What Iceland lacks in trees, it makes up for in gale-force wind. The stout Icelandic horses (small and pony-like, but do NOT call them ponies - they don't like that haha) don't seem to mind it as much, galloping across the squishy carpet-grass with their pretty extra-long manes flowing and flapping in the wind. Lots of wind by the way.
We spent our first day at the home of a history professor named Dr. Thorleifur Fredrikson who kindly served us a welcome traditional Iceland breakfast. That means these tasty Icelandic donuts, smoked lamb, rye bread, raisin bread, and the extra-tasty Kyr which is similar to yogurt but it's made slightly differently. Think the comparison between ice cream and gelato with Kyr being the gelato. It was all very tasty. After, we headed off to a geothermally heated pool. An outdoor pool! With water slides! There was a lot of sprinting from the water slide to the hot tub.
Now we're staying at a hostel in Reykjavik. We drove around today looking at a geothermal plant that supplies 200 megawatts of energy and all the hot water the capital needs. Purdy neat. They say it can be done the world over but they neglect the lack of infrastructure to transfer the energy, the small size of their country and population as an advantage, etc. They produce an excess of energy and that means they can sell it! To aluminum smelting companies that need oodles of energy! And use that excess for nifty things like heated streets and sidewalks and driveways in the capital that melt snow. And hour-long showers.
We visited a gorgeous waterfall called Gollfoss that is multi-tyered and flows along a canyon-like fissure. And then we went to watch geysers erupt which was really exciting but incredibly cold. All in all, Iceland is a really incredible country! Such amazing natural beauty and dramatic landscape mixed with freezing temperatures, light snow, WIND. Also, no idea what they're saying. Not even an inkling of Icelandic do I understand. Lots of sheep means lots of really cool woolen stuff! But really cool means really expensive. We're talking 44000 Krona here. You do the math (125 Kronar = $1)
Funnily enough salad greens are imported here. They do, however, have the largest banana plantation in Europe here, albeit in a greenhouse. Anyways, I've decided to try and eat as locally as possible, meaning the plentiful lamb, cow, and REINDEER! Reindeer burgers? Delish. We ate at a surprisingly awesome gas station restaurant where the slaughter house was just across the street next to the actual field home of the lamb. How much more local could you get? However, I will remain vegan in the US of A with their hormone treatments and industrial farming :D btw -
Day 2 in Pictures, Iceland 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment