2nd Nov (Tues) - Back in Copenhagen

My sore throat and cough seemed to be getting worse. Slept till late because of the medication and headed out for lunch in the shopping mall nearby only around late afternoon. It's been raining here in Copenhagen too. But thank god it's not as cold as in Iceland and there's not much wind chill here either.

Seeing that there were very little asian food in the mall except for Sushi and Thai cuisine, I opted for the latter and ended up having not-so-nice-but-expensive Tom Yam soup and Pad Thai. The bill came up to about 168 DKK. OUCH.

After a short stay in the mall where I stocked up some pastries for later tonight and tomorrow's breakfast, I headed back to the hotel to pack. Need to get ready for my overnight bus ride to Stockholm, Sweden. There goes my one day in Copenhagen.

Darn the cough and sore throat.



* P.S: Don't worry. I have medication with me, which I brought over from SG. :)

1st Nov (Mon) - Iceland Day 7 + Back in Copenhagen

It rained today at Iceland, making it rather impossible for me to head out and grab some lunch. The cold weather plus the wind chill would be enough to kill me - figuratively speaking. So I opted for an earlier bus to the airport today and got my lunch there.

I also got a bottle of Icelandic vodka (1 litre), a bottle of Icelandic wine and a tiny bottle of Icelandic Schnapps from the duty-free to try when I'm back home. Oh boy... i wonder how they taste like and I do hope that they will survive the journey back home.

At first, I wanted to ship them back. But considering that there was no post office nor TNT/ DHL near where I was staying - be it in Iceland or in Copenhagen, I gave up the idea. And since I'm beginning to feel unwell, I thought it's better to stay indoors as much as possible and not risk getting it any worse. A sore throat and a cough had caught up with me.

Think it's partly because my immune system was down with my rib injury, and also partly because of (1) the horrendous wind chill while I was doing the glacier hike + the northern lights chases and(2) my dorm mate from a few days ago was down with serious flu and I could have caught the bug then. Darn. What luck.

So now that I have checked into my nice hotel room in Copenhagen, I shall get my medication and go to sleep. Ciao.


* P.S: I hope to be back in Iceland someday and explore the other parts. And hopefully, I'll be in time to see the Puffins and the whales as well. :)

31st Oct (Sun) - Iceland Day 6

Went to Blue Lagoon (geothermal pool and spa) today. At first, I was worried that I couldn't get into the pool coz I didn't have any swimsuit nor towel. But thank god I could rent those over the counter. Paid like 1600 ISK for those two items. I felt funny wearing a one-piece swimsuit since I've never worn it before. But oh well, I just got it over and done with.



It was freaking cold before I got into the water. The temperature was 2°C. But the moment I got into the pool, it was super comfortable.

Since I didn't know how to swim, I pretty much anchored myself to the boards at the side of the pool, near the stairs. And because of the strong wind and me being so close to the stairs, I kinda had to help scoop out a pink croc shoe and a towel, and threw them back onto the platform when they got blown into the water beside me. Sigh. Alas, I had a great time. Some people even ordered a beer from the floating bar counter. Cool...

But when it was time to get out of the water, I hesitated. Coz the wind was getting stronger and I had to wait for the right moment before making my dash back into the enclosure. I ran as fast as I could whilst shivering non-stop at the same time. Hahaha.

And when I got back to the hostel, I decided to treat myself to a decent meal for once (in Iceland). Have been surviving on my maggie mee all these while. So I went to a local restaurant around the corner and ordered a Blue Ling (one of the Icelandic fish) dish. Yummy!



After which, I ran back to the hostel, got my laundry done and began blogging this entry. :)

30th Oct (Sat) - Iceland Day 5

I almost woke up late this morning. Too tired from last night. After gobbling down 2 muffins, I donned on my thermal, ski pants plus extra clothing, and waited anxiously for the pick-up. Today, I shall attempt my first glacier hike. The venue? Sólheimajökull glacier.

As the guide veered the vehicle into the parking lot, some distance away from the base of the glacier, I could hear the wind howling outside. And there was the eerie sight as well. It looked as though we were caught in the middle of a sandstorm and yet the distant glacier remained undisturbed by the chaos around us.

I battled against the wind to put on the crampons and gaiter (with help from the 2 guides). But from time to time, the sand would get into my eyes and impeded my motions. Just as I got it out, another would get in again. The wind chill was simply horrid. Even the guides said we were pretty unlucky to meet with such strong winds on such a nice day.

