The first time I heard anything about Iceland beyond its name was the 2008 banking collapse.
The second time in 2010 when the unpronounceable Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted – discharging magma of catastrophic proportions spewing ash and closing most European airports and disrupting air travel for millions of travellers – as the news reported.
Thus the joke on Iceland’s cash into ash as told by the Icelanders themselves.
And the third time I heard about the country was a year ago when Yen popped the question to Karen and me, “Shall we visit Iceland?”
So here we were, three eager and curious visitors from Singapore, an island 1° north of the equator, travelling via Amsterdam, Copenhagen and London to this far-flung Arctic island aptly named Iceland.
Driving out of the Keflavík International Airport in early March, we saw only miles and miles of brown barren land, no snow or ice as we expected. Temperature was wee bit below zero, the sun was shining and despite 24 hours on the road and in the air, I felt fresh, excited and kind of weird for a tropical city dweller not used to wide open spaces where we would be spending the next six days exploring the countryside and hoping like crazy that we will see the Northern Lights.
Reykjavik (Day 1)
Iceland’s capital Reykjavik is a charming little town, developing quickly into a hip tourist city and base camp for adventures around the massive island. It was the low season in March and streets were relatively empty. We found our way to the famous landmark Hallgrímskirkja church but it was closed so we walked down the charming shopping street towards the seafront but the winds were unbearable and we had to turn back downtown looking for a nice warm place to have dinner.
There were many choices for food from fine restaurants to local bistros and we were tempted to try every one as we passed them. However our first meal in Iceland was (surprisingly) Thai food. Not that we missed Asian cuisine so quickly but we wanted to find out how good or bad it was. As it turned out, the meal was as delicious as what you get in Asia. By the way, every meal we had in Iceland exceeded our expectations in terms of taste, texture, presentation and authenticity. Highly recommended.
After dinner, we joined a Northern Lights hunting group. The lights are a natural phenomenon and are never guaranteed. While waiting for the bus, someone pointed a faint green sliver in the sky – our first sighting of the aurora. Seemed promising, the night’s starting well already.
Away from the city out in the very cold and dark, we stopped in a field below millions of stars and a bright full moon. Less than an hour in the outdoor freezer, a soft green glow appeared in the sky, then another and soon a burst of emerald brushes above silently growing in intensity into a magical display of cosmic lights. The phenomenon filled me with a sense of gratitude to be able to see the northern lights for the first time in my life. I´m totally lost for words.
The Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon (Day 2)
The next day we headed for the Golden Circle, a 300km route to a spectacular waterfall, geyser, volcano and a rare peek at our earth’s crust.
Gullfoss, a stunning three-level waterfall fed by Iceland’s second largest glacier is the first of the fosses we saw. An interesting story ahead of its time about Sigriður, a farm girl who protected this magnificent body of water from foreign investors who wanted to dam it for hydroelectricity in 1907. Sigriður whose father owned the land famously said “I do not sell my friends”, had become a sort of environmental visionary and is much appreciated today for her conservation efforts of Gullfoss so we can still enjoy its beauty today.
Strokkur geyser erupts up to 20m every 4 to 8 minutes some distance from the first ever mentioned geyser in the world – the Great Geysir. Poor Great Geysir used to hurl boiling water up to 170m and was the origin of the word “geyser” has stopped erupting even though the surrounding area is steaming with hot springs and little geysirs.
Kerið volcanic crater lake looks like a giant skating rink in winter. Apparently the last eruption was 3,000 years ago, give or take a few hundred years, so I guess it must be safe to enter the old sinkhole. Very slowly walking down the slopes onto the aquamarine ice covered by mud from earlier dare doers and looking up at the mouth of the crater where distant silhouettes of tourist explorers, who like me pondered at the prospect of a courtesy visit to this ancient site. Felt unreal to be standing in the middle of a crater on frozen water on top of the world.
The Þingvellir/Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site for the once-in-a-lifetime walk between tectonic plates. Honestly if I wasn’t told, I wouldn’t have guessed the significance of the two rocky walls. Now that I know, what I really really like to do is to dive in the massive Silfra rift that separates the North American and Eurasian continents. Its frigid glacial water is remarkably blue and pure with visibility over 300 feet…so clear, it’s surreal. Yes it must feel fantastic to dive here.
Though no arctic swim for us, we did get a dip in the Blue Lagoon, an open-air geothermal spa that we were doubtful at first – like how could we possibly survive in swimwear at sub-zero and still have a good time? As it turned out, this is probably one of the most enjoyable and relaxing experience especially after an eight-hour exhilarating tour. The water temperature is a comfortable 37–39 °C with a spa counter scooping complimentary silica mud facial mask and a pool bar serving a wide range of drinks from Icelandic beer to champagne. Astounding!
