A Visitor in a Strange Land

Yesterday, I visited the Blue Lagoon, perhaps Iceland’s most famous tourist attraction and certainly the most frequented. They ingeniously coordinate flight schedules and a tourist bus to encourage people flying through to at least spend a little money in the country–and it’s no bargain to swim in the runoff from a geothermal power plant. But it is pretty beautiful:

I went there to enjoy my last day of Caitlin’s visit (in fact, the photo is hers). She stayed with me for two and a half weeks, and it was convenient to stop by the Blue Lagoon on the way to the airport. It was a sad goodbye as we boarded our separate buses, mine back to Reykjavik, and hers on to Keflavik, and from there, Boston.

The first weekend of her stay, we visited the Westfjords in the Northwest of Iceland. They extrude like a separate island from Iceland’s perimeter, and the landscapes are equally distinct. The towering mountains and deep fjords are otherworldly, a feeling magnified by the shimmering green bands lighting up the northern night sky.

There I am touching the Arctic Ocean. And some more from the trip:

We stayed at a town called Bolungarvik, which is a few kilometers North of Isafjordur, the biggest town in the Westfjords. Isafjordur is described by all the guidebooks as cosmopolitan despite its mere 3400 residents.

Bolungarvik was even more isolated and starkly beautiful. The second day there, the rest of the crew decided to drive around more of the Westfjords, but Caitlin and I decided to hang back and do some hiking with another girl on the trip. Here’s a view from up in a mountain pass:

Caitlin and Kristine are both big plant people, so of course we spent some time examining the flora, including these delicious blueberries. I accidentally ate a different kind of berry, but Kristine assured me it wasn’t poisonous.

And all of us on the trip, minus Caitlin who took the picture:

After that expedition, we spent the rest of the time back here in Reykjavik, where it was all rainbows:

(If you look closely, you can see that there are actually two rainbows in the picture.)

Blessed with good weather for the past couple weeks, we went to the Iceland Airwaves music festival, in which the entire city erupts in a frenzy of live music at every bar, club, and cafe. We went to a handful of free museums and sculpture gardens. Caitlin rented a bike and we took a tour of Reykjavik’s harbour and an observatory, Perlan, on a hill a little ways out that offers the best view of the city. Pretty much everything here is within biking distance, although biking is not a very common form of transportation for Icelanders. I’m guessing it has to do with the forbidding winter I’m about to experience.

We were also treated to an incredibly gourmet dinner by Fulbright at one of the nicest restaurants in town. I made (another) exception to my practice of generally eating vegetarian. I had a reindeer carpaccio appetizer, exquisite goose entree, and a chocolate assortment for desert with a Grand Marnier to top it all off. I met some very interesting co-Fulbright grantees, although not everyone has yet arrived. Hopefully, the inspiration of their ambition will encourage me to validate my receipt of the scholarship.

Now that she’s left, I’m settling back into my routine, which includes class, urban design modeling on Google Sketchup, and far too much Civilization with my friend Christian.

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