We made sure to get to the zoo at opening time at 9:00.  The vast majority of the people waiting there were parents with kids and only one group of two did not have children. They, incidentally it seemed came for the photography.

The day itself was actually quite nice, as it has been so far in the spring. In the morning it was nice and cool, perfect t-shirt weather and very comfortable to walk around in though closer to noon however it got quite hot particularly as we did quite a bit of walking.

We didn’t really go to the zoo with the intent on seeing anything in particular so we just headed to the first things we saw which included polar bears and an animal I think were called marmots. (pictured below) As is expected in animals that probably see thousands of visitors daily they were fairly unphased by our presence and we could get fairly close. We were close enough so as the exhibit (not sure if you can call an animal ‘habitat’ an exhibit though but it makes more sense then anything else i can think of) required a “carefull these animals bite sign” of course this was strategically placed so that anyone crawling through a little tunnel to get into the middle of the exhibit would have the sign next to the their head.

Much to the amusement of both my dad and sister of course was my fascination to some of the local birds. (first two from top) I can’t remember what they are called but many I’m sure will recognize them to be fairly common. Of course common as they may be I’ve always had trouble photographing little birds like these with my telephoto lens as they move too fast and are usually too small and too skittish. These of course just posed for me.

Aside from these birds however other birds which can be found everywhere in The Netherlands interested me a great deal and vice versa it seems they were quite interested in me as well. These were little ducklings. My dad and sister quickly called to me and told me that a two other photographers were shooting little ducklings. I don’t know too many people who don’t like ducklings and naturally I rushed over for the prospect. Apparently their mother was on the other side of a fence that they could just hop through. In a small group of around 10 they waddled around a small area. I came by lay down on the ground to get a good picture, and after a second of hesitation they all came rushing towards me. I only got one or two shots before the entire group just came too close to focus. They were very curious ducklings and poked their heads in between the lens hood trying to see what was in between and went all around me nibbling on my arms, shirt, pants and legs. I say nibbling but I’m not entirely sure how to describe it. It seemed as if they tried to nip me and then shake their bills on my arm. I barely felt it aside from a slight tickle but being surrounded by 10 curious ducklings was one of the best parts of the day. If i adjusted just a little bit, or moved my arm in one direction all the ducks would step back quickly, often tripping over their own legs getting out-of-the-way, only of course to return seconds later. Alas however there were other animals to see and we thus had to move on

This included numerous bird houses we could visit all of them offering various different types of birds. Many of them having names I cant quite remember. Below only a few are pictured.

The giraffes were one of the more interesting animals and at first sight at least seemed least upset by the situation they were placed in. They seemed to be a fairly curious bunch many of them venturing fairly close to the railing we stood on. This enabled me to take many close up shots of their faces. When we first arrived at the giraffe pen, area, thing, one of us commented on the interesting shape of these animals and wondered just how strange it might look to see them run. On the way past them we saw one gallop right into the giraffe pen (this time the closed off section of the giraffe habitat) Which was more than amusing. It was not so much funny though as interesting how such a large animal, especially one with such a shape can run. ( I mean no offense to the species of giraffes in general and do not hope my amusement and amazement of either their shape or manner/ capability of running offends either the giraffes themselves or anyone who cares for them.)

Not knowing where to put this picture of a rather happy meerkat I’m going to place it right here.

Shown here so far of course is only a fraction of the animals that we have seen and can be seen in this particular Zoo.  The following are a few of the many wild cats that can be found. Many of them are quite hard to spot, even in their fairly small areas. The tigers, as you can see at the top of this post were fairly young. A friend of mine was telling me how when he had gone to blijdorp two months before that they these tigers were really young and cute. You can still tell their not fully grown, but they have most certainly gotten bigger.

Speaking of hard to photograph animals though, the wolves were possibly the most difficult. They were rather active, howling and running around, you knew they were there, you just couldn’t get a clear shot of them.

Next on the list of course were the various different sorts of monkeys. I don’t have much to add although looking back at the pictures of the monkeys in the 2nd and 3rd pictures I have to admit I find them very interesting.

