Road Trip Iceland

Oh how quickly the tables can turn. As soon as David got back from his trip south, the remaining members of Team Midge (Bre, Jamin, and I, along with Kyle and his girlfriend Suhani) took the car on a bit of vacation ourselves. Last Saturday, in order to be able to be caught up on enough work to get away we worked a marathon day at a frantic pace. Jamin and I braved the elements to collect lake samples. It was very cold (4C), and windy, which makes for less than ideal conditions to be on a small boat leaning over the sides, pulling our traps. But we got through. At the same time Bre and David collected our Mývatn transect samples. Not only that, we counted all our samples and even did dishes! It was a quite impressive day, if I do say so myself. After various delays in leaving (seriously, the fates were conspiring against us) we finally were in the car and on our way to the town of Seyðisfjörður where we were planning on seeing a concert with a few of our favorite Icelandic bands, Hjaltalin and Bloodgroup being among them. We approached the town, which sits at the apex of a beautiful fjord on the east coast of the country and saw the lights of an outdoor stage, as well as hundreds of young Icelanders just hanging out. The only unfortunate thing was that it was raining, the stage was outside and we were camping. I will tell you that it didn't stop us from having an amazing time. We made new friends, saw a great show from Bloodgroup (they put on one of the best live shows ever). Also included in our ticket price was a dance after the main concert by another great Icelandic band Hjálmar, who plays a mix of reggae and ska. I would bet that the five of us were just about the only non-Icelanders present at this music festival. There were lots of sweaters, as usual, and as usual we wore ours in an attempt to fit in. Overall it was a great time. We saw some familiar faces, debauched a bit and witnessed some debauchery by others.

As an aside, we finally made it to Egilsstaðir. (everyone is going there, and some will even pay ISK 10,000 to go to Akureyri instead)

The following day, after a much needed late start we began our drive to the south, and one of our main destinations, Skaftafell National Park. But first we took the long route through the beautiful East Fjords. We made it through two fjords before the fog became so thick that we couldn’t actually see anything and we were just wasting time.

Anyway, that evening we did make it to Skaftafell that night, which is the home of the giant glacier Vatnajökull, and the sometimes-home of our friend Oli who lives in Reykjavik when he’s not in the field doing science. One of the main goals of the trip was to pay Oli a surprise visit.

Once we got to Skaftafell, we gave Oli a call, but alas, he had returned home to Reykjavik the previous day, sooner than we had realized he was leaving. We bedded down for the night after seeing the utterly amazing Jökulsárlón, or Glacial lagoon. This lake, which is about half the size of Mývatn, where we work but this lake is squeezed between a giant glacier and the sea. As such, the glacier is constantly calving gigantic icebergs into the lagoon, which then flow out to sea. It is really an unreal sight, I cannot even come close to describing it, and few pictures really do justice, but I will include here a few that I took.

The following day, we went to the beautiful Svartifoss, which is the most-photographed waterfall in Iceland, and although beautiful, I have to say that it is a bit underwhelming after seeing the striking Aldeyjarfoss. Here are a few pictures of Svartifoss as well.

(Ok one picture of Svartifoss)

We continued on our journey and hit the town of Kirkjubæjarklauster (hahahaha good luck pronouncing that one), where the striking, but somewhat inauspicious Kirkjugólf lies. This basaltic formation confused the original Viking settlers, and they thought that Irish monks who had been in the area previously had built a church, and this was the ruins of the floor (Kirkjugólf means “Church floor”).

As we continued on we hit a few more waterfalls, all of which were impressive, and then on the ring road, we hit a large swath of gravel, and as we looked to our right we saw “THE VOLCANO.” It was a cloudy day, so the pictures aren’t fantastic, but we could see where the eruption had taken place, and up on the glacier a large column of steam was still billowing up. The large swath of gravel is where the volcano Eyjafjallajökull (Yes, I can pronounce it now) had melted the glacier sitting above it, which had then flooded the plain below it and washed out the road. It was quite special to be in the place where the eruption had taken place, although it was not happening at the time.

