So I just returned to Akureyri - alone...:-( Jake went back to the states due to silly Icelandic laws - but it is still both of our odyssey, so the name will NOT change! Anyways, our trip around the ring road was amazing. We saw beautiful weather on the east coast when we stayed at a small youth hostel called Berunes. It was voted best youth hostel in the world a few years ago! We stayed in a small cabin that was just built...it was very cozy - even though it didn't hold in heat very well! The first day we went to Alcoa - an aluminum smelter in the east which is entirely run by hydropower. That night we made hot dogs and went on a hike...the hike could be its own post all together, but I will keep it short ;-) So we started out at 10pm and started following a trial...well we had a few ambitious people on the hike and we got ALL the way to the top of the mountain. We crossed a number of "obstacles" as Mitch would say - everything from crossing creeks to climbing actual vertical rock! I can't believe I did it! It was DEFINITELY worth it to see the view from the top! We made it up to the top of the mountain at EXACTLY midnight - the sun was almost setting! It was one of the most amazing parts of the trip!
The next day we were a bit tired, but we traveled to Karahhjukar hydropower dam (the one that powers the aluminum smelter we visited the day before). We drove up the the dam, but we couldn't get out because it was still under a bit of construction - so it was a little pointless - and because winter pretty much just ended here, there was no water in the reservoir because they used it all over the winter, so it was pretty much just a large pile of rocks...then we visited the power plant and a small town called Egilsstadir. Here we went to the pool and met an olympic metalist in triple jump! He was in one of the hot tubs (small country!).
The third day (my birthday!!) was a travel day, we went around probably 1/3 of the island. We stopped at a glacial lagoon with bright blue floating glaciers, and we stopped at a national part called Skaftafell. We saw a few waterfalls on a short hike before it started raining. We drove to our next location on the southern coast of the island. It was very interesting to get to - 14 km off the ring road through gravel roads and winding up and down mountains...once we FINALLY got there, it was this amazing little place with 9 cottages in the middle of a mountain valley. There was a small cave that had picnic tables and grills in where we ate dinner. On my birthday I got tacos and margaritas!! it was AWEsome! I also got sang happy birthday to in like 7 different languages - Polish, Hungarian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, and of course English! It was a great birthday!
The last couple days were a bit of a blurr - we ended up in Reykjavik and went to a couple waterfalls, a few geothermal plants, biofuels companies, and innovation centers. We also got to go to the blue lagoon and some amazing restaurants! Jake went home on Thursday morning after a going away party on Wednesday night...we went bowling and had a little cake at the beach - a very nice going away bash - oh ya, can't forget the shirt the guys got for him (they decided this was also his icelandic bachelor party) that was for 14 year old girls that had a robot that said "turn me on" in neon colors...haha!! He will be missed by everyone! But mostly by me!
The last day we got to meet the president of Iceland! He invited us to his home outside of Reykjavik. He spoke about his energy policy and some of the hard times Iceland went through to get geothermal implemented. He then invited us to tour his home which had a nice library and an archeology center in the basement. It was very interesting. After that we went to the American embassy. then the long trip back to akureyri. It was so nice to sleep in my own bed and shower in my own shower! It was definitely an unforgettable trip!
For the album of our trip go to http://picasaweb.google.com/Heather.Sanden/June09?authkey=Gv1sRgCI6bv_3Ctq3p1gE#
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