I've been on more trips than you can shake a stick at. Not least because I've had a feast of visitors! Took a simillar trip with both sets - South Coast - but each had a different character, thanks to the company.

Had to pause just then and read my last entry - couldn't remember if I mentioned when Eemeli's friend Niku came. I didn't. He did. We piled up a car with 2 Finnish boys and 2 English girls (a dangerous cocktail), and headed off for a fun-packed road trip. Made most interesting for me as I did probably one of the craziest things I've done since I got here - stripped off to my bikini and went for a swim in a stream. While it was snowing, really quite hard. Luckily it was a geothermally heated stream... but all the same, getting out and getting changed wasn't so agreeable!

But anyway, back to the South Coast road trips with friends. First with my brother, his friend, Laura and Dave...all in one Corolla, half-driven by me. Its amazing how quickly you get used to driving on the other side of the road, and reaching down with the other hand to change gears and pull the handbrake etc...
I'm such a bad environmentalist - I love driving!
The oddest thing: driving a long straight road by the coast and wondering why I couldn't keep the car in a straight line. Eventually I figured out the answer - it was incredibly windy! With no trees to show you the ambient air movement, how do you tell?? Unnerving to say the least!
The best thing: driving with bright sun, clear blue skies thrown open above you, and the dazling glacier of Skaftafell national park in front of you. The stuff car commercials are made of!
I infused both groups with my feverish love of Jeff Who? (http://www.myspace.com/jeffwhoband) , the most fun, energetic, and entertaining band I've found while exploring the Icelandic music scene. If I knew a DJ in england I would make him play Barfly until clubs of people were screaming 'la la la laaa laa LA LA' like they are here. I love it. That song is my Icleand.
So we created the Concientious Killers (with their debut album Vandalism), were chased by evil ducks, ate Polo biscuits and Skyr until half-dead and had a good time.
Then dear Ria came, and we acquired Emma and Christien for a girlie version of the trip, full of admitting we were knackered after 10 minutes ascent of the mountain, talking about boys and all manner of rude things, and eating enough crisps to fill an Olympic swimming pool (but not out bellies!) :-D Having Ree made me realise how much I miss having her (and everyone else) around to just talk to. I can talk to people here, I have friends, but of course they don't know me so well.

I've also been to the Blue Lagoon 3 times this term! It's not that great - I probably wouldn't have been so many times if I didn't get student discount. Peronally, I think the Laugardalur complex in Reykjavik is better and much better value for money. I mean, it has a slide!

Went to the Reykjanes peninsula with the Uni - could have been awful (the weather is notoriously bad), but we were lucky. It didn't rain, but the coast provided some dramatic scenery... :

Finally, I've just come back from Vestmannaejar, or the Westmann Islands - volcanic islands just off the south coast of the mainland. Only one is inhabited, and there was a sudden volcanic eruption in 1973 that buried 400 homes and built a whole new mountain, the appropriately named Eldfell ('Fire Mountain' - the general Icelandic word for volcano):

It makes for an impressive sight, the cone still rabid red, and its lava outpourings black all the way to the subdued blue sea. But it's a small island, so leisurely walks were taken around it, until here I am, back in Reykjavik.

Soon to be gone. Leaving here is a feeling more than melancholy, a sacred saddness that rises up in me when I'm alone and taunts me: 'shed a tear, little girl'.
I've learnt a lifetime's lessons here. When I come back, you can talk to me as before and you might never realise how much I've changed. But believe me, I'm not the person I was when I left you behind, when last I held you and smiled at you.

The sun is setting again, the burning sky is sheltered by wise, calm grey streaks and my heart lives in the song of the little bird outside my window, calling until the buds burst beneath his feet.

