J ö r ð + V a t n (III) | andrejrusskovskij.com

1 week trip in Iceland

(day 6)

We spent our 5th night in a farm just before Höfn, a fishing village in the south-eastern part of the country, after a quick dinner made of langoustine sandwiches (Höfn traditional dish) in a fishermen shack. The farm was as cozy and lovely as you can imagine and, of course, it was surrounded by nature (http://www.eldhorn.is/mg/gisting/). We set our alarm at 9 am, 2 hours before sunrise: the perfect time to enjoy a tasty icelandic breakfast with no rush and get ready while dancing to Sylvan Esso. We left the farm heated up by the golden light of the rising sun. A sudden swerve of our car on the icy slippery road scared the pants off us but didn’t affect our enthusiasm. Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon was our destination for the day. Well… It was terrific. Floating milky white and bright blue icebergs with seals swimming and playing in the wild, along with black shores and washed up multitudes of various shape and size icebergs glimmering in the sun. I’ve never experienced anything similar in my entire life. We spent hours there without even realising it! On our way back we stopped for a while to pet a bunch of icelandic ponies and then, when we started thinking that the day could have not gone better, we encountered several wild reindeers, running next to our car on the edges of the road. Hot springs in the open surrounded only by the black night and a home cooked dinner with asparagus soup and salmon, before going to sleep with a huge smile on our faces.

During those days, we set the alarm at 1 am, when the geomagnetic activity should be at its best (as we were advised by James, our couch surfing host in Reykjavik). That night we looked up in the sky from our window, as we had done previously without success, just to notice that I forgot the car lights on. We dressed up randomly and rushed out, afraid that the battery was already run out. As soon as I turned the lights off we saw the aurora. We stepped out the car and we stood there in silence while those bright green lights were dancing all around us. Nothing compared to what we saw on our first night in Reykjavik. A show that we won’t ever forget.

Soundtrack: Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso

Jörð + Vatn, “earth and water”, are all around you.