Ísland

Hátíðalilja

Something about an ad that came from the Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto got me to thinking  … airfare, hotel, and an excursion  … a few days in Reykjavík … I could make it to coincide with a week off between semesters … time it for just after my birthday.  A mere 48 hours to make up my mind.  Quick consultations with Errol and Cait and a few minutes dealing with Icelandic Air and there I had it … a week in Iceland scheduled for the last couple of days in April and a few days in the first week in May. Happy Birthday to me!

Tjörnin

Once it came time for me to get serious about leaving, it was the busy part of the semester, with lots of marking, meetings, and a myriad of odds and ends that need to be done around a house in Spring.  So, I wasn’t terribly organized or prepared.  I had a few pages of family history that I’d gotten from Nelson Gerrard years ago but hadn’t really studied closely and so I included those, along with my camera.  The day before I left, there was a gathering of the London members of the Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto at Ardath Finnbogason-Hill’s house, and several folks gave me advice on things to see and do.

Harpa

Iceland Air has a nice set-up that allows a person to fly overnight and arrive in Reykjavik in the early morning.  It was lovely to check in to my hotel, the Nordica, at 9 a.m. and have a nice breakfast and a wee nap before heading out to explore the city.

It was May Day, so most things were closed, but I got a chance to see a parade and I walked down to the harbour and all the way back to the hotel via the Harpa, the newly opened concert hall and convention centre and the landmark church, Hallgrímskirkja.  I was a little pooped by the time my meandering took me back to the hotel, as there are some hills in Reykjavík … who knew? I checked my itinerary and realized the excursion was bright and early the next day, so tried to get some sleep, which was a bit hard due to time difference and lengthy daylight hours.

The band played 'Fernando's Hideaway'

The next morning, after a bit of a wait for a couple of sleepyheads, four intrepid Canadians and Vili, our guide,  headed off to explore some sights.  We deviated from the itinerary a bit, but did get to see Þingvellir, the site of the original icelandic parliament.  It is also the site of the rift valley between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates and the continental drift that is causing Iceland to grow a bit every year. We went to a couple of waterfalls, Hraunfossar and Barnafoss, and to Langjökull, a large glacier and to Deildartunguhver Geothermal Spring and had a bowl of yummy Kjötsúpa or lamb soup at Meat soup at Húsafell. It was a good day. 

Icelandic Horse

Hraunfossar

Deildartunguhver

Vinarterta Mountains near Langjökull

Kjötsúpa

The next day found me heading off to a horse farm near Reykjavík.  I had read so much about how clever and spirited and wonderful the Icelandic horses are and had seen a few videos of the tölt, the fifth gait that Icelandic hoses have.  My horse, Verður, was a handsome guy, but I wouldn’t say we established the most effective working relationship.  We did get into tölt, very briefly several times, but getting there was elusive and remains a mystery.  I spent the afternoon at Blue Lagoon (Bláa lónið), a lovely thermal pool situated in the lava fields with water supplied by a nearby geothermal power plant.  The pool is huge and the minerals and silica are supposed to be very good for the skin.  Lots of people stop there on their way to the airport; it would likely ensure a very relaxed and mellow flight home. Good timing on my part, because when I wasn’t tölting, I was going bumpety-bump and I would have had a hard time sitting for a few days, if I hadn’t spent a couple of hours in the 38 °C water.

Rest Stop on our Ride near Laxnes

Verður, after our ride

Blue Lagoon (Bláa lónið)

Well, the next day was the absolutely best day and deserves a whole post of its own, but I will put it here for continuity’s sake.  I took an early morning flight to Egilsstaðir, in Eastern Iceland. One evening I had finally taken the documents Nelson had sent me and tried to make sense of them.  I had so much trouble identifying anything I could find on a map, but finally it came clear that my maternal grandfather’s side of the family had come from Western Iceland, while my grandmother’s family had come from Eastern Iceland. I looked in brochures for day trips to either place and found one trip to Seyðisfjörður in Austfirðir or the Eastern fjords. Unfortunately, it was too early in the season for that trip, but there was another trip called the Elf and Puffin Tour that would take me to Borgarfjörður, a name that also appeared in the family history. My thinking was that I would be able to see the part of the world where some of my forebears had lived before coming to Canada. So I booked it!

