were a must see- the Gullfoss waterfall, a geothermal field with an erupting Geysir and the site of the oldest existing parliament in the world and the original Icelandic settlement situated near the Great Atlantic Rift in Tingvellir National Park. Although our tour guide was impressively versatile (translating in English and German and singing traditional Icelandic songs), I was bit disappointed to have spent a little over $80 on it when the natural wonders of upstate New York are better. Perhaps it would have been better in the summer… It was a very big waterfall and I had never seen an erupting geysir before, but Niagara Falls and the waterfalls and gorges in Ithaca still rank above them in my book. One surprise was a visit to the largest geothermal plant. They put on quite a show to impress visitors. The entire country is heated on geothermal heat. My favorite part of the trip was Tingvellir National Park with its amazing sunset views of snow covered mountains all around. Combined with the bitter wind, it was literally breathtakingly beautiful. My camera does not even stand a chance in doing it justice. (Yes, Mike I know you told me so… You were right.)

I’ve reevaluated what I want to get out of my experience here in Iceland and made a few hard calls. I am opting not to go out and experience the famous Saturday night life in the streets of Reykjavik with Lorie and Tara. Instead, I’m getting up early to go dog sledding. I need some adventure. Then, on Monday I fully intend on finding a beach to walk up and down. That is, after all, the reason I wanted to come to Iceland (more about that soon).

We’ll see what tomorrow’s adventures bring.

 

p.s. I got a roommate today and she’s from Utica… how ironic.  We had a brief adventure downtown together.  She’s here for a month doing an independent study art project for Rhode Island School of Design.

Iceland Economic Crisis (At First Glance) January 9, 2009

After soaking away jet lag in the Blue Lagoon over the last day and a half, I arrived in Reykjavik today and took a first glance at the Icelandic Economic Crisis.  I am not an economist or an expert on Iceland, but I think fresh perspective is worth something.  Up until I arrived, the only information I could find on the economic condition of Iceland came in currency conversion numbers and reports of protests in the capital.  The human story, that of the people, is what I discovered today.  It happened by accident really.

I stayed at the Blue Lagoon a little longer than Tara and Lorie, then took the trip into Reykjavik to check in to the Reykjavik City Hostel (which is excellent by the way).  I stashed my backpack (sidebar: Someone asked me if I’d be backpacking around Europe.  I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I am… all I have is a backpack, no suitcase.) and hopped a bus to downtown.  After getting off at the wrong stop and walking around in search of Tara and Lorie’s hotel, I finally got there.  They are staying at perhaps one of the most gorgeous contemporary hotels I have seen yet complete with a black alligator skin bar in the lobby.  There will be photos later.  Anyway, they weren’t there, so I left a note to meet me in a bookstore up the street when I got back and headed in that direction.  I was hungry, so I stopped in a sushi bar to eat a quick roll while I was waiting.  I ended up staying there for a full hour.

It was a small sushi bar, with one single table and a small ledge looking out at the street, so I couldn’t help but overhear two men behind me talking about how bad the economic crisis is.  It was obvious I was listening, so I struck up a conversation and asked them for their take on the subject since my exposure to “real” information about it has been so lacking.  One man, Paul, was asking the other man, an Icelander who told me his name but I regret to say I cannot begin to comprehend how to spell, if he knew of any teachers losing their jobs.  They reported stories of a professor at the local university who could no longer work, a man who lost his house due to having his mortgage in a foreign currency (Yen, I think), salary cuts all over the place even in the sushi bar we were sitting in, etc.  The worst, they said, is yet to come.

See, Iceland imports most everything but fish and water to support its international taste.  Since their currency, the Krona or ISK, has dropped so significantly, it means the cost of imports has gone up dramatically.  The real impact of the Icelandic economic crisis will be seen in two or three months when stock runs out and it becomes too expensive to reorder.  People are already losing their homes and having wage cuts, but soon stores will be closing and people will start leaving the island.

