More Iceland!

See? It's not really covered in ice! It's very green in the summer. If the sun had been shining, you would be dazzled by the bright greenness of this picture.

So continuing where I left off, I got up very early on my second day in Iceland, because it was the day of my Superjeep tour. I left Reykjavík early to go off in this huge Jeep with gigantic wheels to see some of the country outside of the city for the day. This trip was fabulous. If you are ever in Iceland, I really insist that you do something like this. I wholeheartedly recommend you go here or here and book yourself a nice little trip, and if possible request that you go with a man named Gummi. Yes, that's right, Gummi. His name is actually Guðmundur Sigurðsson, but being a smart man he figures no English speaking foreigner can pronounce his real name. He is quite right. So he goes by Gummi, and he is really a great guide.




This is Gummi.






Something that is really striking about Iceland, to me, is the people there. Everywhere I have gone, I have met the nicest, friendliest people. They all seem to have a really strong sense of pride in their country, and they always are very happy to tell you about Iceland. Sometimes when you meet an Icelander, they seem very serious and shy. But they really are not. Once you start talking to them, all kinds of interesting facts come pouring out of these people. They are very generous people, proud of their history, their city, their country, their culture, their drinking water, their low crime rate, their cucumbers, and their chocolate milk. And a million other things I can't think of right now. Gummi is no different, although this is of course his job. But he is also clearly a very proud Icelander, filled to overflowing with knowledge. We spent nearly 12 hours with him and I don't think any of our strange questions went unanswered.

So anyway, off we went in Gummi's jeep, to see and learn all about Iceland. Huge fields of lava rock, waterfalls, forest, mountains, the bay, rivers, volcanoes... so much to see. It was amazing.

You have to love a place where there is just steam rising from the ground all over:

and where they have RED GRASS! I seemed to be the only one there who was totally amazed with the red grass, but I am not sure why. I mean, it's grass. And it's red. It's totally the wrong color! have you seen red grass before? Probably not. And it's just there, growing in patches in the middle of the normal green grass, minding its own business. Pretending it's not completely the wrong color...

After miles and miles of lava, hotsprings, a geothermal plant, a waterfall, red grass, and an eternity of driving through billions of rocks, we reached Langjökull. Langjökull is "the long glacier" where we went snowmobiling. It is the second largest glacier in Iceland, and I heard later that it is sitting right on top of a volcano (not shocking since Iceland is really more of a pile of volcanic activity than it is an island). If global warming does not melt the whole glacier first (a real possibility), then one day they expect this volcano to erupt, melting the whole glacier, and suddenly sending torrents of water down hill to destroy a nearby village. Sure, this might not happen for hundreds or a thousand years... But I think I might move to a different village if I were them...

And here let me explain how much of a disgraceful coward I am. There I was, standing on the edge of a glacier. Looking at white snow and ice as far as the eye can see. Knowing that I am going out there onto that endless plain of white... on a snowmobile. I had never been on a snowmobile. I assumed this would be a disaster. I'm not sure why I had zero confidence in my snowmobiling ability, but I did. I was incredibly relieved to learn that we were to go in pairs. One would drive out to the middle of nowhere, then the other would drive back. I'll take the return drive please!! (hopefully I will not have to drive back either...)

John, a fellow tourist from England, was happy to drive. So off we went over the glacier, out into the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, we were not going terribly fast. But snowmobiles are kind of tricky to control, you see. They don't necessarily turn quite when you want them to. And then you lean into the turn to prevent it from flipping over, but it still feels like it will. And here out on this glacier, there were big puddles of ice water (because it was summer) and cracks in the ice where this water was running downhill, slicing a crevasse on it's way. I didn't really care to end up in a big puddle of ice water or fall into a crack in the ice. I also didn't want to lose the group and get lost out there. Basically, this whole thing terrified me, and I did not even want to go. But everyone else insisted I go.

