Tag Archives: Iceland

Ten tips for first-time Iceland visitors

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A rare clear day in November over the city of Reykjavík and Hallgrímskirkja church (click to buy)

To get you started on your first time in Reykjavík, I have put together a circular architecture and cultural walk of the city in Google Maps. For just $3 I will share it with you. Click here to buy and send me your Google account email address so I can share the map with you, along with an accompanying PDF that you can print out. (Please note: I will not use your email address for any purpose other than sharing the map with you).

Photographic prints of Iceland are for sale here.

Iceland is a bewitching country whose reach extends far beyond just those who have visited. So many people I speak to, a lot of them also photographers, have Iceland high up their list of places they want to visit, and I am often asked for advice on what people should look for when planning a trip. So in no particular order, here are ten things you should consider when planning your visit.

1. Hire a car

There are hundreds of tours operated by local companies from Reykjavík, from northern lights spotting to excursions as far as Greenland, but as good as the tours are, you are still stuck with the fixed itinerary and the crowd of people who come with you. To experience Iceland properly you need to experience the isolation, and having a car will allow you the freedom to leave as early or as late as you want, stop where you want, and return when you want.

Be very careful when driving in Iceland. Whilst the roads to the most popular places are asphalt roads, not all of them are surfaced. Some of them can be unpredictable and dangerous, and many are impassable by all but the most rugged 4×4 vehicles, so ensure you hire a car appropriate to the sort of roads you will be using, and always obey the local speed limits. Speeding fines are painfully high and the consequences of careless driving can be fatal.

2. Leave the capital

While it is possible to see a lot of what Iceland has to offer by finding a hotel or guest house in Reykjavík and driving out somewhere different each day, by booking accommodation in a farmhouse or rural guesthouse you can explore further, and also experience the local hospitality at first hand. Hey Iceland (formerly Iceland Farm Holidays) offer car hire and accommodation packages where you can pick from one of their tours or tailor-make your own.

3. Learn the language

It is true that most Icelanders speak perfect English, and enjoy the opportunity to do so. However learning a few basic Icelandic phrases, such as ‘Góðan daginn’ (Hello) and ‘Takk fyrir’ (thank you) is a great way to show courtesy to the local culture. Most guide books will contain a section with a few choice phrases that will come in handy, but if you want to delve deeper into their language and its idiosyncracies, there is a free online course at icelandiconline.is.

4. Explore the capital

Iceland is famous for its wild scenery and vast open spaces, but also for its nightlife. Reykjavík is a vibrant, compact city with plenty of variety. During the day time you can visit one of the many museums, from the National Gallery (Listasafn Íslands) and the Art Museum (Listasafn Reykjavíkur) to the more special interest Phallological Museum. The view from the top of the tower at Hallgrímur’s church (Hallgrímskirkja) is very impressive, as is that from Perlan (the Pearl), a glass-domed public space built on top of six hot water tanks to the south of the city centre. The newly finished concert hall Harpa is a wonder of modern architecture and well worth a visit, at night as well as during the day (you’ll see why!). Even if you’re not attending a concert, you can relax in the cafe or browse the record shop, and take advantage of free Wi-Fi, something that is common throughout Reykjavík.

At weekends, the flea market Kolaportið opens where you can browse through hundreds of stalls selling food, arts and crafts, music, and knitwear.

Late at night the bars become very busy, and though the beer is not cheap, you don’t need to get hammered to have a great time as the atmosphere is invariably friendly. There are no night clubs as such but plenty of bars have live music – check the listings at the Reykjavík Grapevine to see what’s on. Be prepared to stay up as late as 4am if necessary!

Aerial view of Hvalfell extinct volcano with Hvalvatn lake (click to buy)
Aerial view of Hvalfell extinct volcano with Hvalvatn lake (click to buy)

5. Take to the sky

Iceland from above is like no other place I know. I was fortunate enough to be able to hire a local pilot on my last visit and got some spectacular views on a beautiful clear winter day. There are various companies who offer aerial photography or sightseeing tours – all are definitely worth checking out. In Reykjavík you have Eagle Air and Atlantsflug, while further north at Mývatn there is Mýflug.

