The walk behind and under Selfoss

A View from Above and Below

The second small waterfall I hiked up. It was splashing at my feet.

Up close and personal

The last of 5 small waterfalls was a hell of a surprise. As we walked a small trail past 4 of them and I climbed another small one, Frosti met us at this small camp house and explored a this waterfall. In between those rocks in the first picture is a small "trail" that climbs the rocks. Someone has set up a chain to hold on to while traversing a narrow path and set up that ladder so you can peer over the rock into this amazing secluded waterfall/oasis. In America such a thing would be roped off and seen from the car. Damn I love the adventuresome culture of Iceland!

Onward and outward

First stop, Selfoss. I know you've already seen video of us walking up to the waterfall but these are some extras from behind it, me climbing up from the shore underneath it and the first of 5 smaller waterfalls to the left of it. It looked like steps leading up to it so I decided to climb up to the waterfall. They ended up being all mud but I didn't care. It was amazing to be up there so close. The following blog will have pics of the others we climbed up to.

Sigur Ros' Studio

Back to October 1st.

Frosti picked us up again at 830 and drove us around town to see some of the government buildings and historical spots to make sure we didn't miss anything while walking around.

Bjork's house was included in this drive which was cool but she lives alongside a major road so we couldn't stop to take pictures.

As we head out of town, he let me know that he found out where Sigur Ros' studio was and if we wanted he'd take us to see it.

For those of you that don't know. I LOVE THIS BAND! Cinematic soundscapes that seriously pull at my soul in so many great ways. Check 'em out if you haven't heard them. The Album Leaf just finished their new album there as well.

I was content enough to just be outside of the studio. Next door is a wool factory that makes Icelandic sweaters so we popped in to check it out and when we came back out a guy was standing next to the door. I didn't notice him until Frosti went up to talk to him and it ended up being Sigur Ros' sound engineer. We were introduced and he allowed me to go in and take pictures! Insane! If the band had showed up I think I would have cried like a little girl at a friggin' Sanjaya performance. Sad!

Farewell for now

As we sit in the apartment waiting to check out and walk around town for our last couple of hours we flipped through the hundreds of photos of the trip we leave behind.

International films, local bands, international artists and local attractions. They have all left an major imprint on our lives.

Cheers to Reykjavik, Dori and Frosti especially, for an amazing two weeks!

A parting shot atop the Doorway on the South Shore.

Takk fyrir!

waterfall video - Walking up to Selfoss

R U Kidding?

Bjork's house

Sigur Ros studio (we went inside!)

5 waterfalls

Black Sand Beach

"Door to Iceland"

Hiked a Glacier

Another Waterfall.

Explanation to come soon. Another 203 pics and plenty of video to come!

Quest for Waterfalls - Part 2 - Gjain

From Haifoss we head back out and back through the country side. Frosti mentions that as long as we trust him he's just going to make up his own Golden Circle Tour. We dub it Frosti's Golden Circle.

The Golden Circle is a road tour you can take around the perimeter of Iceland. It takes a long time but you don't see any of the interior majesty.

More twists and turns and various mountain shapes and hints of autumn colors the whole way through. We're heading to a spot one of Frosti's friends calls "God's Stamp on the World."

We easily spent the most time here than any other spot on this tour. Once again we pull up to a dead end in the road and hear that similar waterfall sound but not as powerful. What was powerful about it was the sheer beauty of it all. Coming up over the ridge we see a canyon full of greens and red and yellow split in two the small river formed by two more waterfalls. Caves of basalt. This all opens to a huge sky hovering above the middle of nowhere Iceland landscape.

A narrow path winds its way down into the middle of it all where we cross 2x4 planks all the way to the edge of one of the waterfalls. It towers above us releasing millions of gallons per second and turning into a gentle stream clearer than your tap water.

We walk everywhere we can (including into some of the water shallow enough to not get too wet cos its REALLY cold) to make sure we don't miss anything.

I still can't believe we were there. Its absolutely gorgeous!

Quest for Waterfalls - Part 1 - Haifoss

For the record foss means waterfall when in conjuction with a name or description. This should help with the following.

After we turned around from the snow road block we headed to the a small motel just at the base of the mountain to see if they had any info on making it to Hekla. We find out that a group had spent the night at this motel because they tried to drive up and ended up having to shovel their way out.

Being in VW van, we naturally decided to change plans. We put ourselves in the hands of Frosti that the day would go bust. Turns out it was a really great decision. He wouldn't tell us where we were going, only that it would be totally worth it.

As we drive through the countryside it seriously looks like we're lost. Twists and turns. A bit of off roading when we come across frozen water puddles in the middle of the road and we come to a dead end. Time to get out of the car and see what's in store.