I spent the outbound portion of the ride alternating between keeping me eyes tightly closed and gripping the handles fiercely, and peering out of my helmet to make sure we weren't about to plummet to our death. I was unreasonably scared. I am not sure why. But I just was. So we stopped for a bit out in the middle of nowhere, you could not see a thing except white in every direction, because we were in the clouds way up there. The sun did come out for a little bit! It was lovely with the blue sky and sunshine, and the silence. Not one thing out there to make noise other than the wind, and us. Total isolation. I liked it there.

John had had a lot of fun driving the snowmobile out there, so in spite of all the protests from everyone else, I graciously let him drive back too. I was less scared of getting lost now, because our guide, Ása, was on top of things and made sure we didn't ride off into our own demise. But still, I was sure I would somehow get us killed. No thank you. I spent the return part of the trip nearly as terrified as before, but with my eyes open a little more often. Then it happened. Neither of us were sure how this happened, because there wasn't any terribly large rut in the ground, and we weren't really turning, but suddenly we were turned over, laying in the snow, with the snowmobile on top of our right legs. The very thing I had been so scared of had happened.

There, pinned under the snowmobile, on a glacier, in the middle of nowhere, I began to laugh uncontrollably. The others dismounted and came running. The other members of our tour group were horrified and scared, and they thought we were hurt terribly. They asked if we were alright, and we said we were. (I, between gales of laughter.) And they asked if I was able to get up, and I said I could not because my leg was pinned under the snowmobile. Katie, a really nice lady from Ohio, was so scared. They were trying to lift the snowmobile off of us and she expected my leg to be broken, or bloody under there. Nope. It was fine. We were both 100% unharmed by this accident.

It was the least painful or frightening accident I've ever experienced on any kind of vehicle in my life. I've crashed and fallen over in boats, on bicycles, a golf cart once, skis, and not to mention actual car accidents. All of these other incidents had involved some sort of pain. Not this time. I just landed softly on some snow. It was really no big deal, and I was laughing mostly at my own stupidity.

My eyes were wide open the rest of the way back and I even let go of the handles for a while. Once I wasn't scared anymore, it was SO FUN! If I ever have the chance to go snowmobiling again, I will actually try to drive it!


So we left the glacier and headed back across miles and miles of rocks. I've never seen so many rocks in my life. They were all just left there by the glacier, which is continually shrinking. It isn't really what I would call a beautiful landscape, but it's truly amazing to see it. That's some tough terrain.

Our next stop was at Þingvellir National Park (the Þ thing is pronounced like an un-voiced 'th' like at the beginning of the word 'thing'.) This was a beautiful place where the vikings had originally set up their annual national assembly where laws were created and communicated to the people's representatives that were sent to the assembly, and disputes were settled. It is also sitting right on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which is where the North Atlantic and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. This is a huge fault-line that runs down the center of the atlantic ocean. It also runs right through Iceland. It is why Iceland is there, actually. As the two plates separate, lava comes oozing up and hardens, creating land. It's a really interesting fissure in the earth to see. There is also just a generally beautiful patch of land here to look at, including these green grassy patches, and blue clear waters (and Iceland's largest lake).

Interesting fact: Iceland has an average of 150 earthquakes EVERY DAY. So small you usually never feel a thing. And all the houses and buildings are required to be built to withstand a minimum level 7 magnitude earthquake without collapsing.

So then we returned to Reykjavík after a long full day that was both fun and informative. It was spectacular and filled with fascinating Viking history. You all know me... I love them Vikings... ;)

Upon my return to my hostel, I attempted to relax for a while because I was quite tired. But no no, that was just silly. Of course I wasn't going to sleep! It was time to hit the town and begin the night-long mission to drink lots of beer.

This is the LONGEST post ever. And I have to go to a barbecue now! So I'll continue this another time.

UPDATE: OOPS! MY BAD!
I have since learned that the glacier I went to is not the one on top of the volcano that is going to erupt and melt it at any time and destroy a nearby village. Turns out, that was an entirely different glacier somewhere else in Iceland. They have a lot of glaciers, and the whole place is a bunch of volcanoes stuck together, so it is easy to get this confused. Apologies.