6. Eat on a budget

Like pretty much everything else, the food in Iceland is expensive. Eating out is a luxury most tourists can’t really afford to do every day, though there are cheap places you can go. Top of your list should be Bæjarins Bestu Pylsur (‘the town’s best hot dogs’) which is a small hot dog stand which serves the best hot dogs in Iceland, and possibly the world. Ask for ‘eina með öllu’/’one with everything’ (or two if you’re particularly hungry) and enjoy food fit for a president – Bill Clinton is a famous past customer.

Hamborgarabullan, the Hamburger Joint by the harbour in Reykjavík

Hamborgarabullan on Geirsgata is a hamburger restaurant which offers well priced and very tasty hamburgers and chips. You won’t find McDonalds or Burger King anywhere in Iceland, but after trying Hamborgarabullan’s food you won’t want to.

Hlöllabátar is a subway sandwich shop in Ingolfstorg which will fill you up without emptying your wallet. But for food on the go, your best bet is to visit one of the supermarkets (Bónus or Krónan) and buy some bread, cheese, coleslaw or other sandwich fillings and make your own picnic. Be sure to buy some pots of Skyr too – a dairy product like a cross between yoghurt and cream cheese that comes in several flavours.

If you’re on the road, most service stations in the larger towns you visit will have similar food for sale so you can top up on provisions.

7. Make the most of the time of year

Iceland can be enjoyed at any time of year as each season has its own charms. In summer the weather is milder than you’d expect at these latitudes, as the Atlantic gulf stream carries warm air from the Caribbean meaning you can expect temperatures in double figures (Celsius). The days are very long, often with only a few hours’ twilight between sunset and sunrise, though even this is shorter in the north of the country. If you want to see the aurora, this would not be the time to visit. However many of the less-accessible parts of Iceland, such as Landmannalaugar, are only open in the summer.

In winter the temperature drops below freezing but the wind can make it feel much colder, so you will need to wrap up warm. The sun doesn’t make much of an appearance, but when it does, it has a beautiful golden colour as it stays very close to the horizon, casting long shadows. The air on a good day can be very crisp and refreshing, and of course the long nights mean you have your best chance of spotting the aurora. Roads outside urban areas can become treacherous though, even the asphalt main roads, so check before travelling at the website of the Icelandic Road Administration.

The day length still varies considerably throughout spring and autumn, but due to Iceland’s western location you get more light in the evenings than in the mornings, as they use GMT all year round. Weather-wise you can and should expect anything, from winds that can lift a person off their feet to clear blue skies, at any time of year.

8. Go native

Iceland is famous for its more unusual foodstuffs. Apart from whale and puffin which are served in many local restaurants, you can buy dried fish (harðfiskur) and fermented shark (hákarl) from most supermarkets, as well as the more accessible smoked lamb (hangikjöt) which is served in flatbread (flatkaka). If you ever find yourself at a loose end at the BSÍ bus terminal, the cafe there also serves svið – boiled sheep’s head.

Of the liquid variety, Brennivín (literally, ‘burning wine’) is the local Schnapps which is often used to wash down hákarl. There are plenty of local microbreweries (such as Borg and Bryggjan) that offer alternatives to the ubiquitous Egill’s Gull and Víking beers – I personally recommend Einstök and Jökull beer (EDIT: turns out Jökull beer is no longer brewed). If you go at the right time of year, the seasonal beers Þorrabjór (served around the historical month of Þorri) and Jólabjór (served at Christmas) are also great tipples, but beware their strength!

The crowd at an FM Belfast gig at Íðnó during Iceland Airwaves 2012

9. Get on the Airwaves

Every year, at the end of October start of November, Reykjavík plays host to the Iceland Airwaves music festival. What started as a one-off show in an aircraft hanger in 1999 has evolved into one of Europe’s biggest and most popular music festivals, hosting hundreds and hundreds of events in venues across the city, from the vast Silfurberg hall in Harpa, to a tiny mobile hut in Ingólfstorg with room for an audience of three. Iceland’s own thriving music scene is always well represented, but the event also features new bands from across the world, as well as the occasional unexpected special guest.