When everyone was ready, we began our hike. I was kinda expecting to tread through snow but nope, it was layers and layers of ice all the way up. So, I had to stomp my feet real hard into the ice so that I could get a good grip and not fall flat or worse still, fall backwards and slide into one of the sinkholes. Tried as I might, I still felt light-footed. And it doesn't help that the wind was so chilly and so strong that at times, it would threw me off a step and slightly off balance. I felt like I was ready to be blown away.



And so, as per usual, the timid me got real scared once more. The guides took notice of it(and also because I had informed them of my rib injury earlier) and began taking turns to lead me by hand so that I could get a better grip on myself. I then asked the guide if anyone had ever been blown away by the wind. He said "nope, not at all." And then I thought to myself "great... sekali i'm the 1st one."

And I'm not sure if it was sheer lack of stamina or if it was the altitude plus my rib injury, I would pant every now and then as we slowly made our way up. All other fellow trekkers were first timers as well, though most of them had at least done mountain trekking before. They were quite steady and at times, even offered me their hands or asked if I was okay, when the guides had to attend to something or someone else. That was extremely nice and kind of them. I was glad for the attention. REALLY.

We would cross the ragged and sometimes frail ridges so that we could lean our bodies forward to catch a glimpse of the sinkholes pretty up-close. And of course, one of the guides would be standing at the edge of the ridge to hold on to us, one by one, so that we wouldn't fall into it accidentally and sayonara forever. But I was feeling scared for the guide (scared that he would fall inside) and awe at the same time. How do these guys do it???





My hands were either too shaky or too cold that I hardly took pictures of the glacier or the sinkholes. Psychologically, I felt that my hands were super important in case I got blown away by the wind or if the ice below me collapsed. So I would rather use my hands to hold the spike and not the camera.

And on the wind again - there was this strong wind blowing constantly. But every few seconds, a gust of even stronger wind would come and I would (plus some other fellow trekkers who felt the same) lose my balance and immediately felt the need to plunge my spike into the ice for support. If you were into watching chinese period drama, it would be like Swordman A releasing his Xiang Long Shi Ba Zhang and the opponent would plunge his sword into the earth, grit his teeth with all his might and fight against that power blast. Yah. It's kinda a weird scenario but that was kinda what I felt when I was battling those sudden gusts.

The original plan was to have our sandwiches (our lunch) on top of the glacier but that had to be canned because of the strong wind. Even the guides had a difficult time trying to find a suitable sinkhole for our ice climbing session. The wind was simply too strong.

In the end, they settled on a smaller sinkhole closer to the base for us to attempt ice climbing. But I had to bow out because of (1) it looked so slippery that I was scared and (2) more importantly, I had to keep in mind my rib injury. There was no way I could swing the axes hard enough to secure a good grip on the ice to pull myself up. And out of the 11 trekkers (excluding the guides), only 3 made it back up on their own.

As we gradually made our way down, back to the pick-up, the wind was blowing behind me as I felt like I was pushed to move forward, real fast. Then one of the guides took my hand and slowly led me down. Along the way, he kept chanting like he would to a kid to stomp my feet like a huge teddy bear. That was quite funny so I couldn't help but laughed at it while feeling nervous at the same time.

And here's a pix of one of the guides chiseling steps out of the ice for us to get down.



By the time we got back to the pick-up, I was very certain that this would be the one and only time that I attempted glacier hike. Once was more than enough to last me a lifetime. Ha.

All of us were super hungry and munched on our sandwiches like greedy bears. Mine had cucumber and lettuce in it, so I took extra time to pick them out before munching in whilst the guides continued the long drive back to town.

I didn't have the time to rest either when I was back in the hostel. Since my northern lights chase failed last night, tonight would be my only chance to catch it in Iceland before I leave. 'Coz according to weather forecasts, it would get very cloudy from tomorrow on and the chance of seeing the lights then would basically be zero.

So I decided to sign up for the Northern Lights tour (4900 ISK) from Iceland Excursions at my hostel reception, headed out to the hotdog stall closest to my hostel, grabbed 2 hotdogs and was on my way out again.

