Iceland
So I'm at about the halfway point of my journey in the land of ice and fire.
I spent the first two weeks working on the Viking Festival in Hafnarfjörður, which was great great fun. We helped build the tents (which I loved), worked the cafe and restaurant, and generally made ourselves available for anyone who needed a hand. (I, for example, wound up spending a day making Viking bread in one of the tents). The Vikings were so friendly and welcoming (a few in particular blew me away with their warmth and generosity), and I began to consider becoming a Viking myself.
We spent a few days in Sauðarkrokur, a city in the north of the country, and saw some incredible landscapes around there. We did an excursion to the island of Drangey, which is home to about a million puffins, and features the steepest and most frightening climb I have ever had to do. But the beauty and peace at the top is worth it, and we lay in the long grass and listened to our guide tell us the story of Grettir the Strong (protagonist of Grettir's Saga), who lived and died on the island.
A couple days ago, the festival came to an end, and we had a backbreaking day of disassembling and storing the tents and structures until next year.
In the meantime, I changed all of my plans for the rest of my visit....
I wanted to support the volunteer organization that was involved with the Viking festival, as it's a young group and has a good environmental focus. So when another work opportunity became available with them, I cancelled my original plan and signed up with them.
As a result, I've come to Reykjavik for the week to help out with the International Children's Games. The work is a bit boring, but it's a nice event -- essentially the Olympics for the 12-15-year-old set.
On Monday, we head off to Þorsmörk, a mountain/glacier/volcanic valley in the south of the country. We'll spend a week clearing, marking and building hiking trails, which I'm greatly looking forward to. (I was hoping for more physically demanding work during these volunteer opportunities, and there hasn't really been much.)
When the workcamp is finished, my plan is to do a 3-4 day hike from Þorsmörk (apparently you walk directly between 2 glaciers!) and then resume my original plan to tour the country in 6 or so days...
I might be ambitious with everything I want to do and see (the buses are pretty infrequent, and run on "Icelandic" time, which means... erm... whenever they feel like it), but we'll see what I can accomplish...
Since I don't have my laptop at hand, I will have to post photos of the amazing landscapes when I return.
In other news
I've been accepted into the Teaching and Cultural assistant program in Spain for the fall. I'll be headed off to Andalucia (city still to be determined) in late September... I can't wait!
In the interim, I'm looking forward to being home for a while (I'll be back in TO on July 20th), regrouping a bit, and having many patio drinks with everyone to catch up!
So I'm at about the halfway point of my journey in the land of ice and fire.
I spent the first two weeks working on the Viking Festival in Hafnarfjörður, which was great great fun. We helped build the tents (which I loved), worked the cafe and restaurant, and generally made ourselves available for anyone who needed a hand. (I, for example, wound up spending a day making Viking bread in one of the tents). The Vikings were so friendly and welcoming (a few in particular blew me away with their warmth and generosity), and I began to consider becoming a Viking myself.
We spent a few days in Sauðarkrokur, a city in the north of the country, and saw some incredible landscapes around there. We did an excursion to the island of Drangey, which is home to about a million puffins, and features the steepest and most frightening climb I have ever had to do. But the beauty and peace at the top is worth it, and we lay in the long grass and listened to our guide tell us the story of Grettir the Strong (protagonist of Grettir's Saga), who lived and died on the island.
A couple days ago, the festival came to an end, and we had a backbreaking day of disassembling and storing the tents and structures until next year.
In the meantime, I changed all of my plans for the rest of my visit....
I wanted to support the volunteer organization that was involved with the Viking festival, as it's a young group and has a good environmental focus. So when another work opportunity became available with them, I cancelled my original plan and signed up with them.
As a result, I've come to Reykjavik for the week to help out with the International Children's Games. The work is a bit boring, but it's a nice event -- essentially the Olympics for the 12-15-year-old set.
On Monday, we head off to Þorsmörk, a mountain/glacier/volcanic valley in the south of the country. We'll spend a week clearing, marking and building hiking trails, which I'm greatly looking forward to. (I was hoping for more physically demanding work during these volunteer opportunities, and there hasn't really been much.)
When the workcamp is finished, my plan is to do a 3-4 day hike from Þorsmörk (apparently you walk directly between 2 glaciers!) and then resume my original plan to tour the country in 6 or so days...
I might be ambitious with everything I want to do and see (the buses are pretty infrequent, and run on "Icelandic" time, which means... erm... whenever they feel like it), but we'll see what I can accomplish...
Since I don't have my laptop at hand, I will have to post photos of the amazing landscapes when I return.
In other news
I've been accepted into the Teaching and Cultural assistant program in Spain for the fall. I'll be headed off to Andalucia (city still to be determined) in late September... I can't wait!
In the interim, I'm looking forward to being home for a while (I'll be back in TO on July 20th), regrouping a bit, and having many patio drinks with everyone to catch up!
posted by tsunamivalentine at 9:07 AM
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