Iceland - part.3

We also saw the summer house of the prime minister which sits in a magnificent setting but, a bit far from.... well citizens.  Anyhow, a great place to be.  Once again you have a feeling of being in some painting made to silence the viewer sending his mind wondering for a moment or two.  

We then went to quite an impressive waterfall before going to see the geysers!  In Iceland, they don’t call them geysers.  Just hot springs.  Geyser is the actual name of one specific hot springs and when the first visitors came and were told that it was name Geyser, they assumed that every source of hot water shooting up in the air was called a geyser.  The Geyser hot springs is not that active compared to the Strokkur which would erupt every 7 minutes or so.  Here’s a picture of the moment it’s about to erupt.  It’s basically a big ball a water forming and exploding into a 10 meters high stream.

That’s about it for now.  Sorry if you were expecting a more London oriented report but rest assured, that will come later.  Meaning I still have to take the pictures and tweak them before.

Iceland - part.2

The next day we went on a tour in the country where we saw, again, beautiful landscapes, but also some scientific and cultural sites.  We first stopped at the Nesjavellir Powerplant, a geothermal power plant supplying heating and hot water through hundreds of kilometre of pipes mounted on some sort of suspension against earth movement due to the high volcanic action.

On that same tour, we ended up walking in a big canyon that is formed by the separation of the North American and European tectonic plates.  It is also the location where the first people of Iceland gathered and discuss political and social issues regarding the community.  The speaker would stand on top of a big rock and because of the shape of the cliff behind, his voice would be heard by everybody.  A kind of open-air theatre. 

Iceland - part.1

Since the year has been quite boring so far, we decided to stop over in Iceland for 2 nights. It was just amazing. What a beautiful country. The landscape is majestic. Quiet but still vibrant. Bare but still rich. The yellow/green moss growing on top of black volcanic rocks as far as the eye can see gives the landscape a unique aura even an eerie feeling at times. It’s like you don’t want to speak too loud as if you would be in a church. Instead of being looked at by multiple statues of saints or god himself, it’s like you are being watch by the local elves hiding in the rocks all around you. (See the Icelandic chapter of this link to learn more about elves. I am not making this up).

Reykjavík, where we stayed, is beautiful. There are a lot of restaurants, shops and tours companies. The first day, we went to the Blue Lagoon which is a natural spa resort. The water is heating by natural hot springs up to 40°C. We basically spent 4 hours just being in this amazing blue water. The colour is a beautiful vibrant baby blue almost opaque. You can’t see your own hand if it’s more than an inch in the water. I don’t think I ever was that relaxed in my whole life - it’s that amazing. I would go back there before going to any sunny beaches.

The Promised Photo Blog

There it is. The promised photo blog from London. Now that we finally have internet in our flat, I can focus every minutes of my unemployed life on this blog to give the abroad reader my London experience. But not so fast.

First, I would like to step back in time and provide a summary of our, my wife Annalise and I, year.

We started 2009 under the Caribbean sun in Dominican Republic with my parents. A couple of months later, we received the news that Annalise had gotten into London Business School starting August 2009. So we decided to quit our jobs, sell the condo, get rid of all our stuff, get married, and have a 2 week honeymoon in Costa Rica all between March and May. Nothing really; the normal day to day life. Then we spent a month visiting the family in Eastern Canada and, with 2 suit cases, 2 back packs, 2 carry-ons and 1 purse, we checked-in at the Ottawa airport direction London! But, first stop: Iceland.