Would you like a side of volcanic ash?
22 May 2011 1 Comment
in exercise, healthy, travel, Uncategorized Tags: horses, Iceland, Reykjavik, volcano
Day two in Iceland = very eventful.
So, mere hours after my landing yesterday, a volcano erupted. Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking, what are the chances of it happening a second year in a row?
They are calling it the largest eruption in 100 years! The airport closed early this morning and all flights up until tomorrow afternoon are cancelled. I fly out first thing Tuesday. I hope.
Anyway, that aside, today I went on an amazing 2.5 hour horse trek (no, I didn’t learn my lesson in Bolivia) and a 4 hour tour around what is known as the Golden Circle. You can imagine how much healthier, stronger and more beautiful the horses were than in Bolivia and they were Viking horses (No, I didn’t wear a viking hat while riding :( ). On the Golden Circle, we stopped at a national park, two waterfalls (one of which was comparable to Niagara Falls, but on a smaller scale), some geysers (one of them was named Geysir, which is where the name comes from by the way), and a village with loads of greenhouses where they can grow anything they want! Anything – like bananas!
The scenery was amazing and the best part of it? We got to witness the volcanic ash as it took over the sky. Very cool. As long as my flight is still leaving at some point this week.
I also decided tonight that I was going to treat myself to dinner (restaurants are super expensive here). I ended up at this bar called Iceland Bar, which has free wi-fi. I just finished mowing down a $20 reindeer burger (sorry vegetarians) with teeny tiny fries, a $10 bottle of beer and THE most delicious dessert ever – Icelandic pancakes with rhubarb and whipped cream! And not that fake Dream whip crap – this is the real stuff!
Anyway, I’m not sure how anyone gets used to sleeping normally in this city. There was approximately 4 hours of ‘night’ last night, and I could still read without a lamp in my room. Our tour guide today told us that in the winter they have 22 hours of darkness…can you imagine?
Well, back to my low-fat dessert!
May 23, 2011 @ 09:20:42
OK I tried to comment yesterday from my Blackberry but had some problems with that. Anyway, I read the article in the Star about the volcano eruption. They say it was bigger, but since a lot of the ash was coarser than last year, it settled quicker. Together with different winds (blowing towards Greenland not Europe) they wont have the air traffic closed for five days like last year. You should be good to go by tomorrow.
Love Dad