iceland.trip

glöggt er gests augað -- sharp is the eye of the guest (...the mind, however, not so much).

suiting up - icelandic mall life

With little street knowledge of what we'd find in Icelandic supermarkets, we imported the maximum per person 3kg of food and 2 bottles of wine et al (more on this later). Not a bad decision. But with the directional help of our guest house owner (and GPS, of course) we made a stop at a local mall - Smaralind (here) - on our way out of town.

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Not only were there three very large grocery stores (including a outlet of the perfectly named Bonus chain), they had a tremendous selection of international food stuffs. There were at least two brands of six different prep'd Indian sauces - we chose Tikka Masala - there were enough Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Italian ingredients that we could have opened a serviceable restaurant in any of the cuisines. Fresh pasta, watermelon, peanut butter - this isn't the isolated outpost we'd imagined. $120 of groceries later, we were ready to drive.

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There was also a very cool FREE gift wrapping station in the main lobby. Unfortunately, we had nothing to wrap.

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Lastly, for entertainment, the mall was hosting a dance recital which included an Icelandic edition of Annie.

Posted by Eric Antonow on 08/20/2005 at 11:45 AM | Permalink

geyser - gulfoss - arnes

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More confusing than it looks. Great road maps are at most intersections throughout the country. The place is all about usability. Nonetheless, someone needs to confirm coordinates with the GPS (note his hand). We spent the day touring a few of the popular tourist sites. Unlike the rest of Europe, this means you might see a single tour bus every hour or so. Geyser (you can guess what we saw) and Gulfoss (a major waterfall) were the two biggies. 

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En route to Geyser

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One of the lesser but more predictable spouts draining before the explosion.

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A broad view of Geyser.

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Gulfoss. We required full wet gear to get close to the falls.

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Strong but thin light was present most of the day.

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Our hostel in Arnes. Sullen europeans hung out the lounge. We broke out the American boxed wine (cheers, Roger) and enjoyed a spring fed (very very) hot tub.   

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Here are the big guns. Brought Rao's sauce from the states. Found fresh linguini and good parm at the market (shocked). Fired it up. Ate like kings.

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Actually, from Sunday morning. Raining like dogs. My coffee, in a steam fed hot tub.

> Next (Sunday)

Posted by Eric Antonow on 08/20/2005 at 09:14 PM | Permalink

Categories

  • an executive summary
  • day 1 - thursday
  • day 2 - friday
  • day 3 - saturday
  • day 4 - sunday
  • day 5 - monday
  • day 6 - tuesday
  • day 7 - wednesday
  • day 8 - thursday
  • logistics

Recent Posts

  • executive summary
  • reyk - airport - home
  • cafeterias - public pools
  • horse farm - power plant - how to run a country
  • road trip - prisons - lobster - thai
  • vatnajokull - snowmobiles - narrow roads
  • swamps - whales
  • skaftafell - jokulsarlon
  • music - black beach - another fall
  • wet start - falls - a country to see