Snæfellsnes Peninsula (Day 3)
More waterfalls today – the grand Hraunfossar or Lava Falls from countless springs of subterranean water, many frozen in winter as huge icicles on the rocky ledges. Nearby is the azure rippling Barnafoss named after the two boys who drowned on their way to church.
Off the main road, we turned into a gravel lane to the massive Gerðuberg cliff formed from flowing basaltic lava, cooled by the sea, solidified in evenly running hexagonal columns. Nature is truly amazing. The incredible basalt columns looked almost machine made, all in similar shapes and sizes neatly arranged in an impressive formation like a fortified wall. Summer must be a better time to visit as the ground was semi-frozen and the wind was so strong even in March that it didn’t feel safe to venture near these geometric rocks.
The biggest bonus awaited us as we travelled upcountry to Langaholt, a guesthouse on the south side of Snæfellsnes Peninsula. It was a long drive here, us in the van and our luggage in a mini-trailer. Must mention our driver for the day was a young tall strong Icelandic woman who heaved our 30 kg bags with no problem at all. Very impressive!
Arriving at the Langaholt was amazing. The guesthouse is in the wilderness, surrounded by frosty plains and snow-capped mountains, where the wind blew with wild freedom the snow from miles away and the sun was at an angle bright and soft painting the entire landscape with changing palette of the most beautiful colours. I was mesmerised by this ‘land-before-time’ moment and would have stayed immersed in the picturesque outdoors if the cold did not take a snap at me.
There was so much to write about Langaholt – the seemingly omnipresent proprietress, the absolutely delicious food, cozy dinner conversations and the many special corners that one can muse about alone or with friends.
It was here just before midnight, when most of us were in deep slumber that Karen woke me up with a jolt and there were shouting outside our room. Shadows moved quickly passed our window and muffled voices filled the dark cold outdoors.
“The Northern Lights! It’s happening now.” shouted Karen.
Not wanting to miss anything before the lights disappeared, we donned jackets over our single-layer night clothes and dashed out, waking up Yen on our way.
Yes the lights were in the sky. Someone in the openness behind us shouted, “Over here. You see more over here”.
We walked gingerly on soft mossy ground towards a group of silhouettes and looked where they were looking.
Oh my goodness!
The dominant green and pale pink ribbons were dancing all over the sky, above the guesthouse, across the mountains. But as much as I love to admire them, I couldn’t stand the biting cold and had to rush back into the room to layer up.
The second time properly dressed, we stayed in the open field for as long as we could bathing in the aurora with the wind blowing through of bones nonetheless, eyes unblinking, intoxicated by this wonderful phenomenon, and feeling how lucky we were.
Honestly, this made the entire trip worthwhile. I mean the waterfalls and glaciers will still be there for a long time but the ethereal lights, they were simply beyond words.
So my blog ends here.
Just kidding. But you can figure out why I took some time to post this because seeing the lights was like a climax and the rest of the days were more or less similar, another waterfall, glacier, black sand beach……
but let’s push on.
Hellnar, Vatnshellir, Djupalonssandur, Dritvik, Kirkjufell, Grundarfjorour (Day 4)
The above names are for a fishing village, a lava cave, black sand beaches, a waterfall and mountain with the same name, and a small town.
Incidentally Iceland with its vast and expanding land (the country gets bigger every time a volcano explodes), is miniature in many ways – pony-sized horses, towns with less than 10 houses, villages of one family, forests with three trees, traffic jams when there are more than two cars …hmm I wonder if the term “three’s a crowd” comes from Iceland?
Day 4 sights were pretty but one can only get excited with that many waterfalls and beaches in a week. One thing which was different today was the descent into Vatnshellir lava cave.
Iceland has over 500 known lava caves, all formed when hot magma flowed at such heat and intensity that cavities were formed as air pockets were trapped under the molten rocks hundreds and thousands of years ago. After all that cooling over time, we were assured an exploration of awe and speechless wonder.
The cave was kept pretty much as it was except for the steps and walkways. I was glad there were no fancy lighting and guides pointing out the imaginary animal or fairy shapes that you get so often in the other touristy cave tours. Only problem is we couldn’t take any photos due to the limited lighting and that forced us to absorb in the beauty of this extraordinary place using only our natural senses, something not too much used in today’s digital lifestyle.
Our guides tried their best to make the tour interesting by explaining the complex geographical phenomenon in their light-hearted Icelandic humour. At the deepest part of the cave allowable for casual visitors, we were asked to switch off all our lights and stand in the pitch dark, just listening to our breaths and the melodic drippings of pure icy water on the ancient rock around our feet. The experience was sobering and it made me respect nature as we stood in the shallow bowels of our earth´s crust and the depths of time.
Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, Vik, Reynisdrangar, Jokulsarlon, Vatnajokull, Landbrotsholar, Dyrholaey, (Day 5 & 6)
I have a confession. It’s been a two months since my trip. I started writing six weeks ago and got caught up with this and that, losing momentum and here I am rambling on instead of writing….
Okay I’m going to make this short. The Icelandic names are getting into me. There are a couple more that’s not in the itinerary because our new very animated tour guide Rog or Rocky was very fond of surprises and led us to Fjadrargljufur, Svinafellsjokull, Urrioasfossal and little unplanned stops here and there. Actually many of the passing sights were really spectacular but we simply couldn’t stop everywhere even with the enthusiastic Rocky.
Now back to the writing. Can’t remember the details. Have to look at my photos again to recall what was most memorable. Let’s see…
Ah yes! Diamond beach with its incredible ice crystals lying on the black sand beach, polished every second by the Arctic Ocean, glistening in the winter sun like jewels on dark velvet – a sight to behold of fire and ice in such perfect togetherness.
At Seljalandsfoss, Rocky suggested that we fill our bottles from the stream. Wasn’t as easy as I imagined. No wonder not many people ventured to attempt this ridiculous act. The water was icy and gurgled hurriedly along from the massive waterfall, the edges of the bank were thin transparent frozen ice that looked like they would crack under my feet and I had to stretch out for a few freezing minutes hoping not to fall into the cold cold water while trying to trap a bottleful of the glacier melt. The effort was definitely worthwhile. Never tasted water so sweet and refreshing. Step aside Cristallo Tributo. Never mind your bottle is 24-carat gold but the water in my plastic bottle was priceless.
Moving on .. Our glacier hike was pretty awesome. We visited a glacier park and had glimpses of glaciers on the way but this was the first time we were walking on a glacier to a small ice cave. By the way, there are over 250 named glaciers in the country and countless unnamed ones.
There are different types of glacier activities – black, blue ice climbing or tourist-style horizontal walking – that’s us. First we had to wear crampons, that’s spikes attached to your shoes. These are so effective, we can actually run over the ice in them. Okay not exactly but we could walk quite confidently on the tourist path along the edge of the gigantic glacier to the tourist ice cave for quick photos because another group of tourists were coming in and if all of us were inside the cave breathing at the same time, it might melt and collapse burying all the tourists inside. No, that wouldn’t be nice at all.
Next stop was unplanned because Rocky wanted to show us a strange empty space which is not unusual in Iceland because the country is filled with massive empty spaces. This particular empty space is strange because it has lava rocks staked up in neat piles standing strong against the gales day and night. According to a wind-swept information board, this place was once a farm with two dozen families, all perished from a volcano eruption over a thousand years ago. The neighbouring villagers would place a stone whenever they passed as a token of good luck, I imagine to wish that the same fate would not happen to them.
Makes me wonder. Iceland is such a geographically volatile country and it must had been harsh for the early Viking settlers living off the sea, which puzzles me that people would move so far inland to farm. Looking around there’s absolutely nothing for miles. Not being unkind, I thought if the farmers and their families were not killed by the volcano, they would have died of hunger. As skeptical as I am, I think the whole story is made up, a folklore to explain why these stones exist in the middle of nowhere.
Reykjavik (Early morning Day7)
We should have stayed another day here. There are many places in the city that we could visit – the Harpa concert hall, the old harbour, the Sun Voyager, the charming streets with colourful houses, the many museums and galleries, the parks and another night of northern lights.
Instead we were up and ready at 4.30am to take the shuttle to the airport for a flight back to London and onwards to Milan. That’s another story to be told.
Will I return to Iceland? Definitely yes. In summer perhaps to see a different Iceland and again in winter to stay in the country guesthouse to wait for the lights, this time with a bottle of brandy, heat warmers, a professional camera and most importantly, good company as I had experienced this trip.
Visiting Iceland is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We had only seen a small part of this amazing island with its vast open spaces of raw earth, lava rocks, beaches, mountains, waterfalls, volcanoes, glaciers – a diverse fire and ice still burning and yet frozen in state and time.
To my friends – Yen and Karen, Thank you for pushing me and making this dream trip happen.
a very happy Joan
… many memorable moments …
s 
WHAT BOOMERS WANT 
Congratulations Joan,
Excellent summary of 3 brave young Ladies fantastical travel journey !
Lawrence Ng
Great to see such expansive coverage on the Iceland trip!
We had an Icelandic filmmaker at the Singapore Writers Festival a couple of years ago who talked about a film he’d directed that featured singer-actress Bjork.
Iceland is really making waves through its music, its films and more recently its football team these days.