Iceland Part 14 - Final thought

Spook looking for a toilet in the Icelands' wilderness

So that was my 2 weeks in Iceland. I truly had the time of my life and the best two hours of my life for sure. If I could change anything, it would be having a smart phone, as my old mobile is not the best for looking up weather websites. And as I only found internet in Egilsstaðir, Akureyri, Reykjavik and Skaftafell national park (that were open) this was the biggest hurdle for me. I was as flexible as the weather, but when you don't know the forecast, it's tough to make decision. I will be returning during summer, and I can't wait to do the Interior and visit more of the wild, unspoiled and breath taking landscapes and sights. And do off road driving and crossing rivers. Woop woop!

Stokkur ready to go. All the sights in Iceland are free. You don't even have to pay for parking. Huge plus and huge difference if you live in the UK. Money you save, you will spend elsewhere. Guaranteed.

Any country can have a bad weather, but at least with Iceland you know you're going to get it (and with the UK but we are not covering the UK now). You can come prepared. And do not go reading sci-fi stories of great weather during whole stay in Iceland. You will only end up being disappointed. One thing that will not disappoint will be the sights. I have never seen such long stretches of wilderness and unspoiled nature. I have bought a t-shirt in Reykjavik that says: Iceland the best kept secret. I don't think Iceland is a secret at all. It's just that people get so obsessed about their weather and choose not to go and they are missing out on something much, much better.

And we have a take off! This is Stokkur. The Geysir is dead and has been dead for quite some time. Every warm water that squirts from the ground at regular intervals and looks like this is called geyser. You could say his legacy lives on.  If you're comming here and you are lucky for it to go off, you can see it from way away. Some blasts are smaller than others.

While waiting for Stokkur, you can admire these pools that are full of minerals hence the colour.

And the final thought is:
Be prepared for the worst, hope for better, but most importantly have a great time! Iceland has all the ingredients you need for a trip of a life time.

Iceland Part 10 - Hitch hiking

In this part I want to tell you about Hitch hiking in Iceland. Don't do it!! The travel guides are quite encouraging about it, saying it's a cheap way to get around and that in Iceland it is safe to do so. In Iceland you will feel safe. However, when you go past Golden Circle, the traffic eases, to some parts where you will not see car for miles/hours. Icelanders do not commute from town to town in hoofs, like it is in Europe. Out of a Ring road it could be days. Also as I already mentioned, the weather changes, and I cannot stress enough the amount and ferocity with which the water falls from heavens.  I have always used the term “horizontal rain”, but have seen the true meaning of it in Iceland. Iceland is so popular because of its unspoiled natural beauty and its wilderness. They do not have shelters/bus stops every couple of miles. Also distances between towns are much greater.

Can you see yourself hitch hiking day in, day out in these conditions? (btw this is primary surfaced road :-) )

Picking hitch hikers is up to you. I picked up one, who was Icelander and it was the longest 40 minutes of my life on the island. Not stopping was not an option, as to avoid him from the track I was driving, would mean steering the car into a massive drop. Plus I had one of my Samaritan moments: this was in the middle of nowhere, with no chance of anyone driving by in the next couple of days, and a very high chance of torrential rain arriving in the next couple of minutes as I have managed to overtake it on my way. You could say, God has listen to his prayers (He's obviously multilingual) and have send me down :-) It was quite funny that when he flagged me down, he had a beaming expression on his face. (This was one of the 5 beaming expressions on any Icelanders’ face I have seen in all my stay. They prefer to match the weather with their face expressions). This very quickly disappeared, when he realised that I wasn’t an Icelander (too pretty) nor could I speak or understand the gobbledy-gook. As great majority of visitors do not bring their vehicles to Iceland, a car having an Icelandic number plate, does not guarantee to carry an Icelander. After impressing him with my fairly extensive Icelanding vocabulary (which took about 30 seconds), he decided to match it with just "my car" and point a finger into infinity. Not impressive, but at least I knew, high jacking and rape wasn’t on his agenda. I have missed taking a truly spectacular shot and I hate myself for ever picking him up. Lesson learned. He should make better arrangements in the future and not rely on hitch hiking, as a regular transport.

