I said in my previous post that Reykjavik was objectively an unattractive city, but that’s not entirely true. The truth is that Reykjavik is only unattractive in the context of Iceland - an exceedingly attractive country. I never thought there could be this much beauty in desolation, but in Iceland - a country where the soil is too “new” to even grow trees - beauty abounds in the ruggedness of its grassy, mossy landscape and the completeness of its isolation from the rest of the world.
Being the highly original human beings that we were, we decided to take the Golden Circle tour - the most popular tourist route that loops through some of the key sights in Southern Iceland. The weather was intense and changed drastically every 10 minutes in a way that made Melbourne weather seem sane. This provided for very interesting light conditions to shoot photos, but also gave us some spectacular clouds (and an excuse for Joni Mitchell).
The first stop on our tour was Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station, one of the largest in Iceland. All of Iceland’s electricity comes from its natural Geothermal energy, and hot tap water in Reykjavik is literally pumped from the ground as it is, without any further heating.
Yes, it’s very clever and absolutely sustainable, but the minerals in natural geothermal water does make a hot shower smell like cooked eggs.
Geothermal pipe lines.
Taking the high road.
Moss and me, near the power plant.
Sun piercing through clouds on the horizon.
After Nesjavellir, we travelled to the Þingvellir National Park, the site of the first Icelandic Parliament in 930. Every summer, when the Icelandic Parliament met, people would travel from all over Iceland to Þingvellir to attend, and merchants would sell their goods among the crowds.
The rocky cliffs at Þingvellir made it an ideal spot because the sound would bounce off the cliffs and be amplified.
Þingvellir from above.
Þingvellir was also famous for another reason - it’s where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are literally ripping apart.
Many tour guides will tell you that you can stand with one foot on Europe and one foot on America here. But let’s get real - they’re friggin tectonic plates. It’s not possible to stand with one foot on one and one on the other unless your legs were kilometres long. But you can see the rift quite physically in some places.
After Þingvellir, we headed to the famous Gullfoss, or the “Golden Waterfall”, as the name literally translates to. And yes, when the sun shines through, it is quite literally gold coloured. The water is strangely murky because it is glacial melt.
No visit to Iceland would be complete without seeing a geysir or two. But actually, Geysir - the original geysir which gave the phenomena its name - is mostly inactive because of a blockage. Luckily, another geysir named Stokkur nearby erupts, on average, every 15 minutes.
Thin, hot crust. Good for pizzas, not ideal for … yer know … THE EARTH.
Inactive geysir, or what I call - the earth’s giant butt hole.
Geysir erupting.
After the geysirs, we headed to Skálholt, a historic village that saw the establishment of Iceland’s first school, as well as its somewhat violent conversion from Catholicism to Lutheranism during the Reformation. These days, Skálholt is quite a picturesque spot, featuring an idyllic church surrounded by grassy plains, lakes and mountains.
Focus fail.
All throughout the tour, we saw the most beautiful Icelandic horses just by the side of the road.
Our last stop of the day was at Kerið, a volcanic crater that apparently serves also as a concert venue. In summer, they set up a floating stage in the middle of the lake and use the shape of the crater as a natural amphitheatre.
Landscape in the setting sun on our way back to Reykjavik.
And with that, we returned to Reykjavik for one final night. But already, I was beginning to miss the totality of Iceland’s beauty and its shifting, illusory clouds.
xx doots
No comments:
Post a Comment