For just under a week the town fills with music fans from across the globe, and the atmosphere throughout is like one huge non-stop party. Even if you don’t manage to get a ticket for the festival itself, the off-venue concerts held in cafes, bookshops and hostels are all free of charge and feature many, if not most, of the headline acts. But make sure you arrive early – these places fill up very quickly.

10. Let go

Everyone who goes to Iceland will have their own expectations and lists of places to see. The best known sights—Gullfoss, Geysir, the Blue Lagoon, Jökulsárlón—are all well worth a visit, and should not be missed. However I often find that the more memorable moments come unexpectedly. Ask a local for ideas on what to do that most people wouldn’t consider, take a detour down a side road (ensuring first that it is suitable for whatever vehicle you are in)–try the unexpected and you may just find something special that you can keep as your own little secret part of Iceland.

Góða ferð!

Útidúr at the Lexington: Ja Ja Ja Nordic

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The ever excellent Ja Ja Ja Nordic held their latest event at the Lexington last night, featuring Manna from Finland, Denmark’s Freja Loeb, and one of my favourite Icelandic bands, Útidúr. I was intrigued by how they’d fit the 12 strong Icelandic collective on the tiny stage, but as it turned out there were only 8 of them and they just about managed.

Here are a few pics from the evening.

Manna
Manna
Manna
Freja Loeb
Freja Loeb
Freja Loeb
Freja Loeb
Freja Loeb
Freja Loeb
Freja Loeb
Freja Loeb
Freja Loeb
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr
Útidúr

Aurora Chasing: Part III

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Continuing the diary of my attempts to capture the aurora. Part one is here, and part two here.

Over the next few days I set out on various routes achievable from the capital in a single day. The weather forecast for pretty much the whole week was showing as constant rain, but as they say in Iceland, if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes. Indeed, I was blessed by mostly fine weather for much of my time on the road, and occasionally by air so clear that I could see mountains several kilometres away without a hint of haze.

The aforementioned Reykjanes peninsula (or Reykjanesskagi to give it its full name in Icelandic) has recently seen the completion of a fully surfaced road stretching along its southern extent, from Grindavík in the west to the ferry port at Þorlákshöfn in the east. I headed towards the latter town from Reykjavík on a route that passes through the high altitude Hellisheiði pass. It’s not uncommon for the weather in the pass to be very different from that in the city, and so it proved as the light drizzle in Reykjavík gave way to a snow-covered landscape with ice on the road and cloud everywhere. The descent towards Hveragerði is a steep, winding road where you have to be exceptionally careful not to lose grip, especially when it is slippery. Driving down this route gives one a clear indication of just how dangerous driving in Iceland can be if you are not careful, and this is on one of the best roads there is.

Þorlákshöfn is one of two terminals for the ferry service to the Westman Islands. The other, Landeyjahöfn, is further east, and recently took over as the primary terminal as it allows for a much shorter crossing. Þorlákshöfn however remains active as a backup for when ferries are unable to take the shorter route. The community of villages and farms nearby gather at Strandarkirkja, a small wooden church, typical of rural Iceland, built right on the coast. It is separated from the beach, where the bitterly cold sea meets harsh volcanic rocks and black sand, by a wall of rocks which was still covered in a dusting of rain-washed snow.

Strandarkirkja, a small church near Þórklákshöfn in southwest Iceland

I walked over some slippery steps, supporting myself with the aid of the freezing-cold metal chain handrail, to explore the textures on the beach, as the tide was quite low. Seaweed, basalt, black sand and shallow water channels provided variety and interest. Back by the church, a statue by Gunnfriður Jónsdóttir called Landsýn (Land in Sight) looks out over the ocean, and there was a line of snow up the figure’s back indicating just how strong the wind had been recently.

