Day 2: Hafnarfjordur

Hafnarfjordur

Because I am an willingly manipulated tourist at heart, the place I most wanted to see was Hafnarfjordur, home of the hidden people, only visible to those with second sight. I was expecting a tour guide to point at a rock and tell me it's awesome and I still wanted to do this. 

At the Park. Are you my elf house?

Iceland has a great reputation for belief in elves, ghosts, and all kinds of mystic creatures. Even road constructions have been re-planned so as not to disturb elf houses and incur their (or the locals’ wrath). That said, rumor has it that most Icelanders will say yes, many people believe in elves, but that they’re not sure if they themselves do.

While hidden folk are noted to grace places around the country, this town, just a 20-min drive out of Reykjavik, is the most known for them. There weren’t any tours offered when we arrived, which perhaps defeats the purpose, but we wandered anyway through the grassy boulders of the public park and across the Hamarinn Cliffs where the hidden folk supposedly like to visit.  I'd been hoping to find a map of elf houses at the Tourist Center and self-guide our tour, but alas, no luck. My dad pointed to every rocky crag he saw, said “Look, Jule, an elf house!”, and speculated on each one's property prices.  

The small town is rather quiet for having two notable tourist traps: elves and a Viking hotel and restaurant.

Land of the midnight sun. The sun didn't set until 11pm.

(a black-pebble beach back in Reykjavik)

Traveler's Tips

Hafnarfjordur

Tours 1.5hrs and only offered at 2:30 on Tuesdays and Fridays, so plan accordingly. They might also only be seasonal.

Day 2: Reykjavik

Capital City

It was a bit of a surprise to discover that the area I'm staying is in Reykjavik’s downtown.  Many of the streets are only wide enough to admit one or two cars, bordered by wide sidewalks, cafés, houses, and small shops. Most buildings are colored concrete or corrugated tin walls with steeped corrugated tin roofs. Though most houses look similar, they distinguish themselves with colorings of their roofs and walls, most being red, blue, yellow, white, and/or grays. The day started out in the low 40’s (F) and rose to the 50’s. It’s been a bright, sunny day with remarkably fresh air.

In the morning, we visited a church called Hallgrímskirkja where, for a fee, we took an elevator up into the clock tower and looked out at the city. Reykjavik is a seaside city, ringed in the distance by snowcapped mountains. The effect is beautiful and makes the city feel exposed, a vulnerable patch of humanity allowed to exist on this rocky land because, for the moment, the environment is willing to humor humans.

Genetic Database

In 1998, Iceland created a genetic database, Íslendingabók, that maps the enter population’s genealogical information extending back over 1,200 years. (The database gets interesting reference in Arnaldur Indrioason’s Icelandic mystery novel Jar City).

 In 2000, Iceland seems to have sold the rights to access the database to deCODE, a US biotech company. Iceland’s been pretty isolated (which has interesting results, such as modern Icelandic being so close to old Nordic they can read the original Norse sagas, and Iceland mostly playing traditional styles of music until rock reached them). This also means it’s a great genetic sample for studying genetic diseases; deCODE has been able to develop drugs to combat heart disease, strokes, and asthma, and now offers them free to Icelanders. This deal may have been part of settlement after the database was declared unconstitutional in 2004; however, the database still exists.

Today’s Reykjavik Grapevine (a entertainment/tourist focused free newspaper) reports that deCODE celebrated its 10^th anniversary with the Incest Spoiler alert, a joke smart phone app. The idea is that before going home together Icelanders can answer a few questions on their phone, at which point either an alarm goes off telling them they’re too closely related, or a message encourages them to get it on. One columnist was pretty pissed off because apparently, international news got wind of this app and have been reporting as if Iceland is a pool of incest and this app is all that stands between them and genetic disaster.

Food

A classic food every guidebook mentions is Harofiskur, dried salted haddock. I found it at the grocery store and it tastes exactly as I should have expected – tough (it’s dried), salty (it’s salted) and with a fishy aftertaste (it’s fish). So. That’s a food then.

Food’s expensive in Iceland.

Saga Museum: Settling

The Saga Museum provided a collection of choice anecdotes on Icelandic settlers.

Originally, Irish monks found the island and stayed there because its isolation meant nothing would interrupt their studying. When “heathen” Norse arrived, the monks decided to ditch rather than stay in such company. Later, Vikings raiders would enslave Irish; so many so that at the time 20% of the men and 50% of the women in Iceland were Celtic (the rest were Norse).

Early Norsemen navigated by noting the flights of migrating birds in spring and autumn. The first Norseman to land on Iceland, Flóki Vigerdarson, took three ravens on his ship to use in navigation. Then all his livestock died and he left. Eventually a man called Ingolfor permanently settled in Iceland.

