There is literally no way I can convey everything we have done over the last...um...50ish hours in a single, reasonably medium length post. So I'm going to attempt highlights. But I need you all to use your imaginations to increase the level of awesome by about 100x, okay?
Day 1 continued...
Thursday night turned out to be too snowy and overcast to allow us to go in search of the Northern Lights. Stayed in the hostel, cozy and not too upset because 4 hours of jet lag may not be East Africa...but it still hurts!
Day 2: Snorkeling in a lava lake; plank crawling through lava fields; Northern Lights
When I initially pushed Tess to do just about EVERYTHING in the tour books, I imagined that snorkeling in Iceland just had to be in one of the geothermally heated lakes. No way can you snorkel in normal, freezing water here, right?
False.
Our very tall, quite beardy, incredibly Nordic guide informed us that we would go snorkeling first thing that morning, in 2 degree Celsius water, followed by the cave exploring. I wasn't the least bit embarrassed to ask him how that might affect my hair the rest of the day. I have this crazy theory that freezing my head for a few hours outdoors may lead to sinus colds, pneumonia, and death. He proposed getting me back in the van after the water to thaw out. Solid plan.
Snorkeling in glacier water takes a fair amount of preparation. You spend probably 45 minutes getting tutored on how to dress: First, put on the enormous "teddy bear" suit, which keeps you warm; followed by a second layer known as the "dry suit", which hopefully keeps you watertight; then you hold open your rubber neck hole and sit down in a squatting position to squeeze all the air out so you don't float around like the Michelin man in the water; then you get a neoprene head mask and gloves, flippers and snorkel/goggles. Tess has a fantastic video of me "birthing" out of the rubber neck of the dry suit. If you're not good enough friends with me, and therefore lucky enough, to witness my utter humiliation, just picture Ace Ventura and the rhino. Yup.
Day 1 continued...
Thursday night turned out to be too snowy and overcast to allow us to go in search of the Northern Lights. Stayed in the hostel, cozy and not too upset because 4 hours of jet lag may not be East Africa...but it still hurts!
Day 2: Snorkeling in a lava lake; plank crawling through lava fields; Northern Lights
When I initially pushed Tess to do just about EVERYTHING in the tour books, I imagined that snorkeling in Iceland just had to be in one of the geothermally heated lakes. No way can you snorkel in normal, freezing water here, right?
False.
Our very tall, quite beardy, incredibly Nordic guide informed us that we would go snorkeling first thing that morning, in 2 degree Celsius water, followed by the cave exploring. I wasn't the least bit embarrassed to ask him how that might affect my hair the rest of the day. I have this crazy theory that freezing my head for a few hours outdoors may lead to sinus colds, pneumonia, and death. He proposed getting me back in the van after the water to thaw out. Solid plan.
Snorkeling in glacier water takes a fair amount of preparation. You spend probably 45 minutes getting tutored on how to dress: First, put on the enormous "teddy bear" suit, which keeps you warm; followed by a second layer known as the "dry suit", which hopefully keeps you watertight; then you hold open your rubber neck hole and sit down in a squatting position to squeeze all the air out so you don't float around like the Michelin man in the water; then you get a neoprene head mask and gloves, flippers and snorkel/goggles. Tess has a fantastic video of me "birthing" out of the rubber neck of the dry suit. If you're not good enough friends with me, and therefore lucky enough, to witness my utter humiliation, just picture Ace Ventura and the rhino. Yup.
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| Stuck in the dry suit |
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| pre-headmasks |
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| Tess |
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| Me |
The snorkeling itself was pretty cool. If you're lucky and the dry suit doesn't have a miniscule leak somewhere, your body is surprisingly warm and you are grateful for the buoyancy! Your face is f&#king freezing for the first 30 seconds or so, but then your lips go numb and you can just try to enjoy. You are swimming through water that has slowly filtered from an Icelandic glacier for 50-70 years through lava fields into this pristine lake. Visibility under the water can reach 140 meters (for comparison, ocean visibility on a really really good day is about 30 meters). The fish don't come this far into the channels because of the current, but the rock formations are interesting enough for the 20-30 minutes you can tolerate being in the water.
The BEST part though was after we got out, when our guides let us jump off a small cliff back into the water, before retreating to the vans for hot drinks. This high school chick in our group beat me to being the first one to jump...ah to be young again. But 2nd was good enough, and I did a full, confuddling flip in the water before my suit bounced me to the surface again.
Tess refused to jump naked with me. Guess I should thank her...
Cave exploring under a lava field was just how you might imagine it (is that something normal people imagine?). Caves are caves: dark, moist, full of mystery and moss and bacteria. The fact that these were created by a lava flow 2000 years ago definitely made this a bit more fun though. In certain parts of the cave, you are like the delicious (wo)man meat between two slices of spiky basalt bread, so I don't recommend it to anyone with claustrophobia. I was also very grateful (more than once) for my helmet. Being tall, particularly with long legs, is not the best way to avoid head injuries in a cave.
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| A tad bit cold |
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| Success! I'M ALIVE! |
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| The lava fields... |
Our day ended with a very LONG search for the Northern Lights. Last night, the conditions were close to perfect, so we were blessed with quite a decent viewing of these natural marvels. An added bonus was, after freezing my a$$ off while our Viking-blooded guides chuckled at me huddled in the fetal position in the back of the truck, they had the good sense to provide us with hot chocolate and vodka. My hatred of all things Viking instantly turned to love.
I went back for seconds. It's the Ukrainian in me.
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| happy(ish) with vodka hot chocolate |
All the actual lights pics are on my huge Nikon, so you will have to wait until I upload them for visuals! (Everything prior has been courtesy of Tess's iPhone).
Day 3: Waterfalls and rainbows, the south coast, and glacier hiking
Our last full day on the island came much too quickly, but was therefore well spent because we know how precious our time here is. We did an 11 hour tour of the southern coast of Iceland, where all the glaciers are located, and there are beautiful black sand beaches, and tons of waterfalls amongst the isolated farms. This is the area where the 2010 volcanic eruption that grounded all of Europe occurred, and you can still see the ash covering the surrounding agricultural lands.
After shivering myself skinny yesterday, I invested in a pair of very legit wool socks and a fancy-looking neck warmer contraption. I shelled out several days' worth of food money for them, but it was well worth it in my opinion...especially after I witnessed Tess's bare ankles on the glacier. It took about three hours after departing the glacier to fully thaw her out, and frozen cousins are grumpy cousins (love ya Tess!).
I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking for this section. It's the only way.
First the glacier...
And the waterfalls...
Iceland sounds pretty amazing! I can say this snuggled on my couch warm and toasty under a blanket. Impressed by all the freezing cold activities you tried. Can't wait to see these pics of the northern lights!
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