Last legs remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It all started when I tried to leave the country before Christmas. I don't think it wanted me to leave. The snowstorm at Keflavik was the worst I'd ever seen up to that point (although now I've been in worse, but that's for later). The problem was not (so much) taking off, but landing, which the plane that was supposed to come get us couldn't do. So it got diverted to the east and finally went back to...wait for it...Scotland. This all took a considerable amount of hours, me all the time enjoying the hospitality of Keflavik airport (and luckily the company of an Irish guy I'd met maybe 3 days before).
Then we checked the internet, and discovered the fog that was grounding air traffic in London. Well, I thought, maybe I won't be home in time for Christmas (this was the 21st December). Eventually, we were offered either a hotel for the night and a try-again-tomorrow, or a chance to get on a flight to London with another company to a different London airport. Fine, I'll get on that one!
"Mum?"
"Yeah?"
"I might be able to get on a flight to Heathrow, can you pick me up there instead?"
"Just let me know when you board!"
I boarded around 8pm, having been scheduled to leave around midday.
We applauded the pilot when he landed at the other end.
Back in Weymouth: 3am.

Christmas was...awkward. I didn't feel like I belonged. To see so many people all pushing about the streets. I loved seeing all my friends, but I was glad to get back to Iceland.
Flight back was seamless, and from the plane window Iceland looked like one giant glacier. The midday sun, still with a warm glow, slanted into view as the aeroplane banked, and glinted off the white expanse of mountains. Makes my soul calm.
In the first week back it snowed nearly every day, until it was up to the level of the time it snowed all night last semester. Me and Jukka made a GIANT snowwoman - she took us nearly 3 hours and we cleared the snow in our back yard :-)
Then Jukka left, back to Finland, and we haven't heard from him since. He was going to go to the Blue Lagoon then walking to the airport...who knows...I guess he made it...

Classes started, some new faces appeared, some old faces were absent. A new english girl joined our troop, so I'm not alone anymore. It's not necessary, but it is comforting.

Then we planned our great trip to Greenland.
Organised basically by one guy, this is how it's supposed to be:
http://kulusukart.com/information.htm
So we booked up, me, Eemeli, Sebastian, Elena, and 3 other Spainards, 27th Jan- 3rd Feb.
The day arrives very soon, and we race to the airport with the demeanour of excited children. We meet Johann, the guy who organises the trips, and he gives us several things to give to our contact in Greenland.
One he tells us to bury deep in the luggage.
"It's illegal to take this into Greenland, but we do it all the time."
So we're smuggling for the guy; we don't ask any more questions.
There's a slight delay on the flight, some dodgy weather at the other end, but soon we're on our way.
Our plane had propellers, and only holds around 20 people. But they did serve a light breakfast! I am terrified; I crush Sebastian's hand the whole way.
"Ladies and Gentlemen we will shortly be landing at Kukusuk. The local time is..."
What we (and he) didn't know was, he was lying. In fact, we descended into a low cloud that we had seen mountains poking through just before...then suddenly jerked right back up into the sky again. I've never felt so sick and disorientated in my life. I think it happened maybe 2 or 3 times; it was impossible to land safely.
So we flew back to Reykjavik.
The longest and worst plane flight of my life! I think I would have passed out or gone mad if I hadn't been with friends (thanks Sebbe!)
Back in Reykjavik, we dejectedly buy a pizza and go to bed miserable. No flights go anywhere on Sunday, so we have to wait until Monday at least.
Monday: Flight cancelled due to bad weather
Tuesday: Exactly the same thing happens as Saturday. We fly to Greenland....and back again. Now the Spainards have to give up - they have other commitments. They get refunds, and me, Seb and Eemeli decide if we want to try and go just the 3 of us.
Wednesday: Flight cancelled due to bad weather.
Thursday, 1st Feb: We finally make it to Greenland!

This was the one day of fine weather we had the whole week. No, that's a lie, it was fine the day we wanted to fly out the next Wednesday.
So, before Christmas, it seemed Iceland didn't want me to leave. Now it was clear Greenland didn't want me there!

