Fireworks in the land of fire and ice

Americans are no strangers to spectacular fireworks. We usually go all out on the 4th of July with multicolored explosions in all kinds of shapes and shooting arcs, sometimes in time to an accompanying Sousa march.

Iceland's top night for fireworks is New Year's Eve. They do it a little differently from Americans, though. Instead of there just being an official, municipal fireworks show, there are thousands of individuals who shoot off their own "cakes." I don't mean simple sparklers or bottle rockets. We're talking serious, 4th-of-July-worthy, pyrotechnic eye candy.

Since everyone is lighting their fuses in their own backyards, there is no single focal point for the observer. You just look in the sky, and you will see the bright bursts left, right, center, and if you turn around, in back of you.

The fireworks go on for hours. (Actually, days, if you consider some random bursts on the days leading up to the 31st. Yesterday, Dec. 30, there was a great 10-minute long show coming from the area around Höfði House, the site of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit.) The revelers take a break, though, around 10:30 on New Year's Eve, and there is a lull in the visible celebration in the sky. Why? Because every Icelander then turns on his or her tv to watch the annual political sketch comedy special, Áramótaskaupið. When the tv show is over, the pyrotechnics begin anew.

Interestingly, the source of all the fireworks is the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue, ICE-SAR, (Slysavarnafélagið Landsbjorg in Icelandic). It is their biggest fund-raiser of the year. Icelanders love the Search and Rescue squads even more than they love fireworks, so it is a highly successful fund drive. Presumably the squads will rescue you when you have a fireworks-related mishap?

Festive lights taken a step further

Many people around the world decorate their homes and yards with festive lights for holidays such as Christmas or the new year. Icelanders are among them. However, they go a step further. Not only are shops, city streets, and residences draped with twinkling bulbs. They have extended the decking of halls to cemeteries. I kid you not.

I'm not sure whether to be aghast or delighted. On the one hand, I think of cemeteries as somber place. On the other, why shouldn't the departed be part of the festivities, à la Mexico's Day of the Dead?

Do people in any other countries follow this custom?

Wintry Golden Circle

One of the most popular sightseeing tours in Iceland is called the Golden Circle. This tour encompasses three main sights: Gullfoss, Geysir, and Þingvellir, which are all within 45 minutes of the capital, Reykjavik. We visited all three last year around this time.

Gullfoss (Golden Falls) is a wide and powerfull waterfall that you can hear before you catch sight of it. You walk along a path, and then you become aware that the falls are below you. This is how they looked on Christmas day 2012.

I read that the photo on the Echo and the Bunnymen album, Porcupine, is of Gullfoss. Cool. Here it is from another angle.

Geysir is a geyser, as you may have already surmised. (The Icelandic word is actually the origin of the English one.) It is very close to Gullfoss, so be sure to visit both if you are in the area. It erupts fairly frequently, but not predictably, so you could be waiting a while before seeing one, or you might see two or three eruptions within 20 minutes. Unfortunately we were always a second or two too late in catching the eruptions on camera.

Þingvellir (pronounced THING-vetlir) is an area of both geological and historical interest. Geologically, it is the rift between two plates, the North American and Eurasian. These plates are separating at a rate of a centimeter per year. Plate techtonics in action. This is one of the spots where you can see Iceland sitting directly on top of the mid-Atlantic ridge.

Historically, Þingvellir is the place where the world's first parliament met. Over a thousand years ago, the chiefs of the various areas of Iceland would gather here annually to set laws and settle disputes. There is one particular spot with a great echo where the speaker would stand so that he could be heard clearly by everyone. The area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004.

There are some nice trails and waterfalls throughout.

The lake there, seen here in a photo from early September 2013, is full of trout.

It's also a nice place to pick blueberries and crowberries in autumn.

Dyrhólaey

There is a peninsula with a natural arch on the southern coast of Iceland called Dyrhólaey. The name translates as door (dyr) hole (hóla) island (ey). (I read that it used to be an island.) Dyrhólaey is a popular spot to visit and take pictures. If you look at the photo below closely, you can see the tiny sightseers on top.

Looking in the other direction, a long, black sand beach stretches out to the horizon. For scale, note the white jeep slightly right of the center of the photo. (This shot was taken about 11 months earlier than the others, hence the different colors in the sky and water.) Also note the lack of sunbathers and swimmers --- it's chilly out there!

Here is the view from the top of the arch itself, looking back at the point where we stood to take the photo above:

The arch itself is quite nice to look at, but in the summer, a special bonus is the presence of nesting puffins. Apparently they are not bothered by the proximity of humans.

They are as ridiculously cute in person as we had seen in pictures.

Two of the gazillion waterfalls of Iceland

Hard to believe how long it has been since we last posted to this blog. It really wasn't our intention to let it lapse for so long. Just got the feeling no one was looking at it and therefore lacked incentive. We would like to get it going again. Let's start with a look back at some of the places we've visited in Iceland that we haven't gotten around to blogging about until now.

Southeast of Reykjavik are a couple of scenic waterfalls right off of National Route 1, also known as The Ring Road. Here are some photos from our visits there.

Seljalandsfoss in the rain, Sept. 2012:

Our second visit to Seljalandsfoss in August 2013 was less rainy, allowing us to walk on the trail behind the falls. Here is the view from there.

Skógafoss waterfall in August 2013:

It makes a big impression from close up.

Near Skógafoss is Skógasafn, or Skógar Museum, which includes exhibits about life in Iceland as well as a separate transport museum.

There was a display about folklore and healing arts. The caption in the sign below for "child's pipe" reads "Baby boys were given their first milk through the hollow bone of a whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) which was stuck through a fish bone. This ensured that they would never be seasick. It was also reputed to give them a beautiful singing voice." No need for Dramamine then.

In the old days, Icelandic kids didn't have Legos, Transformers, and Barbies. Instead, their toys were bones and crudely carved wooden figures:

Outside was a grouping of little elf houses near some bone toys.

The museum also featured taxidermied animals of the region, weirdly including a 2-headed lamb. Reminded us of certain roadside attractions in the US.

In the transport section, we saw the precursor to Iceland's modern superjeeps. Check out this early snow vehicle.