The guide on board told me that tonight, we would only have 20% chance of seeing it. But it's better than none since the days ahead would be too cloudy for any chase to happen. And I got lucky. Got to see the faint, white Northern lights some minutes past 10pm. It wasn't as grand as I thought it would turn out but I have to count my blessings nevertheless, to even see one. :) When the lights were first spotted, the driver was even more excited than the passengers. Hahahha.

I tried to capture it on my GF1 but it simply refused to work. Then I had to peel off my gloves in the freezing cold environment, to try and adjust the aperture and etc in the dark. I couldn't see what I was doing and I got so fed up with it that I gave up and just concentrated looking at the lights through my own eyes. In scenarios like this, I blame the camera.

29th Oct (Fri) - Iceland Day 4

Wow... went on the Golden Grand Slam tour today and was super busy with the sightseeing and activities. Let me try to recall...

OK. First, I went to Þingvellir National Park today to see the birthplace of the oldest existing parliament in the world. There isn't a building or anything, just a pole that indicated the land where leaders used to conglomerate, between the America and Europe continental plates, to confer on big issues. So if I looked to my left, I could see mountains belonging to America. And on my right, mountains that belonged to Europe. How cool was that!





And there's the impressive looking rift valley as well. But my stupid camera batt had to die on me at this point and I couldn't take pictures of the small river near the rift valley and the coins people throw in (the water was super clear) to make wishes. Darn!





After which, we headed over to Gjábakkahellir cave, one of the Icelandic lava tubes, and began my 1st attempt at caving.





Oh man... the cave was difficult for me (someone who hardly exercise and was of a clumsy character) as I had to scale through what had seemed like endless mounds of lava rocks and boulders. There wasn't even a point where we could walk on flat soil. It was climbing and scaling throughout. And we had to gradually made our way 20m down the cave, before scaling up again. It's cool when I think back now but it was scary then. I was more afraid of (1) straining my ribs and (2) spraining my ankle or something than actually falling down. Although there were only 4 of us for this particular caving trip (including the guide), I still found it rather tough to keep up with their pace because of my own stupid fears.

I did surrender halfway as I was too strained to keep up, but my guide explained to me that they were gonna exit from the other side and wouldn't be coming back the same way again, and we were already more than half way through so the exit's not too far ahead. So I gritted my teeth and continued forth.

Sensing my discomfort, the guide encouraged me to fall in line just behind him so that he could keep a look out for me and also lead me along the way. That did help increase my pace a little :) What made me felt bad was that the other 2 people in the group were 1st timers as well. But they were doing far better than me. Ok... I admit it, I suck. But I did try to keep up. Honestly.

At one point, the guide motioned us to sit on the rocks and asked us to turn off our headlights (which was the only source of light in the dark cave). Total darkness engulfed me and it seemed to grow with every passing second. But since it's a deliberate decision to off the lights and not because of equipment failure, it was ok and I didn't go into a panic state.

It was strangely peaceful to hear the water dripping down from the (tiny) stalamites and onto the floor. But as the seconds passed, I began to wonder how did those trapped victims (i.e.: under rubbles, collapsed caves and etc) managed to pull through those long hours or even days of waiting for rescue. Just a few seconds alone in this dark cave would be enough to scare me to death. And my instructor said, "without light, you wouldn't be able to tell from day and night and all sense of time would have fled you." True.

As we turned on our headlights and continued on, we seemed to have met with a dead end. All I could see was a wall of boulders blocking the exit. But my guide smiled and said, "let's go the other round". True enough, there was slight gap at the side and we kinda climbed and crawled through it before meeting another narrow hole again. This time, I went like " oh nooooooo".

I wasn't sure that even I could crawl through it. It looked so narrow. But my guide motioned us forward and then I began to see that the hole was bigger than I had saw from a distance earlier. And so, I gradually and finally made my "grand escape" out of the cave. I was tired, hungry but super glad that I made it. The full approx. 374m journey.

As we made our way to our next destination, I began reflecting on the thoughts I had had earlier. Then I came to a conclusion with those thoughts. My reaction to the blocked wall and the small openings was a reflection of how I would usually react to sticky problem or a bottleneck in life - which was "no, I can't/ won't do it". Come to think of it, sometimes I just get so tranfixed on the problem that my mind just simply refused to think og anything except the negatives. If I would just go nearer to investigate or confront it, perhaps I would realise that the problem wasn't as big or as complicated as it had originally sounded. Note to self.