But we did have a great time. The hut was awesome (although there was no running water - we had to fetch it every day from a well in front of the house). And it shook violently when the snowstorms raged. Snowstorms like this, on our second day:

But we enjoyed it - after all, it was more extreme than we'd ever seen. When the storm calmed we walked for hours around the mountains around the village, and marvelled at the breaking sea ice:

We even went back to the airport one stormy day just to mess around - and found it completely deserted. So we use it as a playground:

Where else could you do that?
The villagers often wanted to offer us things, bone crafts, seal skin, a dip in their bath... foreigners mean opportunity. But most fun were the children, who we were ambushed by on more than one occassion. They were rough and unbreakable, we all flung each other around in the snow for hours.
And on the last day, our contact took us to the airport by dog sled (the weather had been too bad to go on the planned trip to the glacier this way).
All in all, it was one of the most memorable things I've ever done, and even though I had the equivalent of 3 terrifying round trip flights, I don't regret a thing :-)

Incidentally, you can see many more great pics from the trip here:
http://www.photobucket.com/albums/v14/Colossal/Greenland/

And also check out a video Sebastian made about our first semester!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB-9FdcvNCc

Phew, my arms hurt, next time I won't wait so long before making an update!

On a clear day, I'll fly home to you... remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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And this was my department as I left it about an hour ago, after finishing my last exam:

What better sight to greet you as you prepare for Christmas? At last I can have that Christmas feeling! Exams are over! I officially have nothing to do for the next 3 weeks!

But before I lapse into a description of my adventures over the past month, a quick thought again about the melancholy of winter here:
Although there are things about Bristol I miss, what I'll miss most here are the mountains. My walk to university every day takes me 5 minutes to the edge of town, and 5 minutes with my eyes directed towards the wide open space partially occupied by the small domestic airport and the university campus, settled into marshland. From here I can see the distant mountains, now so covered in snow they resemble a giant glacier advancing towards me every morning.
"Hello Mountains".

~~

I've been on a couple of trips despite the 'intense' revision *ahem*. Will came and we drove around the Reykjanes Peninsula and the Golden Circle, it's wonderful to see everything so frozen. It was really nice to drive through, but in the sky we could see small private planes, and just think how much nicer it would be to take a Sunday afternoon fly around Iceland? It must look spectacular from the air right now, but hey, I guess I'll find out on Thursday!
Incidentally, I am flying back this Thursday, and hoping against serious delay I fully plan to be in the pub in the evening, so please join me :-) I guess I'll send out a text...gee...I have no idea if I even have any English credit...
But anyway, pictures of this trip can be seen here:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v14/Colossal/Ice%20Will/

My second trip was last saturday and was the incredibly awesome 'super jeep' trip to a glacier. And it only cost around £50, where it would usually cost £120-£130 normally! It was perishingly cold, but of course totally worth it, a fleet of 5 jeeps full of students and slightly mad drivers (they all are here) hurtling around the frozen wastelands. On the way one of the jeeps suddenly went off-road to skid around on a frozen lake, and not to be outdone, the rest of us soon followed :-)

I've heard rumours of a 5-day trip to Greenland organised by the university in Jan/Feb. It costs ~£300, but do you think that's going to stop me? Hell no!

See you soon guys, I'll talk all your ears off soon with tales, but don't worry, I'll bring presents too!

Sjáumst (See you)!

Winter in Iceland remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The trip around Snaefells was frankly awesome. Alina's friend Tuula came for the week, so we hired a car and Jukka joined us. Which did mean I was stuck with Finnish people all day. But they talked a lot of english just for me :-) And actually I've been trying to learn some Finnish, Alina taught me the numbers to 20 yesterday when we were swimming, and I can say 'How are you?' ('mita kuuluu?') and sweet dreams ('kauniita unia') and some other things that I don't know how to spell. I think I actually know more Finnish than Icelandic :-/
But yes, the trip was inspiring, when I uploaded my pictures I noticed that the whole album was just really blue. But there was other colours too, at once we were trapped in a white-out, so caught we couldn't even see the mountains around us.
You can check it out here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v14/Colossal/Snaefells

I'm afraid though that the snow has caused a fog on my brain and I can't think of anything else entertaining to describe to you.
But Will's coming this weekend, I hope there's snow for him too.

