The Visit!

Bonus!

On the way to Snaefellsnes

Lunch in the car

Golden Sand Beach

Why didn't Daddy come?

Mossy Mats

On the way to the dramatic beach

It doesn't look nearly as dramatic as it actually was!

Þingvellir

Gullfoss

The lava tube

Their Guesthouse

Fancy ladies?

South coast!

Solheimajokull (one of Myrdalsjokull's outlet glaciers)

Glacier/Proglacial Margin

Lunch out of the wind!

Beach at Vik

Myrdalsjokull

Their cozy room!

I have been debating about how I was going to attack this blog post because I have a million things I want to say about the week I spent with my mom and sis, but I don't want to make this an oppressively long post... I think I am just going to go for it, but maybe keep extreme details to a minimum, except when they are absolutely necessary.

Just from this introduction, one can probably tell that it was a great week, jam-packed (Muir-McCune family style) with fun trips! We rented a car three out of the 5.5 days that they were here. After hitchhiking all over, having the ease of transport that comes with a rental car felt absolutely BLISSFUL! Having the car allowed us to get to quite a few places, although, of course, there were tons of things we didn't see.

Myrica and my mom flew in early on Sunday morning. They were expecting me to meet them at the bus station near my building, but I surprised them by catching the 4 am flybus and meeting them at the airport! I was paranoid about missing them, so I got there wellllllll before I needed to. Ah well, better safe than sorry. When I left, most of my friends were still up and about from the night before, which seemed pretty funny. When they finally got there, it was so exciting to see them come out from behind the sliding opaque doors! Myrica said that she could see people looking at us happily during our initial reunion, which was particularly fun for us since we all love observing random people's reunions at airports.

We took the flybus back to Reykjavik and then trudged and lugged our way through the driving wind and rain back to Gamli. Myrica was not impressed with the weather, especially since she wasn't properly dressed for a little bit of a storm. Shortly after getting home, we all sacked out in my room for a couple of hours, which felt super nice. After waking up feeling at least slightly refreshed, we took their bags over to Baldersbra (their guesthouse just across the pond, maybe a three minute run from my building) and then began our walk about Reykjavik. We walked up Laugavegur (the main shopping street) and ate a little something at one of my favorite cafes, Jomahlind (that'd be a phonetic spelling...). With food in our bellies, we marched on to the famous weekend flea market (Kolaportið) where we got a little bit of food and a cute hat to send to Todd in New Zealand (don't worry, he somehow figured it out without me saying anything already, so I'm not ruining the surprise...). We then spent the rest of the day traipsing about, seeing things like the hot pool I go to most often, the harbor, the library, etc. They also got to experience my beloved bonus grocery store, which was exciting for me! For dinner, we attempted to find this organic fish and chips place, but wound up eating some non-thai thai food instead. It tasted really good, but didn't taste like any Thai food I had eaten before!

The next day, I went to my morning class and then met up with them at about 10. My mom had rented a car (and learned about the rules of the road!) while I had been in class, so we were able to take off shortly after I got home. We were planning on visiting places along the south coast and going to the blue lagoon, but a navigational error took us to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula instead! I realized that we were going the wrong way on Hwy 1 about 15 minutes out of town, but instead of retracing our steps, we decided just to retool and go on to Snæfellsnes, a place that we were planning on going to later in the week anyway. I was a little worried that the weather was going to be nasty, but it wound up cooperating beautifully! Because Snæfellsnes is a fair distance from Reykjavik, we spent much of the day in the car, but that was okay because the drive was gorgeous. Myrica and my mom found the 6.4 km long tunnel that goes under the ocean a bit disconcerting, but we didn't get a flat tire inside, get stuck, have it collapse on us, see a leek, or experience any of the other disasterous things they were picturing! Once actually on the peninsula, we saw lots of amazingly lush (with moss) lava fields, picturesque cinder cones, striking basalt beaches, tall, snowy basaltic mountains, lichens galore, and much more. I think one of the highlights of the day for all of us was a stop at an absolutely MAGNIFICENT basalt beach. The entire beach was made up of smooth basalt pebbles and boulders and waves were SMASHING against the shore. We think that the shore must have dropped off dramatically, because big, blue waves would roll in and not break until they hit the beach. It was dramatic, to say the least. I'll post pictures of it, because my words can't do it justice. In retrospect, I think Snæfellsnes was a good choice for our first excursion, because it gave Myric and my mom a great taste of just how stunning Iceland can be. Or actually, usually is.

