Today began like any other, with a blast of wind in the face. I thought it might have been a bit calmer — maybe a modest 22 gusting to 30. We would later find out from our hotel in Keflavik that this type of wind is not that common, at least this time of year. While Iceland is known to have its share of strong winds, they tend to be reserved for fall/winter. We are just lucky I guess. That is somewhat reassuring to hear, however, because everyone who comes here is always raving about it, and we were beginning to second guess our own sanity and wondered if people aren’t phased by such winds.
We drove almost two hours to get to Reykjavik. We found a free lot and walked around the main area of town, getting our necessary souvenirs, and later a hot dog. While this may initially seem like some kind of cop out meal by an American, the hot dog is quite the staple of Icelandic cuisine — for a quick bite at least.
The price was reasonable — around $3.50 if I’ve done my math reasonably well. It had mustard, onions (fried and fresh), and ketchup with mayo. It was a solid dog, and none of this Chicago nonsense where they’re just dumping random items on it. An Icelandic family ordered behind me, but they got . . .ice cream . . .because it was such a nice day?
We had initially wanted to try and see some puffins today by taking a quick boat tour to some nearby islands, but the waves were so rocky, all tours were canceled. We will be leaving Iceland puffin-less. We couldn’t leave Reykjavik without seeing its most famous landmark, however.
The lutheran church of Hallgrimskirja is basically a symbol of the city and a major landmark. Perhaps anywhere else, it wouldn’t garner much attention, but the architecture of Iceland is usually a mix of Eastern Bloc meets IKEA, a sort of minimalist melancholy that pervades much of the landscape, and makes the church really stand out. Of course, we couldn’t miss what I imagine is Reykjavik’s top attraction for tourists in 2021 — the covid testing center.
Despite what appeared to be a never-ending line to see Mickey Mouse, it was like a well-oiled machine, and we were in and out in around twenty minutes if that. It was, however, one of the worst actual tests we have received. They did throat and nose and went quite deep for both. They should learn from the U.S. We have the most positive cases by far, and most of our tests barely enter the nostril. Good enough, says I.
We left Reykjavik toward Keflavik, but I wanted to make one stop at the parking area for the volcano hike just to have a look-see. The Search-and-Rescue group running the safety info online doesn’t work on weekends, so they just had a blanket, “Do not recommend hike for very strong wind gusts, rain, and storms for entire day.” I looked up the most current and accurate reports I could find, and it was indeed very windy, but no worse than what we had been experiencing. That, and there were easily 100 cars in the parking lot. Let’s do this thing.
It was a 4 km hike up some uneven terrain in our pairs of All-Birds. While they are extremely light-weight and generally great for travel, they aren’t exactly meant for hiking over lava fields. Nicole and I were cruising, though because Nicole was fixing to do laundry later. We were on a mission.
The wind was a formidable force, especially once we finally reached the summit. It was, however, blowing at our backs at this point, which is key so as to blow the poisonous fumes away from us. The current eruption Geldingadalir on the Reykjavik peninsula is fairly frequent, with lava flows occurring every five minutes or more. When we first arrived, it was just a glowing orange/red valley in front of us. This in itself would have been impressive, but that was nothing compared to what was coming.
It begins as a slow running river of lava before expanding and running down the side of the cone and eventually spews out the top as well. I never in my life thought I would be able to get so close to an active lava flow. It’s the kind of view that I would expect only vulcanologists would be able to get.
Every time it erupted, we could feel a small amount of heat, which would immediately disappear on account of the increasingly stronger winds. The entire cone structure that you see in the pictures is all from the most recent eruption that occurred in March. This is according to the overheard conversation from geologist types sitting nearby, who were sipping tea in between wind gusts.
It was all quite surreal. After watching three different eruptions, we headed back down. The wind was now very strong — much stronger than before. We were passing people left and right, with a “faster we run, sooner we’re done” mentality. Also, Nicole wanted to do laundry. Most sources thought a round trip trek would take three hours without accounting for time at the top. We went up, saw three eruptions, and came back down in two, and then did laundry. Take that, Sir Edmund Hillary.
The restaurant at the Courtyard Marriott by the airport was so packed, we ended up getting food delivered to our room. I enjoyed some fish-and-chips with an Einstok porter. While this is technically a beer that we can get at the market across the street back home, we welcomed the “local” ale as reward for our efforts of the day. Both of our covid tests came back negative, so we are good for phase two of our journey — which involves Jordan? We think? Traveling is complicated these days.
passports & pepto bismol 