A few hours later it was getting rather hot and we had seen, or thought we had seen the vast majority of the animals. A short trip to the aquatic section and we were heading back again after a rather pleasant day.

The venue was an old castle in Arcen, The Netherlands though I have to be honest with you, it was not so much a castle as a very big house and grounds, beautiful grounds though with parks of different kinds as well as a lake in which flamingoes and another bird not native to Holland that I’m not familiar with could be found. Which, I took to immediately.

In addition to thousands of people dressed up there was plenty of stalls from which you can buy various items relating to the realm of fantasy, such as plenty of knives and swords, posters, calendars, you get the idea. There was also some tents with blacksmiths, owls and people teaching you how to use a bow and arrow. In the end it was quite along day which involved over 7 hours of traveling for me so I was happy to get back home. I have to admit that though i was apprehensive in going at first it turned out to be a great deal of fun and if anything certainly an interesting experience.

I have more photos on my flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmatsui/sets/72157625017219348/

To make matters more interesting we decided not to bring a map with us and instead just wing it.  We had a general direction, a compass and a few kilometres of walking between us and the airport. Naturally the adventure would not be complete by simply walking to the airport through Rotterdam so every little clump of trees we saw my friend insisted we walk through, even if that did not necessarily involve the straightest route to our goal and resulted in several surprised strangers as we came bursting through the trees (not to mentioned a few startled rabbits).

In the end we managed to make it to the airport and we took up a position where the airplanes would fly and land directly over our heads. We happened to be situated right at the edge of a bike path and we brought lunch in the form of an apple pie. Needless to say seeing two teenagers sitting at the edge of the bike path watching planes is deemed to be strange as it is and once you add in the apple pie and my fairly large camera/lens you get a few very puzzled looks from the people passing by whether by car or by bike.

The planes were clearly the biggest reason we had come to the airport though we were rather unsure of what to expect. Quite frankly we didn’t know if we would see any planes or even if we were in the right area. Pretty quickly however we saw several smaller planes such as the one below.

The exciting moment came however when we saw our first commercial jet. We saw it first from across the runway so we stood there pointing for a few moments and had a rather confused conversation as to whether or not the big object in the distance a plane or our imagination. The conversation went something along the lines of

“is that a?”

“no… yea, wait uh”  “YES, it’s an uhm, very big plane?”

The conversation proceeded untill it was clear that the airplane was indeed coming in our direction which only increased our excitement. They say every guy loves big powerful engines and every boy’s dream is to become a pilot, personally I can’t say I care for engines, but to hear those gigantic planes and their engines roaring so close to you as they get ready to speed down the runaway is incredibly fascinating. I was most certainly turned back into a little boy jumping around and cheering and roaring with the engines. One thing that surprised me however was despite the raw power of the engines was how little sound they actually make. I half expected to be deafened by the noise but this was far from the case. In fact as I saw busy cheering on one of the airplanes taking off a plane of similar size flew over head and I nearly missed it.

In the end it was a very fun trip and I’ll be checking google earth more often just to see if there is something else in cities that one can easily miss when walking through them.

More  pictures on http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmatsui/sets/72157624751683873/

In switzerland we spent most of our time hiking the mountain trails around the area though we also had a day where we went paragliding which was easily one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Apparently we had gotten rather lucky on that particular day and we managed to go all the way to the base of the clouds (which was the highest we were allowed to go) I was told that was around 3,500 meters up. The views from up there were quite obviously incredible and the conditions made it possible to fly over the valley and all the way to the mountains on the other side. To lose altitude my guide suggested we do a number of “tricks”. This involved a continuous turn and my personal favorite when he started rocking the sail to and fro to the point where you could actually see the sail beneath your feet for a number of seconds.

Much to my unfortune I ended up getting ill the following evening (surprisingly however not from the paragliding) and I was unable to partake in the hike the following day and instead spent the day in bed. Luckily however the view from our apartment was incredible and I was able to take some pictures in the mean time

Italy

After another many hours of driving from Switzerland we arrived at our destination in northern Umbria. We ended up staying in what was an old church which was complete with hundreds of year old paintings and a gigantic lookout tower, which much to my unfortune was inaccessible. As with many warm weather places we’ve stayed in during summer vacations they had lavender everywhere and plenty of insects to photograph within the flowers.