Saga Museum: Let’s Have a Religion

Iceland was divided between Christianity and belief in the Norse gods. In 1000AD the government decided they needed one religion so as not to divide the country.  A single member of the government, himself “heathen” as the museum called it, chose Christianity, but said some heathen laws would stand and that you could practice what you wanted in private. If you were caught, the punishment was three year’s exile. The last Catholic bishop in Iceland, Jon Arasson, was beheaded in 1550; against traditional Christian rules, he had many kids and most of Iceland is related to him.

Saga Museum: Let’s Have a Government

Most immigrants to Iceland came feeling oppressive European kings, and so they approached choosing a government with care. They ended up with the first Parliament, all members unpaid save for the Law Speaker, whose job was to memorize and recite all of the country’s laws. Writing was adopted around the time of the conversion to Christianity and laws recorded in books.

Saga Museum: Let’s all Die

In 1402 a ship from England under Einar Herjolsson brought the black plague. A third of Iceland died, but Einar was fine.

Saga Museum: Witches!

The first killed in Iceland’s witch hunt was a nun in 1343. Unlike most other countries, men were most often accused of witchery.

Get the View

The Hallgrímskirkja church is a nice view, but really, you want to go to Perlan/The Saga Museum (it’s the same building). While the church top let’s you peak out of barred windows, the Pearl has an outside walkway, offering an uninterrupted panoramic of Reykjavik (plus it’s free, while the church charges $7/person to enter the tower).

Food

Food’s pricey here but not quite as pricey as it looks (I was assuming an Icelandic krona was 100th of a dollar, but it's more like 100 krona = US$0.81).  It's about US$3.65 for a cappuccino or latte, and US $10.00 for a bowl of lobster soup.

Saga Museum

It’s about US $20/person, which includes an audio guide. It’s a small museum for the price. The audio-guide tells you anecdotes and tidbits of settler history while you look at wax sculptures in traditional dress and there’s a video explaining how the sculptures were made.

Day 2: Reykjavik

Day 1: Keflavík, Grindavík, and Blue Lagoon

Keflavík and Grindavík

We arrived at the airport in Keflavik, an area that from 1951-2006 also housed an American military base.

The land around us was flat and open, like being in the American Southwest; you can see to the mountains at the horizon. Buildings, usually only one-story high, barely interrupt it. The landscape was more covered by rocks than plants. Occasional groves of stunted pine trees were the only plants taller than ankle-height. No wonder Iceland isn’t known for any vegetable dishes, we realized, it barely has vegetation.

Fishing Town’s Café

We landed in early morning – 7am. According to my guide book, nothing in Iceland seemed to be open before 10am.  A short drive through Keflavik’s deserted streets confirmed it. It may just have been that everyone was off fishing.

Eventually we found signs of life at Café Bryggjan in nearby Grindavík, a small cod fishing town whose members have lived here for generations. The café was by two brothers, one of whom was extremely friendly and gave us advice on our visit.

We bought coffee and got our first Icelandic food. I tried a slice of a sort of 3-layer pancake sandwich. In between layers was a cream sauce mixed with capers and ham bits. Pretty good. It being a fishing town, lox salmon was also offered, and we tried skyr, which is one of those stereotypical Icelandic foods. It tastes just like non-tangy Greek yogurt and in addition to the typical flavors, comes pear and melon.  (IceNews claims the difference is Skyr is in fact thicker and slightly more protein-packed than Greek yogurt. It also seems to be fewer calories/quantity).

Iceland, the owner told us, is full of tourists. If you want somewhere non-touristy, try “a school. Or grocery store”. This café, tucked away as it was and popular with fishermen before they set off to work,

According to my 2010-edition guide book, though Iceland continues commercial whaling, they do it more out of a sense of tradition, national pride, and nostalgia than practicality, as only 1.1% of Icelanders eat whale on a regular basis. This seems out of date. The owner said it’s whale season now and advised us to buy some of the popular humpback whale in the grocery stores. Fin whale is also hunted, but exported (I have no idea where to).

Blue Lagoon

One of those places you have to go if you’re an Icelandic tourist, Blue Lagoon is an expansive hot lake/spa nestled between tall mounds of black lava rock. It’s a great place for people who have ever been cold and want to forget what that feels like. The lagoon is fed by a geothermal spring and water ranges from pleasantly warm to if-I-wade-in-any-further-this-will-scald-my-skin-off. Right by the pipes, it’s almost unbearably hot, as water pours in close to boiling temperature. Clouds of steam pour off the source and float down the lake, dragging with them the eggy smell of sulfur. When you’re close enough, steam washes over you, blinding you with white. The water itself is a foggy white and if you drag up sand from the bottom, it’ll be shiny black grains or a silken gray-black clay. In many places the clay has plugged crannies in the lava rocks and formed smooth, rubbery white layers. The temperature’s cold enough for coats in Iceland, around low 40's (Fahrenheit), and we got a bit of hail today. Standing up out of the water was bracing, but refreshing. We were all feeling sleep deprived when we landed, and lazing about floating on the current was a great way to spend the afternoon. I also checked out the sauna. As I stepped inside, my limbs immediately felt heavy and I decided it would be an easy place to faint and die. I tried the steam bath next, basically a room filled with a hot steam cloud. It felt like being in a rain forest. Occasionally steam condensed on the roof and fall like a scattered hot rain.

