Glaciers!

Met Jen and Kristin from Maine today on the glacier hike. They're
traveling for the weekend only and are headed back soon. The glacier
hike is absolutely unreal, the ice under your feet is a mystic shade
of blue that perpetuates forever underneath you. Walking along ridges
you can see where some of the melt forms rivers and archs. On this day
there was a consistently strong wind that forced us to double back on
our tracks multiple times for fear of being blown into a crevasse. The
only way to tell the deepness of one is by chucking a block of ice in
and listening for the crashing to cease. Near the end we found an
icewall to scale, so with pick axes in hand we climbed (or attempted
to) one at a time. It's probably one of the most exhaustive activities
I've ever done.

Almost all the terrain we drove by today was barren. Not a single tree
or shrub in sight. There were rocks and volcanic ash everywhere and it
really felt like an anolog of mars. Opposite to the mountains is flat
land that extends to the Atlantic, occasionally dusted with some moss.
Iceland truly is unique in terms of landscape.

Suhan (mobile)

Impressions of Iceland

66 degrees north. You really don't realize just how far north this is
until you see how low the midday sun hangs in the sky. Admittedly,
it's not so bad considering we're a month away from equinox, but it
still feels odd seeing darkness at 9:30am.

Let's back pedal a bit because I just want to comment on how nice of a
city Boston is. I was only in the city center for an hour or two but
the place feels clean and friendly. Buildings are packed next to
eachother in the downtown core giving a slight resemblance to how
European cities feel. Apart from that, the architecture is really
stunning. Those art deco(?) styled facades are rich in detail and give
off an aura of timelessness that modern buildings lack.

The flight from Boston to reyjkavik was an overnighter on which I
really hoped to see the northern lights. Aurora activity has been at a
peak the past few weeks but to my dismay none appeared in the sky on
the way over. I'm crossing my fingers for a string of cloudless nights
here, I'd trade the rest of my trip just for a glimpse of those
magical lights.

You're all probably wondering what there is to do and see in Iceland.
Well let me tell you, this young island is a hiker's delight in the
summer time and has equal visual appeaL in the winter months. It's
recent geologic volcanic activity means there are geysirs left right
and centre. There are also glaciers that cover large swaths of land on
which you can hike and climb. Also, there's some pretty majestic
iceberg fields outside of the city that are worth a visit. Finally,
let's not forget the famous Blue Lagoon spa which is home to a scenic
and huge aqua blue silica thermal pool.

So far, I've only gone to see Gullfoss, a waterfall, and the geysirs,
of which I took an fun sequence of photos. Tomorrow I'm going to go
glacier hiking and then (attempt) to climb an ice wall. And then the
day after I'm going to go scuba diving (yes you read that right)
between the American and European continental plates. Visibility in
that water is supposed to be over 50m so I'll be taking lots of
pictures of that!

Anyways, I'll update again in a day or two!
PS. It's around the same temp as Montreal here, except. The wind can
have a nasty bite.