Greetings from the UK

Sorry I won't be able to write more about my trip around Iceland but I will try to do it once I get home (hopefully I remember everything).

Well, I am in London at the moment, at a hostel near King's Cross. My mom just left this morning to go back home after our two weeks together, first half in Iceland and second half in the UK. We started by flying into Glasgow then the next day took a train north to Mallaig, it was raining for most of the time there though it was very beautiful. The train ride there is suppose to be the most scenic in the UK. It was nice to see trees and forests again and more variety of plant life, but I feel I was spoiled with the Icelandic beautiful landscape I didn't appreciate the scenery as much. But also it has been sinking in that this past year is over. It was still an amazing trip.

After that we headed to Edinburgh for 2 days. We took a bus tour around the city and went to the castle and the art gallery. Then we came to London on Monday. Mom showed me around some areas, including Lennox Gardens where she lived and the building which used to me the hospital she worked at back in the early 70's. Much has changed since then. Both London and Edinburgh are beautiful cities and have so much history. The architecture is beautiful and is neat to be around so much history. I went on the bus tour of London today and will probably try and see some of the galleries tomorrow. And should be meeting up with Martina and/or Sonya in the next two days then will be heading to Northern Ireland. Taking a ferry to Dublin then up to Belfast to meet up with Fionnuala. It will be nice to see some familiar faces again.

Well should go. Don't know when I will post again but will try at least once a week to update on things.

bye for now.

Ring Road and then some

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. So much has happened in the past month it is hard to recap on everything, but I will try to sum some of it up.

I was very busy with essays and exams for most of April and beginning of May, but some how made it through and finished them all. It felt strange to be done school because I knew that it meant the end was coming near. Summer was finally coming (April 21st is seen as the first day of summer, considering Iceland really only had 2 seasons anyway). The sun is out much longer, barely any darkness if any at all and the plants finally blossoming.

Next my dad came for his second trip to Iceland in the beginning of may, arriving May 4th and leaving May 16th. He busied himself for the first 4 days while I was studying for exams. Then on May 8th, dad, Tisho, Adrian and I rented a car and spent 5 days driving around the West Fjords and the Ring Road of Iceland. The trip was amazing. It is hard to describe how beautiful, but also intense, the areas of Iceland are. I have posted my photos (though unfortunately my camera and the photo program didn't upload them in order) and have added Tisho's photo site to the links list.

The first day we didn't leave Reykjavik until around 2pm, after stocking up on groceries and packing up the car, we drove north. One section of the roads we took was under construction and so had huge piles of rocks to maneuver around but we managed through it, will little damage to the car, and continued on. When we got to the beginning of the fjords, we stopped in the small town Reykhólar where we filled up on gas and had some sandwiches for lunch. An adorable tiny dog came to visit us, though it was hopping on 3 legs since one was bandaged in a little cast. The owner tried to call the dog back but the dog was ecstatic, making a new friend out of Tisho. We drove up and down through the main street of the town, which didn't take long, saw some horses, sheep and baby sheep and then continued on. Once we had reached the West Fjords we encountered many gravel, steep roads but the scenery helped destract some of the worries. The roads winded around the fjords and over the mountains. Sometimes there were some sheep along side or on the roads. It was beginning to get late, though not really near dark, so we began looking for a place to stay for the night. We tried one farmhouse but they were renovating for the summer for the tourist season, but they suggested we tried a place down the street. We drove down the road to Krossholt and walked around the town (which took about a minute) found the owner of the guesthouse who let us in, though none of the houses were locked. The place was kind of messy, wasn't cleaned up after the last guest, but it was still really nice and had a beautiful view of the sea and mountains.

Second day, we woke up at the crack of dawn, or at least the sun woke up and blaring before 5am and we struggled to get a few more hours of sleep in. We finally ended up leaving around 9:30am. We were heading to Ísafjörður, the largest town in the west fjords, in hope of meeting up with David, Sarah and Erin, some friends from Gamli Garður, who were also travelling the West Fjörds (ended up being a popular place to go that week). On the way we travelled over mountains, some snow covered, and steep cliffs, and we passed an impressive water fall, which both Tisho and I have photos of. We winded around more fjords, with beautiful countryside and tiny farms and hamlets. We made it to Ísafjöður by around 12:30. We phoned David and he told us they were about an hour out of town, so Tisho and I went to the pool and my Dad and Adrian wandered around. After an hour or so we reconvened and met up with the Gamli crew. They had gone the opposite way around the fjords so we exchanged notes on about the ways we went, describing nice areas and places to watch out for. We had some coffee, took some photos, but then soon had to get ready to leave. We said goodbye to Sara, because she was going to be heading back home before we would make it back to Reykjavik, and then continued on our journey. This part of the fjords was also very beautiful, appearing somewhat different than the ones we had passed. The sun seemed brighter now and the mountains more green. We drove for about 4 hours, zig-zagging around the fjords, and more construction areas, and made it to Hólmavík by around 8pm. Here there is a witchcraft museum, which the others had been to the day before. We phoned the owner and he came and let us in. We got headsets and listened a commentary while walking around the museum. It told us of Icelandic beliefs in magic, the burning trials (where 21 men and only one woman were burned at the stake) and then a few magical practices like necro-pants and tilbaris (which steal milk from farms). After spending about an hour here we headed to a guesthouse to stay for the night. We stayed at Kirkjuból which again had a beautiful view of the sea. We made dinner, then Adrian, Tisho and I wandered the area a bit, finding a small water fall near by and then walked along the beach, seeing birds and shell remainings on the beach and we even glimpsed the head of a seal popping in and out of the water.

This is all for now but I will post the rest of the trip soon.