From the craggily, black mountains, to the mossy green volcano-scapes, to the endless stretches of artic desert, to some of the world’s last glaciers, Iceland is the stuff of legends. And, as it turns out, Iceland has quite enough legends to go around!
Before leaving for this trip, a friend of mine, who had recently returned from her own journey to Iceland, loaned me a book called A Traveller’s Guide To Icelandic Folk Tales by Jón R. Hjálmarsson. Now that I’ve lived to tell the tale, I want to share with you some of the more compelling tales that (supposedly) occurred in the places that I visited on my trip.
It’s been a long trip through Iceland. We hiked up volcanoes, crossed glacial rivers, and drove hundreds of miles in the process, but there is still one dimension of Iceland that I have yet to cover: food. I ate a lot during this trip, and whenever possible, I tried to incorporate something "authentically Icelandic" into my meal.
The following five foods were the outliers from my time in Iceland, but I'd be lying if I said they all tasted good. In fact, it was mostly the opposite.
Driving down from the Westfjords to the long peninsula known as West Iceland, we made an abrupt exit from the rugged tundra that had dwarfed us for the past few days, and entered a flat area of limbo between the 2 regions. Passing through these rolling green fields, both land formations (West Iceland and the Westfjords) were clearly visible. They stretched eastward for miles upon miles out into the chilly ocean wind. There have been very few times when I have felt as connected to and as aware of my geographical position as I did during this time spent driving through the ‘in between.’
Of all the amazing pieces of civilization subsisting out here in the Westfjords, none sparked my interest like these tiny Icelandic churches. These little structures were often the only sign of human life for miles in any direction. Each time we caught a glimpse of the small pointy steeple from our place on the road, we would come to a screeching halt and dive off down the nearest dirt road to explore. No two of these churches were the same. Each was completely unique, and a few of them had even been left unlocked!
This quest brought us to the edge of the world, literally, to the bone-chillingly massive cliffs of Látrabjarg. Here’s a spoiler alert for you: it was mind-blowingly gorgeous. A friend of mine recently pointed out that I’ve said similar things about a great many of the places I have visited, so let me up the ante a bit: this was one of the top 5 most beautiful places I’ve seen, EVER.
Ísafjörður [ees – ah – fyur – thur] is the capital of the Westfjords, which are a remote Icelandic province in the far northeastern reaches of the country. It translates to something like “Ice Fjord,” which is pretty fitting, and a shining example of Iceland's love for hyper-literal names. Today we’ll begin by talking about the Westfjords as a whole, but first, some clerical housekeeping…
The Westfjords (or, in Icelandic, Vestfirðir), is the name given to the enormous peninsula jutting out from Iceland to the northwest, towards Greenland. In these fjords are some of the most remote places and unforgiving terrain that Iceland has to offer. Only Iceland's interior is more difficult to travel through. After having driven the long road through Sprengisandur, I can personally attest to this. The views we saw from these roads in the Westfjords were absolutely stunning—beautiful enough that I felt that they merited their own article, so here is some of what we saw...
Though it’s population is less than 19,000, Akureyri [ah – kur – rare - ee] is actually Iceland’s second largest city behind Reykjavík, and the capital of North Iceland. The first mention of Akureyri in historical records came in 1562 when a woman was sentenced to death for adultery. Soo… not off to a great start.
It's a really cool town today though!
When you think about Iceland, what do you think about? Probably green mountains and a beautiful, rugged coastline, right?
Well that's just one piece of the geothermal puzzle that is Iceland. Iceland's interior is a very different place. It's a vast, inhospitable, volcanic desert. And in this enormous highland desert, conditions are punishing, and water is scarce (unless it's in the form of a glacier).
It's basically Mordor.
For all its natural beauty, Iceland doesn't always have the best weather. In fact, oftentimes the weather is downright foul. Sure, Iceland's rugged landscapes are the stuff of legends, but that is of little consequence in urban Reykjavík. In its epicenter, Reykjavík has many beautiful areas, but the further away from the city center you travel, the more those beautiful areas will give way to cold, grey, soviet-esque suburbia. It can feel pretty lonely out there, but even in these bleak spaces, Reykjavík still found ways to surprise me. In the ugly, in-between spaces, in Reykjavík's less-visited nooks and crannies, I began to stumble upon gorgeous works of art. A mysterious street art scavenger hunt unfolded before me as I dove down every back alley I saw in search of more.
