Iceland - Day 1

What a wonderful opportunity! We're so close to Iceland, and Icelandair had a flight/hotel offer. We had to grab it! The package included a Northern Lights hunt!!! I've always always always wanted to see the Northern Lights!

I was filled with excitement at the thought of going to Iceland! Never thought I'd ever set my foot in that country! And oh, how beautiful the place is. Although what we saw was great, it looks like Iceland will be all the more gorgeous in spring/summer. We hope to head back there again someday!

We took a day flight, which was fantastic because we got to look over the snow-covered landscape of Southeast Iceland. Jon and I were really awed by what we saw. It was literally jaw-dropping! That's how Iceland is - it bewitches you even before you reach it!

Anyway I saw something funny on the plane. Under the "Golden Oldies" category of songs I saw U2's "With or Without You", and Madonna's "Like A Prayer" ;) Poor U2 and Maddie!

I have been wishing it would snow in London, but it hasn't. It's snowed almost everywhere else in UK. But God answered my prayers in a big way. It was snowing in Iceland! And apparently it hardly snows in Reykjavik :) The wind was so strong the snow was blowing horizontally! All that snow made driving a new and exciting challenge for me. Think I won't forget the drives in Iceland any time soon!

Unfortunately because it was cloudly that night, the weather was not ideal for viewing the Northern Lights. So we decided to go catch the Volcano Show. It was a series of two films on Iceland's recent eruptions, filmed by Villi Knudsen - a man with a passion for the volcanic activity in Iceland. He's filmed eruptions up close and personal, tracking the changes in activity as long as the eruptions continue. The films gave fascinating portraits of the formation of Surtsey (Iceland's newest island) and the activity at Heimaey. He also covered the eruptions at Lake Myvatn and at Vatnajokull. We thought that the films really have perspective to the still-changing land of Iceland, and gave us insights to better appreciate the landscape. The footage was excellent, though we found the soundtrack to be highly amusing. It was a collection of random noises and space-age sounds, much like the type of soundtrack they used for sci-fi movies long ago. There were "UFO" sounds, crashes, knocks, etc. At points Jon and I couldn't help laughing because it was really quite hilarious watching volcanic lava flow to such a soundtrack :)

It was only after watching the first film that we started to suspect that the guy who was showing us the film was Villi Knudsen himself! The films were quite old, and the man who appeared occasionally in the film resembled the man at the theatre, only much younger. We got confirmation after the second film that indeed, the man at the theatre was Knudsen himself! How amazing to meet the man who's been so close to the eruptions. He was a lot older now, but he was still very interested in volcanoes and their activity. He told us about some of the places they are monitoring for potential volcanic eruptions. He also told us that he had been to Singapore too, although it was quite a while back :) He was a very nice man, and it really did feel like an honour to meet him.

Well it was just a short first day since we arrived in the afternoon. But there's a lot more to come!

[Hmm...Something's wrong with my photo uploader, so I'll put up the photos another day]