We continued driving around the Ring Road, Highway 1, and as we moved further and further and further west, we had a decision to make. Would we continue all the way around to complete the circle, or would we retrace our route and try to see the fjords we missed due to fog? We decided to return the way we had come, a much longer journey, but we also decided that the fjords were likely worth seeing. At the same time, we decided to test the limits of our trusty Pajero and venture into the interior of the country to a park called Landmannalaugar to camp for the night, and then return to the ring road by another road through the interior. These two decisions turned out to be the best ones of the trip. The interior of the country is a vast, rocky desert-like area with roads that are not paved at all, and are only accessible for about 3 months per year in the summer. Basically these roads are volcanic tephra that a bulldozer of some sort has come and just moved the large boulders from. There are no lanes, no bridges and no gas stations. Basically if you are on a road that few travel and your car dies, you are out of luck. You may not be picked up for days. We took one of these roads (although it was fairly well traveled for an interior road) toward the campsite. The area was quite something.

On the way out, we took another interior road toward the coast, and I drove this leg of the journey. It was quite a fun drive, on unpaved roads with probably 15 or so river crossings. We also stopped at Eldgjá or “Fire Fissure,” the longest volcanic canyon in the world. There was another beautiful waterfall here.

Finally we made it back to the ring road, and headed home back through the fjords, which were spectacular. We all agreed that we made the right decision by retracing our steps.

It was a fantastic few days, and a few thousand kilometers under our belts, it was right back to work. I could not have asked for a better way to spend a few days off, and now I have seen much of the country that I would have never seen had we just stayed in Mývatn.

One if by land, Two if by [water]

Hello patrons of the China Shop. It is once again Friday, which means that it has been about a week since my last post. I will try harder to post more often, but certain circumstances that are beyond my control (laziness) have kept me from posting frequently. Anyway, this has been an interesting week in the lives of Team Midge. David and Kyle departed Kálfaströnd on Monday and headed to the south in order to pick up their family and girlfriend respectively. This created an interesting situation for those of us left behind. We were seemingly stuck at our house with no transportation. Seemingly, but in reality we were mobile. We had our beautiful 14ft V-hull boat complete with 10 horse Mercury outboard in which to commute around the lake. And commute we did. We made a number of trips back and forth from the research station to work on our various research projects.The real crown jewel of the week though was Wednesday. We finished up our lab work for the week in the morning. We counted around 25 samples in less than 24 man-hours, which is really quite impressive. Our determination, as well as efficiency was quite high. Also our long awaited Myvatn Research Station apparel from Cintamani showed up! We all agreed that our legitimacy as biologists increased many-fold with the arrival and subsequent donning of this gear. Nearly all Icelanders wear Cintamani jackets, and with the research station seal on our sleeves (text in Icelandic) we are looking more like we belong.

So this is a picture of whale on a Monkey Plate, but it should be down below the next paragraph, and due to technical difficulties it won't move down there

Another component of our great day was when Erica and Bíbí came by to visit with us for a while. Eventually it was time for dinner, and as a treat to our homebound selves, we prepared some Minke whale and hamburgers that we had bought earlier in the week when we still had a car. The whale was quite good. I grilled it to medium rare over Kingsford charcoal with just a bit of salt and pepper rubbed on. The meat is similar to beef, but more dense, a much darker color and quite flavorful. There is a bit of marbling throughout, but it is in no way tough. In fact, it is quite tender. Eating whale is taboo throughout much of the world, but here it is a part of the culture, just as eating beef is in the States. I don't really feel bad about it. Minke is a quite abundant and it has a fairly short generation time, so with responsible management it can be an ok fishery.

The day was capped off by a boat ride into the fabled North Basin of Lake Myvatn. I say fabled, because we have never motored that far and we were told that passing the strait into the North Basin was a dangerous affair, fraught with perils like pirates and sharp rocks (ok just sharp rocks). We made it through the strait with no problem, and pulled up to shore just in front of the church in Reykjahlíð, disembarked in front of a number of gawking tourists and headed right to the concert. Hjaltalin was great again, this was the second time we had seen them, the first being in Reykjavik.

After the show the signed our map that we used to navigate to town. We headed over to the local hotel bar where beers were flowing, despite the steep cost (~$8.50 US) and the locals were just hanging out. It is fun to see lots of people that we recognize from the region, even if we don't really know them. After a few rounds, we headed back home, navigating through some pea soup, which added a bit more adventure to our trip.

What would you do for your country?

