Iceland, Day Two

My second day in Iceland was incredible - though it started off a bit rocky.

I signed up for a guided glacier hike + ice climbing trip. They were supposed to pick me up at 8:30 from my hostel - so I went to bed around 11 or so (I was exhausted because I hadn't slept the night before on my red eye flight from NYC) and set an alarm for 7:30. I woke up about 10 minutes before my alarm was set to go off (I tend to do that, good internal clock I guess) and figured I didn't need it and turned it off - planning to get out of bed in another minute or so. Next thing I know this guy Greg from Seattle who I'd met yesterday is waking me up and telling me the hostel staff in the lobby want to talk to me - it was 8:25. After letting out a series of expletives I got up, put pants over my pajama bottoms, grabbed my jacket and very quickly brushed my teeth. I made it to the lobby and was told that my trip had been cancelled by the company for some reason. The hostel staff made a few calls and found another very similar tour that was set to leave at 9am for only 90 kroner more (less than a buck) - they got me on that trip and I had 30 minutes to actually have a bagel, some coffee and grab the things that I had forgotten I might want (for example, my camera...).

The van pulled up in front of the hostel and off we went. It was a 2 hour drive from Reykjavik to the Sólheimajökull Glacier in the central southern coast. The glacier was about a 5 minute drive on a dirt (volcanic ash, mostly) road off the main highway. We got there and our guide handed out the equipment we would be using. I got a pair of hiking boots, and all of us got crampons (metal spikes that you attach to your shoes to walk on ice), an ice axe, and a climbing harness. The scenery was beautiful, I managed to get a lot of great pictures and finally took good advantage of my camera's panorama setting.

Crampons and Ice Axe

Glacier from distance

Panoramic View from Glacier

We walked to the base of the glacier and strapped on our crampons. We got some instructions on how to walk with them (wide stance to avoid catching the spikes on your other leg and tripping/hurting yourself, firm steps to ensure good grip on ice - our guide used John Wayne as an example of how we should walk, which I found amusing). Then we went all over the glacier for about 3 hours while our guide explained the various features of it. All the black stuff you see in the picture is volcanic ash from the 3 active volcanoes on the island. As the glacier melts this ash gets dragged down through moulins(drainage holes in the ice) and occasionally forms a protective covering around ice deep inside. When the glacier melts down to this level the ash protects this ice from melting and so these black mounds are formed as the unprotected glacier melts around these structures. This is the only glacier in the world that has these features, though apparently they just discovered another one on Mars. A lot of the ash your see is from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano which spewed ash earlier this year (you may recall the flight cancellations that wreaked havoc this spring).

Following our guide across the glacier

My Welsh friend who I'll talk more about later

One of the larger moulins on the glacier

Ashy mound of ice

Our guide Láki explaining how the ash gets washed down crevasses to form these mounds.

After a good amount of hiking around we finally came to a vertical ice wall where we would practice our ice climbing. Our guide climbed to the top to secure a rope for us to use as a safety line, then we each took turns climbing to the top. Due to the nature of the hike the wall was pretty scalable - slightly sloped and with no overhangs. It took about a minute for most of us to make it to the top, and all 6 of the 7 of us did it successfully (one woman couldn't do it, but it was mostly because of the shoes she was wearing - one of the guys also had issues and had to abort his first attempt - but he got it eventually on the second try). I really enjoyed this part of the hike and now really want to try it again at a more intense scale (though I suppose I'll have to settle for rock climbing until I find myself in the arctic again - no ice climbing that I know of in France).

Ice climbing!

At the top
After the climb we gathered our things and headed down the glacier back to the car where we had lunch provided then we headed back into Reykjavik with a quick pit stop at the Skógafoss waterfall.

