Reykjavik, Iceland
INTENESE, MONOCHROMATIC, OTHERWORLDLY:
At 5:30am in Reykjavik, Iceland, my dad, desperately tried to see through battering sleet and foggy windows as he wound our tiny budget rental car in and out of traffic circles. Our destination was a 9am Glacier tour outside of Vik, a collection of small buildings on the southern coast labeled a town. But as we swung around our third and final traffic circle before hitting route 1 (aptly named as the one and only road leaving Rekjavik), we found our exit blocked by a gate and a police car. I rolled down my window, and was immediately confronted with a face full of freezing rain.
“Is there another way to Vik?” I asked.
“You can try the route to the South,” he suggested. My brother quickly consulted Google and learned that would add more than 90 minutes to our trip, “Or come back at 8am to see if this has opened.”
He shrugged. I thanked him and we left.
It was 5 hours to sunrise, we had pumped ourselves full of caffeine and adrenaline, and we had no way to get where we were going.
Once back at our Air BnB, cold and defeated, we searched online for weather reports. Having grown up in Syracuse, NY, one of the snowier places on this planet, we were no stranger to travel advisories – but this one was nothing like any of us had ever seen:
Violent Storm 1-2 Feb!
NO TRAVEL CONDITION in almost all Iceland, starting tonight at 20:00 in west and ending in east tomorrow afternoon, Friday! See other alerts for more detail!
This was followed immediately by an alert labeled Avalanche Danger Considerable.
We were just south of the Arctic Circle, and Iceland had made it clear that these conditions were not to be toyed with.
We never did wind up going on that glacier tour, but even without that I found myself saying “I have never seen anything like this” at least twice a day during our trip. Iceland is unlike anything I had experienced prior, and I hope the words I have chosen can in some way convey what it is like to be in this strange, dark, inviting place.
INTENSE:
From the snow-packed highways, to the jagged lava fields, nothing in Iceland is subtle. Nowhere was this more evident than at Geysir, an area of geothermal activity so intense that 30-meter jets of boiling hot water are periodically shot into the sky. When we visited this popular attraction, it was below freezing and the sidewalks were caked in ice. Still, steam rose from various pools of water, some of which were actively bubbling. Even the scent was intense, with wafting sulfur occasionally assaulting our nostrils. Whoever first called Iceland the land of fire and ice was dead on. The dichotomy of extreme temperatures mixes in a way that is literally explosive. The entire country is filled with phenomenon that awe, delight, and inspire. The waterfalls are magnificent, the ocean waves are enormous, and the driving conditions are terrible. Iceland does not do anything halfway.
MONOCHROMATIC:
For all of the drama and intensity, there is very litter color variation in Iceland. Though I visited in winter, I was lucky enough to experience a thaw, which meant I saw the landscape both covered in snow and naked. With a snow cover, the slush of the road bleeds into the fields of ice, which leads to snow-covered mountains, often set against a white, cloudy sky. More than once I was struck by how much it looked like the moon. When the snow melted, the dark colored lava fields revealed themselves to be intermittently covered by either long shaggy grass or hearty moss, all of which are yellowish-brown. Not once did I see something bright or primary. When the clouds clear and the aurora borealis appears, the sky can add elements of the color wheel the land is lacking, but for most of the trip I was looking at spectacular, yet monochrome views.
OTHERWORLDLY:
For two days I stared out of the window of a car, transfixed by the mountains, the black sand beaches, and the frozen pools of water littering the fields, but it wasn’t until our last activity before hopping on a plane back south that my mind was really blown. As a volcanic island, Iceland houses several lava tunnels, or geologic caves that form when flowing lava crusts against the air, but continues to flow beneath the surface. We visited one such lava tunnel that has seen so many layers of lava flow that you can see the stratification against the walls, and is large enough to have hosted two weddings and more than one techno concert. It was hard for me to fathom that beneath a normal looking field (at least by Icelandic standards), a tunnel that looked like it was leftover from some insidious burrowing monster was open for exploration. At various points in the tunnel, the roof had collapsed leaving skylights, and the dripping water had formed frozen stalagtites and stalagmites. It was, like I had said many times before, like nothing I had ever seen. Our guide confirmed my amazement that something like this existed on planet earth by telling us that similar lava tunnels were present all over Mars, and that NASA was looking for the exact type of bacteria that was growing on the wall in front of me. But everything from the basalt columns, to the black sand beaches, to the steaming pockets of volcanic springs makes you feel like you have stepped off a plane into a particularly far-fetched episode of Star Trek. Iceland is unusual, mysterious, and somewhere that absolutely everyone should take the time to visit to marvel at the majesty of our planet.
THE 3 THINGS YOU WILL NEED WHILE YOU’RE THERE:
I grew up in Syracuse, NY, the salt city. As soon as snow hit the pavement, the rock salt trucks were out dropping their over-sized crystals and keeping the pavement in view even as snow and ice covered everyone’s lawns. In Iceland, they aren’t as vigilant. i was surprised to learn that the ice and snow was actually incredible hazardous! Shoe chains are all but required for walking around freely, even in the middle of town.
Nothing is worse than cold feet, and Iceland in January is the coldest place I’ve ever been (and again, I grew up in Syracuse). to prevent your toes from turning numb, bring along a few pairs of SmartWool socks. These lightweight, stylish little socks are basically magic. They will keep your feet warm and comfortable all day without adding much bulk to your boots.
For when the wool socks and mittens just won’t cover it, make sure you’ve got a few of these heat packets with you at all times. They activate in seconds and will add some much-needed artificial warmth wherever you need it.
