Ice, ice, baby! At the moment I’m writing to you from The Galaxy Pod hostel in Iceland, Reykjavic.
They say if you don’t hear anything from someone in a while, they’re probably doing well. In this case that’s absolutely true. I’m currently spending a lot of my time on working, gaining more experience in my own field, driving lessons, Willow Mae’s ablum release and an own project in music: a festival production for, you’ll guess, metal! Besides hunting for jobs, I’m now trying to create them.
Allthough I’m not around online a lot anymore, I’m more busy than ever working my way through my bucket list (drivers license, own business, music and so on).
Finally having my break, which I’m spending in Iceland with my bestie from London, I’d like to share all the beautiful things I come across during my two week trip..
Day 1 Flight to Reykjavic
First day was an extemely exciting day. Besides going to Iceland, the line-up from Submit Fest, Pushpa, Jessica and I have been working so hard for the last months, went online while I was up in the air. #readyfortakeoff had a double meaning, ready for Iceland and ready for how the Dutch scene would react. If you have any interest the metal acts of the future I suggest you take a look at Submit Fest and I welcome you the 22nd of October in our hometown Rotterdam. Dutch or not. Fans or musicians. Here in Iceland or somewhere in The Netherlands. Come have a chat with me before or see me at the festival. Tell me all about what metal means to you..
Back to the flight. I always like to travel alone and this is the first time I’m traveling with someone together, but before we met at the airport of Reykjavic I was by myself.
I didn’t take long or I had already met two guys at the gate and we started talking. They are both from San Fransisco, but they didn’t know eachother. We just happened to sit next to eachother at the gate.
The first one just said “hi” and wondered if I traveled alone and why, telling me it was his first time alone and he had always been afraid to go by himself, scared of feeling all alone. I told him I love traveling alone, you can go wherever you wanna go, but you’re never really alone. I told him he just started a conversation with me and in a second he wasn’t just alone anymore. Thinking about that and how his trip had been so far he confessed later that allthough it was his first time leaving the USA (and alone) he had the most relaxed day ever. The only thing he absolutely wasn’t used to was the public transport in Europe. “In San Fransisco we don’t have that. I do everything by car. It’s so confusing.” I can’t imagine The Netherlands without public transport. I use it everyday to go to work and everything else!
Both me and the other guy convinced him during our conversation that traveling is great and mostly when you try to stay open. The other guy told us he is a performing artist in acrobatics and give workshops all around the world and travels as well. Super cool! According to him Airbnb and a network for performing artists are his places to go to see the real sides of countries. He recommended for my trip as well to stay as much in contact with locals as possible. Having visited Iceland before he could tell me to avoid the Blue Lagoon, find hot springs in nature ourselves, eat legal whale, go hiking and visit little bars.
On the plane our ways seperated and I filled my time with a nap and doodling
It was quite a bumpy ride and I’m sure someone had a serious case of gas during the flight the whole time. Thanks for that.
At the airport I waited two hours, but then I finally met up with Nathalie and we were ready for our first journey <3
A Gray line bus dropped us at the hostel in between autodealers and already tired we tried to figure out how the elevator would go up (we didn’t want to take the stairs with our baggage). It turned out to be a classic case of giggling girls, logic and technique. But yes, we got upstairs and into our own Galaxy Pod!
Pretty cool double beds in cabines which give you your own privacy, while you’re still with other travelers in the same room. Super futuristic with usb ports, mirror lights, reading lights, a working clock and alarm and jack inputs for listening to music!
The receptioniste may not have been the most friendly faces of all time, we sure did enjoy ouselves in the pod :’)
Day 2 The Golden Circle
Today Nathalie had planned in a tour for us with stops at Pingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir.
Pingvellir
Around 9am a bus picked us up near the hotel and took us to the tranfer where we got in another bus that would drive us the rest of the day.
First stop was Pingvellir, an important place in the founding and development of Iceland as it is today. On our way there the lovely and funny guide Vivian Olafsdóttir (Olaf’s daughter) told us fun facts about the first vikings, sagas en folklor. If she would have been a boy, son of Olaf, she would have been named Olafsson(ur).
Pingvellir is part of the huge national park and is remarkable for it’s lake, which is the biggest in Iceland and still has unknown mysteries due to the depth at some places. Also you can walk across the North American tectonic plate. The line between the North American and European goes across the land and can be as close as a couple of cm’s or as wide as 7km.
Gullfoss
Next stop was Gullfoss. This amazing waterfall has been in the hands of different owners, but has been brought back to the Islandic state by one of the daughters of a former owner who was a feminist and a fighter for Islands heritage and nature. She even threathed to throw herself down the waterfall if her father would not help her get it in good care..
Talking about falling off the fall just 3 weeks ago a German man decided to cross the “danger” lines and fell down the waterfall. He was found two days later. Stupidity seems to be common under tourists.. One once was found after two months, some never were.
A beautiful site to see and therefore extremely crowded. Don’t ask me how I managed to make photographs without people in them.
Geysir
De name Geysir means erupting or gushing and is the first geiser ever to be reported in early history. You can guess where the word geiser comes from!
The big one which IS Geysir hasn’t erupted in over 10 years. Sometimes it can be asleep like volcanos. Strokkur next to Geysir does erupt frequently. Every few minutes
Littli Geysir is like a boiling pot..
Also here tourist tend to make stupid moves. Allthough it says the water is 80 to 100 degrees Celsius people go over the lines and put in their hands out of curiosity.
Around 5:30 we got back in Reykjavic and were just chilling out for the rest of the night.
Tomorrow were leaving for Vik with a couple of tips from the guide inour pockets and fun facts:
– if a sheep crosses the road.. Run over it
– don’t walk over or destroy moss. It takes a 100 years to grow back! That includes Justin Bieber!
– don’t walk over lava fields. It might break and you’ll fall down. Maybe into the nothingness forever
– lot’s of islandic people respect elf churches and believe they are real. Some rocks have doors drawn on them.
– earthquakes are common
– volcano Katla is active and will explode. It’s just a matter of time.
– never trust the weather forecast. It can rain, snow or be sunny in one day.
– Iceland didn’t have beer until 1989. Until then everybody drank hard liquor