About every other day we choose a city to visit and in the end we saw many different things in the area. Of the more interesting items we experienced was the jazz fest in Perugia, watching the world cup between The Netherlands and Spain with the locals (who much to my surprise almost uniformly rooted for the dutch), helping a baby bird off the road and the daily drive past one or two ladies siting at the end of our road for which the only logical explanation for their daily presence in the middle of nowhere was prostitution, though we never did attempt to confirm that.

Jazz Fest

Baby Bird

Italy

My dad and I went to watch the time trails which took place on the 3rd. Luckily his office is overlooking the course and we had a very good vantage point and not to mention the perfect place to take shelter from the rain showers which made conditions difficult for both the riders and the audiences.

The rain however proved to be in my advantage as it cleared out many of the people who were waiting by the course.  My dad and i could walk right down to the edge of the course and i could take pictures of the riders from head which delivered some interesting facial expressions.

Due to the rain however we had to come up with a contraption to prevent my camera from getting soaked. In the end we used a plastic shopping bag, cut a whole in the front out of which the front of the lens protruded. The rain helped against the crowds in the begging of the prologue however as time progressed the rain lessened, more prominent bikers came by and the crowds made taking pictures very difficult. Everyone wanted pictures of the riders and would lean right into my frame on multiple occasions. I am not much of a contortionist either so after a while we decided to take a short break and check out the view from up top for the last of the riders.

After having to fight for every picture down on the ground it was very nice to be able to sit in a nice chair, away from the rain and to be able to actually see the riders for more than a quick flash of color. The riders more or less looked identical from above, the only distinguishing features being the jersey’s.

The day after, Sunday, was the day the first stage of the tour de france kicked off. I wasnt sure where i wanted to be, how it would be like or if i could find any space. I ended up taking over an hour walking along the width of a large section of the course and then picking one of the best places I could find which had a surprisingly little number of people. It was a few hundred meters away from the Erasmusbrug pictured below. What I did not count on though was the amount of riders their slow speed and how close they actually came.

Overall it was a very interesting experience. There were thousands of people everywhere despite the rains on the 3rd and it is always interesting to see the places you are very familiar with changing completely.

Visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmatsui/sets/72157624300508893/ for the full set of pictures.

Personally i know very little about the Giro so I’m afraid I’m not sure who specifically is in the pictures I took. I believe that the guy in the pink jersey is Cadel Evans who after loosing time due to a crash had to give up the pink jersey. Following that is a picture of the two riders in the lead where i was standing which was not more than a few kilometers to the finish.

I do have to mention that this was one of the tougher things I’ve photographed. The bikers just came around a turn were on a slight incline and were at the end of the stage and they still zoomed by me and focusing quick enough especially when they are coming straight for you becomes difficult.

Queen Beatrix

Living in the Netherlands for about 8 years now it is shocking that i have never actually been to any queens day celebrations of any sort. The first few years living in the Netherlands we went to Denmark, but really for the other years i have no excuses.  Now i move to Middelburg and within less than a year the Queen and her entourage comes right to me.  Ok ok so technically she does not come to me but that’s a minor detail. Either way i woke up today and the sun that had been shinning for about 3 weeks straight was gone. Since the Queen was scheduled to come at 12:00 noon ten overcast sky’s is the easiest way to overcome the harsh midday sun. So in that regard it was actually perfect weather.

As one may expect the town was completely full and finding a spot to stand proved to be rather difficult. A friend of mine from the photography club and I ended up standing on a concrete block to get a better view. Once the queen came that concrete block ended up getting pretty busy. I ended up having to hold on to the flagpole otherwise I would have been forced off of the block. In the end I managed to hang on and get pictures of several people in the Royal family. Truth be told however i really only knew Beatrix (Queen), Willem Alexander (prince) and Maxima (princess).

Queen Beatrix observing a postcard of herself

Princess Maxima

Prince Willem Alexander

Dutch Royalty

For those of you who weren’t aware last year when the queen was in a different city in the Netherlands someone managed to break through the barricade with his car and nearly managed to hit the Royal Family. This meant increased security measures and whilst I am unaware what the security was before hand it was pretty tight today.

