Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Iceland 2 - Reykjavik and Elf School

January 17th 2020

Hallgrimskirkja
Today we explored Reykjavik. We first went to Hallgrimskirkja the beautiful church that soars into the sky and is visible from most places within the city centre. Inside it is simple in design but I find it very beautiful.

I went up the tower, the first part is a lift to the floor where the clock faces are. From there you walk a few flights of steps to a higher floor where there are three windows on each face of the tower. The views were stunning from every vantage point, but my favourite was the one towards the mountain Esja that watches over the city. She looked especially beautiful in her cloak of snow.

After this we walked down to the main shopping street Laugavegur and browsed. We then went to the concert hall, Harpa which is an amazing piece of modern architecture that looks different on the outside depending on the light. We again looked round the shops inside, I bought a warm hat and a tub of Lakrids, delicious  Danish delight of liquorice covered in chocolate. Both expensive but worth it - the hat especially useful the following day!

We decided to have lunch there and shared a large sandwich and had a cake each.

View of Esja from Tower of Hallgrimskirkja

We went back to the hotel before setting of for the Elf School (yes you read right). As it was a bit away from the city centre we got a taxi there. As we got out of the taxi the driver said, "Are you going to learn to be elves or learn about them?" This gave us a good laugh!

The school was on the first floor of a modern building, with large plastic gnomes guarding the door. We went into a rather chaotic room, we later learned some renovations were in progress. We paid our money , were given a studybook  (which was interesting to read afterwards) and then went into another room which had chairs in it. The room was small, filled with bookcases full of books and mementos, photos, elves, gnomes, lamps and pot plants that were a bit worse for wear. It was all very eccentric and I liked that!

Magnús Skarphéðinsson who runs the school is a portly man  with grey hair and beard who, quite fittingly, resembles a gnome. He studied history, anthropology and folklore at university in Iceland. He aims to put together a book of stories of elves and the hidden people of Iceland as told by people he's spoken to as no one has so far done this.

There were nine people there, Americans, Irish, Germans and us Brits.  Magnús spoke for a long time, telling stories that people had told him about elves (many types exist from tiny to about two feet high) who live alongside us but are secretive.  The hidden people are just like us but live in another dimension that humans can only occasionally enter

He quite often drifted of on tangents including asking what Marian and I thought of Brexit and that he thought it would mean the break up of the UK and the Queen would only be "Queen of England" in the end which I think is quite possible. He told us about his brother Ossur who had been Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Icelandic government and had an amusing story about Obama. He had some pretty off the wall theories about schizophrenia which some people agreed with, but not me, but I kept quiet. He is also part of the paranormal community in Reykjavik.

We learned a lot about Icelandic history, how hard life was until relatively recently and folklore. The stories he told were captivating. Sometimes roads are re-routed in Iceland so as not to upset the elves and hidden people.

We had a break when we had pancakes filled with cream and jam plus lovely homemade bread, really tasty. This was followed by chocolate wafer bars and a hot drink. As we were eating I noticed snow was starting to fall outside.

My Diploma
Magnus talked for three and a half hours, I think he could have gone on until midnight! It was a bit too long for me but I did enjoy it, certainly a unique experience! At the end we were given our course completion diplomas in  "Elfs and Hidden People research study." Luckily we didn't have to sit an exam lol!

I asked Magnús if he could call a taxi to take us back into the city centre but we were lucky, his husband (who had supplied the food and drinks and generally looked after everyone) was going into the city and was happy to give us a lift. He was a lovely, quietly spoken guy (unfortunately I didn't catch his name.)  He told us that he was originally from north west Iceland but had lived in Reykjavik for a long time and worked as an accountant.  He dropped us off right outside our hotel which was wonderful.

We nipped to the small supermarket beside our hotel and bought sandwiches and crisps to eat in our room. They were lovely and quite cheap. So ended another day in which we saw many sides of this wonderful city!


Monday, 10 February 2020

Iceland 1 - Chilling in the Lagoon

15th January

We landed at Keflavik airport around 10am and it was still dark, but dawn was starting to break. We got the Flybus to Reykjavik passing through the lava fields that white instead of black as they were still covered in snow from a storm the previous week.


We were staying at Hotel Plaza Center  which was lived up to its name being very central and also very good. Nordic in style with little night lights flickering all around in reception and bar areas.



House in City Centre
After unpacking we went to look around the city. First we stopped at the Cafe Paris for a late lunch we both had omelettes which were delicious and pricey but that's the score when you come to these northern countries.

We wandered into some side streets where there were lovely traditional houses. Many with lights in the windows and outside. I love that Nordic way of using light. When it is dark few people close their blinds/curtains so the light can spill out. It was so good to see homes right within the city centre.



Tjornin
We then sauntered on to Tjornin, the Pond, most of which was iced up.  There were ducks, pigeons and very noisy swans all vying for food people were putting down - the victor often running of with its prize chased by other birds! As I , as well as many other birds, have a counter-current heat exchange system between the arteries and veins in their legs. Warm arterial blood flowing to the feet passes close to cold venous blood returning from the feet. The arterial blood warms up the venous blood, dropping in temperature as it does so. Isn't nature amazing?  The sun was setting and it was beautiful.

We went back to the hotel for a rest before heading out on our northern lights trip. Our guide had a lot of knowledge but she talked too much! We were taken to  Þingvellir National Park where it was pitch black except for a few lights in the distance. We got out  and waited. It was very cold so I ended getting back into the coach to wait there. Unfortunately the lights didn't appear and we were back in Reykjavik by midnight. We were really tired as we'd been up since 5am.


January 16th

Breakfast at our hotel was very good, lots of choice. Later in
Blue Lagoon
morning we got the bus to the Blue Lagoon which is about 50 minutes from Reykjavik in the middle of lava fields. Once there it was all very organised, we were given our wristbands, robe and sandals. Then it was off to the changing rooms ro change into our swimwear. A shower prior to entering the water was mandatory. Afterwards we were given a towel and after drying off hung it up, stepped out of the sandals then down the ramp into the water     

The icy cold outside is a shock to the system until you are well into the water which is delectably warm. then it is bliss! Lava formations were all around, some with snow on them, distant snow

Blue Lagoon
covered mountains, the blue milky water and steam rising from it made for a surreal, but very relaxing experience. 

A woman with a ladle gave us a handful of white silica mud to put on our faces, you keep it on for ten minutes and then wash it off with the water. The lagoon wasn't too full, and we found ourselves a lovely quiet area where we could sit on seats with the water coming up to our necks. 


We stayed in the lagoon for one and a half hours and felt totally chilled. Another shower after we went back in the building, making sure our hair was well washed as the minerals in the can make it go hard if you don't!


We had a snack in the cafe and browsed round the shop but didn't buy anything. Then we got the bus back to the city. I have to add a postscript that within two days of bathing in the healing waters of the Blue Lagoon my eczema disappeared, and as I write this, three weeks later, it still hasn't come back. 



Later we went to the Italia Restaurant on Laugavegur, the main shopping street in Reykjavik.  I've been to this restaurant on each of
Me in the Italia Restaurant
my four visits to the city and it is always very good. It is small and made up of cubicles each named after a place in Italy, ours was Sorrento. I had tortellini in a cream sauce with ham and mushrooms and it was delicious, Marian really enjoyed her meal too. We shared an amazing dessert of chocolate cake with cream and chocolate sauce with blueberries and redcurrants, I love how Nordic countries use berries a lot.

It had been a wonderful relaxing day, it was so good to be back in Iceland.