After dinner at one of the pubs downtown (the same place where I had my experience with rotten shark...) and a stop at the 1011 for some delicious gummy candies, we headed back to their guesthouse for the night.

We had the rental car for Tuesday as well, so the next morning, we popped back in the car and started our way around the famous Golden Circle. Our first stop was Þingvellir, the site of Iceland's first parliament, Alþingi, and more importantly (for me) the site of the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian plate. It was pretty cool to stand on the North American Plate and be able to SEE the Eurasian Plate across the rift!

After a bit of a walk-around at Þingvellir, we got back into the car and headed towards Geysir. Due to a closed road, we had to take the long way around to Geysir, but that was okay because it was a beautiful drive along the east shore of Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland. Arriving at Geysir felt a little like I was arriving at some place in a different country-- there were so many more tourists than I was used to seeing! We walked out to the area where there were lots of little boiling pots of water and geysers, including "Geysir," the oldest known geysir in the world! People were all crowded around Strokkur, the geysir that predictably erupts about every 10 min, which definitely alerted us the fact that we were not in the United States. There would be no way that people would be allowed to get as close to something like that back home. While we were leaving, we saw a few people get absolutely DRENCHED by the geysir! It went off sooner than it was predicted, so a group of people were caught standing in the wrong place! I guess the water must have cooled in the wind before it landed on them, because they didn't seem particularly distressed.

After Geysir, we drove a bit further up the road to Gullfoss, one of Iceland's most impressive waterfalls. Our Lonely Planet had warned us that Gullfoss was sometimes a bit of a letdown for visitors, but it definitely was not! It was so, so, so beautiful and powerful! The spray was chilly, but it was definitely worth getting a bit indampiated to have the opportunity to get close to the falls! As we walked down the path towards the rock that extends out over the top of the falls, we got an increasingly magnificent view.

I think I may start to be a little bit more brief, because I am realizing that this is going to wind up being an incredibly long document if I keep going at this pace! After Gulfoss, we started heading in the general direction of Reykjavik. A few of my friends had done the Golden Circle the day before, and so they advised us about a few neat places to stop in addition to the main attractions. One of those places was a 1300 m long lava tube that we never would have noticed from the road. We walked a ways into the tube, admiring the huge piles of snow that had accumulated beneath skylights in the tube and attempting to keep sure footing. At the place we turned around, the floor was covered with ice stalagmites from water droplets! They were so cute! Unfortunately, Myrica’s camera ran out of batteries at this point during the day, so we couldn’t do much in the way of photo documentation.

After emerging from the lava tube, we made the impromptu decision to tack on the Blue Lagoon to the end of the day! We decided to drive there the back way instead of going through Reykjavik, which turned out to be both a good and bad decision. The views were amazing, but the drive was looonngg on slow, gravel roads. We made it, however, and got to enjoy the Blue Lagoon for a little over an hour. We all felt like we’d had enough by that point, so it worked out perfectly!

On Wednesday, I had to give a presentation in my Quaternary Environments class, so Myrica and my mom entertained themselves while I went to class until 3 pm. At that point, my mom walked up to the Perlan while I ran back and forth, periodically checking in with her. It made my run more enjoyable, because I always had someone to be looking for! Iceland continued to cooperate and gave my mom some fantastic views of the city and surrounding area. I don’t know if I have emphasized enough up this point how AMAZING the weather had been. Of course, there had been bad moments, but on the whole the weather was pretty perfect much of the time that they were here. After much debate, we decided to get dressed up and go out to dinner on Wednesday night. We went to this little place downtown that I had walked by many, many times but never imagined that I would actually get to go to! Myrica dressed my mom and me in her forceful way “Sara. Put this on. No. Change your tights.” Etc, which both my mom and I like. We feel like we are in good hands when Myric is in charge of the clothing operation. We tried to get a picture of our outfits, but had a little bit of difficulty getting a picture that really captured it (as you can see in the pictures above). Dinner was delicious AND to top it all off, we saw Northern Lights on the way home!!! I couldn’t believe their luck! They were faint, but unmistakable. Amazing, eh?

