Yesterday was a nice taster of Iceland… volcano crater, basalt columns, fish dinner. But today was going to amp it up. On the schedule was glaciers, cliff walks, ship wrecks, and geothermal pools. We even had some surprises thrown in (which you may be able to guess from the picture above).

We started at our digs at the base of Snaefellsjokul, the volcanic glacier which served as the start to Journey to the Centre of the Earth. It was covered with cloud most the time, but when it disappeared, it was quite spectacular.

We then headed west along the peninsula, to the town of Arnastapi. Here we were situated on a dramatic cliff coast line, with a few kilometers of hiking ahead to reach the nearby town of Hellnar. In Arnastapi this big stoney fella greeted us and sent us on our way hiking along the spectacular coast line.

The hour long hike was turn after turn of glorious scenery…

…dramatic coast, bird life, centuries old lava fields, you name it. It was pretty breathtaking.

Kate even had a chance to play a bit of “Where’s Wally” as evidenced above.

In Hellnar, there was this quaint little church. I can’t recall having seen a church with a more dramatic backdrop than this one.

From there we kept making our way around the peninsula, stopping at all kinds of remarkable places. We found some more cliffs for shenanigans photos…

And we also arrived at this black sand beach, where the wreck of a French boat still lined the shore. Amazing to think that it could still litter the shore over 70 years since it washed up.

We were pretty flat out for the day, but we still found time for a pensive sit and reflect on Iceland…

Continuing on around the coast we came across our first real dramatic spontaneous event. “Who wants to see a dead whale?” asked David our guide. We were all up for it, so he did a quick stop and attempt to turn our small bus around. Best laid plans. Reversing just a few centimeters too far back and we tipped a little over the edge of the road. Oh dear! We weren’t going anywhere.

It wasn’t at all serious, but unfortunately we were a bit stuck. Help was on the way, but fortunately some big burly Icelanders came in by in their dump truck and helped us lift the bus back on the road. Woo hoo! Off to see some dead whale.

Now for those of you who are a bit squemish, best to not look at some of the following photos. But as David pointed out to those who were a bit reluctant to look, your chances of being right next to a sperm whale were pretty much nil. Kate and I jumped at the chance.

So sure it looked a bit disgusting. And yep, it smelled a little ripe. But it wasn’t as bad as you may expect and it was amazing to be so close to something so huge. Apprently it washed ashore in April, having already died of old age. It was incredible that it was so intact.

This was quite a find and was a good opportunity for photos.

Might seem a bit morbid, but it really was so incredible to come across.

Having seen the great whale, we kept moving around the peninsula. We made a couple of stops in small towns. In the first I was greeted with these friendly folk… what appeared to be a dad teaching his son how to slit the throat of a fish,. How odd.

Next place we wheeled in to a supermarket. Two finds! Firstly another flavour of our favourite chocolate bar. With lentils! Before you get excited about lentils and chocolate, we worked out they were pretty much just small smarties.

Next was a strange malt-orange christmas drink. I have had christmas drinks in Norway and they were delicious! So I had to try. You can be the judge of what I thought…

It was then time to head back to our previous nights lodgings, but with an important stop on the way. Geothermal pool!

Oh yeah. And it was so nice. Very basic, but after a long day there was nothing like soaking in a natural geothermal hot pool.

To finish off it was another nice dinner, with cod this time. Perfect sustenance for a long day. As I type this I am looking at a sunny midnight. Best get some rest for another busy day tomorrow.

Hello! Well, a bit has happened in the last couple of days since I have posted. This will be the first entry for day one proper of our tour around the bottom half of Iceland, while day two (i.e. today our time) will be a separate one.

When you left me and my sharky breath, we were settled into different digs in Reykjavik, ready to start our week long tour around mostly the bottom half of Iceland. And up we got on Monday morning, ready to greet our tour group and head into the wilds (complete with Icelandic chocolate bars to keep us company).

As it turned out, our tour group consists of just 6 of us in total, including the driver guide David. So a very small group, and an odd one at that really. One older gent, another older gent with his 18 year old son, myself and Kate, and David, the ex-pat British driver guide. A motley crew if ever there was one… and not really looking like one that would provide me with an eating accomplice. Oh well.

From Reykjavik, we headed north, with our target being the Snaefellsness peninsula, with some choice stops along the way. First one was in the small town of Borgarnes, where it was a visit to a local museum telling the tale of the settlement of Iceland. Whilst quite small it was a nice way to kick off proceedings and to try and start wrapping our tongues around some of the unique Icelandic pronunciations we were going to have to get used to.

Our first main stop though was the Eldborg crater, which then became the locale for a couple of hours of amazing hiking.

Starting out about 3-4 kilometers from the crater, off we set, saying goodbye to some Icelandic horse friends we met…

As we hiked toward, the crater turned from distant hill, to a substantial crater about 50 metres deep. And up we went.

The Eldborg crater was formed by some volcanic activity about 5000 years ago, where it erupted straight up, forming a crater much more circular than many others. It made for an awesome hike and sight.

Reaching the top we could only soak up both the distant views as well as inside the amazing crater that we were at the top of.

Oh, and how could you not scream to the world?

With our screaming out of the way, back we went to keep on our way. Not far from the crater was the basalt cliffs of Gerduberg.

Looking interesting as we approached, it wasn’t until you went bounding up to their base that the scale of them really hit you. They look like they just emerge out of the ground out of nowhere.

Our final resting point for the day was an old farmhouse in the costal locale of Langaholt. A quaint guesthouse awaited, as did some fantastic food. I can’t recall having eaten Catfish, so I can check that one off the list. Mmmmm… tasty.

One last thing was left to do in the evening before crashing asleep. Our costal locale was located only a couple of hundred metres from the North Atlantic ocean. And you know what… I have never swum there! So what did I do. Well, these pictures can tell the story…

So was it cold? Um, yeah. But not debilitatingly so. It was actually the very rough conditions that made me come to my senses and seek warmth. You can tell that one of us was smart enough to keep warm.

With that, it was the end of the day. Still very light outside at 10pm (our guide David keeps remarking that it doesn’t get dark until August… which is completely the truth), we were both crashing bad though. So off we flaked it after out first day of travel, with a bigger day to come.

Holy moly, that was a crazy night of sleep. Our hotel, being called City Centre Hotel was, quite coincidentally, in the city centre. Funny that. Now when they say that the locals like to go strong all night in the summer, they are spot on. I was happy to have dozed off about 10pm (with the sunshine still beaming) but was woken at close to midnight by the loudest fireworks ever. Was in Reykjavik or Beirut? I dozed back off only to be woken again by the fervent crowd out in the street around 3am, sunshine still beaming. They sure know how to party.

By morning time (and I mean normal morning time, like 9am), it was time to check out of our central hotel and head to the one where we were to commence our tour. So off we legged it, dropping our bags off at our new digs before grabbing a bite to eat for brekky.

Kate had her eye on trying one of the Icelandic sweet doughnuts called a Kleinur, so we popped in to a bakery to fill up on local pastries (and coffee for me). So how were the treats? Quite heavy actually. And quite sweet. I preferred the chocolate dipped version, while Kate was the traditionalist. Although the photographic proof suggests either was fine 🙂

Bellies full it was time for us to do some more serious wandering, given it was Kate’s first real opportunity to see open shops. Seems as though Reykjavik has an interesting dilemma though. Being a Sunday, quite a few stores on the two main shopping streets were either not open, or opening quite late. My guess is that traditionally the city slept on Sundays but with the increased tourist trade has had to swing open the doors now. But it still seemed quite quiet on the streets.

In wandering the many clothing stores, we took particular delight in trying on woollen hats of varying types…

Me, I like mine with tassels.

Every store seemed to have their share of puffin soft toys as well. Oh boy it is going to make it mentally difficult to eat one of these little guys.

After wandering the main shopping street, we made it back to the Hallsgrimskirkja church, and this time went up to near the top to check out the views of the city. It looked pretty sweet up there, and got a sense of really how tiny the city is.

We also could see how close we were to the mountains, and got a sense of just what we would be heading into on our tour.

Hanging out the front was Leifr Eiricsson, just watching over the city.

By this time we were both getting a bit peckish. Now, I couldn’t be selfish and deny Kate her chance at the local delicacy. Which one am I talking about? Hot dogs of course! And my underwhelmed feeling yesterday had actually grown to a craving to have another. So we partook in the delights of Baejarins Beztu again, and I have to say, I think I’m hooked. It went down a treat. Kate dug the dog as well, so I am guessing the dodgy stand will be getting at least another visit before we leave for good.

I also had to try another Icelandic specialty, one which I believe is their national food. It is called hakarl. “Mmmm!” I hear you say! Well, remember who’s blog you are reading. Hakarl is actually cubes of putrified shark meat. And by putrified, I really mean putrified. Apparently they leave the shark meat buried to rot for something like 3 months to make it digestible. Changed your tone haven’t you? Well, remember Muttler always takes one for the team.

Kate insisted on a photo essay of the experience. I am pretty sure she knew what was coming up. Me, I was a bit more optimistic. However, I’ll let the pictures tell the story…

Needless to say, not much more of that will be getting eaten. But it seemed the right thing to do to try the locals signature dishes. Unfortunately it resulted in the remark “You’ve got shark breath!” at least 10 minutes later. Here’s hoping the rest of my culinary experiences will be a little more palatable (and kinder on the nostrils).

Hallo from Reykjavik, Iceland! To be honest though I don’t know whether to say good morning, good evening, or what. My body and mind have no idea where they’re at or what’s going on. So let me backtrack.

This adventure starts some hours ago. How many I can’t quite be sure, given I left one timezone and entered another, losing time in between. It started with me arriving at Denver airport, bidding adieu to the conference, and getting ready to head to the volcanic wonderland of Iceland.