The slippery path over the sea defences at Strandarkirkja
Lava textures on the beach at Strandarkirkja
Black sand on the beach at Strandarkirkja
A crack in the lava on the beach at Strandarkirkja
Landsýn (“Land in Sight”), a statue by Strandarkirkja

Further west lies the sleepy fishing town of Grindavík, where the Grindavík Ice Company provides crates of ice for the local fishermen. I’m used to seeing ice out in the wild in Iceland, but the stacks of ice-filled containers outside the company’s bright red warehouse was a less familiar sight! On the way to Grindavík the road passes some extremely odd shaped volcanic structures, one of which looks like an octopus emerging from an roiling ocean that has been frozen into solid lava.

Rocktopus!

If you continue further still, the road heads to a hot spring area called Gunnuhver, where a ghost called Gunna is said to have caused much perturbation until being tricked into falling into a hot spring. The cold weather meant that the steam from the hot springs, with its now familiar (to me) eggy/Marmitey smell, overwhelmed the whole area, leaving the bubbling mud and boiling water invisible. However the wooden walkways through the area disappeared into the steam in a wonderfully gothic way.

The wooden path at Gunnuhver disappearing into the steam

Turning north, back towards the international airport at Keflavik, one crosses the fault line that lies between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Those ever resourceful Icelanders have built a ‘bridge between the continents’ at one point, where you can stand above the ever-widening crack as the two plates move apart by a few centimetres every year. The gap is filled with black sand and not, as some might expect, boiling lava, which means you can walk beneath the bridge as well as over it.

The bridge between continents – North America on the left, Eurasia on the right

As I headed back towards Reykjavík, I took a detour past Kleifarvatn, a lake which in 2000 began to drain away slowly, after a fissure was opened up by an earthquake in the area. Even now it’s possible to see how far it has receded as there are vast black sandy areas between the edge of the lake and the rocks by the road. Interestingly shaped chunks of ice had formed at the edge of the lake, and tyre marks left by some no-doubt bonkers 4×4 contraption had part-filled with snow, making shapes that in places resembled writing in some foreign script.

Ice shapes on the edge of Kleifarvatn
Snow and tyre tracks at Kleifarvatn

Back in Reykjavík, I visited Perlan (The Pearl) to grab a shot of one of my favourite views of the city. Heavy bands of cloud overhead ensured there would be no aurora viewing tonight, but they did help to provide some impressive light over the bay.

View of Reyjkavík from Perlan. The large church is Hallgrímskirkja, Hallgrímur’s church, whose design was influenced by the basalt columns common throughout Iceland.
Late sun over the bay at Reykjavík, seen from Perlan

After some food, and once it was completely dark outside, I headed down to Harpa, the concert hall by the harbour, to photograph the light show created by individual strips of light contained within each cell of its pseudogeological façade. You can watch a video of the display here.

Reykjavík’s amazing dynamically lit concert hall and opera house, Harpa.
The green and red lights dancing across the façade were reminiscent of the aurora
The display went on all night, as far as I could tell.

Aurora Chasing: Part II

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Read part I here.

Modern Iceland has a population barely exceeding 300,000 people. The vast majority of Icelanders (over 200,000) live in Reykajvík and the surrounding conurbation, which consists of Mosfellsbær to the north, and Kópavogur, Garðabær and Hafnarfjörður to the south. The next largest town is Akureyri, in the north of the country, which has a population of around 18,000, with the rest of Iceland’s population distributed throughout towns, villages, hamlets and farms scattered around the coastline. The interior, also known as Hálendið (the highland), is utterly uninhabitable, and impassable by all but the most rugged 4×4. In winter, the four routes through the middle of Iceland are closed to traffic completely.

The extremely low population density means that road maintenance, which is funded by taxpayers, is prioritised towards the more populous regions, and it is not uncommon to be driving towards a remote lake, waterfall or settlement and find the road surface suddenly deteriorate into a pitted gravel surface (heralded by the warning ‘Malbik Endar’). Recent years have seen a huge rise in tourist visitors to Iceland, however, and many of the more popular destinations are now serviced by fully surfaced roads.