Thursday was another adventure day—this time along the south coast. As per usual, the drive was beautiful. We stopped in at the famous bathroom at Skogafoss. It was so fun to show them where we had spent so much time. Looking at it (and smelling it) again, I was really impressed that we stayed in there and had such a good time! While on the south coast, we spent the majority of the time we were outside of the car clambering around on the proglacial landforms at Solheimajokull (an outlet glacier of Myrdalsjokull). It was particularly exciting for me, because I think this is one of the places where I am going to do fieldwork in May. I can’t wait! We climbed up a little ridge to get a good look at the glacier, and it was certainly dramatic. The stuff we were climbing on was covered in beautiful crustos lichens that were overlaying glacial striations. Pretty cool. We made sure to collect some rocks that my mom could bring home to my dad! It was windy, windy, windy, but not too bad when we were bundled up and moving around. After walking down to the glacial margin, we climbed back up a little ways and found a nice little nook that was out of the wind where we could eat lunch. After lunch, we hiked back down to the car and set off for Vik (the town that I was attempting to get to when we wound up in the bathroom). As it was already sort of late in the day, we didn’t spend too much time in Vik, but we did walk down to see the spires of basalt sticking up out of the blue ocean and the rounded, black sand beaches. On the way home, we stopped in Selfoss to get ingredients for dinner and so that my mom could buy me groceries! It was so fun to get fresh stuff that I never feel like I can justify when I am buying things for myself!

Upon returning to Reykjavik, we cooked spaghetti in Gamli and then ate and talked with some of the people I live with. It was fun for them to get to know my family and vice versa, I do believe. I do wish that they had had more opportunities to interact, but you can’t do everything, I suppose! After cleaning up dinner and hanging out for a little bit more, we walked back to their guest house for bed.

The next day was a sad day in mudville, as it was the day they had to leave! I couldn’t believe how QUICKLY it came! Actually, I could believe it, but it still made me sad! We spent the morning walking around Reykjavik, taking care of a few select shopping missions. I needed a new pair of jeans, which we accomplished, and Myric was feeling the need for a few accessories… My mom made a good point when she said that it was good Myrica hadn’t come to Reykjavik a few years earlier when she still shopped like a mad man! Her bank would have been pretty broken after seeing all the cute stuff that Iceland has to offer! After lunch, I, unfortunately, had to go give a volcanology presentation at one, so with a tearful goodbye, I forced myself to get it together and go talk about La Palma in front of my class. I was not that happy of a camper, but I recovered pretty quickly. I am just not much of a fan of goodbyes! While I was in class, they successfully caught the Fly bus and made it home without a hitch! It is so fun to know that they have been here and can picture many of the things and people that I talk about! I wish that everyone could come visit me.

My oh my. My fingers are exhausted and I imagine you are probably SICK of reading! Also, I’m in charge of cooking tonight, so I best go get started on my cheese biscuits and corn chowder! It is snoowwing to beat the band right now… spring still seems a ways off—although there are a few crocuses blooming around town, much to my delight! Alex, Libby, Sam, and I leave for Spain next Monday, so the next entry may be from a new foreign country. Wild!

"Postholing" our way to the Hot River

The hot river and mountain scene
NOTE: These pictures are in reverse order!!

River Crossing that required quite the leap (well, actually, heft by the boys)

Boiling Mud!

Warm Muck

Cute Mosses

Dom Luxuriating

Skeptically eying the hot river-- can it be true?!

That's pretty much the feeling...