But only 3 weeks till exams, then 4 weeks until I'm home for Christmas. That'll be weird.

Snowed under remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So life has been interesting socially recently, but I got the adventure bug this morning. Probably why I felt like lovin'. Probably why I'm writing an entry. Unfortunately this country shuts down in the winter, which begins in September, and without your own transport it's hard to get around. Still 'if' the weather's nice, me and Alina plan to climb Esja this weekend. Esja is the proud mountain ridge that nurses Reykjavik. It's covered in snow right now. It's kind of like the ridgeway to Weymouth, completely different weather each side. Except much more impressive:

But Reykjavik does it's best to entertain you. A couple of weeks ago I went to the Iceland Airwaves festival. You pay about £60 and get a wristband. About 6 gigs happen every night for 4 nights in about 8 clubs across the city. The wristband gets you in everywhere. Simple.
Saw some good bands, Icelandic, foreign, British. Met the parents of a small band from Scotland. They follow them on tour. Eemeli suggested standing behind them during the gig so if the band was bad we could deride them. I told him it wasn't a good idea to anger a Scotsman. So look out for Call to Mind. And their parents.
Enjoyed a band called The End that were much better than the pretentious prats that followed them. Jigged along to the Go! Team. Rocked to local heroes Reykjavik! (The excalmation mark is part of their name). But mostly I enjoyed jumping around like a looney to the Kaiser Chiefs. After the trampling and stage diving the foreigners I was with looked scared. I told them this is how we do it in England.

Many birthdays right now (due to Valentine's Day as we once worked out). Eemeli turned 26 last week, Sebastian 27 on Monday, and soon Alina will be 25. Our parties consist of humble affairs of drinking and laughing at someone's house. It's a lot of fun.
I've also come to the conclusion I live in the best house, by location, services and atmosphere. Everyone's casual. As a house we generally go to bed around 2 and wake up about 12. Well, unless we have lectures of course *cough*
Weekends are different here too - going out begins about midnight and ends about 4 or 5am. I'm getting quite used to it.
I'm also getting used to correcting people's grammar. I do it in my head a lot at home. But here people want me to correct their grammar and spelling. I've become too well accustomed to guessing the words people are struggling to remember in our fair language. Although so often there isn't a word. English actually has a lot less words for things than other languages. In fact, english is a surprisingly easy language in ters of structure. The only difficult thing is pronunciation. Often people ask me why soething is said a certain way and I just say "I can't explain my language!"
But yes, if I do correct your grammar at any future point I'm sorry in advance :-/

While I remember!
For those of you who want to visit at some time, I have some good dates...
I fly back to Iceland after christmas on the 7th January, so co-ordinating a flight would be a good idea. You can get pretty cheap flights with BA, returns for around £80.
Laura and Dave have booked flights to come see me in my Easter holiday, 1st - 7th April (I think...hm, will confirm later...)
Co-ordinating with other people is a good idea so that renting a car is cheaper and we can drive around. 3-4 days is enough to see glaciers, waterfalls, basalt colums, volcanic plugs, the frothing sea, the rising geysir and virtually no-one else!
A couple of days in Reykjavik is also nice, one of the most fun things is the thermal pools. Hot water is free, as it is piped from rocks beneath us, so every 'swimming' pool is vey cheap and comes included with at least one hot tub, if not a multitude of pots at different temperatures (ranging from hot to OWOWOWOWOW!). In fact last the other week we swam in an outdoor pool with an ambient temperature of -2 degrees. Getting out hurts. But it'll be even more amazing in the snow.
Although I must warn you, all guests are required to shower naked before entering the pools. Some visiting Finns asked me and Alina what we found strangest about Icelandic customs. I said the naked showering. People just don't walk around naked in England. They said it happens all the time in Finland, with saunas and all those lakes. I guess it's liberating in a way *blushes Britishly*

Started planning all your Christmas presents. Found out I'm on the same flight back to Blightly with Elena as she's en route to Spain. Which means that, providing someone comes back with me at Christmas, I won't have to fly alone again. Phew.
Though we're already planning to 'do Europe' this summer, starting (of course) in Finland and driving back to England. Which means I can just book a one way flight and say "I'll be back in about a month". Travelling is freedom.

