Iceland 1: The Land of Unpronounceable Names

27 Dec: SIN-AMS-KEF
I was extremely excited to join SQ's trip to Iceland. Extraordinary country of exceedingly exalting landscapes... no longer exclusively the exorbitant playground of NYC executives...

Photo credit: Julia

Arrived Keflavik International Airport at 4pm. The sun had already set. Picked up by a rep from S.A.D. Cars: cheapest car rental in iceland. The guy was really tall. He must be as tall as Yao Ming. Totally towered over SQ. I didn't notice anyone else as tall during the rest of the trip, so it must be an anomaly. But at that time I was wondering whether I would feel like an elf for the next 2 weeks.

Although they called themselves SAD Cars, (indeed the 2 subaru voyagers we rented had been throughly pre-loved) all the essential parts of the cars were present and accounted for. Snow tires. 1 GPS for the lead car. Engine. Wipers. Heater. Windows. Yep, we're good.

Slight confusion driving to downtown reykjavik apartments from SAD. (I was in the car w/o GPS, with Seok, YH, Julia.) Fortunately, I had an offline map from google. Thanks to my father who nagged at me until I downloaded a map. Essential. Note to self for future travels.
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Photo credit: YH

28 Dec: Reykjavik-Barnafoss/Hraunfossar-Stykkishólmur

Awoke to scrumptious and luxurious breakfast prepared by Seok. Bacon. Eggs. Tomatoes. Mushrooms. Bread. etc. Clearly, good decision to come to iceland. I never eat so well at home.

10AM, but it looks like 6AM. I'm driving behind Yiru's lead car. It's raining: road is wet but not too slippery. Grey everything. Soundtrack: "Everything's not lost" by Coldplay.

Barnafoss

At the waterfalls, it was Cold. And the Wind... I'd forgotten what a Force of Nature felt like, and the Wind in Iceland was a startling reminder. Barnafoss, waterfall of the children, was partially frozen. I liked Hraunfoss better, the rivulets made interesting patterns. The river was an amazing turquoise/azure color, and the whole place felt like a desolate English moor. One almost expects Heathcliff to appear. (Actually, I've never been to an English moor. But in my imagination, it would look like the bleak yellow scrub around Barnafoss.)

Hraunfoss

We also check out Deildartunguhver thermal spring, Europe's most powerful hot spring at 200L/s of boiling hot water. At that time, I was very COLD. My jeans might have been made out of sponge, the way the Wind tore through them. Therefore I couldn't appreciate the wonder of water heated by the bowels of the Earth. But reflecting upon it now, it's like having a permanent connection to the center of the planet. Awesome. 66% of iceland's energy is from geothermal sources.

At Reykjavik, the hot water smells like rotten eggs. Everywhere else we went, the thermal water is used to heat the cold spring/glacial water, so all the water tastes wonderful-- fresh and sweet. Not possible to find bottled still water at the supermarkets, since tap water everywhere is already the best possible quality, naturally filtered through volcanic rock.

Continue driving to Stykki. It started to get dark at 3.30pm. Then it started to rain. The last 30km was over a mountain pass. Heavy sleet. Slush on the road. Scary gusts of wind-- the rain was 'falling' horizontally! It was pretty tense driving.

So Happy to get to Stykki, and our bed and breakfast at höfðagata. Seok (and dedicated kitchen helper Yiru) prepared a fabulous dinner of oven-roasted lamb and potatoes. I'm already running out of superlatives for the level of food we enjoyed on the trip. S deserves a trophy, or something.