Dutch Police

If it wasnt already apparent from some of the backgrounds in the shots above orange is pretty much a requirement on Queens Day in the Netherlands. I went dressed in an orange shirt and someone managed to convince me to buy a rather, excuse my language, gay looking felt cowboy hat. Which of course I wore for the duration of the day.

After the Royal Family had come and gone there was still plenty of stuff to do/see in Middelburg. There were several concerts and i even managed to see some gymnasts.

gymnast

Elvis?

The main square where the biggest of concerts was held which was incredibly full throughout the day. This is where i saw some guy named Wesley. Who was apparently the winner of the dutch X Factor. I also ended up seeing a group called the Venga Boys who at the time I didn’t know. After listening to some of their songs however I vaguely remember them. They are a group from the 90s and the people who dragged me over to the front row grew up with them. I have to admit though i am rather glad they dragged me over. I’m usually not a big fan of these concerts, big groups of people concert events but they were more than amusing.

Venga Boys

Venga Boys II

Venga Boys III

Venga Boys IV

All in all it was a pretty amusing day. I’m sure tomorrow my arms and legs will be a little sore. I’ve done plenty of walking/standing and carrying around a 1.5kg lens not including Body.  There are more pictures of Queens Day which you can find in my flicker album. The link to my flicker account is in the side bar to the right. If you click on the images a new tab will open where you can view them in a larger size.

What you may not be able to see very well from the first picture is a group of 5-6 Greenpeace workers hanging on the building just below the sign. The sign itself reads -  Groeten van een stralend Zeeland, directly translated  “Greetings from a radiating Zeeland” The word Stralend in dutch can mean radiating, as in radioactive substances as well as the suns rays so to speak. Quite frankly it took me a while to understand what was going on. At first glance especially it seems like a rather pleasant scene. At second glance it seems everyone is living with the radiation and is doing well with relatively little effect to the population. In fact the only thing really depicting that radiation is bad are the guy’s  in the suits.

A month late with blogging this which honestly for me is not that bad. Anyway this year my dad and i took another  short vacation. We ended up choosing Istanbul which was the most interesting of the cheap options.  We had done the same last year with Iceland, if i’m not mistaken the flight tickets to Iceland have already doubled in price from when we went. At any rate this year it was Istanbul, Turkey.

A quick note on the weather in Istanbul in early february, well lets just say dress warm and bring water/wind proof gear. We were there for a good 3 days. The first night we arrived and went exploring the weather was relatively pleasant, not Caribbean warm but very doable with a warm jacket. The next day however we were plagued with rain. At first it was the kind of rain which is very small and just whips you in the face whilst walking. It is the kind of rain where if you were at home you’d prefer to stay inside. As tourists however we did not have that option. We had to brave the weather. Which progressively got worse until the point where it made the whole ordeal rather unpleasant. Not exactly ideal site seeing weather. The next day was much of the same and on the third day much to our surprise it snowed. and snowed. and snowed. Personally I like snow especially back at home where it covers everything in a blanket of white. Snow in Cities however is not the most pleasant, everything quickly turns into a brown slush. Enough of my complaining however i just wanted to give an idea of the weather conditions we experienced.

The first night we were in Istanbul we arrived relatively late Around 19:00 or later. After getting into the hotel we got the directions for one of the restaurants we were looking for and walked out of the hotel, Which was more or less in the thick of things with a short 30 min walk to most of the biggest tourist attractions. The first thing we noticed when stepping out of the hotel was a mosque right in front of the hotel. It was relatively small and unimportant but living in the Netherlands you don’t have that many mosque’s. Though i daresay no place i know of or can imagine has quite as many mosque’s as Istanbul. Our walk through Istanbul proved not to be as easy as was previously thought. Yes we had a map, yes we did know how to use it, but no… we did not know where the restaurant was. We ended up finding it after a chance turn down a street that looked nice. Needless to say perhaps navigating through Istanbul is not that easy. Luckily some of the biggest sites are really big. You don’t usually need a map to find the Hagia Sophia, you just need a general direction, that didn’t prove to be enough for us sometimes though.

