Bridging Continents

Most of the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates is below the Atlantic Ocean.  On the ocean floor, new crust is being born along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.  The one place that this plate boundary rises above the surface of the sea is Iceland, where amazing mountain ranges are being created, causing the country to "grow" outward a few centimeters each year.  It's also the source of large volcanic clouds that could block air travel. 

Amazing mountains in Iceland

Baby mountains

The boundary between these tectonic plates is located in Þingvellir Park in Iceland.  I knew we were going to visit the border of the tectonic plates, but I honestly didn't know what to expect.  I mean, I see "faults" all the time, but most of the time, they are either just a tiny crack, or at most, a small ridge, or so large that they just look like a large valley.  But Þingvellir, like so many other things in Iceland, pleasantly exceeded my expectations.

Firstly, the valley of Þingvellir is crisscrossed with fissures, that are deep and quite impressive.

It is said if you throw a coin into the water in the fissure, and follow it with your eyes until it comes to a rest, your wish will come true. 

We begin our hike across the valley, again, risking our lives walking across the icy trail.

More faults in Þingvellir.

The amazing sunset, around 3 PM, over the river in the middle of the valley.

Hiking across the Þingvellir valley is a true trans-continental hike.  How many people can say they hiked between continents?  My husband and I can!  Ahead of us, North America.

Looking back at Eurasia.

And the boundary between these plates did not disappoint.  The North American plate rises steeply ahead of us.

The trail follows the boundary of the North American plate, finally reaching the top, completing the trans-continental hike.

We made it to North America!  Here we stand on the North American plate, with all of Eurasia behind us!

Frostbite and Natural Selection

The Golden Circle is a route in southern Iceland encompassing some of the more impressive geological sites that can be reached within a day trip of Iceland.  The geysers were a part of it.  Most of the Golden Circle, however, are waterfalls - impressively large cascades of water.  The first was the waterfall Faxi.

There was even a ladder for salmon to travel upstream.

A little ways up the road was the even more impressive waterfall Gullfoss.  This is one case where the pictures definetly don't do it justice - Gullfoss is the same order of magnitude of Niagra Falls and is actually two seperate waterfalls - one 11 meter high and the next 21 meter high.  The second waterfall disappears into a crevice, so the full extent of the second waterfall is hidden. 

Seeing Gullfoss in the wintertime was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  The winter temperatures caused large sections of the waterfall to freeze, resulting in huge ice formations. 

It was so cold staring over the edge of Gullfoss, and I felt like I would soon turn into a frostbit tourist.  However, the beauty was hard to tear myself away from.

Icelanders believe in natural selection.  Therefore, there are no warning signs or similar measures to protect touists.  It also means that they don't put down any sand or salt anywhere, including the main tourist destination of Gullfoss.  If you fall, it's your own fault.  I suppose it explains why Icelanders are a tough, if small, populace.

Walking on ice

Interestingly enough, Gullfoss waterfall features in the music video of the popular song "Heaven" by Live, where two lovers are seperated by the mighty waterfall, and end up jumping into the river to be together.  This blog by no means endorces such a drastic action, especially near large bodies of potentially violent water.

A Geyser called Geysir

Iceland is located on the tectonic plates, and is essentially one big volcano.  Because of this, there's a whole host of interesting geology.

Here's an actual fault in the ground, with magma!  Ok, the magma isn't real, but the fault is, opened up by a recent earthquake.

The geologic activity creates all sorts of awesome geology.

There is a lot of tectonic activity in Iceland, and in some places, the ground is still steaming, smelling of sulfur.  In fact, in Icelandic homes and hotels, there are no hot water heaters.  The hot water comes directly from the ground, geothermally heated and mixed with cold water to reach the right temperature.  That means every time you shower, you end up smelling like sulfur, but at least you don't have to worry about your husband using all of the hot water!  (If he does use all of the hot water in Iceland - that might be a significant problem.)

Clouds of sulfur rising from the ground in Iceland

We traveled to a geyser called Geysir.  All other geysers get their name from this Geysir... a true trailblazer.  It's been erupting off and on for the last 10,000 years, sometimes erupting quite often, other times only erupting sporadically.   Sometimes, especially during an earthquake, Geysir would erupt up to 120 meters in the sky for hours at a time.  Sometimes the eruptions were powerful enough to shake the earth itself.      

Pools of geothermally heated water under the Icelandic sunset, in now dormant geysers. 

