I realised that I wanted to make a few
points about the trip in the blogs about it, but the points just didn’t fit
within the flow of the blog, so I’ll put them here.
First, Icelandic money (the Icelandic
Kroner) is bizarre. At the time of the trip, there were 205 ISK in every 1 GBP,
so we pretty much felt like millionaires after withdrawing 40,000 ISK from the
cash machine at the airport. However, feeling like a millionaire and actually
being one are two different things. Not being a millionaire meant lots of
confusing calculations in the grocery store, and lots of conversations about
whether 650 ISK was a fair price for five apples.
Second, the Iceland landscape is insane. I
knew it was going to be diverse and impressive and beautiful, but I had no idea
that it would change so dramatically so quickly. There were many times along
the trip when we would simply drive over a bridge and the landscape would be
entirely different. A trip across a short 1-way bridge was all that was needed
to go from lush grasslands to barren volcanic rock fields stretching as far as
the eye could see. Impressive, beautiful, but bizarre.
Third, the Icelandic ponies are my new
favorite pony. They are fluffy and adorable, loving and friendly. I felt like a
horse whisperer. On the way to the airport on Tuesday, we stopped to feed the
horses the last of our apples and carrots. I was shocked that most of them
didn’t eat the apples or carrots. A few did, but only after much sniffing and
sampling. Strange. Regardless, they were adorable. I took about 25 film photos
of them in one afternoon, but I haven’t developed that roll yet so results to
come soon.
Fourth, and I know this is to be expected
when travelling so far north but, it never got dark! I swear the sun only
kissed the horizon around 4 am before rising up again for a new day. I blame
the shock of this to my living relatively near the equator for my entire life.
I knew it wasn’t going to get dark, but I didn’t understand really what that
meant. I thought dusk and dawn would still exist, but they didn’t really. My whole
internal clock was thrown by the almost constant presence of the sun. I was
also shocked that the locals hadn’t equipped their homes with blackout curtains
in order to sleep.
All in all, I had an amazing time in
Iceland. I would definitely go back. The people were friendly and welcoming,
the country was beautiful, and the weather, at least while we were there, was
great. I’ve heard that the Blue Lagoon turns green in the summer due to algee,
so I am glad that we missed that. I’d like to go back in the wintertime,
though, and see what the place
feels like covered in ice and in complete darkness. More photos on the good ol' Facebook page. 35 mm shots coming soon.