Despite its low population, Iceland has a booming music scene, which reaches far beyond the much feted Björk and Sigur Rós. Something in the education system, possibly combined with the island’s isolation, means many people use music as a form of self-expression, and the parochial nature of even the capital means musicians don’t need to look far to find like-minded individuals with whom they can form bands. Another consequence of the lack of people means that many bands share members, and it’s not uncommon to see the same musician appear with two or even three separate bands at various times.

The annual Iceland Airwaves festival, held in venues across Reykjavík in the late autumn, has in recent years grown exponentially into one of the world’s foremost musical events. Acting as a showpiece for primarily new and up-and-coming artists (from home and abroad), it is a great way to acquaint oneself with the local musical talent, as well as discover some newer bands on the verge of greatness (Florence and the Machine and Elbow are two bands who rose to international recognition on the back of Airwaves appearances). Some idiosyncratic choices at the 2011 event (namely Sinéad O’Connor and Yoko Ono) made many people question the festival’s commitment to new music, but the general feeling from people who attended was that it was possibly the best thing they’d been to, ever.

Iceland Airwaves - the highlight of the Icelandic musical calendar

Arrival

Winter in Iceland is an unusual time of year for people used to less polar latitudes. It’s common knowledge that through the winter solstice you get very little daylight at all. Even in late February the sun rises above the horizon for just 9 hours, and given that Iceland is further to the west than the UK, yet still uses GMT, the ‘day’ is shifted so that you get more daylight after midday than before. This also gives rise to a more regular ‘midnight sun’ during the summer months that would otherwise not occur, a sly marketing trick, I think!

Iceland’s main international airport sits at the western tip of the Reykjanes peninsula, near the town of Keflavík, and is named after Leifur Eiríksson, the man credited by many with discovering the Americas (though he named them Vinland). First time visitors, who have been informed by their departure airport that their flight is to Reykjavík, are usually in for a surprise as there is a half-hour journey by road through the barren lava fields of Reykjanes before they finally reach the capital.

I had met a young couple on the plane who, despite being well-travelled, had not visited Iceland before. I envied them their first visit to Iceland, an experience that can never be repeated. Instead, I picked up my rental car and drove myself to the capital, where I was meeting Inga, who had very kindly arranged my accommodation for the week in the 4-star Radisson 1919 hotel right in the middle of town.

Once settled in, I helped myself to one of the town’s, and possibly the world’s, best hotdogs. ‘Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur’ literally means ‘Town’s best hotdogs’ and is aptly named. If you ask for ‘eina með öllu’ (‘one with everything’) you get a bun with onions, ketchup, mustard and remoulade sauce smothered over a perfect hotdog sausage. As traditional Icelandic food goes, it’s not quite up there with dried fish or fermented shark, but if it’s good enough for President Bill Clinton, it’s good enough for me. (In fact, Slick Willie only wanted mustard on his, so if you ask for ‘the Clinton’, that’s what you get!)

Hot dog from Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur - considered one of the best in the world!

As the sky darkened I decided to head for Setljarnarnes, the northwesterly point on the small peninsula on which Reykjavík sits, to see what the aurora was up to. When I arrived, there was a pale green arc in the northern sky, but little movement. I sat in the car for a few minutes to wait, and suddenly, I saw a portion of the arc start to brighten and move. It wasn’t long before the aurora started to put on a real show.

A Brazilian man who was there too seemed very agitated by the whole thing. He asked me if that was the aurora, and when I confirmed that it was, seemed to be overcome with emotion, thanking me passionately, as though I had personally laid on the aurora for him. He saw that I was taking photographs and ask if I’d help him do the same, but when he fetched his camera from the car, I had to inform him that his compact point-and-shoot wouldn’t be capable of the long exposures necessary. He seemed decidedly crestfallen by the news, but brightened up quickly enough when his attention returned to the celestial light show.

With aurora pictures sorted, what was I to do for the rest of the week? I had been hoping to capture some more photos with perhaps one of Iceland’s famous waterfalls in the foreground, but I knew I’d be at the mercy of the elements, and had probably been extremely fortunate just to capture what I had tonight.

