I’m not sure how many posts this is going to end up being, but certainly more than one, hence the numbering.

As most of you know I went to the UK for work the 2nd weekish of September. Because it’s much cheaper to fly to Iceland from there, and because my friend Ester lives there, and because I have a mild obsession with Iceland, I added a couple extra days and took a side trip there as well. This post covers the trip up to my departure from Iceland.

I left Thursday (September 8th) evening, on a flight to Newark, NJ. There I changed to a British Airways flight to London Heathrow. On at Heathrow, I had a very long wait until my flight to Kefljavík. This was because I needed to change airports (to Stansted) and the early afternoon flight was too soon with that twist thrown in.

Since I basically slept the entire flight to London, I was nicely in sync with the time change.

Anyhow, it was about 11pm by the time I clearly customs and immigration in Iceland. At this point I was so sick of planes and airports I would have gone home with about anyone just to be in an actual house. Luckily, my friend Ester picked me up and after a disagreement with the parking payment machine, we were back at her place in Reykjavík by 11:30pm or so.

Ester's Place

We chatted and shared a bottle of wine. I’d also slept a bit at Stansted airport, so I wasn’t super tired. Finally went to sleep on my comfy mattress in the living room around 1:30 I think.

Ester, I must tell you, was a wonderful hostess. She let me sleep in her home, showed me around, paid for more than her share of the food, and is just generally a great person. The whole trip there was very relaxed and easy going.

Saturday we spent mostly in and around Reykjavík. Some shopping, for food, film and gifts, was the first order of business. After that we headed to Bláa Lónið which is a geothermal spa. The main pool is huge and you can wander around and find just about any combination of depth and temperature you want. The water is a sort of dusty baby blue, from all the minerals dissolved in it, and there gritty sort of mineral mud with which you can scrub your skin – very nice and exfoliating. (I spent most of the drive back fascinated with how soft the skin on my hands and arms was.)

We spent a couple hours there, and finally, about as pruned as you can get, got out, showered and headed back to Reykjavík. We grabbed some Chinese take-out for supper. Back at her place we watched some TV and surfed the web, mostly making fun of ultra-right wing conservative livejournals – heh, we were entertained at least.

Sunday we went further afield, visiting three places, Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss.

Þingvellir

Þingvellir was two things in one. First it was the site of the creation of Icelandic democracy and the ::Alþing::, about 1100 years ago. Second it is a site of incredible natural beauty. Situation right on the rift between the the continental plates of North American and Europe, it is filled with rivers, streams and lakes, as well as a variety of scrub and moss and lichen covered basalt.

We also ate lunch at Þingvellir, at the Hotel Valhöll, which I didn’t recognize immediately as Valhalla, but once I did could hardly resist. It turned out to be a rather unassuming structure given it’s namesake, and no Norse gods were in evidence, but I still got a weird thrill from being there. We ordered club sandwiches.

Geysir

Geysir is an area of thermal vents and geysers. While not as strikingly beautiful as Þingvellir, the raw geologic power gave it a distinct energy, and, well, geysers are cool.

Gullfoss

Gullfoss is a pair of waterfalls in a canyon carved by the river Hvítá. The sun was out when we were there and we could see rainbows form and fade in the mists which the powerful falls threw up.

Iceland was amazing. The land is so beautiful and young, clean and powerful. It possesses an energy which I’ve only felt something similar to in a couple other places. It’s truly something that has to be experienced to appreciated, and upon experiencing it you can only marvel and bask in it.

Sunday night, I introduced Ester to Mystery Science Theatre 3000. We started, but didn’t end up finish (though she finished it Monday night I think) Space Mutiny which is one of my favorites. She was highly amused and I’ve e-mailed her a few other titles to look for.

We went to bed fairly early since my flight left at 7:30 in the morning – which meant we got up at 5 to leave by 5:30. Apparently I was able to say ‘góðan dag’ (good day) with a good enough accent that I fooled the passport control guy who launched into his question spiel in Icelandic. Unfornutately, the 20 or so Icelandic words I know weren’t going to cut it and I had to ask him to start over in English. It was a nice mistake to have been made though!

The flight to London was uneventful, and I alternated between sleeping and feeling sad for being gone from such wonderful place and such a good friend.