Eating was one of the biggest reasons i was looking forward to coming to Istanbul. To be fair however eating is one of the biggest reasons I do much of anything.  Anyway lamb is pretty popular in Turkey and as it happened to turn out lamb was pretty popular with the two of us as well.   I’m afraid I do not remember what my first dish was called. It was lamb in a thickish reddish sauce with some bread mixed through and what I believe to be garlic sauce, though i could be mistaken.

The next day was our first day in which we could see the sights in Istanbul. The weather was miserable but it was not really raining so we opted not to bring an umbrella. Our first objective was, not surprisingly, food. I think my dad in I had something slightly different in mind when we thought of Turkish breakfast. We were thinking more in the lines of kebab’s or something of that nature. Instead it was actually not very different from most western breakfasts. Bacon, eggs and bread. We ended up having juice. Which one really can’t complain about, fresh juice is everywhere, its quick and tastes just as good fresh juice should, very good.

I don’t think we were sure about where we wanted to go after breakfast though it seemed as though it would be one of the mosque’s. Our undesicivness proved to be fatal so to speak. We walked for a good two hours through the city and slowly the amount of rain increased. One thing i do have to mention is that Istanbul is a rather chaotic place, not in the sense of screeching cars and the bustling of businessmen and others needed to get to work but the layout of the city, the tight streets people here and there. Perhaps because of this I didn’t not get the impression that it was the cleanest place. They had construction places sand was also surprisingly common and in one place there was a random fire (controlled) burning on one edge of the city. Naturally we got to see a good deal of the city. As you may expect we got sick of he rain pretty quickly so we took a stop, drank some tea and went to the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. (pictured above) It’s museums because there is more than one museum, there are a few buildings. Due to the rain however we did not visit what was outside of the museums (most of everything was inside anyway)

Taking pictures in these venue’s however proved to be a big hassle as they do not allow tripod’s. This is no surprise as tripods are usually big and bulky and will quickly be in the way. For this reason i took a gorilla pod.  A gorilla pod is essentially just a smaller tripod (much smaller). I do not see anyway in which it would be a nuisance, especially since there was about 5 people in the entire museum but none the less I was not allowed to use it. I ended up getting one shot with it however (pictured bottom left) before i was told to put it away.

The Pictures are of a sarcophagus. Of the many they had there.

The next of the venues we visited was the Hagia Sophia. Which was unless i was mistaken initially a christian church but upon which later became a mosque. This would explain why the religious figures have their faces scratched out.

That was the last trip for the day after which we went back to the hotel to escape from the never-ending rain.

The next day started much like the first, miserable weather (but now more windy) but with a glass of fresh orange juice. This time we decided to take the tram. Upon waiting for the tram however it actually started snowing. That pretty much persisted throughout the day. Initially we had decided to go to some square in turkey, due to the cold however it was rather hard to navigate and after having made a bit of the roundabout we decided the square was not that important in the first place.

So we then went to Topkapi palace.  Topkapi palace was a palace constructed and lived in by the ottoman sultans. They were rather big and magnificent and I wish I could have spent a bit more time to enjoy it properly. The wind and snow however was too great and sent us inside. The first place we visited was the harem which was where the Sultans kept their women, hundreds of them.  It must however have been to cold for them as there were no women present. (yes i am fully aware that was a horribly lame joke, but it had to be said)

Much to my regret I did not take many pictures of the exterior of the Topkapi palace. I should have endured the cold a few minutes longer. Either way here are two pictures of the interior.

Besides the many rooms in the palace there where also several rooms displaying certain treasures such as the Ttopkapi dagger and various other treasures which i cannot remember but most of which looked incredibly valuable.

After the palace we went out for lunch. I cannot remember what we ate but that is mostly irrelevant. What was most interesting is that every table contained a game of sorts. Chess, checkers or backgammon. We were seated at a table with backgammon, after a few minutes of trying to remember how to play the game a turkish guy next explained how it worked and played a quick game with my dad.

