Myvatn and Looking Forward

My time in Iceland is now more than half over, but this country still has its share of wonders yet undiscovered. I have been here long enough that I have run into people I know from other parts of the country. Iceland is essentially one big small town. There are now three artists here at the residency: myself, a woman from Japan, and a man from Switzerland, and we have established ourselves in the community, making local friends. The typical Icelander won't necessarily give you a cheery hello, but Icelanders are a very friendly people who will welcome you into their homes if you get to know them.

It's been a fairly productive two weeks or so: I have finished and sent out several short stories to anthologies and magazines for hopeful publication, and I have picked up some freelance writing work that will help fund some further traveling. Work on my main project has been stop and start. I'm still making my way through the Eddic poems, and they were not written to be put into order; not truly. My process is essentially to write as much as I can working from my outline, and figure problems out along the way. This has meant me going back to fix my outline and restarting once already, but things have taken better shape, and I'm well into the first draft. I still have a lot of research to do, and the more I read I find out how much more still there is to know.

I have also sent out a short script to some local production companies: no idea if it will get picked up, but I figured there was no harm in trying. My travel plans have extended somewhat. I'm looking into options to stay or work in Ireland for a little while through either couchsurfing or a program called workaway, in which you help a host family with whatever they need in exchange for room and board. I'm going to try to make my way across Europe toward Germany, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Not everything has been work, however. Earlier this week I took a day to see Mývatn and the surrounding area. We had some bad luck with weather, with grey skies and a little bit of snow throughout the day. Things are still very snowy, but it's finally starting to melt. I saw grass here in town for the first time this week. I went to Mývatn with two other artists. We rented a car for the day so we could take our time rather than relying on a bus tour. It was a good decision. Iceland's biggest road is called the Ring Road, or Route 1, and it encircles the country, and it's a lot of fun to drive. Every inch of it is beautiful. You could pull over almost anywhere and take a picture.

It's also still a sparsely populated country, with much of the interior being pretty devoid of people, which makes for a great drive. Leaving any town (there are only two cities) you see signs picturing a skyline with a big bar across: you are leaving civilization, and you might not find any more for awhile.

Our first stop was Goðafoss, the waterfall of the gods. Around the year 1000, Lawspeaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði made the decision that the country would convert to Christianity, avoiding the kind of bloody reformation that had taken places in other countries. Afterwords, he went to Goðafoss and threw his statues of the Norse gods over it, giving it its name.

Goðafoss

More Goðafoss

Goðafoss from downstream. You can see it in the background.

Lake Mývatn itself was still mostly frozen when we were there. We passed around it, and stopped at the Dimmuborgir: a field full of lava rock formations. It's free to enter, and you can hike around the trails there (that were covered by snow, so I mostly just wandered). It's quite an eerie location. Once you descend, you can't see any kind of civilization or man-made anything (save for trail signs).

This arch is about twice my height.

Same spot from below.

We had the chance to climb into a shallow volcano, walking across the lava fields to get there. The other nearby volcano was at the top of a high road with too much snow on it to traverse, even in our four-wheel drive SUV. We grabbed lunch at a little diner in one of the only nearby towns, stopping again to see a point where the steam rises up out of the ground from the geothermal pools beneath.

Worn out from hiking, we made our way back around 7 in the evening. The good thing about traveling Iceland in the spring or summer is that there is no true darkness at this time of year. Even at 2 or 3 in the morning, there is light outside, so you won't be caught out in the dark. 

We pulled over by the side of the road to get a better look at some Icelandic horses in their field. They can't always go outside due to snow, and they seemed quite happy to get to run around. The Icelandic horse is small; most of these guys were around five feet high. Technically pony size, I'm told, but local breeders still refer to them as horses.

My plan for the moment is to spend a few more days in Reykjavik when I leave the north coast, and try to see some of Iceland's south coast in the summer. Few of my photos have much green in them thus far, but the south coast looks beautiful. 

I am also considering open up a photo store to sell prints of some of the pictures that I have taken. If you have opinions on the matter, or are interested, please let me know. Right now my policy is just "tell me what print you want and we'll figure something out." So prints are available upon request.