Ok. Now back to my list of activities. After a quick lunch stop at the Gullfoss Cafe, where I had another bowl of the delicious traditional Icelandic lamp soup, we went over to witness the beauty of Gullfoss - the 8th highest waterfall (31m) in Iceland. I even saw a rainbow at the falls!





It was so cold there that ice had began to form on the land along the waterfall. They looked so pretty and sparkly un the sun that they looked more like crystals to me.

After the waterfall, our guide drove us down to the geothermal area of Geysir. Unfortunately, since a earthquake in year 2000, Geysir had more or less stopped its impressive hot water sprouting. It's so rare that you would be able to catch it once a year for that few seconds, if you were so damn lucky. So we walked over to the other smaller, but still active geothermal pool instead.







Our last stop for this day tour was at one of the volcano craters which has now been tranformed into a lake by decades of rainfall. It was super windy so I gladly stood far away from the edge and let the guide, plus the 2 other fellow travellers, stood at the edge.



By the time we got back into city centre, it was close to 5pm. As I still had another 45 mins to kill before my next tour began, I went into one od the cafes and got myself a carrot cake and a cup of hot choc. And boy was I surprised to find whale meat in the menu in this small cafe. I kinda expected to see it only in big restaurants. I was very tempted to try it but I managed to get a grip of myself. I shall not participate in eating the gentle giant.



Time passed by rather quickly and I was soon up and running for my Northern Lights chase. But just before that, there was supposed to another caving as part of this package. But I was too tired and my ribs were starting to sting again, so I politely explained to my new guide on why I had to exempt myself from the caving bit. He was cool about it.

When the other passenger came on board and started asking questions about this cave (Leidarendi cave) that they will be visiting, I couldn't help but listen in. Sensing my interest, my new guide assured me that this cave was way easier than the one I had gone to earlier today. And there would be room for us to walk through the cave as well. So just before they got off the car to get the equipment, I decided to join in. Well, simply because of 2 reasons - he said it was way easier than the previous cave that I'd went to and it would be safer to stick as a group rather then me staying alone in the car in the wilderness.

The new guide was right. It was way easier than the earlier cave and I got to see the insides of the cave better - partly because each of us have 2 lights (one headlamp and one on our hand) and because I felt calmer and more sure-footed than before. The only "bad" thing was that I had to walk like hunchback of Notre Dame most of time through the 900m long cave, because of the low ceiling.

We stopped a couple of times along the cave to observe and marvel at the tiny stalamites (the big ones were stolen years ago), the metallic texture of the minerals, the decades old sheep skeleton and etc.



As I began to relax (I felt rather tense before I went into the cave), I even started counting the number of times I hit my head against the ceiling. I lost count after the 9th time.

At one point, we sat down and off our lights and started talking about zombies. Well, it's basically about how people in the past didn't know anything about hyporthemia had thought that the people who had suffered this were actually dead and then came back as zombies...etc etc... and how it gradually led to the saying of "saved by a bell/ ring".

After caving, we went to the local fisherman village to have our dinner. And tada! Icelandic lobsters. Yummy! The taste of the meat reminded me of crayfish though. Sweet and juicy.



And then, for the final activity of the day, we went chasing for the northern lights. Full moon, clear sky, predicted 99% chance of seeing it. But after 4 hrs of driving and still no signs, we called it quits at about 1am and went back to our respective hostels sadly. Sigh. It would have been a superb closure for the day if we had seen it.

28th Oct (Thurs) - Iceland Day 3

PRELUDE:
Before talking about what I did on Day 3, let me cite the unfortunate accident that happened on Day 2.

Well, I was supposed to drive an ATV into the mountain terrains on my own yet keeping in line with the rest of the group at the same time. Yes. Me. Alone. Driving. That's a real scary thought for a person who only knew how to maneuver bumper cars and shopping carts.

I did highlight the fact that I didn't know how to drive and have no confidence in doing so, to the guide. But she assured me that it was easy and you didn't need a license to operate the ATV. So, I decide to give it a shot. I mean, how bad could it get?

So I got myself into a fat jumper (underneath I wore my Triclimate)...



... got into the ATV that was in the middle of the line...



... and began my drive.

Alas, within 2 - 4 mins of my drive, I literally "drove" myself into a nearby ditch.