Due to the wind and cold we were somewhat reluctant to go back outside. Never the less we ended up making our way to the blue mosque. The thing about the blue mosque however is that you had to take your shoes off when entering. Normally I don’t have a problem with that. The problem however was the place we had to take off our shoes was outside and was covered partially in melted snow. The second you took your shoes off your feet were quite literally drenched with cold water, moreover because it was cold everyone took off their shoes right in front of the door so the entranceway got quite clogged pretty quickly which led to rather wet feet. The same happened on the way out.

The blue mosque itself was of course quite impressive. Personally however i prefered the interior of the Hagia Sophia. The blue mosque in comparison seemed rather empty. The exterior of the Blue mosque however i found more impressive. (Blue mosque pictured below; exterior and ceiling).

The blue mosque was the last significant location in Istanbul we had visited. This was the last night and we ended up having dinner in the hotel due to the vast amount of snow that had, and still was falling. In fact there was so much snow we had to left an hour earlier to the airport just incase.

In conclusion i think Istanbul is an excellent place. We were slightly unlucky with the weather however i think that in the summer Istanbul will be full with tourists.  We had most of all the sites to just a small group of tourists and even the most famous of items in Topkapi palace we had plenty of time to admire. I have not mentioned anything of the grand bazar not because i havent visited it nor because i didnt care much for it. (but because i had forgotten) Essentially the grand bazar is interesting in its own regard it is very much a maze and it is incredibly large. One thing i feel i should mention however is that it feels very much the same. Just about 90% of all the shops there display fabrics of sorts which is interesting in its own regard of course. For a guy who is not particularly interested in shopping however it gets old relatively quickly. The atmosphere and the way the shops are set up however are not boring. It is very different from what I’m used to and i would not have too much trouble to just walk through the grand bazar. This holds true for much of Istanbul which was just different. For one the call for prayer is not something we have, or at least not in the same fashion. We have church bells on sundays denoting time for church but otherwise the church bells are only sounded for time purposes, or when someone of importance dies i believe.

My dad and i traveled to Reykjavik Iceland during a short break off of school. Unfortunately this meant    we only had 4 days in Iceland itself but for such a short time we managed to do quite a lot and a lot of what we did was completely new to me. On the first day we came there we settled into our hotel and went out to get dinner. Following my dads travel guide, we ended up in a small building right by the water which sold primarily seafood. It was a very small quaint fishing place littered with old fishing supplies and the obligatory Coca cola fridge filled with modern soft drinks. We sat on small cushioned benches and wooden tables. It was all very tight but that just added to the feel of the place which can only be described by the dutch word “gezellig”.  Atmospheric would be the closest relative in this situation. We ended up eating a soup of sorts it was either a lobster, shrimp, crab soup. Which one i frankly cannot remember but it was not my thing in the first place. What i was curious to try however was the minke whale, which was served on a stick much like you would eat sate.  The taste was interesting though not entirely unusual, it was almost like salty beef. Something i would not mind having again, though nothing i would kill to have again.

Minke Whale

Day 1

The next day it was time to explore the rest of Iceland, or at least a small part of it outside of its capital city. We took a tour group of sorts in a vehicle that can only be described as a monster truck. It was one of those trucks made especially for traveling over snow, the tires if I’m not mistaken could deflate at the push of a button allowing for better traction. This of course did not prevent us from slipping and sliding all over the place though overall we managed to do quite well for what was quite difficult terrain. The conditions of course were not much better. I wont go as far as to say it was a snow storm but we had strong winds and something like sleet that made us uncomfortably wet and very cold. We did not stay very long at the first place, which is a shame considering it was a volcano. (pictured below)

The next stop on the day trip was going to geysers, not the original one where all the other ones were named after (that is also in Iceland) but a few others, one of which erupted about every 10 minutes.

I apologize for failing to provide the appropriate names and places to all the locations i visited but to be fair i was not even sure at the time where it was we were going.  The next stop was a gigantic waterfall, or rather a mini waterfall and then a very big one.  It is a beautiful place, I’ve seen a few really good photographs taken of the exact same falls in better conditions, its certainly worth a visit.