Ok, time to stop, I apologise if any of there words contained above are missing their 'M's, I spilt juice on it earlier and it hasn't been the same since.

Au reviour!

I feel like feeling love today... remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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They are displayed on photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com/albums/v14/Colossal) Under the album 'Ice Trip'. I also changed the album 'CaitlinParty' to 'IcePeople', and added a couple of pictures there, including one someone else took on the pre-sessional field trip of, wel, everyone!

The trip started with one amazing piece of fortune - naturally we booked the cheapest, smallest car we could, but when Eemeli and Antje went to pick it up they didn't have any small 'uns left, so, in the words of a text I sent to Caitlin: 'Holy shit we got one hell of an upgrade, I'm sitting in a Suzuki Grand Vitara!'. Free upgrade to a 4x4, jackpot! (There's a picture of it on page 3 of the album). Unfortunately, they never let me drive it :-(
So if any of you come to visit and we hire a car, I'm driving! I have a small ambition to drive on the other side of the road.

Now the pictures on the album are pretty much in order, so here follows a brief textural guide to your photographic experience!:

Day 1: Viti - Geysir & Strokkur - Langjokull & Gullfoss - nrSel - Dyrholaey
Most notable places on day 1 were the last two. 'nrSel' describes a waterfall very near the touristy Seljalandfoss, where people enjoy walking behind the falls and getting wet. However, this waterfall was different. As you can see it is almost completely enclosed by a cliff face. Unfortunately we approached it form the wrong side of it's offshot river, and couldn't see much into it. Until Tomas struck upon the genius idea of taking off our shoes and socks and wading across. Now, once your toes are in a very cold river, nothing much matters, and you might as well make the most of it. So we paddled upstream, into the 'cave' and right up to the waterfall. Somehow, that waterfall was just epically beautiful. I mean, probably not a lot of people had gone there, but it actually felt like no-one had been there, for a very long time.
Dyrholaey was another deserted area, probably because of the slightly bad road and weather (Eemeli, having informed us that some of the world's top rally drivers come from Finland, proceeded to drive like one). But what it led to was a beach thrashed by some awesome waves. I included a picture of Tomas and Eemeli on the beach just to show how much clothing we all had on. We drove slightly further on to a headland, wind battering the car, where me an Antje announced in union "I don't want to get out!"

Day 2: Skaftafell - Jok (Jokulsarlon) - nrJok - Eastfjords - Petra - Seydisfjordur
The 'frame' for the Skaftafell picture is a large bit of mangled bridge ruined in the last massive glacial outburst flood (caused by an eruption under the ice). Sure, you're porbably not supposed to climb it, but that's the thing about Iceland, there's never anyone around to enforce anything like that, so me and Tomas did anyway. Then he decided to jump around on a wobbly bit. He's a bit crazy, but without him we wouldn't have seen much of the cool stuff we did, including the waterfall in day 1.
We went to Jokulsarlon again of course, because it's the best place in the world, but we also ventured a little further down to the beach, where I got to see something I've always wanted to see, but just didn't know was there before: icebergs on a beach. And this was a black beach too, which made the contrast even more remarkable. They weren't massive 'bergs, but the beach was littered with them, and some were even rolling around in the near-shore waves.
From here we entered the clouds and saw little of the Eastfjords!
The pictures 'Petra' are from outside Petra's museum, an apparently amazing mineral collection, but we got there too late to get in. This also happened when I came with my parents. I now have a mission to see Petra's minerals!
Seydisfjordur is a pretty port town where the international ferry docks (which we saw in the morning). We wandered round the little town and harbour in the evening, and saw numerous starfish in the shallows.

