After a 4am wake up ready for the transfer to Keflavic airport, i sadly packed my bags and prepared to leave. when I arrived there was hardly a soul at the airport, but this morning the queue for Icelandair was snaking around the airport, so having only 1.5 hours before my flight out, I started to stress as the queue inched closer to check in. I was starving as it was too early for brekky at the hotel and no food is served on this airline, unless you buy from their overpriced menu, the flight to Stockholm was 3 hours or so. On arrival in sunny Stockholm, I purchased a very expensive return express train into town, nearly $80, so skybus is cheap as! From the Central station, i had to get a local metro 2 stops to my hotel, and it certainly was a good choice as have been all my accommodations, i recommend bookings.com which i have used for all my trips and not had a bad hotel yet! the hotel was fairly old and in a groovy street with cool cafes and shops and I discovered it was walking distance from the lovely old town, the city centre and other museums, the ferries, etc. I walked a lot even though I purchased a 3day travelcard for trains, ferries and trams! Yes they have trams! I saw some great architecture, photography museum with a Robert Mapelthorp exhibition, old and new postal advertising at the Postal museum, a massive medieval ship The Vasa, recovered intact which sank on its maiden voyage and they built a museum around it, and enjoyed exploring the old cobblestoned town. But, it was not as clean as Iceland, and i saw a few homeless men scavenging thru garbage bins.
the food, like Iceland is expensive, so I avoided restaurants and ate kebabs, empanadas and shopped at the supermarket.
I was sightseeing and walking hours on end and was so tired every night, it stayed light til nearly midnight but there was some darkness unlike in Iceland. Everyone speaks English like in Iceland so it is very easy to get by. I nearly went to Ikea as there is a free bus from the city, but decided against it as there was no room in my bag for a Sven sofa or even an Erik mixing bowl! It was 27 degrees C, and very warm with icecream sales booming! people stripped off to their underwear in the parks on the grass and anywhere there was a bench to sunbathe!
then back to the airport on the very expensive shuttle train and fed every few hours by Qatar air. the only incident worth mentioning is I nearly got quite burnt as the attendant passed over a cup of tea while the man in front dipped his seat back, and dropped it on my lap! I shot up and danced around the aisle, soaked with hot tea and the attendant was in shock. Lucky it was not boiling water, but my hand was hurting and i was not impressed being wet down my t shirt and jeans, lucky i had a shirt packed in hand luggage!
So arriving in Melbourne, our good old met let me down as i raced from skybus to spencer st station, i got the 11.30pm train and when we got to Flinders St, it just sat there for half an hour, no announcement, and when I checked the board it was departing as the next train, so i got home after midnight and dragged my weary body and luggage home!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Sad to say goodbye Iceland
Last days in Iceland
Well my trip around Iceland is rapidly coming to an end and I will be sorry to leave as it is a unique land worth exploring. The weather fluctuates more than Melbourne and you need to be prepared for all conditions in one day. We spend a lot of time on the mini bus with many stops along the way each day, sometimes to use conveniences, for snacks and drinks and meals and for sightseeing, we see at least 2 impossibly named waterfalls a day and many more smaller ones which cascade down the mountains fuelled by the melting glaciers. We are now following the coast and it is beautiful. We saw the glacier where Journey to the centre of the earth is meant to begin in the famous Jules Verne novel, some small fishing villages, and walked along senic coastal paths. We stay in small out of the way farm stay guesthouses which hold you to ransom regarding dinner, there is either an all u can eat buffet for anywhere between $45 - $65 and no other choice or a set meal from about $40 for one course, and usually there is nothing else around for miles. There is lots of seafood and lamb but there have been offerings of pork, chicken, horse and whale!
The daytime temperatures vary from 3 degrees to 15 degrees, so layers is the sensible way to go. I have been swamped by waves, stepped in muddy puddles and slipped on slippery slopes, so am in desperate need of a laundrymat before I move on to Sweden. Since it is daylight constantly, I tend to go off for a walk after dinner for a little me time, and arrive back in broad daylight around 10.30pm trudging along the road or on horse trails, and there are lots of Icelandic horses in the green paddocks which are very friendly and curious and attention seekers. Many parts remind me of Scotland, Switzerland and The Galapagos and Andes in South America. it is rugged and beautiful and attracting more tourists every year.