Immediately I hear something loud and forceful. Strike up the video camera and follow Frosti over some lava rocks and to the edge of a cliff. Through the clouds (yes we were up that high) are two waterfall flowing into a gorgeous canyon millions of years old. My hearts racing at the beauty of it all. He mentions that its typically not so cloudy but we don't care! The clouds added to the mysticism of it all. The most amazing thing is that the water seems to come out of nowhere. There isn't a lake or a river anywhere to be seen. This water comes out of the mountain and carves its way through the canyon and back in.

It turns out that this is how Iceland gets its water. There is so much water flowing through the entire country with a natural filtration through the lava that it comes out cleaner than treated water. It takes 30-70 years to get to where they pump it to the homes.

We spend about 15-20 minutes watching and listening and snapping photos before we bid farewell to Haifoss.

This one doesn't have sound but you can watch

the reflection of the water.

I think its gorgeous.

The road to Mt. Hekla

What a long day that was SO worth it!

Cast:

Me

Roy

Frosti - our tour guide

Frosti stopped by the apartment late Monday afternoon (luckily we had just gotten home a bit before from our walk to the park) to discuss Tuesday's plans because we were going to be out in the middle of nowhere for 8-10 hours.

He had been wanting to stop by the headquarters of the main geothermal power plant because of some art installations that had been put into place and then by the power plant itself so we could get a quick tour to hear how it all goes down.

Of course we were up for it. With all of the culture we have already experienced, why not keep the party going with the unexpected. And it was. For being such a major force in the future of energy production, the people working for Orkuveita Reykjavik (they own 93% of Iceland's geothermal power and water supply) are extremely welcoming and are more than happy to guide the curious around and teach them about what they do for the community.

While waiting for our guide Frosty pointed out a "string" hanging from the top of the 10 story building swaying back and forth. Peering over the edge of the lobby was a metal cone connected to the "string." It constantly swayed because of the earth's magnetic force and had 26 wooden posts around the circle that it knocked down throughout the day. As the earth rotates so does the circle and it actually takes about 26 hours for the earth to have a full rotation. At the end of the day, there are copper holes below the fallen wood that blow a puff of air and set the wood back up for the start of a new day. Picture will be on the next post.

He then took us in for a sneak preview of an exhibit they are putting together in the in-house gallery called 100degrees. Its an installation that will feature prominent Icelandic artist's paintings, sculpture and water works to illustrate the power of water. Its an infant stage but he explained where things would be and what it would represent. Ask me later and I'll explain. Its hard to type without it not making sense.

Took the lift into the basement where we got to experience a sound installation. Walking through the break room (the whole basement with pool tables, chess boards, computers and a cafe) we walked into a dark room that automatically had a light come on when we walked in. A single light pointed at the base of another cable hanging from the middle of the ceiling, at the end of it was a subwoofer speaker. On the left and right were benches recessed into the darkness. A pool of water just below the speaker. Sitting there quietly the light triggers the cable to send a pulse through to the speaker that gradually gets faster, vibrating the water that reflects onto the wall filling the room with a heavy bass drone and vibrating your whole body. Simple yet intense. Set on repeat every minute for 5 minutes. Next post has video.

From there we left Reykjavik to tour the power plant itself. I won't go into much detail because its a bit hard to explain without the biggest touch screen monitor I'll probably ever see. I'm talking 8 feet tall by 12 feet wide. All I'll say is that its amazing how they have created an amazingly efficient, renewable and inexpensive energy/water source. And the fact that they aren't the only country that can be doing this. They just aren't as greedy and SOME parts of the rest of the world can be.

On to Mt. Hekla. Frosti had told us the day before that there was a big possibility we would encounter some snow and that it was a bit rare this early in the fall/winter season. Once you leave Reykjavik, its a whole new world you could never prepare yourself for. I know I touched on it a bit with The Blue Lagoon blog but this is a whole other monster. From rolling hills into mountains formed by volcano ash, lava flow and millions of years of seismic activity, Iceland grows by 2cm every year because the Euro-Asian plate and North American plate that run split the country in two sliding apart. We would have taken pictures of that but ran out of battery. Over 200 pics and video were taken.

I've told some of you that the interior of Iceland is really drivable... and for non-locals or tour guides, I definitely don't suggest it because there aren't really "roads" to travel by. They are lava pebble country roads that seemingly lead to nowhere. This whole time I never looked at my watch because we're in friggin' Iceland and I have nowhere to be but in that van and whenever we get back is when we get back.