Outside our hut! From left: Aaron, Dom, Me, Libby

Libby and Dom with their morning tea

Yay!!! The hut! My celebratory picture!

The Trail

Lunch in the vacant store

After a relatively uneventful weekend (a trip to the Perlan [basically a really, really, really fancy water tank] and the geyser that spurts off behind it), we decided to go wild and spice things up during the week. Dom's friend, Aaron, is visiting for a couple of weeks, so they wanted to maximize his time here and go on a mini trip during the week. After much debate and a phone call home, I once again decided that I could miss good old volcanology to venture off to a hot river with Dom, Aaron, Libby, and Alex. We had been told that there was a "survival hut" near the hot river that was about a 5 km hike from Hveragerði, a town about 30 min south of Reykjavik. After acquiring a stove and packing up, we bussed our way to Hwy 1 to begin yet another hitchhiking adventure.
We split up into gender divided groups-- 3 girls versus 2 boys. The boys started behind us and so were able to snag the first ride. We only had to wait 15 or 20 mins before getting picked up as well, so it was pretty efficient! The guy who picked us up was a part time welding teacher at a middle school in Reykjavik and owned an organic farm outside of Selfoss. From what he said, it sounded like his wife was pretty much in charge of the farm, so he couldn't really tell me all that much about what they were doing. I guess they grow mostly potatoes and carrots and get a good price for the carrots. I wondered if they had grown any of the carrots I have been eating like mad. I don't think I have ever eaten as many carrots on a daily basis as I do here. It is pretty incredible. Anyway, he dropped us off at the Hveragerði Bonus grocery store where we rendezvoused with Dom and Aaron. After running about the store and getting supplies (with little thought about how much they weighed, I might note) we set up a little picnic in an vacant store in the little shopping complex to feed our hungry bellies and wait out the snowstorm that was raging outside.
After lunch, the weather had miraculously become sunny and beautiful, so we took off down the road towards the hot river with high spirits. After walking along the road for awhile, we ran into a mother and daughter and asked them if we were going in the right direction. Good thing we asked, because apparently we were just walking down their long driveway at that point... They kindly redirected us and told us to be prepared for a 3 hour walk. We had no idea how a <5>When no sticks were visible, I would run up the hills off to the sides of the trail to see if I could see where we were supposed to go. As we continued on, the snow got increasingly deep and I kept toppling over after unexpectedly postholing deep into the snow. Luckily, I had lots of layers on and rain gear so it really wasn't bothering me all that much. Nobody else in the group had rain pants on, which definitely made their experiences a little bit less pleasant. As we marched on and on and on, the sun began to set. It was dusk before we caught the first glimpse of the hut, and it looked fairly far away. The red sticks had completely disappeared by this point, so we were basically just going by feel. I wasn't too worried because I knew that we had food and headlamps and so knew that if worst came to worst, we would be able to follow our footsteps back out in the dark. After awhile, I went ahead of the group to serve as a scout. Because of Iceland's lack of trees, I was able to see people way behind me and yell back at them about what I was seeing. Eventually, I thought I saw an unnatural looking shape that I thought was probably the hut, so I began to make a beeline. The hike was taking us over little ridge after little ridge, so the valleys unbeaten the ridges were filled with deeply drifted snow. At points, I was repeatedly postholing up to my hips, which definitely made the going a little bit more difficult. Even though the situation wasn't totally ideal, I still found myself looking around at the environment we were tramping through and being absolutely blown away by its stark beauty. Imagine snow covered (small) mountains with little patches of THICK moss peaking out