Iceland is Niceland

So I’ve just had my first couch surfing experience and it has been loads of fun!  I doubt most couch surfing experiences are like this though.  Hugi, our Icelandic host, had 5 of us staying with him.  There was Gabi & Michael, Americans au pair-ing in Belgium & Germany, Ali from Bahrain and Nasr from Germany.  Everyone was good value, even if Ali seems somewhat misguided when it comes to the facts of life.  But Hugi our Icelandic father was there to help him out!

Hugi welcomed us into his home and let us treat his apartment as our own.  He drove us around town, took us looking for the Northern lights, picked us up and dropped us off, took us to his favourite karaoke bar (no I did not sing) and really went above and beyond chasing around after us.  He's tour was good and a total bargain compared to the outrageous prices for things around here (day trips like $150 - $400).  And the clever title for my post Iceland is Niceland I've actually pinched from his facebook page https://facebook.com/icelandisniceland

 

Marshmallows for trolls.  Farmers put these in the paddocks
to stop the trolls from eating the horses.

Going somewhere with Ali, or Princess Ali and we started calling him, was like going somewhere with my sister.  ‘Are you ready?’ ‘Yes’ ‘Great let’s go.’  Then you walk outside and realise they’re still inside and so you wait.  And wait.  Then you’re like ‘What the hell can they possibly be doing?’ and after about 10 minutes they wander out.  Every time.

The Hugi tour was great despite the crazy weather.  He hired a minibus as we ran into a couple of random Germans that Nasr met on the plane over and they decided to come along too.  So we went to a couple of amazing waterfalls.  There was Gullfoss, a huge waterfall that was almost totally frozen. We tried to take a group photo there, but the wind was icy cold and almost blowing us sidewards.  Seljalandsfoss was a really tall waterfall that in the Summer you can walk behind, but this time of year is too icy.  I went to walk up to the lookout at the side, but it was too slippery and I didn't want to slip because of my camera (it's got nothing to do with being a pussy).  But Michael and Nasr went up to the lookout and then behind the waterfall.  But they had a little trouble getting back, having to climb the wall because the path was too icy and Nasr got almost all the way up then slipped and slid back down like of a big slide.  I reckon he wasn't far off ending up in the water!

    

We also went to the Geyser area.  We waited for 10 minutes in the freezing, icy wind only to get a little pfft, pfft fart of a spurt from the Geyser - and because my fingers were so cold I missed getting a picture anyway! 

But the best part of the day I thought was the glacier.  It was raining when we got there, and the wind was blowing sidewards so that whenever you looked up you got stabbed in the eye with rain-turned-ice, but it was so amazing!  The blue of the ice is amazing and the contrast of the ice and the surrounding black lava it looks like another planet.  The photos aren't too good, but it was raining a lot - it's a miracle my camera is still working after this!  But I'm going ice-climbing next week so I might have more luck then.

Well there's a lot more to tell, but I don't want to bore you with long posts, so I'll save those stories for another day.