Today was just epic. No other way to describe it. The sights of Iceland can not be compared to anything, anywhere, ever at any point in time. This whole country is on a pedestal of beauty. At least, it is to me, and it is in the eye of the beholder, right?
Okay, let´s start at the beginning. Driving about 45 minutes outside of Reykjavik over a very windy mountain pass (oh, yeah, I keep forgetting to mention this, but they have a shit ton of roundabouts! I really don´t like those things), we get to the horse ranch. Little history of Icelandic horses.. the breedline is pure. It is the ONLY breed of horse here on this island. No other breed is allowed. And if one does leave, it can never come back. Since a stable population of these horses has been established here (not sure when that was but it was long ago) there has never been another breed of horse to step foot on this island. Ever! And it´s not like these horses aren´t living in other parts of the world.. there is actually a whole circuit of competition for this specific breed and what they can do.. but if the owners take their horses outside the country to compete in those shows, they can never bring it back. It´s kinda sad, but it means that the blood line has never been tainted. And I will have to look into it more when I have the time, but it makes me wonder if that has anything to do with their coloration. For the most part, they are all solid colors. Out of the hundreds I saw, I maybe saw 6 or 7 paints. It is crazy.
Anyways, the special part about them: they have their own gait. I said something about it yesterday, and I understood it as something between the canter and gallop, but it is actually slower and closer to the pace of the trot, but it can get faster. It is actually pretty flexible, but from what I experienced today, I can best describe it as a really fast trot, but smooth. You are not bouncing around in the saddle at all. You are not bouncing really and anyone who rides will understand how amazing that it. They all are born with this ability, but when they are broken, they do have to be taught how to trigger it. You have to hold the reins pretty short so their heads are pulled up but keep your hands down so they don't think you're telling them to halt. And you just squeeze you're thighs instead of digging in your heels. If I loosened the reins a bit, my horse would switch to a trot and it would be bouncy again. Pull the reins tighter, and everything smoothed right back out. It´s called the tölt and it is amazing (I attempted to get the guide to teach me how to pronounce that.. again, I failed. Ugh, this language is so difficult!). My horse was named Stormer and let me tell you, he thought he was the leader. He would actually head butt the rear of the horse in front of him until he moved out of the way and let him pass. I was so impressed by amount of personality he had, I let him do it. And even though we weren´t supposed to, we cantered a bit. And if there is a horse on this Earth that has a smoother canter, I have never ridden it. That little guy liked to go fast and I was all too happy to let him. I could be perfectly content living here and working on a ranch like our tour guides. One was Swedish and the other French. Neither had ever ridden Western style and had no clue what Barrel Racing was. I wonder how well an Icelandic horse would take to running some barrels.. Hmm..
Okay, so after that lovely ride, it was on to Geysir. This is where the word geyser comes from because geysir is derived from the norse verb "geysa" which means to gush. If I'm not mistaken, I think the sign said that it was the second largest geyser in the world, but I may be remembering that incorrectly. The tour guide said it erupts almost every twenty minutes, but I think they were just estimating on the safe side, because it was more like every five. I got tons of pictures away as it erupted and one right beside it. I also got pictures of the many hot pools and smaller geysers around it as well. It was a beautiful place.
But the next stop, was the whole reason I ever really paid attention to Iceland in the first place. I wanted to stand beside the gigantic waterfall that is Gullfoss, which means Golden Waterfall. I did what I promised myself I would do and it took my breath away. Beautiful just doesn't seem to adequately describe how that waterfall looked to me. I took so many pictures of every angle I could. And to top it off, there was a rainbow diving down into the cascading waters and it appeared so well on camera. The trail leading to the side of the falls was "closed" due to the weather and the path being slippery so I took a picture of the sign to show that I saw, acknowledged it, and crossed it anyway. And I´m glad I did because there was a completely different view from over there that you just couldn't get from the top. There was tons of other people doing it too, before anyone freaks out that I'm gonna get myself thrown in foreign jail. Trust me, if that happens, it'll be for a much more interesting reason.