This is the question that was written on the July 4^th space on our work calendar since June 1^st. Living in as Nordic country at the time when this date appears makes this quite a valid question. The weather forecast for the weekend called for rain and 8^o C. Not exactly the best celebration weather. (we had big plans for an outdoor party complete with slip n slide, barbecue and maybeeven warm kiddie pool foot bath) Despite the less than ideal conditions we showed our pride for the US and had a great weekend. Saturday began a bit rocky, Bre and I were to head to Husavík in order to get to the Vinbuð (the state run liquor store, the only place where one can buy real beer, liquor and wine) to get supplies for Sunday the 4th. The two of us offered to go whale watching there with Mireia since she was leaving on Tuesday, and this was her one request since she had arrived. Most of the group was hesitant to go unless there were blue whales in the bay since whale watching is fairly expensive (~$80 USD). Mirea was excited to go, so I called an acquaintance of ours who works for the whale tour company. He said to just meet him on the pier when we got to Husavík, and we could hop on the tour with him. Suddenly the prospect of a free whale watching trip caused a two person trip to turn to a 6 person trip. The whole thing caused a bit of consternation among the group because there was some bread in the oven, and we couldn’t leave when we wanted to and we had to do grocery shopping and people had work to do and people were worried that they wouldn’t get to the Vinbuð before it closed, and people had a dinner planned in the evening and people had to make a pie still and on and on.

Anyway, we 6 got to the pier and as I suspected Christian was hesitant to let 6 people on the boat for free, so we headed up to the ticket office and talked to the agent, who happened to be an American and since I seemed to be in charge of this trip I talked our way to into the biologist’s discount of 40% off. The weather was quite windy, and we piled on the boat, a ~35 antique wooden fishing vessel. We cruised around the harbor for about an hour of our 3 hour trip searching and searching for whales, but the harbor was so choppy that we didn’t see a thing except for a bunch of puffins cruising around.

After about 30 minutes in the bow, our group decided to head up to the perch above the wheelhouse. We were sure glad we did. We stayed nice and dry up there after we headed out of the bay and the waves got even bigger. We had a great time up top, laughing smiling andwatching the people below us just sit and stare at the waves. We didn’t really feel bad for them because we gave everyone a chance to head up, but no one did. After another hour motoring over the waves out to sea Bre spotted a marine mammal! We chased 3 groups of white-beaked dolphins around the mouth of the bay for about 45 minutes. They weren’t whales, but it was really cool to see them come up by the boat and flash in the waves. Overall it turned out to be a great day, and we were all pretty proud of the boat—despite the roiling seas, no one got sick! How quickly our anxiety of the morning had passed.

We got home just in time to be seated for a farewell dinner for our friend Jasmin, who was the field station intern for most of the summer. Árni had prepared a feast of lamb and traditional Icelandic condiments: cold peas, picked red cabbage, along with some potatoes and various salads. As dinner was being served I was preparing a pie crust from scratch for a strawberry-rhubarb pie. The problem of not speaking Icelandic was quite apparent at this point… instead of buying shortening for baking, I bought lard for frying things… I had to use some tub butter for the crust… needless to say, it was not the best crust I had ever made, but the filling was fantastic (thanks to David for harvesting and preparing the rhubarb from around our house).

The morning of the 4^th we went to the field station and got a bit of work done, then went home to prepare the house for our celebration. We all changed into our finest American apparel (World’s Greatest Grandpa shirt, American flag fanny pack, desert storm t-shirt, power boat shirt, and even our Catalan wore a NASCAR shirt). The weather turned out to be just about right, there were a few holes in the clouds and the rain subsided. Our American archeologist friends stopped by for the afternoon and we grilled our imitation burgers made of some tubed meat made consisting of pureed pork, mutton, and horse (yes, horse). The burgers were pretty nasty. Less than ideal for sure. Anyway, the party devolved into full scale dance party, and even Shakira was played at least 3 times. And no, in case you’re wondering, my hips don’t lie.

One of the few photos from the 4th I feel comfortable posting on the internet...

The 4^th was a success overall and it was nice to have a day off. Although, I am convinced that when we have a day off we work harder and get more work done on the successive days than we would if we had just worked each day. In line with that sentiment, we worked three 12-hour days in a row, more because the weather forecast was for gale conditions for the next three days. And right on cue, the wind picked up and howled for those three days. The beginning of the storm though came with a beautiful sunset and some great cloud formations.

Here’s a little bit about what I’ve been up to concerning employment after my stint in Iceland. I've applied for a few jobs, and I've been lucky enough to have a couple interviews, and I'm still waiting on a couple more, so despite my apprehension at the end of the school year about being unemployed, I do seem to have some prospects and I’ll keep applying for things as I see advertisements. So keep your fingers crossed! (sorry Mom and Dad, I don’t really want to have to move back in with you for longer than a month or two!)

