Today we got to sleep in which was good because we have been up late the last two night looking for the northern lights. We left the hotel at 9:30 and our first stop was to take pictures of the sunrise and the glaciers. I like that you don’t have to get up early to see the sunrise. Magnificent!
Then we proceeded on to Skogafoss falls. The Eyjafjallajökull (don’t ask me how to say it) glacier is the water source for these falls.
From there we went to Skogar Folk Museum where we learned about how the Icelanders lived. People lived very simply until well into the 20th century. At that time they started to discard all their stuff because they felt it was old fashion. Þórður Tómasson collected the stuff because he thought it was important to keep a history of how life was. He accumulated enough stuff to create the Skogar Folk Museum. Today he is 98 years old, still collecting, and writing books.
From when people arrived on the island until the mid 19th century, the main source of wood was drift wood which floated to shore, primarily from sunken ships so many of the houses were built into the side of a hill to reduce amount of wood needed. Remember there are not many trees here.
Settlers burned cod liver oil, which is quite smelly and smoky, for fuel and light. Because of the smoke and the odor their kitchen was in separate building. Also typically in the evening they burned just one cod liver oil lamp in the house so it was quite dark. They typically didn’t heat their homes. Therefore they all lived in one room with beds along the wall. The beds became their sofas and dining room chairs during the day. They slept two to a bed and slept sitting up because they were superstitious and thought they would die if they slept lying down. The other reason they slept sitting up was it took up less room.
They used a covered wooden bowl to eat with the lid doubling as a plate. They didn’t have metal to make eating utensils, rather they fashioned a spoon from a ram’s horn. They only problem was if the spoon got too hot they would melt. They let the dog lick the bowls clean rather than wash the dishes. In the winter they fished to supplement their food and used the fish skin to make shoes which wouldn’t last very long. They would describe a distance by how many pairs of shoes it took to get there.
After our tour of the museum we went outside to see examples of their houses. Here are some pictures.
We had lunch at the museum and then had a photo stop at Dyrholaey Promontory. Here are some pictures.
Next stop, Reynisfjara, a black beach. Not surprising the sand was black since it was volcanic. Most of the beaches on Iceland are black. We had to be careful because the beach has what they call sneaker waves. Every 6 or 7 waves the wave comes into the beach on an angle. These sneaker waves can knock you down and you can have trouble getting up . The land drops off sharply just a little way out and the current is very strong. Of course the water is also very cold. Even in the summer Icelanders don’t go swimming in the ocean.
Helga, our guide, told us about beach erosion. The ocean starts eroding the rock by cutting a cave into the rock and eventually this turns into an arch. Then with more pounding from the ocean eventually the roof caves in and just a pillar of rock is left.
Icelanders say the pillars are trolls which did not get back into hiding before the sun came up. The troll turns into stone if they are out in daylight. Very superstitious people! To this day many Icelanders also believe in the hidden people who inhibit a parallel universe. The hidden people can see us but we can’t see them unless they want us to see them. For the most part they leave us along but if we disturb them they can make our lives very difficult.
This beach had basalt columns. Basalt columns form from lava that is cooled at the end of the columns. The hexagon shape is a result of the crystal structure of the rock.
We went into Vik which is a very small town to do a little shopping but before the shopping we made a photo stop. The sun was setting and it made a beautiful picture of some stone trolls and a stone ship.
At the store they had lovely sweaters and blankets but I only got two skeins of yarn to make my own souvenir.
We had a beautiful sunset this evening.
Before dinner we had fermented Greenland shark. This shark has no kidneys and essentially pees out its skin therefore the meat is very poisonous. However if you press and ferment the meat, the urine is extracted and it can be eaten. Our guide told us it is quite smelly and will stink up the refrigerator unless stored in a tightly closed container. People eat it because it is very high in protein. I tried it (it was cut up into very small pieces) and it wasn’t too bad. Then we chased it with aquavit. Actually, I thought the shark was better than the aquavit.
That night we went out again to look for the northern lights. This time we just went behind the hotel. They were out and dancing around. It was really lovely. I still haven’t figured out how to take a picture of them but here are some pictures from other tour buddies.
Here’s a map of our travels.
