September 19 th 2012
Today finaly I went to the place I longed for for soooooo long.
Of course this started early in the morning while it was raining cats and dogs. But the sun was shining too, giving this atmosphere outside a golden glow. There is something magic about this circumstances, something beautifull. Not only because this promises rainbows, but the feeling it gives. What I usualy forget is that rainbows are so typical September. Somehow I cannot match it according colors to see the pooring rain taking away view, but the sun also shining bright through. But it is true you never see so much rainbows as this time, when the sun usualy is in right position towards the rain.
I looked outside and saw a rainbow. But it was odd to see this rainbow moving along with the clouds, rushing over me. As if I got embraced/covered by it. But it got weirder. The rainbow would continue to follow me. All the way through the night in slight another form.
Few hours later it was finaly time to take the last step towards Iceland. Boarding the plane named Gragror, which is a volcanic crater on Iceland. When we finaly took off, it was not at all nice and smoothly. The plane bounced and got tossed in the winds. Because of the many thunderstorms, there was quite some turbulence. Just after taking of however, I noticed a huge complete round rainbow. And the plane flew through it. A beautifull rainbow of which I was too late to capture. So close after take off we are not allowed to use electronic devices. But this time I didnt care, we had been through the process taking off. We flew over Lisse, and I took my chance to picture my house.
That was the last we saw. We popped into the clouds, into an unreal world of cloudcastles. Towering high above the cloudlevel. Pictures cannot show how beautiful this was. It became more beautifull because once in a while the clouds got rainbows all over. Again rainbows. I must say due to the many turbulence I had this spooky idea my life came by. As if I was going to die soon. Of course not. The turbulence was explainable. And maybe I just gained a slight bit of fear, or this flight was just more bumpy than usual. But the rainbows, and flying over my house, my work, the dunes, all places I spend a lot of time, and only this was visible. As if it was a statement, bham this is over, leave it behind take the sky and fly a new horizon. And a new horizon it was.... 3 hours later the first thing beside clouds appeared in the distance...
When a crystal clear coastline of Southern Iceland came into sight. Vatnajokul, jokulsarloon first. Huge fields of ice and snow, covering black and red lava. I saw the ice floating to the ocean. I wanted to visit that area tomorrow, but it was a 14 hour daytrip causing my northern light experience to be cancelled again if I took this tour. Pitty... So much I still want to do here. But unfortunately a lot of nice things are not organised after september 15th. Next visit really have to stay a bit longer and a few days in high season.
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| Katla, sleeping beauty, with her 10km wide caldeira filled with 750 meter of ice and snow... |
Then there was huge Katla. Katla almighty, the fearfull volcano. And I was amazed how many houses are build on her slopes. It makes you think about the Icelandic way of living. No one is afraid of the volcanos. Because they are part of their lives. Amazing people. Truly inspirational.
Continuing flying towards Keflavik, Hekla and the volcano with the long name that erupted 2 years ago came in sight. Hekla looks to me like a crone volcano, I dont know why but it appears volcanos have a temper or life stage relating. It may be the same feeling the first settlers had and many people in volcanic areas have, to give them names and honor the spirits of each volcano. I do feel it like that. Not just a volcano but a form of 'intelligence' different than ours. But they do have a soul. And that has nothing to do with erupting frequencies. Hekla just appears like a wise old lady. She looks tyical Hekla with her snowed top. Maybe thats it too, Katla is hidden, you wont see her until she erupts. And some volcanos are masculin, some are feminine. Not only because of the names given. It simply feels like that. Maybe the more clear conic volcanos like Hekla are female, while the more 'invisible' volcanos are male? Don't know. It just is a feeling.
Slowely the 3 glacial volcanos are getting out of sight. The captain orders to prepare for landing, so no more pictures. It again was a rough landing. Probably going from water to land causes it. Flights that mainly go over land are ok, but when landing/taking off is via border water/land it usually is quite a 'ride'. Well the lowering altitude was going with huge leaps, dropping km at a time, the landing itself was smooth as can be. We approached via the Reykjanes Peninsula, looking like a lunar landscape. Small crates every where, small volcanos, lots of red rocks, and hurray a pile/mini volcano with a smoke plume. It could have been a smokepot/fumerol as well, but the area showed lots of places with 'recent' magma flows, and is known for many earthquakes and activity. This might have been one in progress too. And, smokepots are not any different, they also are volcanic activity. It also is the point of Iceland where the continental rifts gets to shore. A huge fault crosses Iceland from southwest to northeast.
Like I thought this area of Keflavik is 'boring' in any way. A dull landscape full of lava rocks. I know even this is interesting, in many points, but you get the point. This really is only lava rocks as far as you can look. In a distance Blue Lagoon is visible with the huge damp plumes. And there is more than interesting things in this area. But jgust don't expect any wildlife or trees though ;-)
After arrival suitcases arrive within 10 minutes. I have to wait for my flybus to Blue Lagoon. I enjoy the crisp fresh air, in sun you can deal with just a sweater. A good day to swimm outside. But I also did not have a feeling of being so high up north. Iceland is completely its own, you dont see Scandinavian influences (no wooden houses), it is European nor American. And it is both. Iceland is of all world but also unique. The only typical Icelandic thing is the landscape. I doubt it there is any place in the world looking like Iceland. Not in the last place due to the amount of 'stonemen'. Piles of rocks that are according Icelandic sagas sleping trolls. You should never ever demolish or work on such stoneman. Or you wake the troll. That there is much more living unseen in this country is very clear. To those who want and can see that is.
