The sun was shining and the birds were singing already at 5:30 the morning of July 7th, so what better to do than leave the Danish summer and head for ten degrees celsius, fog and rain?
My mother has been saying for years that she wanted to spend her sixtieth anniversary in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Luckily, she kept her word, and invited the whole family to Iceland for four days - which ment that I would spend my 22nd birthday there as well.
That's okay with me!
Iceland is really one of the more interesting countries to me, both geologically and historically. It is a young country in both aspects, created from volcanic activity 16-18 million years ago. It is located on the mid-Atlantic ridge where the tectonic plates of Eurasia and North America meet. In addition it lies above a hotspot, which causes a lot of geological activity such as volcanoes and geysers.
The volcanoes of Iceland. (Source)
The volcanoes of Iceland. (Source)
It is also a very young state being a desolated island until it was settled by Norsemen in 879 AD, and having their first parliamentary gathering at Thingvellir in year 930. The viking-heritage from the first settlers still plays a big part in the Icelandic culture - the language being based upon Old Norse, and because of the isolation, is the temporary language closest to what the vikings spoke. Some of the most important cultural artefacts in relation to Scandinavian history are from Iceland; the sagas and eddas telling the story of the Norwegian kings of old, the settlement and the culture in the viking era and the early middle ages.
A very interesting country indeed!
We stayed in private apartments a fifteen minutes walk from the city center of Reykjavík - a brilliant solution if you travel with kids or want kitchen facilities, or just want peace and quiet and don't want to be stuck to a hotel's schedule for eating and cleaning.
The first day was spent in the capital, where basically everything is in walking distance. That's the nice thing about a country with only 320 000 inhabitants, and 120 000 of the living in the capital.
The Catholic Church on the way to the city center.
We started at the City Hall where you can see a huge model of Iceland for free. It really gives you a nice impression of the rough nature.
The words have wings
The view from the City Hall, which somehow is located partly in the lake.
Interesting statue. Is this bureaucracy?
The center of Reykjavík is small and cosy, with small houses, colourful benches and numerous souvenir stores.
It's mainly really funky shops our expensive design boutiques that dominate the center of the city, so trying to find low budget clothes after losing my luggage somewhere during my plane transfers was a hopeless mission.
Despite being a rather expensive country, we found out that it was possible to get a decent restaurant meal that didn't cost a fortune.
Just in the beginning of Laugavegur, there is a lovely, yellow house from 1892 where you find Restaurant Caruso, serving good food at an acceptable price in a pleasant atmosphere.
Old fashioned, but very nice style.
The catch of the day, served with baked potato, vegetables and a lovely cream/lemon sauce for a price of about 1600 ISK.
Iceland is very focused on self-sufficiency. Probably inspired by the thermal heat in the underground, which is their source of energy and hot water, sustainability seems to be a natural part of the life.
Green footsteps of a vegetarian.
The probably most characteristic building of Reykjavík is Hallgrimskirkja, whose pointy tower is visible from almost every point near the city.
Tremendous architecture. I'm terribly sorry for the bad iPhone-pictures, because they don't do the building justice.
Unlike most other churches, Hallgrímskirkja is simplistic and very bright, which makes the atmosphere more pleasant and light compared to traditional churches and cathedrals.
No stained windows to darken the experience of the nave and altar.
A rather splendid organ.
Leifur Eiríksson, the Norwegian who discovered Vinland (America) as the first European around year 1000.
Unfortunately my bag didn't arrive along with us at Keflarvík, so I only had the clothes I'd travelled in during our stay. Therefore I spent most of the first day tracking down cheap clothes. I didn't quite succeed in the city center - I did find some nice dresses in a cheap secondhand store, but underwear and cosmetics seemed hopeless to find unless I wanted to buy expensive fashion brands.
Thus I decided to check out Iceland's biggest shoppingcenter, Kringlan.
I caught a bus (remember to have the exact amount ready), and found it about 5 km from the center.
Again, I found Iceland expensive, and couldn't find low-budget stores like H&M there, but they had a big mall, Hagkaup, where I finally found the necesseties.
Kringlan is huge, but no place to waste your time in Iceland.
It looks like any other shopping center on the planet.
The bus tickets are valid for 90 minutes, but that was the exact time I spent looking for toothpaste etc., so I decided to walk back to our apartment in Vesturbær.
Despite cold and harsh climate, the northern countries have one major advantage climatewise; the almost endless summernights.
Iceland is located below the polar circle and doesn't have midnight sun, but there is daylight for 24 hours.
An evening walk to the harbour let us experience a sunset that lasted for over an hour, ending at around 23.40.
One of the coast guard ships. Iceland doesn't have any military apart from the coast guard, but is a member of NATO still – the US have a military base there.
The best things in life are free, right?
Concert hall and conference center Harpa lies next to the harbour as a giant glass-beehive.
Concert hall and conference center Harpa lies next to the harbour as a giant glass-beehive.
It was finished in 2011, and has an extraordinary architecture with no right angles. Well worth a visit, and you can walk around and let yourself be impressed by the artwork of the building for free, and the doors are open until midnight.
Impressive architecture.
On the big day of my mothers anniversary, the whole family was packed into a bus from Reykjavik Excursions, heading for the Blue Lagoon.
Close to Reykjavík and very green.
Heaps of lava rock along the road.
The drive from the capital is about 45 minutes, and as the land turns more black and rocky, you'll see steam coming up from behind dark lava rocks.
Silica gives the mineral rich water the characteristic colour.
Being an expensive experience, the Blue Lagoon has very bad logistic. When we arrived, there was an massive queue to get in. We waited for half an hour, my small nieces getting pretty impatient, before we found out that we could get into another, shorter, line because my mother was getting a massage.
A frustrating start, standing there watching four girls trying to help one customer, and not even hurrying even though 100 people were waiting to get in.
A frustrating start, standing there watching four girls trying to help one customer, and not even hurrying even though 100 people were waiting to get in.
That aside, the Blue Lagoon is a very pleasant experience!
Floating around in that surreal blue water, seeing people come in and out of the thick steam hanging over the hot water.
The water of this place has a unique mineral combination which is supposed to be rejuvenating, and there is silica-mud you can use as a face- or skin mask.
The water of this place has a unique mineral combination which is supposed to be rejuvenating, and there is silica-mud you can use as a face- or skin mask.
P.S. Sorry about low quality pictures. My luggage was stuck at Oslo airport throughout our stay, so the only camera I had was my iPhone.