Day 3: Desert - Dettifoss - Krafla - Hverfjall
'Desert' is just some nameless scenery on the route from Seydisfjordur to the Myvatn/Krafla area that we wandered about in for a while. The little hillocky mountains dusty in the distance looked, in the words of Antje, 'like something from the Lord of the Rings'. In fact, most of the scenery we saw that day was distinctly spooky, not least Krafla. Low, low cloud hung over an area of such recent volcanism that some parts were still steaming. There was also no-one about. And I remembered that it took my family and me a matter of hours to walk around the whole site. It was nearing 6 by now...would we get our alive!?
Ok, we only took a short route and didn'ts pend as long as that there, but something about the atmosphere just gave you the chills. Then we went to one of my favourite places, the perfect ash cone of Hverfjall overlooking Myvatn and associated lava field. The weather however was still bad, and we couldn't see that much, but the wind was forceful enough at the top to enjoy a bit of leaning into it.

Day 4: Akureyri - Siglufjordur - North valley - Skagi
Didn't actually DO much today, took it easy in Akureyri for a while and then fell about the twists of the North coast. Tried a few times to photograph a srange phenomonen in the bay of Siglufjordur, where the wind would whip up small tornadoe-type-things momentrily. My camera isn't really good enough for that tho...
The weather turned lovely as we rounded the coast at Skagi and treated us to a lovely sunset at the largest seal colony in Iceland - a few of them poked their heads out of the water to look at us as we attemped in vain to photogaph them.
"Stupid tourists".

Day 5: Westfjords - Djupavik
We stayed 2 nights at the base of the Westfjords so we could take an excursion into them. We got as far as this strange place - Djupavik - a real ghost town. Sad and rusting, the factory and ship echo of previous greatness, now all gone. The local dog followed us into the hills surrounding the 'town', and scrambled around us as we unwisely decided to descend back into the valley down a perilous slope. But no-one died. I took the opportunity to take a group photo here too, but for some reason everyone's making a stupid face.
Slightly fell in love with the big old rusting ship, just poised on the water's edge like it's going to launch back out to sea at any moment, but all dead inside.
That evening we took advantage of the free, outside, naturally-heated hot tub at the hostel. And took in exactly what you come to remote places for. Stars so wide on the sky that the arch of the Milky Way touched the horizon. And, as we watched, shimmering lightly into life, came the Northern Lights. Not a spectacular show, but peaceful, wonderful. In the lyrics of the Bedoin Soundclash "When the night fills my soul, I'll be home".

Day 6: Saeberg - Stykkisholmur - Snaefells
Woke up to glorious sunshine. There was something about the day that wasn't just sunny though, it was also very blue, of some fantastic hues! I think it's because, in general, you can see further, and with less obstacles than you could at home, so every sight seems intensified.
We drove on some actual 4x4-only roads today, the first out of Saeberg. Antje crossed her first rivers - and had such shot nerves afterwards she almost didn't let us drive up the second 4x4 road, even with Eemeli driving. But it was such a good day weather-wise, and I really wanted to go, so we did. And boy I'm glad we did.
We took a road right next to Snaefellsjokull, one of many volcano-summits-with-small-ice-caps found all over. But this road went right next to it, and there was no-one else around, so we stopped and messed about in the ice, mountain and sun. Unfortunately, everyone else had better boots than me and could climb the ice well enough (you can see my attempt by the 2 pictures in the album not taken by me - Climber 1 and 2). So instead I climbed a small ridge of ash across the ice (in the picture after Climber 2) and eventually joined up with the others.
And what a view! We could see forever, sea either side, and not a hint of humanity anywhere.
Took one of my fave pics, which I accidentally put at the start of the series 'Topoftheworld', a shadow pic of me flying over the while scene :-)
Then, sadly, back to Reykjavik.
It's strange just how much the Hallgrimskirkja (the church in Reykjavik that I live 2 mins from) stands out, even at a distance form the 'city'. A combination of it's position on a low hill and the extreme lack of skyscrapers in Reykjavik.
The image just struck me as odd, a church like that, no matter how tall and imposing, would be swallowed by any modern city elsewhere.