The closer we get to Blue Lagoon, streams of milky blue thermic water
form pools, the minerals attach to the lava, turning them bright white.
Nature works bizar. Finaly we reach Blue Lagoon as the fly bus pulls down at a wall of lava rocks. Literaly nothing more than that, a busstop and a parking. The transfer servce has put down its own cabin where airport transfers can store luggage, so we dont have to carry it all the way to the main building. Which is a 10 minutes walk. Surrounded by ever those dark crimson red and rusty lava rocks.
Blue Lagoon is a tidy modern place. We got a bracelet functioning as doorkey and lockerkey. Several change rooms are constructed. And I am glad to see there are private cabins too. Icelanders are not prudish, it is in all swimmingpools (and Iceland has LOTS of them almost all outdoors) you are obliged to shower naked due to hygience rules. No way, for sure not with my suddenly shrunk bathing suit which I never in a life time will get on while being wet without seriously hurting myself. What a relieve they listened to the many tourists not being happy with this exposure to being naked with only strangers. But there is personel making sure you do shower. But it is a good thing they request people to shower before entering the pool. The gross idea of people just jumping in without showering is just disgusting. If you know that most people don't even wash hands after visiting a bathroom, you can imagine the dirt in the rest of the body.
A slight smell of sulfur penetrates my nose on the way outside to the lagoon, it is a bit egg smelly. But that is because of the water containing sulfur. There is a small indoor pool, and because of this smell not many people stay inside. But in my opinion it would be nice if they had an indoor get in the water and swim outside spot. I can't imagine how it would be in wintertime to have to walk outside before entering the lagoon. The steps into the water are quite tricky and you can't nor are allowed to jump in. But it takes some time before you get in as the stairs are taken over by boards in different sizes and then a rock stairs until you can swimm off.
To at last enter this water was a whole new experience, so comfortable warm, the rocky bottom was another story, some places had sharp stones, slippery stones. At several points you could get silica putty. A white substance that was all but everything. Something like a mixture between elastic and clay/cream cheese. But it was smearabe. A face mask/scrub thingy. So you see a lot of people swimming with white faces. The water surprised me being salt. Did not expect that. Somewhere in the end there was a hot spring, endlesly pouring boiling hot water into the lagoon. It looked like a witchesbrew, bubbling forever. The water was much warmer there than any other point. You were not allowed to get too close though.
I spend an hour in the waters, sitting underneath the waterfall with heavy drops of thermal water falling on my head and shoulders. I love this odd kind of torture (I mean people idealy dream about showering underneath a waterfall. But trust me that this falling water can hurt like hell, drops can be rather painfull, but also are like a massage to sore muscles).
Now I had to make a choice, to stay and take the last fly bus, waiting 3 more hours meaning I could swimm underneath the auroras, or get out of water and ready to take the 19.00 bus. I choose that option. Before this I went to buy some food. I bought famous Icelandic Skyrr. A sort of cream cheese yogurt. I absolutely love it. And wonder why there is no other dairy product that equals this available in Holland. This rich creamy tastefull delicacy. Hmmm....
It was a good idea to take this flybus. It appeared that no one else was staying longer, all suitcases were gone. It took more than the 45 minutes to get to Reykjavik. The busdriver first drove by my hotel which I did not understand and started to drop off all other passengers. I and someone else were the very last, making our 45 minute ride lasting 70 minutes. But for me there was no rest at the hotel.
Straight after I put my luggage there I got the command to go outside for Northern Lights as the Kiruna magnetometer sudden dropped verrrry low into negative southern magnetic field. Which means auroras will show. So there I rushed enthousiastic outside, without jacket, hyper energetic forgetting the right camera objective.
The guy at the receptiondesk looked surprised seeing me rushing by so quickly, it was onky 5 minutes after check in. I said northern lights may be out there. He looked outside and said no.... not now, no auroras. He should know, he is Icelandic. But I dont trust him in this. Many Icelandic people in Reykjavik never seen northern lights because they don't look for it. So I said: yes northernlights WILL show now, just wait and see. He smiled and looked at me like weird tourist.... ;-)
Looking for the darkest spot available, I only saw white lines like from an airplane. The glew a little bit. Via internet they told me to just take a picture with 1600 ISO and highest possible exposure to know if this was aurora the picture would tell. Then I noticed the lines started to move, glow more, swirl and curl. Dancing through the sky, forming patterns, lighting up and fading out. There was too much light polution here to see them green, but this were auroras. My camera just approved it. It was so magnificent so awesome to see. I could cry, finally to see them. What a welcome in Iceland greeting. I was happy. But the lack of training and a tripod who could not handle my camera couldnt give me the best pictures. But the ones I got I am very happy with. At least I have seen them.
Not much later the hotel was waking up (probably they have an aurora alarm service) and collected outside to see the lights. Lots of people with tripods and good cameras stayed in the illuminated area. Most were too late, because the lights faded, but stayed in this weaker form for most of the night. But then they would only be seen by those who want to see them. That is how pale they had become.
After an hour, I got cold. Nights in Reykjavik either summer or winter usualy are close to freezing point. I went out to get my jacket. When I returned the activity has settled, I decided to go back inside. Better than this it won't become in this light poluted area. If I knew the way or had a car, I would have been driving out. And this night I was scheduled for my northern light tour... which I had to schedule for the next day as I could not return in time from Blue Lagoon. I missed this huge chance, because tonights auroras were among one of the most spectacular of the season. At least I saw them!
The rest of the night I was restless, running up and down the corridor checking if there would be another boost of northern lights. I had a room facing another building so I did not have a clear view unfortunately. But it remained the same activity all night.
