| 9:30am |
After having breakfast at a gas station (and a very nice chat with the attendant, who
complained about the past two winters for not having enough snow -- that showed you
the characters of the locals), we left Akureyri for Lake Mývatn, the most famous
tourist attraction in Iceland out of the capital.
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| Gas station at Akureyri |
Goodbye, Akureyri! |
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| 11:00am |
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| Goðafoss |
Midway to Lake Mývatn, we stopped at
Goðafoss (God's Waterfall),
where the Þorgeir (lawspeaker) pushed the pagan statues over the falls
and made Christianity the official religion of Iceland in the year 1000 AD.
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| 12:15pm |
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| These are pseudocraters, now covered with grass. |
Emily on a strawpile. |
The first welcome we received at Lake Mývatn
were -- bugs. Armies of bugs.
(I did not think they stung, but surely they were annoying, especially if near your eyes.)
We dived headfirst into the tourist store and bought some veils to protect our heads.
Just across the road from the store were the
Skútustaðir pseudocraters.
They looked like mini-volcanoes but actually were "created when lava pours over
marshland, boiling the water beneath, which burst through the solidifying crust to
form a cone." (A round of applause for the helpful tourbook.)
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| 12:45pm |
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| Höfði natural park |
Höfði natural park
was famous for its stack-like rock formations rising out of crystal clear water,
as well as being one of the best bird watching locations in Iceland.
More than eighteen different species of ducks nested here
and feasted on the annoying bugs.
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| 1:45pm |
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| ESther and Thomas surrounded by lava towers. |
Esther and Thomas at lava arch known as the dark castle. |
This was Dimmuborgir, once a lava lake
and now a lava field garden, featuring countless towers of lava,
each twisted and contorted in its own way.
Hverarönd was a large field of sulphurous mud pools
and steam vents, caused by underground water being heated up to 200°C and
forced out of the ground.
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| The yellow and grey muddy ground of Hverarönd. |
Water vapor bubbles bursting in the mud pools. |
Although the water was 200°C underground, they were just lukewarm when
exiting through the steam vent. |
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| 4:00pm |
After seeing so many lava fields and mud pools, finally the volcano itself.
Krafla last erupted 200 years ago, and still seeked our attention through
occasional earthquakes and creating new fissures.
Its crater, Viti (Hell) was flooded with green water.
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| Krafla Viti |
It took us about half an hour to walk around the crater. |
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| 5:15pm |
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| Soaking our feet in Grjótagjá. |
After so much walking, what could be better than soaking our tired feet in warm water?
The flooded fissure Grjótagjá,
where Icelanders used to bathe in two warm pools inside two low-ceilinged cozy caverns.
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| North America on the left, Europe on the right. |
The water, at 50°C, was actually too hot to bathe in, but just fine for feet soaking.
Lake Mývatn was actually right along the mid-atlantic ridge, where the teutonic plates
of North America and Europe were being pushed away from each other by volcanoic
activities.
This picture was taken just outside Grjótagjá (right above the pools), where the fissures
were very pronounced.
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| 6:00pm |
We spent the night at the Eldá guesthouse,
and had dinner at a local restaurant.
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| Meet Mývatn babe #1, the receptionist at Eldá.
She had no idea where the good restaurants are.
Mývatn young men, please take her to dinner! |
Happy dinner time! And we were very happy because the soup came with
free refill, the fish was well-prepared, and ... |
... we had met Mývatn babe #2, a waitress at the restaurant! |
Emily and CK were very happy to be served by her ... |
... and Thomas was quite intoxicated ... |
... and Esther was fine with it as long as she had cheesecake,
which she could not get in Geneva. |
Near the Eldá guesthouse. |
Goodnight, Mývatn! |
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