Little Mundane Updates

1. I chopped all my hair off with a kitchen scissor!

It pretty much looks like crap 7 year-old's haircut but I think after a week or so of growing out, it should be okay. I've been meaning to do it for awhile, though the true decision came about a week ago in yoga class when, while tilted sideways during a twisted trikonasana, I felt my neck straining to hold up the 2-pound bun of hair piled atop my head. Hair shouldn't be hard. 

2. Don and I made pickles.

Not great shots, but my beloved camera recently bit the dust, so I'm excusing the shoddiness with my unfamiliarity with Don's camera. Also I was lazy. We made these pickles nearly a week ago, to enormous success (Don's dream is to sell jars of them at Union Square Greenmarket and "make a mint"). We had three jars: marinated mushrooms, with our "standard" pickling mix (water, white vinegar, bay leaf, mustard seed, juniper, pimento, etc.) and pearl onions; a batch of whole and sliced cucumbers, also using the standard mix but with added cumin seeds; and a "sushi" mix, of cucumbers in a ginger-garlic brine with a bit of soy and leek (my personal favorite... will be adding wasabi next time). All three versions are absolutely restaurant-worthy and I'm not ashamed to admit how proud I am  of these magnificent snacks of the vinegar brine world!

Iceland: Hraftinnusker & Alftavatn

Days two and three of the hike: the surface of the moon and the mossy green valley, glacial lake included.  Leaving Hraftinnusker (hraft = obsidian, which was scattered everywhere in postapocalyptic chunks) was almost frightening in its nakedness; barely a living thing, nothing but sulfur and evidence of million year-old explosions from volcanoes past.

Not a glacier, but a snow-covered ravine... 

Tired in my space pants (photo by Don)

(photo by Don)

...until we came upon this valley, at Alftavatn:

Vatn means water, or lake. The entire valley was moist and cool and felt like a sheltered paradise compared to the black starkscape of the Hraftinnusker area. Hraftinnusker is also the highest peak on the Laugavegur trail (around 1095 meters), the ascent of which was all done on day one -- so physically and mentally, we welcomed the mossy, moist change. 

Iceland: Landmannalaugar

I'm still not done sorting through my pictures yet (i.e., am waiting for Don to finish finalizing his fancy HDR photos), but I do have some lovelies that are worth posting regardless.

These are from the first day of our hike, starting at Landmannalaugar (in Fjallabak National Reserve).

Frostastathavatn

One of our initial ascents

Things quickly turned barren

Don looking tough and sweaty on a snow patch

A jolly group of German clinical psychologists

Standing in the midst of a steamy spring (maybe later I'll post a video of the savage, spitting thing) 

All of the moss everywhere was this color green!

And I just really love this picture

The first day was stunning and steep and hard. We climbed about 3,300 feet over 12 kilometers, which I don't know if that's a lot but it certainly felt like it with a 20 kilogram pack on my back. The volcano ash/soil held fast even in the rain, allowing us to scramble up pretty steep slopes without having the ground skid away underneath us. There were no trees, shrubs, plants, animals, or insects (didn't see those until the third day) -- just moss, water, and rocks. The water was clean to drink right out of the stream, assuming it wasn't stinky with sulfur or laced with mineral-happy algae; mostly it was just glacial snowmelt, freezing cold and clear. We reached our first hut at Hraftinnusker (see below) exhausted and a little damp, but were greeted with geothermal warmth and a silver-haired Icelandic hut warden who I thought was the coolest old lady in the world.

Iceland: Reykjavik

Before I begin the onslaught of stunning panoramics from my and Don's hiking trip, I will present you with the more typical and oft-seen side of Iceland: the capital city, Reykjavik. These photos were taken before and after the hike, in no particular order.

Hallgrimskirkja 

Fulfilling my dream of riding an Icelandic pony 

Knitted tree sweaters were not uncommon 

One of Reykjavik's many, many kitties... we saw 14 in total and they were all extremely nice 

Reykjavik harbor 

A blurry but rare picture of us together, taken on our first night in Iceland 

View of Reykjavik from the top of Hallgrimskirkja 

The Sun Voyager 

We went to the zoo! Along with the seals there were arctic foxes, reindeer, and fancy pigeons...

As you've probably guessed, Don and I spent most of our time in Reykjavik outside and exploring. Our late morning starts account for about half of this, as the city's museums all closed by 5pm and aside from shopping or checking out the Perlan's water tanks, there wasn't much else to do indoors. It's a bit of a college town, I hate to say -- as much as I fell in love with Icelandic nature and culture, I found the city itself a bit... boring. Perhaps if I'd had lots of kroner to spend at the innumerable boutiques, or had a keen interest in marzipan cakes, or enjoyed wearing heels, I might have felt more strongly about it. I just couldn't relate, is all. (There is, however, a quite healthy art and music subculture which, due to time constraints, I did not get to explore. Apparently the Iceland Airwaves music festival is supposed to be pretty good -- Beach House and Sinead O'Connor are playing this year!)

So in our spare, post-5pm time, we walked -- to the zoo, to the botanical gardens, to the harbor, to the flea market. I took Saturday morning to go horseback riding and swimming in the city pool (naturally heated by geothermal springs!) while Don saw a few more city sights and played with the lively neighborhood cats. I'll admit, it's a pretty good city got relaxation.

Fancy Times

The end of summer manifests itself in a lot of different ways for different people, most of them sad. Mine, conversely, was festooned with messy bejeweled hair and a wrinkly dress, and had a penchant for "doing lunch." I'm living outside my means, in other words, and having too much fun for someone about to go on a  semi-expensive trip to a foreign country. (My days of 600 euro two-week vacations are over. France was a dream!)

Off to Iceland!