Near Selsstaðir in Seyðisfjörður

Ingibjörg and Arngrimur

Imagine my surprise when I found out I was the only tourist.  My guide was an absolutely lovely man, Arngrímur Viðar Ásgeirsson, and accompanying him was a beautiful young woman, Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir, who would be leading tours and was coming along to see what it was like.  Well, what wonderful people.  Before we were out of the parking lot, they had scrapped the itinerary for the morning and off we went to Seyðisfjörður, where my great-grandfather had been born and worked and where my great-grandparents got married. They were happy to look at my few pages of genealogy and quickly identified place names and farms and other places that were so utterly confusing to me.  Even their names, Siggeir and Sigríður, sounded so similar that I had a hard time keeping things straight.  But Arngrímur and Ingibjörg have a strong interest in Western Icelanders and seemed very happy to help me have a day I will never forget.  

Kind

Seyðisfjörður is a bit isolated, and you must go over a mountain pass to get there, but it is a real gem of a village.  Absolutely gorgeous.  We spent a little while there looking at farms where my great-grandparents had worked, Vestdalsgerði, in particular was lovely, with long-haired sheep of many colours wandering freely along the road and in the fields.  While there were a few farmhouses, structures from long-ago eras were no longer there.  It is avalanche country and it is possible they were swept away.

Vestdalsgerði

Kind

Vestdalsgerði

We spent the afternoon in Borgarfjörður eystri, which is where Arngrímur comes from. You approach it along a scree to a place called Njarðvík, with lots of folklore and a beautiful set of mountains on one side (Dyrfjöll) and the fjord on the other. The day was so bright and clear, that everything seemed to sparkle. 

Njarðvík

We had lunch at his parents’ house and met some of their 500 sheep and a few of their soon-to-be 800 lambs. Borgarfjörður eystri is also absolutely gorgeous.  . We saw the Álfaborg, where the queen of the Huldufólk, or elves, lives. We took a look at an iconic turf house and sat for a while in a church that has an altar painting done by Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval, one of Iceland’s most famous painters.  Arngrímur  took us to a museum that he and some others in the community have built to honour Kjarval, who was born in Borgarfjörður eystri. He and Ingibjörg and I went to a nearby place, Hafnarhólmi, to see puffins, but most of them were still on the water – visible but distant.  We did see lots of other birds – ptarmigans, kittiwakes, eider ducks, golden plovers, and grey geese to name just a few. Arngrímur gave me a lifelist which I promptly lost.  We finished up the tour with a little hike up to Innra-Hvannagil canyon, which is a rhyolite canyon seamed with black baslat.  It is so different from other things you see in Iceland.  Austfirðir is definitely not volcanic, like the majority of Iceland.  Geologically, it is very different and we saw lots of rocks from around Borgarfjörður eystri that you would never find elsewhere in Iceland.  When Arngrímur and Ingibjörg took me back to Egilsstaðir, I felt I had experienced something very special, and indeed I had.  What a wonderful day! I am so glad that I met Arngrímur and Ingibjörg; I could not have asked for nicer or kinder people to guide me through such a beautiful part of Iceland.

Lutheran church in Borgarfjörður eystri

Álfaborg

View from Álfaborg

Borgarfjörður eystri

Innra-Hvannagil rhyolite canyon

My last couple of days in Iceland were also wonderful.  I spent a day wandering Reykjavík and browsing in shops and museums and galleries. So much sculpture!  I saw a couple of groups of people playing accordions, and they were great! I took the bus here and there.  I went to the incredible thermal swimming pool near the Nordica, Laugardalslaug, a couple of times. And I went on the Golden Circle Tour, which took me to Geysir and Strokkur, the waterfall, Gulfoss, and back to Þingvellir. Again, the weather was amazing and it was another lovely day.

Harmóníkas on Laugavegur

A Knitted Tree at the Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum

My favourite sculpture near  Hlemmur

Strokkur

Gullfoss

It seems hard to believe that one impulsive moment in January could have culminated in such a great experience, but I am very grateful it did.  I hope this was my first trip (meaning there will be more to follow) because even though Iceland is a small country with a very small population, I did not even scratch the surface.  There is so much more I’d like to see and do. What I saw and did is captured digitally and displayed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/raven_chick/. Please do check out those pictures if you are interested.  There are way too many of them,

The Rock of Civil Disobedience - Thoreau would be proud - lest our consciences be atrophied