#17: Photoblog - Iceland

#17: Reykjavik

After 2 days in Akureyri, it was time to take the propeller plane back to Reykjavik and continue our Northern Lights hunting. We caught a glimpse of the NL on our second night and saw a sky full of stars and a shooting star. I shall not elaborate on that as I had written about it previously. In Reykjavik, we went on the Classic Golden Circle Tour covering the three main attractions.

Left Top/ Bottom: Thingvellir National Park: I only remembered a few stories about the place such as it is where the parliament commenced, tectonic plates pushing each other away and a river with loads of salmon to be caught. The guide's voice was a little too sharp for me who was sitting right under the speaker and nursing a very sore throat. It was the worst day while on my travels because I was extremely sick and basically did not eat much the entire day except kept downing coke with salt.

Centre/ Right Top: Gullfoss - I have to say it is one waterfall that can match up to the beauty of Niagara Falls. Still, Niagara Falls is my favourite. Wait till I get to Iguazu Falls or Victoria Falls to see if I can change the rankings.

Bottom Right: Strokkur geyser - It was funny how everyone stood around and waited for the expulsion of water round after round. Everyone either wanted to take a video or a good picture in front of it or have both. The whole thing lasted probably 30 seconds or so but you have to wait 15 minutes for the next wave of action. On hindsight, you should just try to take a good picture. You can find videos online anyway. Since it was so cold, it is hard to hold on to your camera and wait for the first instance the water gets expelled and reaches the highest point for the perfect picture. So you have to observe the movement of the water and see if the expulsion is gonna take place soon. So many a times I was tricked by the bubbles coming up.

Towards the end of the day, we also visited a church and the geothermal power station. Previously, I have mentioned how is it that Iceland is a very green nation. 96% of homes are powered by natural energy. They have pipes connecting their home to the hot pools (geysers which are a source of hot spring water) and cool spring water. So there is absolutely no processing needed to supply hot or cold water. The lava field which the water runs through is a filter on its own. The reason the water is hot is because of geothermal heating (heating from the Earth's core, related to the large number of volcanoes in the country). However, the hot water has some sulphur in it so when you turn on the tap to get cold drinking water, it is advised that you let the water run for a while since hot and cold water runs through the same pipe to get to your tap and a tiny bit of sulphur might come through the tap. But no worries about wasting water, since that water is recycled and generated to your house once again. Yay! to FREE water and it really helped me to save a huge sum on buying bottled water.

In addition, their main sources of energy are geothermal energy and hydroelectric since they have plenty of waterfalls as well. Haha! I did not enter the geothermal power exhibition because I figured that I could read online. Nonetheless, I am not an expert at Geography and shall save myself the embarrassment of explaining any of these. Do google if you are interested to find out.

p/s: The pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the landscape that stood in front of me. They are way more picturesque in real-life. You have to be in the moment to capture the best memory with your eye and brain. Perhaps I need a better camera. :)