It seems fair to warn you, dear reader, friend of Iceland, and/or potential visitor that on your travels out to the countryside you will be seeing quite a bit of this: stark moors, plus barren arctic deserts capped by grey skies. And it may very well be windy to boot. A huge swath of land between Fljótsdalshérað in the east and Akureryi in the north is, frankly, discouraging and mind-numbing tundra-scape. Some people love it, and some pretend to, but I'm pretty sure the majority of us find ourselves wondering how long we'd survive if our cars died and no one ever passed by that way again (sometimes you can go a good fifteen, twenty minutes without seeing another car, even in high traffic summer.)
So be warned: always let your hotel/guesthouse/the internet in general (tweets! fb!) know where you're going and when while you are traveling the countryside here, bring some good happy tunes with you (an iPod jack or CDs for your rental car is a must: there's no-to-poor radio reception for great stretches of the main highway!) and plenty of chocolate, snacks and water. Anything to keep you alert, awake and in a good traveling mood. The sameness of the landscape can mesmerize and you want to be sure to stay focused and on the road! Your destination is most probably an amazing natural wonder, well worth journeying to. Just be prepared for lots of "nothing" in between.
Or you can just do like Jon Bon Jovi * just did yesterday, and rent a helicopter to take you about ; )
*This link shows you just how "imperfect" google Translate still is with Icelandic. We're working on it!
Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out .
4 comments:
When we were there we bought some Icelandic music and we thoroughly enjoyed the music in combination with the scenery. Eight days of heaven.
I've always loved Desolate Landscapes as Art. And Jojo's comment about enjoying Icelandic music in combination with the scenery is insightful. I would like to try that some day.
I would feel lost if I lived long-term in a place without forests and mountains though, because that is what I am used to.
Great point, Jojo! That's exactly what everyone should do : ) And Debbie, you grew up in Japan, right? So similar to California in so many ways...I always tell people that that's what I miss the most here: Big trees,Big mountains, and our Big, Beautiful Pacific.
We just returned home Monday. Your photo looks lush compared to some of the bleak landscape we passed through. It was stunning...for a while. After several hours, it became mind-numbing. My husband, doing the driving, compared it to driving in a snow storm white-out around here. Only the opposite color. Everything was grey, greyer, greyest. Like this: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/94t6Hkd9u5g7W5sKEbyB-0NzFPlZHbnBKEG_TgSs5Hw?feat=directlink
We too enjoyed some newly purchased Icelandic music, in addition to audio books through the car audio jack.
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