To Iceland we will go...

So this past week has been half term at my school, which means only one thing - TRAVEL!!! Thought it would be good to go somewhere different, and as its Winter, anyplace far north would give a fair chance of seeing the Northern lights. I did see the northern lights (well, one northern light) in Kiruna in 2004 but I was next to the Icehotel and there was too much artificial light, so you couldn't see it really well. This is why I wanted to try again in Iceland. So, first of all, Iceland isn't as cold as you might think. Don't get me wrong, its pretty cold, and with the windchill factor, even colder, its just that I thought that there would be snow everywhere but was very disappointed when we landed in Reykjavik (well the airport is actually 45 minutes or so away by bus in Keflavik) - the only snow you could see was on some of the mountain tops, but certainly nothing on the ground. The landscape is actually quite bleak, black rocks (from volcanic eruptions) as far as the eye can see, no trees... This is because Iceland (if you want the geology lesson) is situated on 2 continental plates that are currently separating at the rate of 1-2 cms a year (Europe and North America). This separation causes earthquakes and volcanoes so that's why a lot of the land is made up of old lava. Plus, the country has a lot of geothermal systems and in fact most of the heating comes from geothermal sources (only about 15% of the country doesn´t have access to it). This means though that the hot water in the taps stinks of sulphur. Actually, a lot of the country's central heating is done by geothermal means, and they have more electricity than they need. Anyway, enough scientific type talk...

The road from Keflavik to Reykjavik

Anyway, back to the story... So we arrived in Reykjavik on Sunday, that was good, wandered about the town, no snow, but a bit chilly. Found out pretty quick there isn´t a lot to do in Reykjavik on a Sunday night. Its very expensive there too, we managed to find one restaurant where for AUD$40 we got a soup and a couple of lamb chops with a few vegies (and a couple of pieces of glass chucked in with the vegies... hm...mind that cut lip then). That was the cheapest we could find. Obviously we will need to do our own cooking in the youth hostel to save money... Apparently Reykjavik is good for culture, like museums and stuff, but this sort of thing isn't open on a Sunday night now is it. So we wandered about a bit, had a look at the big church and the statue of the dude (Lief someone - they also named the airport after him) who discovered America in front, and then decided to call it a day...