First day, long day

When we first got to Reykjavík, it was midnight. It also looked like it was 8:00 in the morning. We took a bus to the bus station so we could get to the other airport. We waited for a long time, and then decided it was time to walk over. On the way, we saw some Icelandic trees. A word of advice- if you’re ever lost in an Icelandic forest, stand up. The smallest trees were at my knees; the taller ones came up to my shoulders. We got to the other airport to find that it was closed. We hoped it would open in 30 minutes, but a while later, the airport still wasn’t open. We decided to go to a gas station with a convenience store and a Subway sandwich place connected. We stayed there for about 30 minutes, eating cinnamon rolls. We went back to the airport, but it still wasn’t open. We then waited 45 minutes before people started rushing in to get to work. One woman drove into a parking space sideways, and we prayed that she wasn’t the pilot. 15 minutes later, they opened the doors and we waited inside for 10 minutes before getting on the plane. We landed in Akureyri and got on our tour bus, which would take us on a tour of Lake Myvatn..

Our first stop was Godafoss, a large waterfall where, years ago, someone had supposedly thrown statues of gods into the waterfall. It was very impressive, and we followed the river coming out from it to see the rest. We saw the second, smaller waterfall and the cave that was near it and a hole in the rock. Near the cave, the water was very pretty and turquoise. Next we went to a Dimmurborgir, where many years ago, large trolls had a party and since they were stupid to begin with, the wine they drank made them stupider and they forgot that if they were outside after the sun came up, they turned to stone. We saw caves that outlaws had lived in after running from society. We also learned that instead of Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas, they have the 7 dwarves gone bad- plus 6 more dwarves. These 13 “Yule Lads” were named things such as “Candle Stealer”, “Sausage Stealer”, Meat Stealer”, and “Door Slammer.” For the 13 days before Christmas, the dwarves would come one at a time and bring presents. If you were bad you got a potato, and if you were REALLY bad you got a rotten potato. On our way back, we saw part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; one side was part of Europe and the other side was part of North America, because of the two tectonic plates that were split apart. Our next stop was some unknown place, where the gaping hole between tectonic plates was even more noticeable. We went down into one of the outlaw caves to the steaming hot pool where they bathed. On both sides, what was at first assumed to be graffiti in green spray-paint was not- one side said Thor and the other side said Freya, so it would be “dignified” when they entered the bath. When we left, we went to a place with mud pots that jumped a foot high and fumaroles that had a long line of steam and one even made noise like a train. It was really cool! We left and then headed to…

Myvatn Nature Baths. It was so awesome that I had to make a new paragraph for it. The worst part was having to take a shower in freezing water right before. But then I stepped in to the large pond-shaped pool and it was like heaven, so warm and steamy and cotton-candy blue… and then I snapped out of my reverie thanks to the fact I had just slipped and fallen over. The pool was a run-off from a geothermal power-plant, and it was so full of dissolved medicinal minerals that it had made the rubber runway slimy. I waded out a bit further and then I was standing on black rocks and I didn’t fall over again. I was very sad and bereft when we got out, and I was chilled at the prospect of another icy shower. We left the steam baths and the bus drove us to our hostel. We had pizza and then went to bed for the first time in two days.

More pictures at: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAgdmdm