Today is a 2 in 1 tour with whale watching in the morning and golden circle tour in the afternoon. By 8am, I was picked up at my hostel and dropped off at the main office before being sent to the Old Harbour. It was colder but the sea was calmer than the day before. I forgot to pack my gloves and I felt that my fingers would drop off anytime. My hands were freezing and painful at the same time.
Despite the cold, I was excited. First, the boat sailed to Puffin Island to see puffins, also known as Penguin of the North or Sea Clown because they have small wings that make them appear clumsy during take off. It is interesting to watch how the birds take off, fluttering their wings ever so quickly that they leave trail of ripple in the water. Next, it sailed to Faxafloi Bay to look for whales. There were a lot of porpoises (smallest whale species) and three Minke whales. But, I failed to get very close up shot of the whales due to limitation of my camera. It would be great if I have a binoculars.
After 3 hours of whale watching, I was back at the harbour. There is a small exhibition on whales inside the ship moored at the harbour. I grabbed light lunch before boarding the bus at 1pm for afternoon golden circle tour. Met Merita again in the same tour! She went to Blue Lagoon in the morning. The tour guide this time did not manage to capture my attention. Like a lullaby, every time he speaks, I dozed off within minutes. Sadly, I did not manage to absorp much information. I was reminded of the sleep inducing history lesson in school as he gave a summary of background history of Iceland. It is interesting to note that Iceland is a relatively "young" island, only 20million years old, formed by volcanic eruptions. Iceland was under Norwegian and Danish rule before attaining independence in 1944. One of the Icelanders' pride is the Icelandic Saga book which was one of the earliest book written in the world.
The first stop is Thingvellir national Park, site of the old parliament Alpingi (930AD) and the best place to view the Midatlantic fissure, the no man land , the European and North American tectonate plates. The lanscape is truly out of this world. The Alþingi is stated to be the world's oldest existing parliament. The assembly was held in the plain hence no buildings whatsoever. Later, the bus drove us to Gullfoss, a truly remarkable waterfall located in the canyon of Hvita river. Due to light lunch, I felt slightly hungry and bought skier (Iceland yoghurt) to eat. It is probably the most expensive yoghurt I ever tasted...(overpriced at 300 ISK, usual price is 185 ISK in other shops). Nearby are the famous hotsprings of Geysir and Strokkur. The Strokkur, a very unusual fountain geyser, erupts every 4-8 minutes as high as 25metre like a programmed musical fountain. When we first arrived, Strokkur erupted three times in succesion in a span of a minute which is very unusual. Truly fascinating. The temperature of the water is about 2-3 times boiling point! Visitors have to endure the rotten egg smell of sulphurs though...a small sacrifice to witness one of the nature's wonder. Lastly, we stopped at Hverageroi geothermal powered greenhouse before heading home to Reykjavik.
At Reykjavik, I alighted at Hilton instead of KEX hostel to walk to the Reykjavik Botanical Garden. I was very curios to see whether Iceland can have full blooming flowers. The botanical garden is lovely but has mainly Icelandic plants, moss, lichen and low plants. Do not expect daffodils and tulips like in UK...the climate and earth in Iceland is really different and not easy to grow anything...To my delight, the garden is quite green. It took me another near 45 minutes to walk back to the hostel for check out. The hostel owner advised me to dine in Fish and Chips near the harbour but as expected, I could not find it being directionally handicapped. I wandered around the city centre looking for best deal. The cheap restaurants either out of fish and chips or kitchen closed. Frustrated, I just walked into Sjavargrillid restaurant on Skolavordustigur road. It is expensive but well worth it. I ordered fresh grill of the day (cost about £17) and I must say I have not tasted finer grilled cat fish than that. It was served with salmon sauce, sweet potatoes and asparagus. I can definitely feel the passion of the chef in preparing the dish. I was also served a free appetizer consist of pickled celery with cream cheese and bread with salted butter (on the house). I asked the waitress about the chef and was not suprised when she said the chef won best chef award last year. Wow! And I found the restaurant by chance...Thank you God!
