Tuesday, December 18th 2012

            We woke at 8:00.  I got our latte and tea and pastries and we ate quickly in our hotel.  We took the RER B to Charles de Gaulle International Airport.  Our flight was three and a half hours and as the plane descended towards Iceland it was our first view of the strange country to the north in daylight.

            Everything had a light blue hue in the darkening twilight.  I could see fingers of land, the furthest east portion of Iceland, stretching into the dark sea below.  I saw mountaintops and glaciers.  Fjords and great, gray plains.

            When we landed I could see the terrain more closely.  Whitish hay, which looked stiff in the cold, brushed and blew in different directions outside the plane.  

            We got off the plane and purchased our tickets on the FlyBus (which transports people between the airport and their respective hotels).  As we walked to the FlyBus I marveled at the twilight.  The sun had set at 3:28 but it was still light out at nearly 5:00.  A light, blue’ish twilight washed over everything.

            As our bus bounded through the countryside it drove through a dense fog that had settled on the highway.  We had to change buses at the bus depot but were finally deposited at our hotel, ‘101 Hotel’ after about an hour.  At this point we were both starving and just wanted to eat something quick.  We decided on Bæjarins beztu pylsur (Literal translation: the best hot dogs in town).  I had read in the Wikitravel guide to just order the hot dog with everything on it.  Mena and I ordered a few hot dogs, fully loaded, and then realized there was no place to sit indoors.  It was too cold to eat outside so we literally ate our hot dogs as we shuffled back to the hotel.  Talk about fast food!  It was so cold I couldn’t feel hand by the time we got there.

            We showered, changed into super warm clothing and drank espresso to wake up for our trip to view the Northern Lights.  We were picked up in a big, white truck with kick ass tires and a notched hood for the super charged engine.

            The guide’s name was Axl.  As we drove out of Reykjavik Axl and I chatted.  He told me he was the closest thing I’d ever find to a Viking.  I asked him if Iceland always smells like sulfur (as you walk around it smells like rotten eggs) and he said that Reykjavik smells like sulfur when wind blows from the mountains.  They also use geothermal steam to heat the water when you shower so that’s why the shower water sometimes smells like sulfur.  He said he’d visited New York City between ten and twelve times.  He’d also visited Portland, Seattle, Alaska and Boston.

            “What are the chances we’ll see the northern lights tonight?”  I asked him.

            “50 / 50 like the Knicks winning a game.” 

            “The New York Knicks?”

            He nodded.

            Guess the Knicks have at least one fan in Iceland!           

            On our way out we stopped at a convenience store.  I tried to pay the woman at the register.

            “You sure want to buy water?”  She smiled demurely.

            “Yeah.”  I replied, confused.  “Why? Is it really expensive or something?”

            “Well I can just give you cups and you can drink for free.”

            “Thank you for the suggestion but we need the bottles because we’re travelling in a jeep for the next few hours.”

            “Okay no problem.”

            (We’d see similar things like this several more times.  Seems the people in Iceland are very proud of the fact that their tap water is as good or better than most bottled waters.)

            We got back in the truck and set off for northern Iceland.

            “How long do we have to drive?”  I asked.

            “Maybe ten minutes.”  Axl shrugged.  “Maybe an hour.  The only way to find the northern lights is for me to track them down.  Look up at the sky.”  He said pointing out of the moon roof.  “See there are no clouds here.  You can see the stars. I need to see where the clouds are and I can track them down.”

            As we drove along the desolate stretch of highway at 100 kilometers an hour Axl would periodically shut off the lights, open his window and peer out into the inky blackness in search of the Northern Lights.

            “It’s a very dark night.”  He said.

            I looked out the window at the small sliver of moon hanging in the sky.  “There is almost no moon.  Is that good or bad?”

            “It all depends.  If it’s a bad light show no moon is good because you’ll be able to see it.  If we have a fantastic light show its best to have a full moon because the full moon can help frame the lights for photography.  The moon can be your worst enemy or your best friend.”

            We continued further north, just cruising along with barely visible mountain / volcano tops, the steady drum of the treads on the massive tires and jingle bell rock underneath a jet black sky sprinkled with brilliantly bright stars.

            Finally after an hour of driving we got out of the truck.  The ground crinkled and shattered underneath my feet.  It was like being on an alien planet.  Cold, glittering rocks covered with a dusting of granular snow.  No wind but so cold you could only stand out there for a few minutes before you had to go back in the truck.  It was – 8 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) but it felt much colder.  

            “Its eighteen degrees but it feels so much colder.”  I said to Mena.

            “Its an arctic eighteen degrees.”  She said. 

            And she’s right, for whatever reason temperatures up here just feel much colder.  I could literally only stay out of the truck for five minutes tops.

            “How long do we stay here?”  I asked Axl.

            “Until we quit.  We have a good view of the northwest.  No reason to leave.”

           

            We left five minutes later for another spot.  Axl periodically used my SLR camera to spot the northern lights that were invisible to the naked eye.  He spoke of the lights as if they were a whimsical animals intent on evading our detection.  It felt more like a hunt than a sight seeing tour.

            We stopped in another place way off road.

            We sat in the car hoping the northern lights would appear.

            “If you see a shooting star tell me.”  Axl joked.  “That costs extra.”

            We spent most of the time waiting in his car.  He told me about his life.  He travels a lot and told me about his journeys around the world.  He also told me that life in Iceland was tough.  He said he was making the same amount as he was in 2007 and he was working five times harder.  He said it was impossible to buy his house because the price had appreciated 300% in the last few years.

            At the end of the night we saw very faint green tendrils of light in the sky…but it was barely visible to the naked eye (although I got some pictures on my camera). 

            We set back for Reykjavik at midnight without seeing the lights.  I was disappointed we didn’t see them, but more upset that Mena didn’t see them.  This is something she’d wanted to see for a very long time.  It is a ‘bucket list’ item for her and the only reason we’re in Iceland in the first place.  I just hope we’re able to see them before we leave…

            L