One of the cool parts of Blue Lagoon is you get a waterproof wrist band and everything you buy (the spa also includes a bar, which is an interesting choice for people who are swimming . . .) is paid for by scanning your band. Very futuristic.

Traveler’s Tips

You can rent bathing suits, towels, bathrobes, etc. at Blue Lagoon but you’ll save if you have space in your luggage to bring your own.

Despite it’s reputation as a tourist hot spot, Blue Lagoon was not too crowded (at least not on a Tuesday morning).

I found out after the fact that while Blue Lagoon water is said to be great for your skin, but not your hair. Rumor has it that if you don't want your hair to come out matted and weird, put conditioner in it before entering the waters.

Day Two: Golan Heights

Ein a-Tina

We took a nature hike through one are of the Golan Height region, a park called Ein a-Tina. We waded through a river and up to an irrigation pipe. The farmers aren’t allowed to draw away all the spring’s water for their crops, so on random days they open the pipe’s extension and let water flow free to the surrounding plants. The tan reeds and scrub-like trees surrounding the river seemed perfect for lions and straight out of a religious painting. (Which is naïve of me to say, of course, as this is Israel, after all).  It was actually several days before I saw green grass.

 We were out here at the same time as many native Israelis were vacationing. Hassidic Jews waded into the water in full skirts and headscarves for women, pressed black pants and white button-downs for men. I’m told boys don’t cut their hair until they are three years old, and then they leave just the front curls untouched. If their hair grows straight, they twist it into curls.

Droze, a minority religious group, live in this area. They are very secretive and one can only read the holy book after converting. I wonder if anyone leaves after realizing what the beliefs they’d signed on to actually are.  

(Another very secretive group is a Jewish mysticism sect which only men who were over 40, married with kids, and very religious were allowed to read the holy book). 

Day One: kibbutz, Ceasarea, Baha'i Gardens

On the first day, we stopped by kibbutz, one of the community-run farms, for brunch. I’d read that the kibbutz had become so financially successful in Israel that it was starting to tear them apart: now that the communities brought in money enough for necessities and more, disagreements were arising over how to spend the surplus. If you don’t have much money, it’s easy to choose to spend it on food. If you have extra, it’s harder to decide buying stocks versus a new car versus anything else.

 I don’t know anything specific on how this kibbutz was run. It was a pretty site of low white buildings and greenery, but we met few Israelis. 

Next up was the amphitheater in Ceasarea (below photo),  once a notable Roman seaport.

Then to the Baha’i Gardens. At the time, I’m not sure we knew much about the place besides that it was holy, lush, and immaculately maintained.  This garden, I read in my guide book, was made to mark the tomb of a Baha’i spiritual leader.

Israel Birthright: Jew-ish

This trip is long overdue for a write up, and I’m afraid my memories are a bit jumbled. Still I’ve got my notes, so let’s see what I can spin from a ten days in Israel last August . . .

Jew-ish

I told a classmate that I only celebrate a secular version of Hanukkah, and that’s only when my family remembers.

“That’s not so bad,” he said, “Hanukkah’s not a very important holiday.”

What I’d meant was that was the only Jewish thing I did.

Thanks to my half Russian Jew ancestry, I qualified to go on the birthright trip with a close college friend. The night before our flight, we used an ironing board to barricade the door of our slightly seedy hotel, located in the middle of a sea of concrete that is now my only image of Newark, New Jersey.

Up until I was seated on the plane to Israel, I was afraid that someone would call me out as a fake Jew and kick me to the street. Certainly, it was intimidating. The Israel Outdoors phone interview was followed up by a close questioning at the airport. Both coming and going, Israel security quizzed us on topics ranging from if we had friends in Palestine, to what our grandfathers’ names were (“Buell”, apparently, was innocuous enough). I was relieved to find a baptized and communioned girl on my trip: finally, someone more tenuously Jewish than me.

Rumors abound about the birthright trips, and I entered expecting the whole thing to be a grand (and very generous) recruitment effort to convert me to active Judaism and to putting down roots in Israel. I’d even heard that the trips paired each of us up with an opposite gender soldier, in an attempt to seduce us into staying (Myth: busted). My mindset was, “Israel, thank you so much for this trip! Also, you don’t own me!”

Traveler’s Tips

My guide book for this time was Insight Guide’s Israel. This one's particularly great in the photos arena,  and some nice cultural info. It's drawback is that it occasionally tries a little too hard to put a positive spin on all aspects of Israel.