So! That was my trip, hope you enjoyed it :-)
Since there has only been Reykjavik day-to-day life, and of course there is much to be said about that, but next time, my fingers are bleeding.

Hooray! remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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One was of the course the inspiring scenery.
Another was the people it inspired.
And the last was the culture that arose from this relationship.
Of course I was only thinking of the country itself, and now I'm here, another learning mission has chosen to accept me; experiencing people from many different countries.

The scenery isn't just breathtaking, it physically steals my oxygen while I'm sleeping and distributes it evenly across the whispering shores, the sighing mountains, the shouting waterfalls.
Most of that you can see in the pictures from the pre-sessional field trip around Southern Iceland in the album linked in the last entry. I love photography (on an extremely amateur level), but dammit this country just makes any attempts at good pictures useless. My favourite picture I took was of the waterfall and the rainbow (displayed a couple of entires ago), but that still isn;t enough. What I can't show you is how that rainbow moved, faster than eyes can shift, once creeping closer and then again creeping back shyly. Lovely.

There are a lot of rainbows in Iceland. Mostly because it rains a lot. Speaking of which, last weekend I saw the most rain I've ever seen fall in one day.
This story ends with me being glad I still have friends.
I suggested to Antje and Eemeli that we take a bus trip to Ólafsvik, a town in the west on the Snaefells peninsula, near Snaefells mountain (and associated small glacier) where the heroes of my third-favourite-book begin their Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
Bus goes ok, and by bus I mean minibus, a public service minibus, and we get to Ólafsvik. It's a pleasant evening, little wind, some sun, and life feels easy.
"Did you book anywhere?"
"Naw, I'm sure it'll be fine."
They don't blame me, I'm young. The first guesthouse is full. It's not long before we learn that winter starts September in Iceland. And everywhere else in town in shut for the winter. The next minibus out of there was 5.35. The next day.
After much desperation we manage to book a hostel in the next town, 30km away, and decide to hitchhike.
Perhaps not wise in Iceland.
A guy picked us up on the outskirts of town, but could only frive us a little way. Still 20km to go, but now we're hopeful, and begin to walk.
We were still walking 2 hours later! You'd be amazed how many Icelanders drove by with massive 4x4s and only themselves for company. Eventually, we were picked up by a German couple in a tiny two-door car, so we sat very tahnkfully cramped in the back with our packs on our laps. I love Germans.

The next day, prepared for a hike to Snaefellsjokull, it rained a preposterous amount the whole day, laving us stranded in the hostel.
At least the 'walk' gave me some good photo ops:

What's amazing is those two actually still grace me with their company, and what's even more amazing is we're all going on a trip round the whole island starting tomorrow! Me, Antje, Eemeli and a Czech guy called Tomas, a small hired car and a whole host of pre-booked accomodation.

More amazing pictures to come, see you next week! :-)

Ég tallur ekki Íslensku remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Another party tonight, for all the foreign students, which should be a riot!

Oh, while I'm here, just a thought if any of you decide to write me a letter and are feeling generous there are a few things they don't have here I'm missing...
1. Tic Tacs. How am I living without Tic Tacs?? I can hardly think.
2. Herbal Essences. Only 20% of a travel bottle left. My hair weeps.
I'm sure there are more, luckily I've found a couple, some expensive Dairly Milk, and thankfully Antje found me some Marmite, phew!

Photos galore remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I have changed immeasurably in the past week alone. In fact, that's a lie, I can measure the changes. And they run along these themes:
1. Germans are great. Truly remarkable people.
2. Conversely, Britons suck.
3. Girls are great, and I can have a great deal in common with them.