Geysir now erupts once about every 6 minutes, which makes it very easy to photograph. 

Geysir sits, tourists at the ready to photograph it when it goes off!

The eruption begins. Note the sphere of water and it's unique aqua color!

There it goes!

After the eruption, water rushes in to the now vacated chimney. 

Nearby Geysir, we meet some of the locals, the weather-hardened ponies of Iceland.

And for a point: some Icelanders for a long time threw something into a dormant geyser in a nearby town.  When the geyser went off, it spewed what they had thrown inside it all over the town.  What did they throw in the geyser? 

The Yule Lads and a Flesh Eatting Cat

Since our visit to Iceland was shortly after Christmas, we were able to enjoy some of the Christmas traditions of this isolated island.
 

Perhaps the most terrifying part of the Christmas season is the omnipresence of the Yule Cat.  This frightening feline watches children with the most sinister of intentions.

The Yule Cat is watching you...

Eye to eye with the Yule Cat

The Yule Cat has a strange taste in food - he eats those children who do not receive clothes for Christmas.  Therefore children in Iceland don't moan on Christmas morning, "Grandma gave me socks again?  But clothes aren't fun!"  Instead they exclaim in relief, "Grandma gave me socks!  I get to survive another winter without becoming cat food!"

Christmas also brings the Yule Lads, thirteen brothers who come throughout the Christmas season to leave gifts for good children, and rotting potatoes for bad children.  They have interesting names and bizarre personal stories, and most have an affinity for stealing things.  For example, Spoon Licker steals wooden spoons to lick them, and is very thin because he doesn't eat well.  Sausage Swiper hides in the rafters and steals sausages, and Door Slammer slams doors.  Children can expect to hear doors slamming, or have sausages missing from the house, or see spoons covered with saliva, depending on who visited the night before.  We happened to run into one of the Yule Lads on the street one night - a point if you can name him. 

The Christmas season in Reykjavík.  

Icelandic Christmas food is very special.  The traditional drink is Malt og Appelsín, made by mixing together equal parts of a non-alchoholic malt beverage and the orange soda Appelsín.  It's amazingly delicious - it almost tastes a bit like a chocolate orange.   

The traditional Christmas meal is smoked lamb (delicious), potatoes with a white sauce, red cabbage, and yummy giant peas.  

This is paired with a thin bread, sort of like a crispy tortilla, called Laufabrauð, or leaf bread.  It has a wonderful buttery taste!  

Whale - It's What's for Dinner

The Reykjavik convention center and opera hall stands on the edge of the sea.  People either think of it as monumentally ugly (and hence, a waste of money) or really unique and beautiful. 

I'll just say that it did provide us some unique photos!  

And a unique selfie!

We walked along the shore of the city.  In the backdrop, windswept mountains enrobed in clouds testifies to the potential harshness of winter here.

Along the shore is this unique statue.  A point if you can guess what it symbolizes (no google).  (Hint: Take a look at my husband in this picture!)

The colorful buildings of the harbor, which will probably be much busier in the summertime, when whale and puffin watching tours depart from here.

One of the older boats.  Many fishing boats still depart from here. 

The lake in the center of Reykjavik was partially iced over - notice some of the birds swimming, while others stand on the ice. 

Near the center of the lake, many people ice skate.

An interesting statue...

This street is named Burgerjoint, after the Burger joint that is on it.  Talk about good publicity.

Nearby is a very famous hot dog stand.  Their menu is very simple: hot dogs and soda.  That's it.  We ordered some hotdogs.  They came with crispy french onions on the bottom and two types of sauce - one like a mayo, and one that was brown - and sort of indescribable when it comes to taste.  But the combination of the dog, the onions, and the sauces were truly yummy, and made us understand why this understated hot dog stand could stay in business, even with it's slim menu!

There are some other weird things on the menu in Iceland - namely, whale and puffin.  Most countries actually ban eating whale, and puffins, while not endangered, are not exactly thriving either.  

Bram tries some puffin....

Just kidding!!!  We love puffins!

Neither puffin or whale are a traditional Icelandic dish, and mostly tourists eat these animals just to say that they have eaten something new and weird.  Kind of sad, considering there are lots of other, environmentally conscious choices when it comes to meat.  (Puffin doesn't even taste that good, from what I hear.)  So if you go to Iceland, don't eat the puffin or the whale!  Let them live for another generation! :-)