The landscape slowly started to change as we gradually ascended up these mountains from grays and browns with hints of green moss and red somethings to black... everywhere. Mountains of black that eventually had specs of white. These mountains are so hard to describe and only the photos can express without being here what it feels like. At one point Frosti started feeling sketchy because within a week that he had been out there, some intense snow had fallen and because Iceland is one of the windiest places on the planet, there was no telling what we'd encounter on the road and we weren't in a super jeep to be able to handle snow that was too deep. After a few hairy turns and somewhat deep snow on the road it cleared up again until we literally came to a landslide of snow that had settled on the road making it impossiblt to cross without a super jeep. These are SUVs that have been outfitted with massive tires that can be flattened in order to crawl over volcanic rocks and snow. Not the stupid massive tires that dumbass rednecks and douchebags put on their trucks for overcompensation.

It was the end of the road for us to Mt. Hekla. We snapped a few pictures and some video and had to turn around.

Too be continued...

Quest for Foss

Another gorgeous day for a walk.

We still had yet to walk to the left side of the city from our apartment so we took off around 13;00 (that's how they write the time).

In the past decade or so there has been "suburban sprawl" just like everywhere else. It looks a bit different than America but not much different. In the middle of it all they have managed to create a city park with lava rock trails, gorgeous grass, a pond, botanical gardens and a zoo. All situated right next to their football stadium and outdoor heated competitive swimming pool. It was around the mid 40s and sunny so we spent all day walking around, shooting photos and talking to horses.

Their zoo is little more like a farm with a couple of exotic things like the Arctic Fox and seals. I guess you can call what Roy calls the Urban Jungle Chicken they had roaming around exoctic as well.

There were couple of churches around, which are really cool and indicative of their architectural style. If its not super modern, its a bit gothic.

We eventually made it back to our side of town

but not before stopping at Hofdi (d pronounced like a "th"). Its where Reagan and Gorbachev had the peace treaty meeting.

A rest up before dinner and running some errands while I found out about a band playing at Cafe Rosenberg. I thought it was going to be Jaguar, a funk band who's got a member that produced Jamiroqui. Instead we got to see Samuel Jon Samuelsson Big Band.

AMAZING! 15 piece afro/funk/groove/jazz band. Holy shit these guys are talented. We snagged the CD so I'll rip it for whoever wants a copy.

So now its 07;45 and we're getting ready for Mt. Hekla. Its going to be a long day but I'm not complaining. A volcano, a waterfall, more horses, possible snow and a hot spring. Hopefully I'll be able to get more video today.

Peace and love!

Lazy Sunday

Kinda but not really.

We don't start our day until around 11 or 12 as it is because NOTHING opens before ten except for 1 or 2 cafes.

Sunday's EVERYONE is closed except for said cafes and restaurants.

Damn I love this town! No wonder why people are so damn happy here.

Anyway. Not much went down. Saw one last film and walked around town people watching. Had pizza. Had a Royal Coffee (cognac and coffee). Came home to chill a bit. Grabbed a couple more cocktails at a couple of other bars and came home.

Heading to some parks, maybe the zoo and who knows what else today.

Tomorrow... MT. HEKLA FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!

Kultura

Not enough can be said about this city... really!

We started our day with a visit to Reykjavik Art Museum to see the Yoshitomo Nara exhibit. His work is simple and almost childish but his installation was like walking into an abandoned flat where angst-filled children drew out their emotions on found envelopes and lived within these walls of shipping boxes. Google his name and check out his work.

In the same building was an exhibit entitled, Revisited Frames. Huge, wall sized paintings of still from films by Lars Von Trier and Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. Breath taking! The size, color, emotion and detail were insane!

From there we walked to the theater to make sure we knew where we were going later. We should've gotten tickets to Antichrist while we were there because of course it sold out, considering it was the only showing for the whole festival. When we went back later we ended up picking up I Killed My Mother. A great film about a kid that has a love/hate relationship with his single mom while keeping his gay relationship somewhat of a secret from her. As opposed to most gay films, the issue took a back seat to the family dysfunction. If it comes to America, I highly recommend. To bad the next film, Bandaged, wasn't as good. What was billed as a "horror" film was trying to be a psychological thriller but the acting was a bit poor and kinda fell flat.

The rest of the night was spent bar hopping for live music. We made it to NASA in time to see Retro Stefson. I don't know how old these kids are but they don't look to far above 18, maybe 20. Not Roy's cup of tea but damn these kids could jam! A bit dance-pop with rock/jam influences, all of their rhythm changes and breaks were perfect! It seamlessly went straight into FM Belfast. Considering they run off a laptop, they were able to set up during Retro Stefson and started off the set with one massive collaboration. One they took off, the club went insane!