The Aurora Borealis

Sadly, on closer inspection, the picture above is still slightly out of focus, something I only discovered once I uploaded the images onto my laptop back at the hotel. So I was going to have to try again at some point if I was to get the headline-grabbing images that I wanted.

Continue to Part III.

Aurora chasing: Part I

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Part one in a series of posts about Iceland.

I always find it hard to articulate why it is that I keep returning to Iceland. I’ve been to some amazing places in my time; the Lake District, New York City, Barcelona, the Cayman Islands, but none of them has quite the same effect on me that Iceland does. I’ve seen the same in other people, so I know it’s not just me – as a rational, scientific thinker I hesitate to use spiritual metaphors, but this volcanic north Atlantic island does seem to have something about it that bewitches people, meaning that every time you go, you just want to return even more.

The Mýrdalsjökull glacier, seen from the cliffs at Dyrhólaey

What doesn’t help is that the locals are some of the loveliest people I’ve ever encountered, and having made friends with several of them on Twitter, and met them in real life in my last few visits, I now have what feel like family ties pulling me back each time.

In February 2012 I travelled to Iceland for the eighth time, third time within the space of two years. The aim was two-fold; to go on my own and hence be free to get up at ungodly hours and stay up until ungodly hours, and to try to capture the aurora on camera, something I had singularly failed to do in all my previous visits.

My previous visit, in which I was photographing the Iceland Airwaves festival in 2011, was actually only the first time I ever got to witness the aurora first hand. I was walking on the harbour front in Reykjavík with Tim and James, my two colleagues from The 405 who were covering the festival with me, when we saw what looked like a cloud move in an unexpected way. We knew straight away what it was, and the three of us spent the next ten minutes staring into the northern sky with our mouths wide open as solar particles bombarded the upper atmosphere, ionising oxygen atoms, which glowed like green and pink cosmic curtains gently blowing in the solar wind.

So from that moment I determined that the next time I went to Iceland I’d do my best to capture this spectacular phenomenon on camera.

A brief introduction

Iceland is one of the most recent additions to the Earth’s geology. It was formed around 20 million years ago by volcanic eruptions at the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, known as the mid-atlantic ridge. As a result of its relatively young age, it consists almost entirely of volcanic rock, and signs of the huge gash in the earth’s crust are everywhere, in particular at Þingvellir National Park, (‘Thingvellir’), site of the world’s oldest democratically elected parliament.

Þingvellir national park, where the Icelandic parliament (Alþingi) was founded. Now based in Reykjavík, the Alþingi is over 1,000 years old.

For many millennia Iceland was covered by glaciers, leaving behind magnificent fjords as the ice retreated. Nowhere are these more in evidence than in the far north west, where the Western Fjords sit like antlers on some strange mythical beast swimming in the north atlantic ocean. Remnants of the ice age remain in the shape of Europe’s largest glacier, Vatnajökull (the water glacier), and several smaller cousins, including the infamous Eyjafjallajökull, named after the mountain range that overlooks the Westman Islands to the south (eyja = islands, fjalla = mountains).

Eyjafjallajökull glacier, as seen on the scale model of Iceland in Reykjavík City Hall.

Iceland was first named by the viking explorer Flóki Vilgerðason, who took the nickname Hrafna-Flóki (Raven-Flóki). He suffered a very cold winter at Barðaströnd in the Western Fjords, and as the drift ice floated up the fjords he named the land Ísland (literally, land of ice). The name stuck, and even to this day gives the impression of a much harsher environment than actually exists on a land benefitting from the warming effect of the Gulf Stream.

The Norwegian Ingólfur Arnarson is widely considered to be the first person to have settled on Iceland for good. The story goes that he threw two pillars into the sea as he approached the island, and followed the coast until he found them on the northern edge of the south-western peninsula now known as Reykjanes. He named the area Reykjavík, which means bay of smoke, after the steam rising from the land due to geothermal activity which can still be spotted in places throughout Iceland today.

Read Part II here.