''Stingum af í spegilsléttann fjörð'' / ''Let's run away to the mirror-smooth fjord''

16/5/15

At the beginning of April, I went to Ísafjörður for the annual Aldrei music festival (the title of this post is lyrics to a song that was at the first festival). While I skipped out on most of the partying, the trip was still amazing, and I hope I'll get to return to the Westfjords in the future.

Just an hour or so outside of Reykjavík, we stopped at a beach and were pleasantly surprised by...

...seals!

After a few hours of driving, I've found you'll somehow always run into a snowstorm here.

Even though it takes longer, one nice thing about driving through the Westfjords/Vestfjörður is that there's so many twists and turns around bodies of water than you pretty much always have an awesome view.

We made it! 

(Okay, these were actually taken on, like, the second or third day, but look! So pretty!)

Now that is spegilsléttur.

Now begins the drive home, and I swear, not even half an hour out of Ísafjörður we made some more new friends:

''Please, no pictures.''

''lol''

This little pup was so cute (and photogenic)!

As a bonus, on the way back home we stopped at a hot tub in the middle of the natural landscape.

Proof:

Takk fyrir mig / Thanks for having me, Ísafjörður!

Clear Skies and WATCH YOUR EYES

2/5/15

On March 30th, it was possible to view a nearly total solar eclipse from Iceland--something which only happens about once every sixty years. Although my school had allotted ten minutes for viewing, I decided to enhance the experience by going on a hiking trip to Vífilfell instead, where we would be watching the eclipse from the summit.

Hallgrímskirkja from the rendezvous at Háskóla Íslands.

We headed out around 6 or 7 in the morning so that we'd reach the top when the solar eclipse was at its peak.

Another two from the drive:

Getting started:

There was some steam coming from somewhere nearby, which I'm finding is pretty common outside of the city.

Less than a third of the way up, the view was already stunning (one advantage of a country with basically no trees).

SÓL!!!

Once the sun was visible, our guides warned us not to look at it for our own safety, so between that and keeping my eyes on the (now very steep) mountain ahead, I only got to catch glimpses of the sunrise through my camera.

Around this time the hike started slowing down due to the difficulty of the terrain. A combination of steepness, loose soil, and melting snow that made the ground muddier and more slippery practically ground us to a halt a few times. 

I took this while leaning on a nearly-vertical part of the trail.

Made it to the first plateau!

A bit more climbing--this time with the added obstacle of ice--and we are now getting very near the top.

During the final push to the top.

We did it!

And now we wait...

As the sky got darker, you could actually feel the temperature drop. 

Unfortunately, solar eclipses don't really show up well on unequipped cameras (yes, I tried using the glasses)g, but I promise the moon is in front of it.

So, yes, I would say it was well worth missing a day of school.