At the waterfall

Another panorama

I got back to my hostel around 7:30 or so, grabbed my swim trunks and headed off in search of the city pool that I knew was somewhere in my part of town. I eventually found it and paid for my admission (at this point completely in hand gestures and smiles since the woman at the pool spoke no English). I left my stuff in a locker, changed and went outside (outdoor pool). The air was pretty chilly (I think it was in the low 40s), but the large swimming pool was heated to a comfortable swimming temperature. I couldn't resist swimming some laps for exercise since I don't think I've done that since Guinea. I swam until I was too exhausted to keep going (about 20 laps? - but give me a break I hiked a glacier earlier in the day!). Then I headed over to the hot tubs and picked the hottest one (105 degrees) and got in. After the day I'd had the hot water was amazing. I managed to greet the two men already in there succesfully in Icelandic then sat and soaked for about 10 minutes.

Around 9 or so I left the pool and went to the hostel to shower and change. I went out to a nicer-than-average dinner at the Geysir Bistro (near my hostel) and had a the Whaleburger* with Lobster Mayonnaise and fries and a Gull (Icelandic) beer. The burger was delicious and I was very happy to have gotten dinner at this place - it definitely gets my recommendation. The whale in my burger was in steak form (not ground like a normal hamburger) and so I got a good sense of what a whale steak (which cost twice as much as my burger did) would be like. Generally whale meat is very similar to beef - though I actually found the taste and texture a bit more goat-like than beef-like. It's very lean, very red (almost purple) and doesn't have a strong taste.

After dinner I went out to a bar called "The English Pub" because it was very busy. I got an Irish cream ale (Kilkenny) and wandered the place looking for a familiar face. I noticed that guy who stood me up for dinner the previous day, but decided to keep wandering and it worked out really well. I recognized a Welsh girl from my hiking expedition with a couple of people. I walked over to say hi and asked if I could join them. She was with a Dutch girl, a Chinese man and a (very attractive) British guy. They were all staying at the same hostel (not mine) and went out for a beer together. We chatted for a long while and 4 beers later were singing along with the live music at the top of our lungs (the bar had a guy singing and playing guitar - all the very singable hits like "Don't Stop Believing", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Stacy's Mom", Hey Ya", "Hey Jude", etc - I was reminded very strongly of Levi from Peace Corps Guinea and Liberia, he had a lot of the same songs and a similar voice).

I left the bar around 1am and wandered home stopping for a lamb sandwich from a street vendor (with red cabbage, pickles, and lots of mayo). Set an alarm and went to bed. I got up at 4:15 to catch the 5am bus to the airport to catch my flight to Paris. I land in 20 minutes....l'aventure commence (continue?).




* - I know some of my readers will probably take issue with my eating whale - so here's my defence:

-If you're a meat eater in the states who is citing animal cruelty issues and referring me to sites detailing the horror that is whaling - then I refer you to the PETA video "Meet Your Meat" - please watch this and tell me that hunting a whale who lived its life in its natural habitat is more cruel than the way chickens, cows and pigs are treated their entire lives on American meat farms. Don't be a hypocrite.

-If you're citing conservation/wildlife/ecological reasons for not eating whale - I thought of this as well. Whaling has been illegal in Iceland for the last 40 years or so because whales had been hunted almost to extinction in the area. However during this time the population has increased to the point that the regulatory committee that decides these things decided to allow whaling to begin again about 5 years ago with restrictions (only 40 whales can be killed per year for all of Iceland, for example). Currently the status of minke whales is "least concern" due to its repopulation and so I don't feel that it being hunted for my burger is going to affect the species survival of these animals. Also in this vein, eating whale which was caught in the local Icelandic waters is way better for the environment than eating beef which is probably flown in from Europe.

-If you're a vegetarian citing general issues - then yes you have a valid point - what right do I have to eat whale and support an industry that kills and removes these creatures from their natural habitat - or to eat any meat and support an industry that I know is part of the general ecological crisis the world is in. This is a decision that isn't lost on me and I was vegetarian myself for a few months in college. However, I like eating meat and I've chosen to continue to do so because it's what I want. If this makes me a bad person in your eyes then that's unfortunate but ultimately not really my problem. That sounds harsh but it's not intended that way - I have a lot of respect for people who can happily maintain a vegetarian/vegan diet - I just am not one of them.