Perspectives in Black: Through the Lens

Showing posts with label Through the Lens. Show all posts

Thursday, June 05, 2008

San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Honeymoon: Iceland

We stayed in the Nordica Hotel while in Iceland. It was a 20 minute walk from the Reykjavik City Centre. Our room had a giant panoramic window, hardwood floors, and modern décor. Many people in Iceland considered it one of the best hotels in the country.

Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran Church is one of Iceland's most notable landmarks. It's located on a hill in the Reykjavik City Centre. A viking statute stands watch over this beautiful structure. Swamps and I were lucky enough to attend an English service inside this church while in Iceland.

Honeymoon: Iceland

As Swamps and I walked through the Reykjavik City Centre, we came across Lake Tjörnin and the Old House of Parliment.

Swamps and I travelled approximately three hours outside Reykjavik to see Solheimajokull at the Eyjafjallajökull massif. It was pretty interesting because we were driving through a mountain range covered in moss, and then we took a right through a lava field

and arrived at the glacier. The pictures don't do it justice because it simply amazing to see so much ice. Although the glacier is permanent, it does melt a little every year and forms a lake under the glacier. Ice is under all the black you see in this picture.

Since Swamps was so much

of an adventurer, we decided to hike the glacier. As you can tell, we were prepared with our ice axes and steel spikes on our shoes. We hiked for several hours on the tongue of the glacier. The air was so fresh and clean. The temperture on the glacier was much colder than the rest of Iceland.

Honeymoon: Iceland

Swamps and I stopped at the Villages of Selfoss, Vik, and Kirkjubaejarklaustur after glacier hiking. If you look at these two pictures closely you can see that some of the houses in Iceland have grass growing on their roof. This keeps heat inside the house by providing an extra layer of insolation and it also reuses rain water. Next, you can see sheep. More sheep live on Iceland than humans. The sheeps roam the countryside freely, eating as they please, and every fall their owners collect them, and have a huge collection celebration.

On our way back to Reykjavik we came across the Skógafoss waterfall and the Skeidarársandur black desert. You heard right, a desert but the sand was black. In the second picture, Swamps and I are standing behind another waterfall that was also on our way back to Reykjavik.

Honeymoon: Iceland

Our Iceland honeymoon can be broken into three unique segments. During the first and third segment, Swamps and I adventured alone throughout the country. During the second, we stayed with the Whitehead family, native Icelanders. The Whitehead family was wonderful because they showed us around and let us stay with them at their house. Thor, pictured in the blue buttoned-up shirt was a classmate with Swamps dad at UGA graduate school.

On one of our adventures, Thor took us to a geothermal community pool. The pool is outdoors and it's naturally heated by lava heated water. In this picture, it's 55 degrees fahrenheit outside, and I'm sitting in a pool of water that's naturally 113 degrees fahrenheit. If you look at my face, you can tell the water's really HOT!

On another adventure, Gerdur, pictured above in the animal print took us to Pingvellir, the site of Iceland's historic National Law Assembly back during the Viking ages. It's a deep lava chasm and it sits on the North American and European continental plate. The continental plates have moved 100 feet within the last 1,000 years.

Honeymoon: Iceland

Lake Pingvellir is the largest lake in Iceland and sits right outside Pingvellir. The National Law Assembly sits in the central portion of Iceland. As you can tell, the terrain is rocky and there are mountains surrounding the assembly. I felt like I was in a scene from the Lord of the Rings.

I especially connected with this area because this is were historic Icelanders developed their legal system.

Honeymoon: Iceland

After leaving Pingvellir, we headed to Geysir, the original geysir. Unfortunately, it doesn't regularly erupt; however, Strokkur, another geysir close by, erupts every five to ten minutes, so we headed to over there to see a real life geysir erupt. Strokkur shoots up to 100 feet in the air. The eruption is caused by geothermal heat and pressure and it smells like sulfur. I tried to take pictures of Strokkur, but I was too slow on the camera trigger, so I borrowed this picture from Inmagine.com.

After visiting Geysir, we headed to Gulfoss, an impressive waterfall with a mile long gorge. For waterfall enthusiast, it’s the Niagara Falls of Iceland. It was so beautiful and uncommercialized. Like most of Iceland's natural wonders, we didn't have to pay, we just walked up and enjoyed nature's beauty.

Honeymoon: Iceland

The Whitehead family lived on a peninsula outside of Reykjavik. The view from their street was wonderful. You could see the house of the President of Iceland, the black sand beaches and the Bláfjöll Mountains.

Swamps decided to join the polar bear club since we were so close to the North Atlantic Ocean. Pictured below is her getting ready to lay in the water, which has an approximate temperature of 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Her faces tells the entire story. I case you're not reading between the lines, the water was COLD!

Honeymoon: Iceland

While in Iceland we visited the world famous Blue Lagoon, located one hour from Reykjavik. It's a mineral lagoon heated by geothermal energy. We went on a cold and rainy day, the outside temperture was 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but the water temperture ranged from 80 degrees Fahrenheit to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The non-swimming lagoon was blue, but the swimming portion of the lagoon had naturally turned green. Read below to find out why.

This picture tells the difference between the water temperture and the outside temperture. Additionally, if you look closely, the water in this picture looks green, well, it actually turned green because some algae had started growing in the lagoon because of the unusually warm summer.