Of course, these require more explanation.
1 and 2 can become clearer at first with a simple statistic. Of a class of around 40 people, 18 are German. 1 is British: me.
There were 4 Brits on the list to come, but I'm the only one who turned up.
During the pre-sessional field trip, I had the opprtunity to talk to many Germans (as it was hard to avoid talking to any really). I quickly learned that something like 80% of all Germans go abroad sometime during their study (they always gave me figures as percentages). It's a part of their life, their culture. Truly then, the Germans are global citizens.

It's funny, I always thought we were kind of friendly rivals. The kind of enemies in a film where one will say "We're a lot alike you and I".
How wrong was I?

I'm afraid it kind of made me resent this little closed off xenophobic island of ours.
If you ever get the chance to go abroad for a length of time and experience another culture completely, I implore you to take it. It'll change your perspective in minutes.

Point 3 is on a more personal level. Although my best friends are girls, Jo, Ree, Jess, Holly, I have always thought I have more in common with guys. Like when I hang out with Gareth n Matt n Keith, or at Uni, where my friends are Tom, Matt and Harry.
But here in Iceland I stick to Caitlin (American), Antje (German), Alina (Finnish), and well girls. And even stranger than that, we've adopted just this one guy called Eemeli. So where I'm usually the only girl in a gang of guys, now he's th only guy in our gang of girls. It's good :-)

Pictures of these people will become available soon, there's a house party at Caitlin's tonight :D

So much has happened, I'm sure if I tried to put it all down right now either I'd drop dead writing it or you'd drop dead reading it!

I haven't described the beauty of my field trip yet, but I'll leave that for next time, I'll just leave you with a couple of the most beautiful sights:

More pictures to come later

Bless bless remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Travel to London (Stanstead) tomorrow, leaving Weymouth about 2pm.
Stay overnight in a Travelodge
Go to Stanstead airport, check in, and fly out!
Spend first 2 nights in Salvation Army guesthouse
Go on field trip around Southern Iceland
Return to Reykjavik and move into house
Begin term 1st September!

I may have internet connection in the guesthouse, but if not, I'll definitely have internet in the house, which I hope to get going about the 28th August.

So, I will contact everyone properly then, when I'm set up.

I miss you all already.

I love you Will.

Farewell! remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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One week to go!
Sorry, I didn't realise you could only comment on this if you're a member, that's kinda gay. But please let me know if you're coming so I can arrange beds, food, chairs, etc. Any of my 3 email addresses will do, but I check hd4552@bristol.ac.uk most regularly.

Hello all!
I now leave the country exactly 2 weeks today (some guy from some mobile company phoned me up and 'wanted to talk to me about my mobile contract' to which I said, 'uh I don't need a contract, I'm going abroad next year' You should try it sometime, it gets rid of them real fast!)
Anyway, yes, I've decided to have a leaving do which runs as follows:

Date: Friday 18th August
Time: BBQ from 7, but I'll be free all day for people coming from afar who want a tour of Weymouth...!
After the BBQ, we'll be heading into town so's my mum doesn't have a hissy fit.
Venue: My house; 447 Dorchester Road

All uni friends are welcome to stay overnight, but I only have room for them, so any Weymouth folk will have to go home to bed :-)
Also, uni friends, if you can't come let me know and if I can I'll try to come up and see you in the preceding week.

Hope that is all, please comment on this if you can come or if you have any questions, hope to see you then!

Oh, and for the BBQ I would appreciate some contributions of food and/or drink...!

I can also confirm my address in Iceland:
Njarðargata 37,
101 Reykjavik,
Iceland

I'll be there from 1st September

Love Hayley

Leaving do remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I fly out on Monday, 21st August at 12.45 in the afternoon, exactly 5 weeks from now.

How exciting!

The Beginning remains copyright of the author Lifandi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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