I caught up with Pom and Bridget to watch the AB's take on Aussie a few Saturdays ago, the game being played in Hong Kong
"Look out for Ryan and Jo" I shouted.
People stared.
"Just look out for that stupid southern comfort beanie of his" Pom suggested.
We didn't see them.
That game was on at 9am on a Saturday morning, which did mean an early wake up to get out to the pub. (I tell ya - big cities ain't all that great when a game is on). Over the ensuing hour and a half, we each managed to polish off around 5 beers and a shot, hitting up some Steinlager Pures in the process. They tasted like awesomeness.
"Lets have lunch at Westfield and do some shopping!!!!!!:)", Renee suggested.
The pizza lunch was a blur and we found ourselves hungover at around 2:30 in the afternoon before deciding to forego the shopping and hit the hay.
The next Saturday, we met Pom and Bridget at a different bar, this one located on the Thames River. We discussed travel destinations that would be awesome to hit up and instantly decided on a group trip to New York............. More on this breaking news story later.
The England vs AB's game was much better than the one previous. We won it, which helped. It was the biggest mission ever trying to break through the crowds at the bar to get a beer. Renee left at half time to get some drinks and came back with around 15 mins of game time remaining.
We headed on down to another bar after the game; a bar where Pom had spent a good portion of the year working. We maintained our drinking pace. An hour or so later, we stumbled out into the city. The lights on Fleet Street glowed warmly as we bade our farewells and headed off in our own directions into the London night.
Renee had jacked up drinks with a couple of her mates, so we met them in Putney for a pub dinner before heading to a cocktail bar. The night ended heavily at four o'clock and we made our way home using our legs, as Southfields was relatively close by. It was on this walk home where I broke my existing 'fox sighting' record by witnessing 5 of the furry creatures crossing our path. Some came close, about a couple of metres away. If I wanted, I could have jumped on the back of one and rode away into the night.
But I would probably break its spine.
All these nights out in London are fine, but the real reason I am here is for the adventure; to check out new and exciting places. Well, Iceland did not disappoint.
Lets just say- it certainly lives up to its name.
You hear those people saying that common phrase that 'Greenland is all Ice, whereas Iceland is all Green'. Well, I can tell you, they lie.
We arrived in the late hours of dusk (around 4:30pm) and as I peered out of the little plane window with rounded corners, a feeling of unprepared dread swept across me. I felt like Rocky arriving in Russia to fight Ivan Drago, as was depicted in Rocky IV. Only I wasn't in Russia.
And I'm not a boxer.
Perhaps not good use of analogy there. Hey, I failed 7th form English. Give me a break.
The sheen of fresh, and very slippery ice, coated the tarmac and the surrounding landscape resembled some kind of alien planet.
Ain't no 'green' in Iceland, I'll give you the tip.
Apart from the green of frozen lava, but we'll get to that.
The hotel was nice enough, located near the centre of Reykjavik, and providing an easy launchpad to check out the surrounding area. Through some clever deduction and extreme use of time management skills I had asked a local tour operator to take us out to see the Northern Lights a day earlier than expected.
The Northern Lights are never a guaranteed activity. In fact, you 'don't see them' a whole lot more than you 'do see them', if that makes sense. I was worried about the forecast for weather over the remaining nights so urged for a first night tour.
We got lucky.
Some of the strongest Northern Lights around were witnessed by yours truly. Even the tour guide was amazed at them. It was a truly amazing sight. A green wisp appeared over the horizon and drifted its way across the frozen sky of rural Iceland, taking around half an hour to fully encircle us. The arc of the circle (that surrounds the North pole) was clearly visible.
You need specific conditions to see these lights and we hit them all; clear skies, lack of artificial light, and the perfect time of year.
Through all the amazement of actually witnessing the lights, I felt urged to record this on film (SD card nowadays, but the phrase still works).
First photo - blackness.
Second photo - blackness
'Hmmm. I better change some settings' I thought to myself.
I fiddled with a few nobs and stated out loud what I was doing so some rookies nearby knew who they were dealing with. They looked at me with idolescent eyes. At least thats what I thought. I couldnt really seem them all too well, it was so dark.
"So, Im just going to turn this nob here" I exclaimed, "adjust the pitch of this setting, take this battery out and turn it this way and then divide this number shown here by the average amount of spanners found in a standard Sikram toolset. and, walah, we should have the perfect setup"
Third photo - slight hint of green wisp.......