here and there, a blue-pink dusky sky, a steaming river winding its way through the valley, and virtually no sign of human presence. Pretty amazing. Finally, finally, I got close enough to the hut to be absolutely certain of its existence. As I made it over the last little ridge in front of the hut, I turned around and yelled "It's here!!!!!!!!!!!!" a cry which was met with quite a few celebratory noises. I was a little worried that the hut was going to be unexpectedly locked for some reason or another, but luckily it was open! It was an adorable little place. It was especially cozy because it smelled a bit like the Muir cabin when I walked in!!! I was so excited! There were double-sized bunk beds built into two of the walls and then a wooden table and little wooden counter on the other walls. We left our sopping clothes and boots in the mud room and then quickly set about heating up water for dinner and tea! Oh! I should note that Dom and Aaron had been carrying plastic grocery bags full of heavy food through this whole ordeal... clearly not quite the hike we expected. After cuddling into our sleeping bags with warm couscous and tea, we were pretty darn happy. Everyone kept remarking on how wonderful life was and how happy we were to be where we were. We wound up staying up pretty late (3 am or so) but slept in late enough to compensate. I eventually got tired of waiting for people to get up at about 10 am and so began tiptoeing around picking up peanuts and chocolate wrappers from the floor and exploring the area right around the cabin. After a late, late breakfast of plain oatmeal with cut up bananas, apples, raisins, skyr, and Marylins (a type of cookie) we set about putting the place back in order and signing the guestbook. People quickly began to get cold after putting on slightly damp clothes and wet boots, so we didn't dally for too long before heading down to the hot river! It was blissful! Dom was the only person who actually submerged himself because the rest of us couldn't bring ourselves to take off our clothes, but wading was amazing as well. It was such a funny scene-- snow all around and people playing in the river! What a disconnect! We splashed around for awhile, but when it began to rain in earnest, we figured we best begin the trek out. The combination of a rainy (and thus snow melting) night and full daylight made the walk out wayyyy easier than the walk in had been. We had been walking on the wrong side of the river the night before, so had done way more up and down than we needed to and had missed all of the bubbling pots of mud and hissing vents of steam that were on the other side of the river! They were quite the sight! HUGE pots of vigorously boiling mud and hot, milky blue pools of water. Pretty magnificent.
Instead of walking all the way back into Hveragerði, we wound up cutting up a hillside to Hwy 1 to expedite the process. After splitting up the girls and boys groups again, we both managed to get picked up within 15 min or so. Our driver was nice enough to drive us all the way back to Gamli Gardur, which made the trip home seem effortless!
Once again, being in a somewhat challenging situation made me feel really lucky to have grown up with my parents-- they certainly did a good job preparing me for all sorts of outdoor situations. It is funny to be in the place of outdoor confidence and leadership within a group like this, especially when you think about what a scared little kid I was a bunch of the time. My knife, water bottle, and rain gear training served me well again!
Myrica and my mom come day after tomorrow and I can't WAIT! I think I am pretty much caught up on school stuff, so I should have plenty of time to play around with them! I can't believe that it is already time for them to come! I am going to be home before I know it, something which I definitely have mixed feelings about. I am super excited to return to the PNW and everyone who I miss so terribly, but it feels really strange to know that my "abroad" experience will be over sort of soon. I mean, I have been looking forward to this since high school, is it possible that I will have actually gone and come back?! Seems unreal. I just need to make sure to enjoy every minute of my time here while it lasts!!!!