The last of the places we had visited on this trip, or the first day in Iceland was the North Atlantic Ridge. This as we were informed is the only fault line in the world that is visible to the naked eye. Of course a few puzzled looks came up as people thought of the San Andrea’s fault i do not remember asking into that though. I decided for myself that the picture below looked enough like the ridge, though in all honesty i think it was a few kilometers across which would explain why i had difficulty seeing it. (I was looking for something akin to the grand canyon or something of the sort

My self proclaimed North Atlantic Ridge fault

Day 2

The next day was no better weather wise however this did not stop us from going to an outdoor hot spring. Better known perhaps as the Blue Lagoon. I believe it was due to a substance in the clay that the water was turned blue. What surprised me somewhat actually was the temperature. For starters the temperatures varied quite a bit in different locations, whilst never cold it was not quite warm in some places and exceptionally hot in others (though never enough to need to shout in pain). I expected it to be more like a sauna. Instead it was allot like bathing in rather large bathtub with your swimsuit on.

The rest of the day i believe we spent going to museums and taking it easy. Though we did eat at one of the best restaurants I’ve had in a long time. We had deep fried fish of sorts which was not only surprisingly good but surprisingly not greasy at all. It all felt very healthy which whilst it was not a priority for me felt good none the less.

Day 3

I would say that the last day in Iceland was probably my favorite. We did numerous things that i have never done, or seen before. The first of which was walking on glaciers. They gave us a bunch of gear to put on but by far my favorite was the crampons. This is an add on you attach to your boots. It is essentially many spikes protruding from a steel body. Most of them are directed to the ground but there are two in the front pointed slightly forward. You could deliver quite a nasty kick to person ahead of you if you needed to. Next in our inventory were ice picks. Whilst we did not use them for the walking on the glaciers it helped to think that we looked like we knew what we were doing. Nothing feels better than walking past a group of tourists with their little cameras pointed at the glaciers and to see them look in curiosity as a group of people walk past fully equipped with helmets, ice picks, and crampons. You feel like you know what you are doing. Even if that is very far from the truth.  The walk itself was not terribly long and of no particular difficulty.  So long as you remember to stamp your foot down a little harder than you usually do you would be fine. Despite the brievety of the trip we did make it relatively high up making those tourists we past earlier seem quite small. We also made a short stop in a small ice cave in the glacier. Which as we were informed as rather dangerous. We also had to stick to the pieces of ice on the glacier. The glacier had some patches covered in snow. Some of these patches of snow may not have had solid ice laying beneath them which meant the possibility of a rather long and painful fall. A fall in which it would have been rather difficult to have gotten you out of. This sounds a lot like some kids on the beach who dig a rather big hole, cover it with newspaper and proceed to cover that with sand. The major difference is that the ones in glaciers have a rather high possibility of killing you. Holes in the sand much less so.

Our next activity was ice climbing. We were finally able to put those pick axes into use. As per usual of course the instructors make the whole ordeal look incredibly simple – in fact one of them had only had the theory and this was his first time climbing (he still kicked our butts) – simple however it most certainly was not. Just getting up a vertical (or almost vertical) cliff of a few meters was incredibly exhausting and your ice pick does not stick into the ice as easily as one might imagine causing for quite a few swings to get each ax into place and of course you do that a few times and you get tired quick.  Portrayed below is my dad Ice climbing.

On the way back they decided to bring us via a pretty nice water fall and by this time the weather was actually clearly up nicely leading to a little bit of sun and slightly better photography conditions. This clearing up of the sky was also perfect for seeing The Aurora, or Northern lights something we of course were particularly keen on seeing. So keen in fact that we even booked a aurora sight seeing tour. This put us on a several busloads with dozens of other people but they would be much better at finding the suitable locations.

In the end we did see the aurora however it was quite a bit fainter than what can be seen in the picture at the top of the page. What shows up as green on the pictures looked very light green or in real life. It did however dance around a little and was fascinating to watch even though i am convinced that you can catch far more impressive displays than what we saw.

What i found interesting about Iceland is the lack of trees. In fact at a certain point in time in Iceland history every single tree was cut down in i believe all of Iceland. It is also possible that it is just the area surrounding Reykjavik.  The trees that exist now have all been replanted. Apart from that however Iceland is a beautiful country and i only wish i had more time to explore the sights we did see and spend extra time exploring the rest of the Iceland.

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