Its really amusing to watch Europeans dance. We were talking about it this morning and Roy was amazed at how many guys in suits and fashionistas in cute dresses and heels jump around like they are at a rock show. I think its because they don't really have rhythm and want to dance so they just jump around like a monkey begging for a banana!

Finished off the night at Jacobsen with a Mum Dj set. From minimal techno to ghetto basslines, it was DOPE!

Another day of films and live music to come. Hope you're enjoying the updates! Now for some pics!

19th Century Church

Road Trip Pics

The drive back

I know I've said it before but this country has a way of making you feel really small. Just when you think you're seeing the same landscape of lava rock everywhere you drive over a hill or around a corner and there's more and more and more.

As soon as we left Blue Lagoon and headed through Grendavik, a tiny fishing town, little things were blowing my mind. First of all, there are examples of the economic handicap all over the place. Dori pointed out a small apartment tower that had only one occupant because in the middle of building it they ran went bankrupt and she was the only one with a completed flat... so she lives there all alone in a 10 story building that's 90% gutted.

Beyond Grendavik there was amazing landscape. Rolling mountains with which a single lane lava gravel road is carved. Dori was saying that once a year they close it for a rally car race... which would be really dope and scary cos it seriously has some crazy turns that drop off.

Dori stopped at quite a few key places to take pictures. Its a good thing we had our rain gear cos at some of the high points on the land it was effen monsoon season. Cold rain coming at you sideways. Totally worth it though.

One of the stops was a small church from the 1800s. Pews still in it with the original priest/pastor buried right in front and a painter buried just beside it. Gorgeously creep, especially in the rain.

On and on we went, back down the mountains and stopped by some hot springs. They are actually sink hole that happen randomly because they are on the edge of two tectonic plates. Dori says that one week will be normal and the next there will be a new sink hole that has bubbling sulfuric water. All of these are too hot to swim in but its remarkable to witness.

One of which we stopped at, the geothermal activity starts halfway up the mountain and creates a small stream down to a sulfuric pool that bubbles and pops all the way around.

Next came a huge lake with "black sand." Dori mentioned that it was more than likely formed by a melted glacier. Seems quite likely because the landscape around it has what look like melt lines in the volcanic rock. Its either melt lines or how the ash settled as it fell and/or rolled down the mountain. You'll see in the pics.

As for the landscape that was about the end for that day. As we got back into Reykjavik, Dori drove us through a part of town that was hilarious. First of all they have the cutest little old houses. On every block was a random spot of lava rocks. The neighbors refuse to allow anyone to tear them down for development because the ELVES wouldn't have a place to live and bad spirits would be brought upon those that live there! Unfortunately we didn't stop so I could take pics cos it was a one lane residential street.

We stopped at a gas station where Dori convinced the ladies to give a free hot dog "med ollu" (with everything on it). These hot dogs are AMAZING! Fresh onions, fried onions, ketchup, roumalade sauce and mustard... sooooooooooooo good!

A quick stop at the Saga Museum just to take in the view of all of Reykjavik and our road trip was over.

Today... Reykjavik Art Museum, a film or two (I'm thinking Antichrist by Lars Von Trier... look it up), another bad ass meal somewhere (we had traditional Indian last night at Oliver that rocked my face off!), and top it all off with live music (Retro Stefson, FM Belfast and Pedro Pilatus & Bear Hug)

Blue Lagoon Day 2

A long day indeed. On our ride to The Blue Lagoon, Dori was telling us about a gorgeous hike around the base of the mountain just past the lagoon. Since we had already done our spa day and didn't really have anything else to do we were geared up perfectly for this hike... once we actually made it where we needed to go.

One of the ladies working at the Lagoon Clinic where we stayed told us to follow the long red pipes that pump hot water from the geothermal pools to the country and we would make our way to the trail we wanted. This sign said not go through there but she gave us permission and no body bothered us we made our way up to the actual power plant that processes the water and silica coming out of the pools... TRUSTING SOULS!

A few detours... more directions and we made our way toward the "highway," past The Northern Lights Inn (unimpressive as a hotel/motel), and toward our path between these gorgeous mountains.

2 hours later we made our way through the valley of the mountain just beyond the lava rocks around the Lagoon, saw 3 different colored rabbits, 2 rainbows, a handful of dead birds on the trail and a landscape that seriously makes you feel small. At 6'1" and 6'4" respectively, the valley of lava rocks and this giant green mountain are humbling! Of course these are just a small sampling of the photos I took.

Tried out the GoPro camera as well but I'm slightly retarded and had it on the wrong setting after the initial video to test it. Oh well. Today Dori is taking us on a 3 hour road trip back to Reykjavik through a couple of small towns, by some other hot springs and I think a waterfall.

Stay tuned!