Or in these? (Holmavik)

After I learned from this, I have not stopped for the next hitchhiker. Well hitchhikers. It was two of them with massive backpacks, the Icelandic heavens living up to their reputation and fully opened up, and them looking like cats that have just escaped the mass drowning. It was very easy not to stop as A) they would have never got into the car with their "light travel" bags, B) they were totally soaking wet, and I didn’t want my nice hire car all wet and get fined and C) it was two of them. And me lonely female, damsel in distress; and they always say you should stay safe. The funny bit on this experience was that as soon as I passed them, I felt a pang of guilt and I look in a rear view mirror. One of them quite aggressively threw his hand in the air with his middle finger proudly erected. Yes, there really only was one winner in this situation and it was ME! Thanks for pointing it out, mate. I was in a nice dry, warm (27C to be precise), comfortable car, with radio blaring Chris Rea’s’ Road to hell; those two cold, wet with heavy backpacks that were getting heavier and heavier with the rainfall. If it wasn’t for his aggressive approach to the negative outcome to his sorry situation, I would have felt really guilty and stopped the car, given them couple of carrier bags to cover their heads, some light unpalatable Icelandic snacks I have purchased couple of days ago and wasn’t planning on finishing them, and offered rough time frame when they can expect the next car to drive by, to raise their spirits. But as he got excremental with me, I just carried on driving, with my pang of guilt disappearing and very, very warm feeling inside. Sign it was time to turn down the heating :-)

If you go for hitch hiking wear, hi-vis jacket. And get bulletproof waterproofs.

Iceland Part 4 - Museums

                              Phallological Museum, Husavik - check the artwork around

Holiday is not a holiday without a trip to a museum. I know, some of you might think this is not the most exciting thing in the world (if you are not a culture vulture) but with a bit of research and planing it might just be one of the highlights. I have found that that Husavik, has got one of the weirdest museums in the world - Icelandic Phallological musem. English meaning of the word Phallus is Penis!! Yes, just when you thought Amsterdam couldn't shock you any more, you learn about this museum. This museum has the largest collection of penises in the world! 276 of them (at the time this blog went into press). I know you're thinking that many places have more dicks working in them than that, but lets stay on the biology route please. So this place contains penises from all kinds of animals ranging from earthworm, through human, to whale. Of course, I didn't go there to see it because it is phalluses. I wanted to see it because it is the biggest collection in the world. I would have gone there, if it was let's say, the biggest whale museum in the world.

                                                     Closed :-( All that travelling for nothing

The museum used to be in Reykjavik, but for some ungoogleable reasons, they have moved to one of the Gods' forgoten ends of Iceland - Húsavík. Which in my modest opinion was not the best bet.

                                                                    Husavik Port

Despite being the biggest, it is only a small house, with as you already observed, strange looking artwork. Unfortunatelly, these are all the phalluses I got to see and lay my hands on, as the place was CLOSED! It didn't elaborate why, but I presume it was either end of season that in Iceland lasts three months, or people just can't be bothered to travel to the other side of Iceland for the Biggest Penis collection. Let's be honest here; how many times have we've been lied about the size of something, eh?

Church in Husavik

I did try to find out when will it re open, so stopped a passer by. They didn't know, and after seeing my deflated expression they suggested alternative - Biggest whale museum just couple of hundred yards from there, and pointed a finger in the direction. Honestly, do they think I have just travelled 150 miles, on various quality roads (mostly bad), in all weather conditions (mostly bad) to see a WHALE!? I've seen many nature programs and seen “Free Willie” too. And let's face it, once you've seen couple of whales, you've seen them all. So my hope of getting engrosed in serious biology for an hour has vanished. I wonder what the souvenirs are like in here.

Husavik is not just famous for the Penis museum. Oh no. They are very sought after due to the best whale watching tours on Iceland (just as well, as you wouldn't really have a reason to come here).

As I have travelled so far, I have decided to make the most of being here. Walked around the town (which luckily isn't big), took a photo of a church, seen and photographed their port, stocked up on some rations and 20 minutes later I was on my way out of there.

Another great museum in Iceland is Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft in Hólmavík. Which also happened to be closed. Again, it did not elaborate why. Probably end of tourist season, which in Iceland lasts just 3 months (June, July and August)

Traditional Icelandic dwellings in National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik

Last museum that I have visited (and first one that was not closed) was National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik. The museum is on two floors and it features history of Iceland from settlement in 9. century, to present day. I must say I have enjoyed this museum and not just because I was trying to avoid treacherous conditions outside. My favourite part was using their Video display units that will guide you through the history, if you prefer to save your legs. However, they do need improving, because as soon as you get into each chapter and start to ask some questions, the chapter is over and next one is about something else.

I forgot what this is, but I'm sure it's not what I think it is now

A quirky part of this museum, was a small corner that covered cigarettes and smoking. It was great to see the difference from years ago when smoking was in fashion. People frowned upon you and you got labelled social outcast just because you didn’t smoke, and now we are going in the opposite direction. People roll their eyes if you need to/want to go for a ciggie.

Latest Lady Gaga outfit? Probably too revealing. But this can be also seen in National Museum :-)

So there you have it. Museums are not just boring places. And if you are lucky (or pre plan better) they will be opened.