After the meal, I walked to BSI bus terminal for my airport transfer via Flybus. It is slightly more expensive than Airport Express but is the only bus that goes to the airport at 11pm. I slept in the airport that night. Initially I planned to stay awake whole night to write my blog but since I was sleep deprived for days, I soon fell into deep slumber by 130 am. There is only metal bench in the airport but I managed to sleep quite well in a single seat cushioned sofa. Checked in by 630am and slept again at the boarding gate. With sometime to spare, I shopped for a pair of sunglasses for my upcoming trip to Switzerland :)
Despite the cold, I was excited. First, the boat sailed to Puffin Island to see puffins, also known as Penguin of the North or Sea Clown because they have small wings that make them appear clumsy during take off. It is interesting to watch how the birds take off, fluttering their wings ever so quickly that they leave trail of ripple in the water. Next, it sailed to Faxafloi Bay to look for whales. There were a lot of porpoises (smallest whale species) and three Minke whales. But, I failed to get very close up shot of the whales due to limitation of my camera. It would be great if I have a binoculars.
After 3 hours of whale watching, I was back at the harbour. There is a small exhibition on whales inside the ship moored at the harbour. I grabbed light lunch before boarding the bus at 1pm for afternoon golden circle tour. Met Merita again in the same tour! She went to Blue Lagoon in the morning. The tour guide this time did not manage to capture my attention. Like a lullaby, every time he speaks, I dozed off within minutes. Sadly, I did not manage to absorp much information. I was reminded of the sleep inducing history lesson in school as he gave a summary of background history of Iceland. It is interesting to note that Iceland is a relatively "young" island, only 20million years old, formed by volcanic eruptions. Iceland was under Norwegian and Danish rule before attaining independence in 1944. One of the Icelanders' pride is the Icelandic Saga book which was one of the earliest book written in the world.
The first stop is Thingvellir national Park, site of the old parliament Alpingi (930AD) and the best place to view the Midatlantic fissure, the no man land , the European and North American tectonate plates. The lanscape is truly out of this world. The Alþingi is stated to be the world's oldest existing parliament. The assembly was held in the plain hence no buildings whatsoever. Later, the bus drove us to Gullfoss, a truly remarkable waterfall located in the canyon of Hvita river. Due to light lunch, I felt slightly hungry and bought skier (Iceland yoghurt) to eat. It is probably the most expensive yoghurt I ever tasted...(overpriced at 300 ISK, usual price is 185 ISK in other shops). Nearby are the famous hotsprings of Geysir and Strokkur. The Strokkur, a very unusual fountain geyser, erupts every 4-8 minutes as high as 25metre like a programmed musical fountain. When we first arrived, Strokkur erupted three times in succesion in a span of a minute which is very unusual. Truly fascinating. The temperature of the water is about 2-3 times boiling point! Visitors have to endure the rotten egg smell of sulphurs though...a small sacrifice to witness one of the nature's wonder. Lastly, we stopped at Hverageroi geothermal powered greenhouse before heading home to Reykjavik.
Thingvellir National Park with Alpingi (Old Parliament)
Gulfoss
Strokkur
After the meal, I walked to BSI bus terminal for my airport transfer via Flybus. It is slightly more expensive than Airport Express but is the only bus that goes to the airport at 11pm. I slept in the airport that night. Initially I planned to stay awake whole night to write my blog but since I was sleep deprived for days, I soon fell into deep slumber by 130 am. There is only metal bench in the airport but I managed to sleep quite well in a single seat cushioned sofa. Checked in by 630am and slept again at the boarding gate. With sometime to spare, I shopped for a pair of sunglasses for my upcoming trip to Switzerland :)
Any pictures of the whales?
ReplyDeleteGot but not good enough coz is small and can see fins mainly. The whales were very shy that day hence could not go very near :p
ReplyDelete