Well, here's the thing. I couldn't get a grasp on how to control the gas pressure so instead of slowing, I sped up. By the time I realised I was nearing the ditch, it was too late to turn back. The next "best" thing I tried to do was to release my hand from the pressure button and tried to brake. But given that the brake was too big for me to get a good grip and in that moment of panic, my already-loose-grip loosened further, it was a lost cause.

You know those movie scenes that featured a car dangling at the edge of the cliff (half body on land and half in the air)? Well, I was in that situation. At least for a second or so. I remembered telling myself that there was still hope and if I could keep real still... maybe... there's a chance... maybe.

But in a split second, my hope was dashed and I went tumbling into the ditch (in slow mo - or at least it seemed), together with the ATV. I remembered falling and landing almost gently onto the uneven ground (think the fat jumper cushioned off the impact) and gradually rested my head on the dirt after my instincts told me it was fine to do so. And then, I felt the weight.

Half the vehicle weight came crushing down on my ribs and I was suddenly gasping for air while sheer pain shot through my ribs. My lungs (or ribs) felt like they were about to burst and my survival instinct kicked in. I started gasping wildly for air through my mouth.

At that instant, I heard voices on my sides. The guys in my group had rushed down to help. One of them was a paramedic. He asked if I was alright and all I could mutter was something along the lines of "Can't breathe. Get it off me."

Within seconds, the part that was crushing me got lifted up but the guys couldn't get it out of my way totally. They could only suspend it for as long as they could hold and just high enough for me to squirm.

In the meantime, the paramedic assessed my condition and after having ascertained that my legs and other body parts were not injured, he asked me to gradually "pull" myself out from underneath the vehicle while he lent a helping hand from the back.

I got back to my feet gradually and felt sore all over, especially on my right lower back (apparently I hit on a rock or something) and my ribs. My guide was thoroughly shocked and so was the rest of the group. I felt so apologetic for wasting their time and grateful for their help at the same time. I couldn't stop apologising to them for the rest of the trip.

After a short rest (which included the guide checking the condition of the crashed ATV as well), we got back onto the road again. This time, I sat behind the guide. As the unbeaten track was super bumpy (I felt like I could get thrown off the ATV some times even though I was clinging on to the handles), it caught me off guard and startled me on and off as well. Although I was still feeling shaky and my tears set in from time to time (I was told that my mind was trying to recuperate from the trauma that's why), I was glad that I continued on as it took my mind off the accident a little and allowed me some time to calm down.



And I was relieved to hear that the crashed ATV only had a minor gas leak problem which was easily fixed and I didn't have to pay for any damages. Phew. And of course, I was glad for a lot of other things as well. A lot of things could have gone wrong and went extremely bad -i.e.: If it wasn't for the uneven pit that held off half the vehicle weight, the entire ATV could have landed on me and crushed my bones. If it wasn't for the jumper suit and the timely help from the rest of the group, I couldn't have walked away with just a bruised rib and lower back injury. If it wasn't for the soft ground (it rained in earlier in the morning), I could have hit my head real hard when I landed. Yes. Many other things could have gone wrong. But it didn't. And I'm glad to be alive and kicking. :)

After the ATV session, I had a bowl of super delicious traditional Icelandic (lamb) meat soup that helped calmed my nerves further, before moving on to my Icelandic horse riding. I was still feeling sore but well enough to continue forth.



I'd asked for a smaller Icelandic horse thinking that it'd be easier to manage. Turned out that I got a delinquent which refused to move every now and then. According to the trainer, she (the horse) does that only to certain pple... for instance, young children. KNS. And so, I had a hard time trying to catch up with the trainer and the other 2 fellow travelers. In the end, we had to resort to "whipping" to scare her into speeding up.



When we got back to the stable, I gave her a good pat and rub once I dismounted. Well, even though she gave me a hard time earlier, I was grateful for the fact that she kept me safe while I was riding her - be it the times when we were crossing the river streams or going up hill and down hill. And I was glad that she didn't throw a tantrum and threw me off. There. She deserved a good pat and rub after all :)

***********************************************************************************
DAY 3

I did it! Not bad for a water-phobic. Made it through an hr odd of snorkeling in the 2°C water (after adorning my thermal, then a puffy insulated jumpsuit, then a dry suit, then thermal gloves and special headgear), just to see the Silfra lava fissure that lies between the continental plates of Europe & America! Unbelievable! I don't have the underwater pix but I do have pix of on land :)





At first I was so afraid that I wanted to give up. But I kept telling myself that I've already signed up for this and canceling at this very last minute would (1) cause a lot of trouble for the instructors and fellow snorkelers, (2) no refund and (3) more importantly, if I gave up then, I would most probably never ever touch it again even if another opportunity came knocking.

