Our First Day in Iceland

Day 1, July 4, 2013:

Duncan’s executive summary:

I just woke up, read and edited this blog, and I don’t think anyone other than the people that actually went on these wonderful adventures could actually figure out what went on because of the insane amount of historical facts my dad has put in random spots.  So here is just what we ourselves actually did. The start of the trip wasn’t that fun for me because it was mostly just three hours of me stumbling around Reykjavik half asleep while we all went to see the sights and cause some trouble.  We got to see the music house, the grand cathedral, and some huge ass military ships in the harbour.  Connor and I went girl hunting while my mom and dad went shopping.  Then after I finally woke up and everyone had lunch we went swimming in a pool that made all of Toronto’s pools look like absolute crap.  They had geothermal heating, multiple hot tubs, swimsuit dryers, a waterslide, and really cool digital bracelets that could get you into everything.  Then we all ate supper at Café Loki (an awesome Icelandic restaurant) and tried a lot of traditional Icelandic food, most of it was good except for the shark, the salted fish and the potato schnapps.    

Dad’s overly verbose yet highly detailed ramblings:

We left Toronto around 9:30 pm today on the red eye flying Iceland Air – the cheapest way to the UK by the way, and had an uneventful although pleasant flight.  We left Toronto at the beginning of its first heat/smog wave and arrived in Reykjavik at 6:30 in the morning to rain, fog and about nine degrees Celsius.  The week is predicted to be a mix of rain, sun, wind, fog and tourists with a maximum high of around 11 degrees, oh and not very much darkness – almost 24 hours of light.  This is cold even by Icelandic standards and we can still see traces of snow on Mount Esja to the North side of the city.

We picked up our Romanian SUV (a manual diesel 4x4 – don’t rush out to buy one) and stopped for breakfast at a bakery.  Coffee and cakes are everywhere; it is amazing that everyone isn’t morbidly over weight, instead they seem to be tall and buff, very bad for our self-esteem.  There are not as many blondes as we expected (although Connor is constantly following the interesting ones) but lots of blue eyes and many of the men are taller than the boys and I.  Iceland has a population of a little over three hundred thousand, two thirds of which live in the Western Peninsula around Reykjavik.  Just a tip, driving in Iceland is pretty much a must unless you are on a bus tour and the streets are laid out like any medieval town – they follow the terrain and have a siege mentality (ringing the city), soooooo trust me you need a GPS.  Trying to navigate the traffic around Reykjavik without one would lead to the breakup of even the strongest marriage.  The city streets are steep, narrow, go every which way, are crowded with pedestrians, covered in speed mountains and the street names are a minimum eighty characters and twelve syllables long.  Driving is an experience in the city, but no one goes too fast and from what I can see they are pretty forgiving of tourists.  Believe it or not they have a snarled rush hour and It really is stop and go in the narrow streets in the morning and evening.  Also because it is so hilly, driving standard is a trick and they close off some streets in the evening making getting home a challenge.

A bit of history:

Iceland is the youngest country on the planet and only reared itself above the Atlantic Ocean about 8 million years ago.  It is the only surface expression of the Mid-Atlantic ridge which means it is new seafloor at the surface – buy land in Iceland because it is always getting bigger (a few cm a year) and this is why it takes longer and longer to fly to the UK, because the ocean is getting wider.  As a result, Iceland is entirely volcanic (basalts mostly) and dark green to black.  The rocks are black, the sand is black and any building stone is black.  Iceland is also pretty rugged, lots of new mountains and active because it is still growing.  Iceland does not have a lot of trees because it doesn’t have a lot of soil, think tundra or scrubby plains with lots of lichen and moss growing on rock with scrubby willow and brush.  This makes it great for herding – sheep, reindeer and some cattle but not so good for forests or farms.  Because it is so volcanically active however what they do have is loads of hot rock which means geothermal power to spare.  Heating and electricity are pretty much just a matter of drilling a well and pumping water down.  So much of what Icelanders eat is fished, herded or grown in huge greenhouses.  Despite the fact that Iceland is actively volcanic it is relatively stable because the volcanism is quite gentle and constant.  Not a lot of explosions, earthquakes or lava flows out your front door, however over time there have been disasters that have killed many, isolated parts of Iceland and disturbed air flight like the ash volcano of several years ago that stopped much of the European air traffic for months.