A promise is a promise.

I promised to write about my recent trip to Reykjavik. So here I go...

It was fun.


They say leave your reader wanting more right? Still I think that probably won't cut it. So here is a narrative of the weekend. Friday, we worked most of the day, until about 3:00. While Jamin and David were in the lab working on data, and Mireia and Kyle were out on the boat, Bre and I did the familiar circle around Mývatn, visiting each of our transects and collecting our cups of dead midges. It was a nice trip. The day was fantastic - sunny and warm. I wore short sleeves and pants. I would guess the temperature was around 65 degrees F ... which is about as warm as it has been all summer. We made good time, neither of us got lost going the 500m sites, which is a pretty big accomplishment. Jamin told us that it was the first time that the new people had ever gone to collect the samples together without a more experienced person along. We felt pretty good about that.

Anyway, on to Reykjavik.... After our day we drove to Akureyri to catch our flight. Flying in Iceland is great. We showed up 10 minutes before the plane was to leave, got our boarding passes, walked right onto the tarmac and into the plane. There is no security, no x-ray of baggage, nothing. It's the way that it should be and I wish it could be at home. The flight is a 45 minute trip south in a 50 seat twin turbo-prop, and quite relaxing. We got to the city and, unfortunately it was raining. We were worried because it had been so beautiful in Mývatn that none of us had bothered to check the weather or bring rain jackets. (it turned out to be a decent weekend, overcast but no rain other than on our walk to where we stayed) We walked from the airport to our friend Oli's apartment where we were to bunk for the weekend. We walked in and knew immediately it was going to be a cozy weekend... There it was one small room, with no furniture to speak of except an air mattress that was laid on the floor. None of us cared much, it was a small price to pay for a free room within walking distance of the city center.


So at this point I had written a whole post, but it got deleted. Only what is above was saved. I'll try to reproduce what I had written. This is a bit frustrating.


So anyway we wandered downtown and strolled up and down the main street getting a bit of the lay of the land. We were all fairly hungry so we wandered into an Indian restaurant on the main street. It was a small place, probably less than 20 small tables, and it was filled with locals which we thought was a good sign. We weren't disappointed. The food was fantastic, and it was pretty awesome that the chef was the one to whom we paid our bill at the end. It was just him and two servers working. After dinner we headed back to the apartment and got ready to head out for the evening. We taxied downtown to some bars and had a great time. It is unfortunate, but none of the bars would play "Hips don't lie" by Shakira, even though I requested it at at least 6 different places. Bribes don't seem to work either (DJs apparently don't take American flag credit cards). We made it back to the apartment about 7:30 am, soon after being kicked out at close at 7am.

The following day we woke up feeling as good as new (hahaha) andwalked around the city. We stopped in a local establishment to watch the US vs. Ghana world cup match, which was entertaining, but a bit disappointing. We once again headed back to the apartment, but this time to take a nap and shower before heading out again for the evening. Our respite was cut short by the arrival of Oli's field assistant Henny and her friend who was visiting, Carolina. We chatted for a while and we promised to meet up with them later on in the evening. When it was time for us to go, we headed upstairs to the convenience store to call a cab, which was done quite willingly, as it seems someone in our group had tipped the security guard the previous night. We made it downtown to an establishment called Vitabar, where Jamin knew of the DJ who was going to be playing. His name was Terradisco and he has a place in Team Midge legend, which I will not go into. Terradisco was offended that I asked him to play Shakira, and I was offended that he wouldn't so I urged the group to leave.

Nice mustache, Terradisco

We did leave, probably not for that reason though. We made it to a bar called NASA where the Finns happened to be, and where there were also a number of bands playing. NASA is a space-themed bar (motto: expect hangovers) which was surprisingly large and well attended. The bands were great, and I ended up buying their CD's. After the show we rounded out the night at the same bar where we watched the football match earlier in the day. Bre and I actually only went in long enough to try and find Oli, but he was nowhere to be found. After a late night hot dog from Iceland's most famous stand, where you ask for only "Eina með öllu" (one with everything) we made it home to crash once again on the floor.


The trip was a great success and I would love to go back sometime in the future.

When we got home it was back to work. Long hours, because there have been about 5 consecutive days of rain in the forecast. One day, David and I got done a bit early so we painted the roof of an outbuilding on the property where we live. It was a great day to be on the roof, but a bit windy, and as a result I am now the proud owner of a new pair of red polka dot pants.

We painted ourselves in and had to jump off the roof