I shall begin the series of the photos of the places that I have visited during this trip after all the sharing about the people, things, and experiences. As you can see, I have very selective memory so this post is to help me to recall the places that I have been to when I re-read my posts a few years later.
And so I took 4 flights in a span of 2 days right at the beginning of my epic trip.
Singapore - Zurich: ~13 hours
Zurich - London: ~2 hours
London - Reykjavik: ~ 4 hours
Reykjavik: - Akureyri: 45 minutes
By the time I arrived in Akureyri, my entire body had gone haywire from all the constant change in pressure from being on land and in the air. The flight to Akureyri was especially bad because it was a propellor plane and it was so windy that the air stewardess had to stop serving all beverages. Despite the constant shaking, I was able to catch some sleep because I was DEAD BEAT. We took a cab from the airport to the hostel and the 10 minute journey costed us SGD30. The very first thing I did after we checked in was to shower and then grab dinner. We then went for our Northern Lights hunting. Unfortunately, the weather was so bad (snowstorm) and we saw nothing but darkness and snow. Our guide was really nice though and recommended us a really nice restaurant for dinner the next day.
Small town of Akureyri
Surroundings - an endless stretch of mountains covered in snow
Classic jumpshot!
Really good ice-cream! :)
You feel warmer when you eat Iceland in cold weather. Science can explain it but I suck at the subject so I cannot explain the rationale. Eating ice-cream when I was in Akureyri reminded me of the times back in Stockholm when Kim & I had our first Gelato in Stockholm and were so busy trying to blow air out of our mouths to see the "smoke". Those were the times!
I simply cannot remember the name of the restaurant but I remember the food. Really good beef carpaccio, sushi pizza and cod fish. Damage done: 45SGD per person.
Town of Akureyri from the other side of the river
Boots made from fish skin!
Iceland is a really green country - clean energy, recycling waste materials. Apparently this barrel has been made into a chair.
As per our guide, the light blue shade in the sky is due to air pollution. What kind of air pollution? Various gases from a nearby volcanic eruption.
Godafoss. It was really beautiful. The entire surrounding was covered in snow.
What you see is what you get. Dimmuborgir, lava labyrinth. Lava stones of various shapes and up to you to imagine what they resemble. A lot of stories about the 3 wise men and some ugly Santa Claus but I cannot recall all the details.
The two tectonic plates that separate Europe and America. The only way to cross two continents without border control. :) What a joke by our guide.
There is a difference in these two types of lava rocks. One was much heavier than the other. Reason: can't remember as usual. :)
Interesting facts about Iceland:
- one of our two guides can speak 5 different languages and is an opera singer, at the age of 40 years old.
- Iceland only has a population of 320,000 and 18,000 live in Akureyri.
- Icelandic is the least spoken language in the world. C'mon, only 320,000 speak it! :) but still, I think it has to be preserved!
- all Icelanders can speak at least 3 languages - Icelandic, English and Danish (Iceland used to be a colony of Denmark). Some will pick up German or French or Italian. German seems like the popular choice as the 4th language.
- Many of you should have heard about the Icelandic banking crisis that swept the country in 2008 and caused their currency to plummet and become worthless. Instead of bailing out the banks, the government simply let them declare bankrupt and according to our guide, the people have more or less recovered their wealth since then.
- So apparently, a lot of Icelanders think that they do not require a government since they are so small. Let the free market run the country.
p/s: Akureyri was beautiful and some scenes in Game of Thrones were actually filmed in Akureyri. In particular, those scenes which depict "life beyond the wall" was filmed in Akureyri. :) How amazing. I am waiting for the 5th season!
No comments:
Post a Comment