I miss you all and think of you often! I hope that you are all well, well, well!

Interesting Observations

Ski Area Near Reykjavik (Bláfjöll)

This rediculous band that was playing at Bláfjöll. Screaming heavy metal, with (apparently) very graphic
lyrics, playing to a family audience. Strange choice, to say the least!

Typical kitchen scene

Apparently the soccer and rugby games playing at this bar were enthralling!

The other day, Libby and I were talking about all the funny Icelandic things that we were beginning to take for granted, but that we really didn't want to forget upon our departure. To prevent that fate, I decided to create a little list of curious things I have repeatedly observed or experienced! Hopefully some of these things will help you guys develop your pictures of what life is truly like in this part of the world.

Here we go:

1. People leave decked out baby carriages outside of stores and coffee shops. At first I thought they were just parking them there without the child, but I've since realized that the baby is usually still inside the stroller! Goes to show how confident people are about Iceland's safety... Imagine leaving your tiny baby unattended on a street downtown in some US city!

2. People seem to have no fear about walking on the ponds near downtown, even when they have JUST frozen over. One day, on our way home from downtown, we noticed some hubbub on the ponds and went over to check it out. Lo and behold, some people had decided to ride their Icelandic ponies onto the lake and had crashed through!!!!!! Luckily, it looked like they were able to rescue them reasonably unscathed.

3. People roll their bright yellow Bonus grocery baskets around on little wheels.

4. Icelanders love their super jeeps and monster trucks... definitely surprising.

5. Many Icelanders frequently gasp a little "Ja" (pronounced yaow) as you talk to them, which is a little disconcerting at first. Since I realized I wasn't frightening them with what I was saying, I've begun to like it.

6. Icelanders love their kaffi (coffee) and our (new) volcanology professor is always encouraging us to drink it up.

7. There is an ungodly amount of throwup all over the bar streets on Friday and Saturday night.

8. Special little trucks drive downtown to open up shop at about 1 am so that people can buy ridiculously expensive, but tasty, "boat" sandwiches.

9. The downtown pizzaprontos are absolutely HOPPING at night. They have an incredibly distinct smell.

10. You can hardly find a car that looks like it is more than 5 years old.

11. Many Icelandic girls are bullys at night. Apparently I don't look very intimidating, because they don't hesitate for a moment before shoving me out of the way with a good deal of force. (I'm sure this isn't universally true, but it sure is noticeable).

12. There is essentially no visible homelessness.

13. When the wind is blowing in the right direction from the harbor, the area around campus can smell unbearably fishy (think Old Town Newport X5)

14. When people exercise (especially footballers, it appears), they tuck their pants into their tall socks.

15. Black, grey, and buff are the colors of choice for clothing.

Hmm... I am sure there are more things, but I can't seem to think of them right now. When I do, I'll add to the list. I'm antsy to get out of Reykjavik this weekend, but the weather isn't exactly conducive for hitchhiking (windy, windy with slushy rain). I think some of us might just take a day trip to some place we can get to on a city bus, but we shall see. Life is becoming a bit more complicated (but exciting) because of all the visitors that are beginning to roll in. We have 4 coming next week, including Myrica and my mom! I can't wait! They begin the journey a week from tomorrow. It is going to be so fun to have people to show around.

Things have gotten a little bit busier in the school department (much to my delight!) with final projects beginning to ramp up. We have an absolutely baffling volcanology project (we don't think the professors even know what they want because they have a knack for contradicting one another), but I am just going to try not to stress about it. I'm sure whatever I do will be fine (hopefully!).

Oh! Yesterday I raced another 10k, which was a delight! I suffered a little bit and struggled to stay in race mode when it began to get tough, but I still ran a decent time. Apparently, there is another 10k in Selfoss in two weeks, so I think I will plan on doing that-- especially because it is rumored that they serve cake and pie at the finish line! That is my kind of race!

I just came upstairs from eating dinner with my vegetarian cooking club (tonight, Paddy had concocted a yummy couscous dish) because a few people were beginning the process of cooking horse. Not only does horse stink but it just makes my stomach turn to think about the animal that is lying there on the cutting board. I had similar difficulties when everyone trooped off to this super fancy restaurant for a free meal of whale and potatoes. I felt sort of bad for not trying it, but I just didn't think that eating a whale was worth the cultural experience. Christian, Libby, and I (the non-meat people of the bunch) walked them to the restaurant and then stood outside the restaurant debating about whether or not to go in and sit with them while they ate the free meal. After much indecision, we decided to go in, but immediately turned around when we walked in and saw steak after steak of whale and a crowded, small restaurant. We walked on to a different place and drank delicious, hot chocolate instead... I don't think we made the other people feel like we were judging them for eating the whale, but it was just something that none of us felt like we could justify.

Ah the smell of horse is penetrating the hallway.... I think I might go pop into the steamy shower. Looking out my window, I see rain just RIPPING in front of the street lights. It's actually kind of a cozy sight, especially since it is coupled with the wind whistling through my windows! I'm glad that I am warm in my cute room!