And then we were on our way to the National Park that completes the triangle of what is referred to as the Golden Circle. But before I talk about that, I would like to discuss the things our tour guide told us. She was a very nice woman with pretty good English, even though her accent was extremely thick. And she called some things differently than we know them as, such as referring to Polar Bears as Ice Bears, which cracked me up. Anyways, she was telling us about the Fairy and Troll Sagas. Icelanders sincerely believe in fairies and trolls (and they'll get pretty pissed if you make fun of them) and there are many ways it affects the way of life on the island. They believe the rock formations at the bottom of some of the mountains or out in the bays are trolls that got caught out in the open when they sun comes up and gets turned to stone. They build small wooden, decorated houses, similar to birdhouses to offer as homes to fairies. And they also believe if you are building something such as a house or road and the construction is having issues, then you must be too close to the home of a fairy and they will actually move the project. Unless, of course, you get permission from the fairy. Case in point, this lady that built a house at the bottom of a mountain known to be "fairy territory". But she built many extra windows and doors into her house (on the smaller side.. kinda like doggy doors) and welcomed the fairies to share her home. And when an earthquake happened last year, rocks were falling all around the valley from the mountain, but not a single one hit her house because the fairies were protecting her because she protected them. Honestly, I think there are crazier things to believe in, so this was pretty cool to me.
But then she told the story of how fairies came to be. Apparently it is said that Adam and Eve had many more children than just Cain and Abel. One day, God came to visit and see the children, but Adam and Eve were ashamed of their children being dirty and tried to clean them before God arrived. They only had time to clean Cain and Abel though, so they made the other children hide behind the large stones. God knew this, and told the children that from now on they would live within the stones and have the ability of invisibility. Bam, fairies. This story was a little harder to take a face value, because Icelanders are descendants of Vikings, who followed the paegan religion of Old Norse, and therefore didn't have a monotheistic belief in one God until they were converted to Christianity. So yeah, I have a lot of issues with that one, but it was interesting nethertheless.
And then there is the little factoid that all Icelandic glaciers are named after men names, and all Icelandic volcanoes are named with women names. I'll let y'all go ahead and have fun coming up with the jokes of that one (that means you Mac). The one that we were passing at the time that she was telling us this is named Hekla, and she is referred to as the Gateway to Hell because of all the destruction she has caused. She's supposed to erupt or have some kind of activity every 5 years, and the longer she remains dormant, the worse it will be when she does erupt. And I believe the guide said the last time she showed activity was 2000.. I think.. but if so, that's a lot of built up badness. Also, this is a picture taken from the ash cloud of when she erupted last time, and it kinda makes you believe in her name.
Okay, now to Thingvellir. Or also referred to as "Parliament Plains" where the first Icelandic government was formed and continued to meet there until 1798. Today it is a beautiful national park and also home to the Icelandic president's summer house.. oh and by the way, it is in no way outlandish, showy, or heavly guarded. It is quaint and cute and our leaders could learn a thing or two from this country.. just saying (I'm still having a hard time dealing with the government suspending the military's tuition assistance, so no good feelings towards them from moi right now). It is also where the European and American tectonic plates are separating and the movement if causing these massive rifts all along the fault lines which run through the park. You can see the crevices where the ground has literally just been pulled apart. We actually crossed from the European to the American plate on our drive, at which point the guide announced, "Welcome to America!" My first thought was, I'm not ready to go back yet! This place is just something ripped out of a fairy tale and I am still amazed I am actually here. I'm even embracing new foods here! I avoided the horse on the dinner menu because I just couldn't bring myself to do that, but I did try lamb for the first time (wonderful) and some weird fruit thing that was the shape and size of a grape, but bright orange and kinda tart. Okay, so lamb and weird fruit may not be that daring, but I do plan on trying puffin and possibly whale before I leave. We shall see. I am just not that brave when it comes to food.
So I am still really irritated with myself that I do not have my computer to upload pictures with this post, but then I guess I would probably not get any sleep and that just would not work. It will be a field day when I get back going through them all though. I find a reason to take a picture pretty much every five seconds, and I really don't care if I look like a silly tourist. I just love this place.
Oh, and that tectonic plate rift I was talking about? It extends to the water as well, where you can snorkel and scuba dive in the crevice. I have to settle for snorkeling because I don't have a scuba certification (yet), but it's my activity first thing in the morning and I just can't wait. Am I ever gonna run into anything I'm not excited about in this place? Let's hope not!
And on a sidenote, I am typing on the computer offered here in the lobby because typing on my iPad really just takes way too long for me and I make too many mistakes, but I'm still making just as many here. See, most of the time I don't have to look at the keyboard as I'm typing, but when the keyboard you are using in in a different language and has different symbols, it is bound to mess you up. These are some of the natural keys on this keyboard:
°° ö ð æ þ ´ € µ
So yeah, when those letters have replaced the ones I'm used to, I'll get halfway through a sentence and realize I can't read it. I wonder what kind of keyboard I'm gonna need when I learn multiple languages...
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