Back in Rekyjavic and I am sad to say goodbye, but this morning I had a private snorkle in Silfra Fjord, where the tectonic plates split apart the USA and Europe continents, and if my arms were longer could touch both continents at once. I had a thermal drysuit and full diving wetsuit which was very uncomfortable to firstly get on, and then to wear, and the water temp was a cool 2 degrees C, but i think i got some good pix but had mittens on which were hard to work the camera with! The reason I did it on my own with a lovely instructor was that they made a mistake with my booking as 40 kids from the UK were booked in for the morning, but i had no other time to do it, so they kindly took me out on my own, and it was beautiful! The crystal clear waters are filtered by the surrounding lava and can take 30 to 100 years to arrive at the fjord from the glaciers and so it is unpolluted and pure, and i drank some along the way.
Iceland is beautiful and I recommend it highly before the tourists all discover that it is a great place to visit, tourism is their growth industry and I know why! It is full of Viking stories and myths, lovely scenery, cool cafes and towns, english speakers and is alive and active! i have loved my short adventure and want to come back again!
Well my trip around Iceland is rapidly coming to an end and I will be sorry to leave as it is a unique land worth exploring. The weather fluctuates more than Melbourne and you need to be prepared for all conditions in one day. We spend a lot of time on the mini bus with many stops along the way each day, sometimes to use conveniences, for snacks and drinks and meals and for sightseeing, we see at least 2 impossibly named waterfalls a day and many more smaller ones which cascade down the mountains fuelled by the melting glaciers. We are now following the coast and it is beautiful. We saw the glacier where Journey to the centre of the earth is meant to begin in the famous Jules Verne novel, some small fishing villages, and walked along senic coastal paths. We stay in small out of the way farm stay guesthouses which hold you to ransom regarding dinner, there is either an all u can eat buffet for anywhere between $45 - $65 and no other choice or a set meal from about $40 for one course, and usually there is nothing else around for miles. There is lots of seafood and lamb but there have been offerings of pork, chicken, horse and whale!
The daytime temperatures vary from 3 degrees to 15 degrees, so layers is the sensible way to go. I have been swamped by waves, stepped in muddy puddles and slipped on slippery slopes, so am in desperate need of a laundrymat before I move on to Sweden. Since it is daylight constantly, I tend to go off for a walk after dinner for a little me time, and arrive back in broad daylight around 10.30pm trudging along the road or on horse trails, and there are lots of Icelandic horses in the green paddocks which are very friendly and curious and attention seekers. Many parts remind me of Scotland, Switzerland and The Galapagos and Andes in South America. it is rugged and beautiful and attracting more tourists every year.
Back in Rekyjavic and I am sad to say goodbye, but this morning I had a private snorkle in Silfra Fjord, where the tectonic plates split apart the USA and Europe continents, and if my arms were longer could touch both continents at once. I had a thermal drysuit and full diving wetsuit which was very uncomfortable to firstly get on, and then to wear, and the water temp was a cool 2 degrees C, but i think i got some good pix but had mittens on which were hard to work the camera with! The reason I did it on my own with a lovely instructor was that they made a mistake with my booking as 40 kids from the UK were booked in for the morning, but i had no other time to do it, so they kindly took me out on my own, and it was beautiful! The crystal clear waters are filtered by the surrounding lava and can take 30 to 100 years to arrive at the fjord from the glaciers and so it is unpolluted and pure, and i drank some along the way.
Iceland is beautiful and I recommend it highly before the tourists all discover that it is a great place to visit, tourism is their growth industry and I know why! It is full of Viking stories and myths, lovely scenery, cool cafes and towns, english speakers and is alive and active! i have loved my short adventure and want to come back again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)