Iceland (Norwegian for Island) was discovered around 860, by Vikings of course and settled in 870 by a Viking (who was later killed by the slaves he brought to the settlement) at Reykjavik which meant smoky bay.  By 930 all available land in Iceland was settled and the regional chiefs, who were constantly fighting, decided to form a national government or commonwealth.  The Alpingi or parliament met annually to settle disputes and pass laws – pretty modern thinking!  Now when they settled most people worshiped the Norse gods, however in 1000 AD the Norwegian king threatened invasion unless the Icelanders all converted to Christianity which they did.  For the next few hundred years wealthy land owners had increasing power and civil wars broke out.  In 1262 Norway stepped in as peacemaker and the Icelanders accepted Norwegian sovereignty.  In 1397 after union with Norway, Denmark took over, rejected Icelandic autonomy and even imposed military rule in the 1600’s.  In the 1500’s Iceland reluctantly became Lutheran under Danish rule and in 1550, the last catholic bishop was executed – change of religion complete!  In 1874, Icelander got increasingly peeved at Danish rule and returned legislative autonomy to the Alpingi.  Finally in 1944 after Denmark fell to the Nazi’s (1940) and could not communicate with the island, Iceland declared independence and elected its first president. 

Back to our story:

Reykjavik is ideal for tourists; the city is compact and easily walkable although you spend a lot of time lost because the buildings are three stories high and tight to the sidewalks so you can’t see any landmarks, even the sea.  The architecture is eclectic from small colourful homes with really colourful roofs (think San Francisco with Newfie paint jobs) to very modern buildings like the spectacular Harpa – their world class music hall that almost didn’t get finished because of the bank collapse of 2008.  There are many building projects that simply seem to have been abandoned, scaffolding still in place because the money dried up and no one has been able to finance their completion.  Iceland hasn’t got a lot of wealth, people are generally well off but the main resources are cheap Geothermal power, fish and of course Tourism - the population doubles in the summer months due to tourist dollars.  Iceland isn’t cheap in the summer; expect to pay three hundred dollars a night for accommodation and food is about double ours however there is absolutely no tipping!   The people are incredibly friendly and do not seem to mind that their city is taken over by strangely dressed tourists, we were constantly stopped by locals wanting to give us directions or recommend a restaurant and everyone seems to speak fluent English, which is good because Icelandic needs a second tongue to accommodate some of the consonant combinations of the language!

After our hearty breakfast of pastry and coffee (I love this!) we headed into Reykjavik to our apartment, a lovely two bedroom right downtown – everything is downtown.  From there we literally walked much of the city.  Our first stop was the highest point in Reykjavik, the Hallgrimskirkaja a Lutheran church 73 meters high which took 40 years to build.  You can ride the elevator to the top of the bell tower for a great panorama of the city but beware; the bells go off every 15 minutes over top of your head.  As well, the church houses a 5000+ pipe organ that was being played as we arrived and was magnificent.  The pews are double sided so you can face the front for services, then the backs flip over and you can face the back to listen to the organ.  The church is unadorned but is huge inside and beautiful in its sparseness.  This is a must visit for anyone with a day in Reykjavik and is one of the few things you can see around the city to orient yourself.

The Lutheran Cathedral

Believe it or not this is a great city for shopping but you need deep pockets, clothing and art in particular.  Iceland seems to take its art pretty seriously, there are sculptures and murals everywhere, colourful paint is on everything and they have a lively performing arts community – lots of festivals.  It has loads of restaurants and cafes, although why you would want to eat Italian here is beyond me and they make the most of their local produce, fish, breads and lamb (Duncan does not condone eating lamb in any circumstance).  The city center is jammed wall to wall with buildings yet there are really wonderful little parks and green spaces usually with statues, lounge chairs or gardens but no one has a yard of their own.  There are also very few trees in Iceland and the ones that are growing seem to be short-lived poplars that have been introduced.  Buildings are made of everything from quarried local basalt, concrete, wood and lots of steel siding which they cover with any colour paint they can find.

We stopped for lunch and had Icelandic open face sandwiches (very Danish) which were delicious but again expensive.  We made it a point to try some of the local delicacies with mixed results.  No matter what anyone tells you, the fermented shark (6 months in the ground) is simply bad; it reeks, is oily and tastes like turpentine.  You are supposed to wash this down with a shot of Brennivin which is a potato based schnapps flavoured with caraway to kill the taste and it is debateable which one tastes worse – the locals call this ‘black death’.   Smoked lamb is very smoky and quite dry, Steve liked it everyone else took a pass and the salted cod is just that, salty fish dried or boiled it is still salty fish.  The local fresh fish is great and the baked goods (homemade rye) are excellent.  We toured the harbour, dropped in on the Harpa (reputedly one of the finest performance venues in all of Europe) which looks like it is made out of prismatic soap bubbles and wandered the streets wherever whim took us.  Exhausted and sleepy we returned to our apartment, stocked up on some food and drink and collapsed for an hour.  We then headed to a local pool – hot tub resort which of course is geothermally heated.  Swimming here is big year round with seven thermal pools in the city.  Heat and power are no problem, just drill a hole in the ground and you have steam.  Our day ended early as we all fell asleep trying to watch a movie and none of us made it to the end.  Tomorrow it is off to explore the countryside.

The Harpa