So I gritted my teeth and continued, despite constant (and rather unnecessary) fear of sinking/ drowning. I gritted real hard on the mouth piece as if it was the only thing that separated me from living and drowning.

Of course, the many layers of clothing kept me afloat as well. When I first finished donning on all the layers, the instructor told me to pull open the fabric near my neck and squat down slowly, so that the excess air (which was what made me look like a super duper fat teletubby) could be let out. It felt like I'd just vacuum-packed myself.



One of the fellow snorkelers then commented that I still had too much air in my suit and it was keeping my body half in water and half on surface, and I should get the instructor to help "vacumn-pack" myself again. But I said no. I was happy to be floating. That kinda took off some stress from me. The fellow then shrugged and swam away. Oh well, those who could swim would never understand one's phobia of water.

Anywayz, since I was so afraid and I always ended up snorkeling in the opposite direction and/or ended up being the last in line, I kept whimpering and whimpering until one of the instructors decided to just snorkel beside me to give me that peace of mind. And that helped a lot. Seriously. I'm really grateful for that. It made a huge difference to know that if anything did go wrong. Help was within a metre.

At times, I would look up from the water to see if he was still around. Most of the time, he was. But at times when he wasn't, I would panic. Like seriously panic. Then I would try to see where the rest were and tried snorkeling over. And when I looked up again, he was back in my vision. Thank goodness.

Panic also struck when I kept floating over to the deep fissure instead of the shallower waters as well. Then, I would paddle like crazy and attempt to swim (rather hopelessly) over to the shallower side. Stupid current.

And oh! It struck again at the last league. I was almost there to join the others on shore but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't move forward! By then, all my energy had drained off and I was so close yet so far. The instructors had all gone on shore as well and I was the only one still in the waters. I panicked and accidentally swallowed a few sips of water that almost chocked me. I turned over to float, removed my mouth piece and did some panic breathing. Then I heard the instructors cheering me on and I gritted my teeth and tried again.

At what seemed like an eternity, I finally reached the shores. But I was so drained out that I could hardly get myself out of the water. One of the instructors had to pull me up. But yeah!!!! I made it after all.

My fears apart, the whole experience had been rather surreal - like watching Discovery Channel on 3D through a shallow water-filled panel. According to my instructors, the fissure offered up to 100m underwater visibility.

I kinda paddle/ floated around rather weightlessly - except when there was a current and I had to paddle against it to continue forward. There's no marine life (in terms of fishes) in this part of the fissure but I did come across one or two white shrimps (those that DC showed in deep sea documentaries) and an alien-looking creature that looked more a like a magnified version of deep sea plankton as opposed to a jellyfish.

But I don't think I would ever do snorkeling again though I seriously think it's the nest way to develop abs over a shorter period of time compared to other sports. Main reasons:

1) I'm still water phobic

2) Asia climate = no need for "fat" suit = I can't float = I'll hallucinate drowning

3) Abundance of marine life in Asia tropical waters = busy pushing them away or avoiding them = possible collision with marine species = panic attack under water

Oh! By the way, I thought I'd gotten myself an underwater proof camera but it turned out that it was only water proof (i.e. withstand rain droplets) and not underwater proof (i.e.: for me to snorkel with) - see below. In any case, I wouldn't have been able to bring it to the fissure with me even if it's underwater proof. 'Coz (1) my hands couldn't hold on to anything with those over-sized thermal gloves and (2) I would rather keep my hands free in case I unwittingly hallucinate that I'm drowning and needed to grab onto something or anything.



* P.S: Since my Northern lights chase was cancelled due to bad weather, I took the time off to visit the local clinic to check on my ribs. Had to take a cab there (cost about 2250 ISK) as it was in another town and quite far from where I stayed.



Doc said it should be fine and no need to do any X-ray, though the pain may stick around for a few weeks. Even if there's a hair line crack, there was nothing he or I could do anyway.

And after visiting the doc, I strayed into a nearby mall (while trying to look for a taxi stand) and got myself a 20" luggage/ trolley bag so that I could reduce the load from my back pack and in turn, reduce the pressure on my ribs. Cost me 5999 ISK inclusive of the 25.5% tax. Darn!