I arrived at the airport nice and early. Firstly to just be conscientious, but also because so far my other sought after Ben and Jerry’s flavour had eluded me: Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Snack. Those of you who watch The Colbert Report will know that the rivalry between Colbert and Fallon is fantastic, and part of that fuel is the rival B&J flavours. So I had to get my hands on both. Now, I am firmly in the Colbert camp, so it pains me to say… I think Jimmy Fallon’s flavour has the edge. It is another vanilla base, but with salted caramel and chocolate covered potato chips. Eeewww! I hear you say. But unlike the infamous bacon sundae, the salted carmel worked perfectly in this ice cream. So while I liked Colbert’s Americone Dream, Fallon’s salty alternative got the win (sorry Rev Dr Colbert).

With the ice cream under my belt, it was time to head to the departure gate. I gotta say, it was surreal being in Denver and seeing the sign at the gate say Reykjavik. And at 5:15pm Denver time, I was away to my magical land of puffins.

Now this is where my mind and body started asking what’s up. It was a 7.5 hour flight, that got me to Reykjavik at about 6:30am their time. So your can see the dilemma… I really needed to get some sleep on the plane otherwise at the other end I would be cactus. So what do you think happened? Yep, I must have got a total of about 30 minutes sleep the whole way. Oh boy.

But first world problems hey? I’d deal with it. So after the cruisy pass through Icelandic customs (no forms, just a quick howdy and passport stamp… I like it) it was on to a bus into central Reykjavik. On the way the landscape was alternately alien and scenic, with the water giving way to mountains at times. And clearly this was not even the good parts. Oh yeah. I’ll reserve photos until I get out into the real Icelandic wilderness.

Off I hopped at the other end and wandered to the hotel. Now I was prepared to just dump my bag off and hang about town as I assumed it would be too early for check in. Plus I was going to be wandering back to the airport about 6 hours later to meet Katherine, so I figured it was just going to be a case of wandering in a sleepy stupor around town, getting a feel for all things Iceland. But bless the City Centre Hotel in downtown Reykjavik. In going to drop my bag off, they checked to see if there was any chance they could have the room ready for me. As my good fortune would have it, it had just been cleaned and was indeed vacant. YES!

So in I checked and had the luxury of a shower. Should I sleep though? Before I could answer that question, off I dozed, waking a couple hours later. Now that felt strange. I had some faculties about me when I woke (I at least knew where I was), but that was about it. My brain and body were asking me what the hell was going on. I needed sleep, food, and a regular time zone. “Toughen up” I said to myself, and got up and mobile. May as well tire myself out to sleep well tonight.

Off it was to do a quick scout of the city. I didn’t intend to do too much, since Katherine and I have a few days in Reykjavik to get up to shenanigans. But I intended to work out what’s what, and importantly get some food into me. And what food do you think I went straight to?

Reykjavik’s famous hot dog stand!

Yep, world famous. Even Bill Clinton has eaten there (I have seen the photographic proof). It seems that it is a legitimate local phenom too, not just a tourist thing, as the line was decent for late morning, with locals lining up for “one with the lot”. Though if you walked past this dodgy little stand in any other city in the world you would probably treat it with the same respect as the dodgy 3am kebab guy.

So I promptly ordered one with the lot and tucked in. As you can tell by the look of it, their idea of hot dogs is a little different to ours. And with the lot didn’t involve much more than onion and sauce and mustard. And the sausage was, well, not that substantial. But overall it tasted alright. Hardly the best hot dog I have ever eaten, but I’m sure another one or two will be consumed over the coming week.

With a hot dog in my belly (along with a can of Red Bull to help get me through the day) I did some general wandering and came across the amazing Hallsgrimskirkja Church. A trip to the top of the bell tower will be in order for sure, so I’ll save more discussion of this for a later day. The rest was wandering the two main shopping streets, filled with Icelandic specialties. One of which was this…

Hhhmmm… I wonder what those little puffins do taste like? (I’ll avoid the whale this time).

With that it was time to head back out to the airport to greet Katherine on her arrival from Paris. Yes, it is a tough life we lead. Thanks to Icelandair efficiency, KK was on time and off we headed back into town. It was quite evident that both of us were struggling with jet-lag, so it ended up being just a quiet wander and dinner (a tasty seafood soup for me) before crashing, with me barely eeking this  blog post out.

So far, Reykjavik feels pretty right… much like some of the smaller Norwegian towns I went to. I mean I keep calling Reykjavik a “town” as it hardly feels like a city. The population is about 200,000 in the greater area, but downtown it just has a relaxed vibe. We shall see what the place turns into as the evening arrives… sunshiny midnight shenanigans no doubt (if I don’t fall asleep and miss them).

Stay tuned for a day of Reykjavik shenanigans before we head off into the Icelandic wilderness (pending wi-fi obviously).

Hi everyone.

Glad to see the Bacon Sundae was popular with everyone, even though I didn’t have the euphoric experience I/we expected. Oh well. I promise to tune up my tastebuds for the culinary delights that await.

Nothing to report in this blog entry sorry, but thought it would be amiss to not post given that the next one will be from ICELAND! I can’t predict what internet I will have when I arrive, so apologies if I don’t post for a while. Don’t fret… it will just mean more shenanigans to report when I do 🙂

Hope everyone is well on the other side of the planet. Onward to more crazy eating experiences…