Of the two gentlemen I was speaking to, one was Icelandic and the other a foreigner, a French man who has his money invested in the Canadian stock market and is traveling the world waiting for his stock to go back up… He just spent over a year in the States and is in Iceland for a few months and will then travel to Phuket in Thailand.  Paul, the international man, remarked how his perspective was different as someone who will be leaving compared to the Icelander who would be staying.  The Icelander admitted that no, actually he intends to leave to move to Sweden.  He did say that he had not set a date though, which proves to me that he is still waiting to see if the worst really comes.

Don’t get me wrong… it’s not the end.  The Icelanders are notorious for being resilient.  I was a bit surprised when the Icelander described the history of Iceland in comparison to the history of “the slavery of the Negro” in the United States.  He said from 60 to 600 years ago Icelanders were the equivalent of the Negroes and Denmark was their owner.  An hour later I read this similar opinion statement in the local alt newspaper, The Reykjavik Grapevine.

From a compared state of slavery, the Icelanders have come a long way.  The local Visitor’s Guide explained a bit about local Icelanders as such, “The Icelandic people have shown their ability and determination in adapting, learning and developing.  A little more than a century ago, Icelanders were scattered around the island, lived in turf huts and fished only for their own needs. Illiteracy was common and industry and urbanization practically unknown.  Today, they are well educated and the standard of living is among the highest in the world.

A writer to the Grapevine referred to 2008 in the context of Czech crystal, tanning stations and Dr. Phil.  It is clear that Iceland has swung so far into “international capital” that it has adopted too many excesses jeopardizing their culture and ability to think for themselves (something they pride themselves on).  The country was due to swing back to a middle ground, but even if it does hit rock bottom, it won’t last forever.  Iceland is sitting on a gem.

Besides the resilient nature of Icelanders, there is a very obvious commodity that Iceland has in great supply that will soon be more valuable than oil- that would be water, and their supply is one of the purest in the world.  The Icelander explained that water is the reason he doesn’t think Iceland should join the European Union.  The country is in a better position to export this resource independently or with the support of the Russians.  Although, with the Russians there is a fear that it will be controlled by mafia.

Regardless of who ends up helping the Icelanders, it is certain they will be fine in the long term, but the short term looks rough.  I look forward to seeing what happens here in the near future and am tempted to come back sometime in the next year to check up on it (and go back to geothermal healing waters).

Sorry, no photos right now.  I’m on Tara’s computer in the lobby of their fabulous hotel while she and Lorie do yoga upstairs in their room.  Photos will come later when I’m on my own equipment…. I hope you enjoyed this lengthy and inspired post.  There’s more to come on Iceland… perhaps waterfalls, geysers or the aurora borealis…  I’m here for three more days until the 12th.

Signing out,

Courtney

Iceland and The Blue Lagoon January 8, 2009

Many hours of traveling were washed away as soon as we climbed into the warm geothermal waters of The Blue Lagoon.  The high minerals in the water do wonderful things to one’s skin and have healing powers in addition to a slight sulfuric odor of rotten eggs.  Nonetheless, it was wonderful.  Tara and Lorie opted to stay in the accommodations at the Blue Lagoon and I was lucky enough to fit in the room with them as a third person.  That meant soaking all day long in the waters of the Blue Lagoon as well as a sauna and two steam rooms.  The hotel is actually the clinic and the accommodations are absolutely wonderful.  The Icelanders have a grasp on modern design that is enviable.  I’ve only had a small taste of the natural wonders of this country, but already my trip is off to an amazing and lucky start.

Lorie in the Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon at Sunset

me at the Blue Lagoon

from the observation deck at the Blue Lagoon

Tara demonstrates the healing qualities of the mud at the Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon Accommodations

the light is on in our room at the blue lagoon... rock and moss make a beautiful backyard

Tara and Lorie rock out in Iceland on very little sleep

 

Lorie and Tara in spa mode

 

lobby of Blue Lagoon Clinic and our hotel

 

Forces of Nature... i.e. a hidden geothermal power plant

 

Icelandic Landscape

 

The Real Blue Lagoon all naturalBlue Lagoon at Sunset

On that note… I’ve slept about one hour total in the last 36 hours or so… so I’m going to sleep now.  Until next time!