I peered over to a group of Asian girls. "Oh my god", "Wow!", "Oh, that's so going to be my profile pic!!!!!!"
'What the hell' I thought, and then I saw what they were raving about. Their little camera was taking some of the most amazing photos I had ever seen. And they were taking it with a flash on and everything. I lost the plot, internally that is. How. The. Hell. Could. Their. Photos. Be. So. Good????
Fiftieth photo - finally some payoff. Through all this stress with trying to capture the miracle on film, I had failed to realise my purpose of being there. I took a step back.
Booya. What a sight they really are. My camera was left dangling at my neck as I spent a good 10 mins staring at them in awe.
My fingers started to tingle. I then felt the cold hit me all at once. My toes were numb, my cheeks ached and my lips were physically trembling. 'How cold was it?' I hear you ask with intrigue.
-7
Me no lie.
It was freezing. I had to jump into the bus, kick my shoes off and massage my feet for a good quarter of an hour before I started to feel anything in them.
I did manage to get a few photos of the lights, however the shots are too grainy for my liking, but you get the idea. I was just happy to see them.
I was also joyous about the fact that I witnessed the Northern Lights on the first night of our trip. It meant we didn't have to keep trekking out there every night. It resulted in the next day being a day of relaxation. We wandered around the city before making our way out to the Blue Lagoon, a natural thermal spa drawing water and minerals from deep in the earths crust. There was hardly anyone there and it was amazing. Total solitude. there were buckets everywhere stacked with white mud for you to rub on your face; mud that miraculously makes you appear younger and all that bullshit. I layered it on. As for the pools themselves, what a setup. Being Icelandic, preperation for the pools was very Scandinavian. I witnessed a lot of old mens willies as I myself had to get starkers and shower publicly (in the mens change rooms, but still...) before taking the plunge.
If you have seen Hostel 2- it is the spa that they relax in, just before getting dismembered.
Anyway, we stayed there for a good 6 hours and had some beers from the poolside bar. It started to rain and blow some serious gales so it was quite strange being warm as toast in my body but absolutely freezing from the neck up. Teeth chattered.
We had booked in a tour through the Icelandic countryside for the next day. It was a great tour and took us through the waterfalls, geysers, and geological extremities of the surrounding area around Reykjavik.
Being from NZ, this wasnt too far of a stretch from our geological sites, but the snow and surrounding landscape definately set things at a different pace. You will notice in some of the photos that the rocks are covered with a green tinge. That is frozen lava. Basically, the whole country is a rock of lava. There are few trees and next to nil wildlife.
That night was our final night in the land of fire and ice, so we decided to make it special. Heading to a Tapa's bar, we proceeded to order whale (minke to be precise), puffin (that black and white bird with the coloured beak), snail, and, to bring things back to earth for a bit we topped it off with meatballs and chorizo potato salad.
I can literally hear Greenpeace knocking at the door now.
No.
Wait.
That's just a courier.
Phew.
So, I know what the question on everybody's lips is...... The whale was surprisingly delicious; akin to an eye fillet steak, tender and cooked rare, with a hint of an earthy aftertaste. The puffin was cooked, yet was served cold and was probably the least favourite dish of mine. It was a chewy, slimy meat with not an appetising taste. The whole meal was great though and definitely filled the void. However it didn't fill the void of my guilt. Only made it larger.
After the meal, we headed out to an Ice bar, one of those bars made entirely of ice, for a quick beer. It was pretty disappointing. For one, we were the only ones there. Apparently Icelanders don't party too hard on a Tuesday night. The bar itself was basically a big chiller with blocks of ice strapped to the wall. And it leaked. It was enjoyable for the novelty factor but that was about it. The trip to iceland wound up on the wednesday with a flight back to Heathrow where I stood next to Heston Blumenthal, celeb chef, whilst trying to retrieve my bags. The highest temperature we experienced in Icleand was 2 degrees, with that -7 being the lowest.
I didnt take my beanie and scarf off the whole time I was there.
And now, here I am back at the office. The trip to Iceland was great and I am looking forward to Christmas / New Year when we are off to Portugal and Spain. Little sis is coming over in January and then, wait for it, we head off to the bright lights of New York. Flights are paid for and locked in, so that is all happening at the end of Feb. I won a lonely planet guide from a local travel mag here so I will be thumbing that with delight in anticipation for this trip.
It should be epic.