But compared to Copenhagen, Iceland's actually way more affordable and the daily expenses would probably be more comparable to the cheaper European states and not Scandinavia.

26th Oct (Tues) - Iceland Day 1

Just before I landed in Keflavik International Airport, the aerial view took me by surprise. It looked like a no man's land. All I could see was brown land with smoke coming out from the different parts. I was intrigued.

And once I was out of the customs, I queued up at the money changer so that I could get my hands on some Icelandic krones (ISK). The currency could only be found in Iceland so I would need to change it back to other currencies before I leave Iceland as well. Even Denmark doesn't offer it.

After which, I caught the Flybus from the airport (2500 ISK) to town. It took about 45 mins - during which, I had to change to a smaller shuttle bus, which was included as part of the ticket.

Along the way, I was awe struck by the un-hindered view of nature once again. There were no skyscrapers, no big billboards nor tall trees that would play peekaboo with you. So I could pretty much see the mountain ranges, the sea and the moss-covered lava mould/ soils as we sped along the highway. Amazing... although it kinda reminded me a little bit of the Scottish highlands, it was obvious that Iceland's landscape was very unique. And I don't think that there is any camera in this world that could capture the beauty of Iceland as well as the human eyes do. And so sadly, I must say that my photos did not do any justice to the magnificient landscape. And I also think that Iceland is a place to be experienced and not a place where you just look at surface value or from picture books.

Anywayz, back to the topic. I alighted at Laugavegur, the main shopping street in Reykjavík. But I wasn't there to shop. I was there to settle my 5-day tour package with Arctic Adventures.



After having sorted out my booking, I headed towards my hostel which was located about 15 mins away from city centre by bus. A single bus ride cost 280 ISK and I was told that it's best to carry the exact amount as the bus driver would not be able to give you the change.



I didn't do much for the rest of the evening as it was too chilly (2°C outside, not factoring the wind chill) to head out and I had to prepare for my big day tomorrow :) Yes! Tomorrow will be day 1 of my "adventure" trip with Arctic Adventures. Am soooooo looking forward to it.


* P.S #1: I didn't realise that Iceland's behind Denmark by 2 hrs. So what I thought was an hr flight turned out to be 3 hrs - from Copenhagen airport (Denmark) to Keflavik International Airport (Iceland).

* P.S #2: The hot water from the tap tastes weird - like water with sulphur. But that's because of its geothermal origins so although it's safe for drinking, it's better for bathing. And I realised that the hostel has no heater at all. Well, they don't need it since there's naturally heated water :) But if I let the tap run cool for a few seconds, the cold water is refreshing and somehow feels like I'm drinking chilled Evian. How cool is that! I later found out that that's because it's pure spring water.

* P.S #3: Heard that wind chill in Iceland average from about 16m/s to 26m/s. And if you are around some parts of the coast (can't remember which direction), the speed can go up to 45m/s. SCARY...

* P.S #4: Icelandic hot dog is a must-try! It's made of lamb and tasted way less salty than the traditional pork/ chicken sausage hot dogs.

25th Oct (Mon) - Copenhagen

Did nothing much today. By the time I'd reached and checked into the hostel, it's already 1pm.



So I headed off to a nearby cafe (recommended by both the hostel and the young traveller's guide) for lunch --> Tjili Pop...





... before heading down to Osterport station, in search of the Little Mermaid.



After walking through a lovely park, I finally found the place where the Little Mermaid resides.



But hey! She was nowhere in sight!



KNS. Apparently she's touring in Shanghai for the Shanghai Expo 2010 and won't be back till December this year. WARAOZ... I came all the way but she's away.



Anywayz, I decided to head over to Vesterport Station after that and took a long, slow stroll from the City Hall and into the shopping streets.

That's when I chanced upon the North Face shop and went crazy over there. Damage to my pockets was probably around 500 SGD. I dare not think nor see the bill when I'm back. But it's money well-spent as I got myself a triclimate jacket, a cozy scarf (the current one that I'm using belongs to Tuk), another base layer and a can of washing powder for water-repellent or water resistant clothings.

At night, I got so tired (and also because I'm broke by this time) that I just settled for yogurt and milk for dinner. Food's expensive in Denmark. And the tax on items alone was 13%. Waraoz... glad I'm only here for a day before I head over to Iceland. (^ _ ^)

And here are the random shots as per usual: