The Nordic Island nation: A hunt for the northern lights and more

One of the very first real trips I had when I arrived in Europe was not at all where I had planned to go. Amidst so many list of cities I had in mind, I had never thought Reykjavik (the capital of Iceland) would be worth visiting (in fact, I never knew about Reykjavik, or anything much about Iceland for that matter). In the end, I decided to join abroad the Iceland trip with my friends to give a shot at enlightening myself about the island country to the northwest of Denmark. It was on the 17^th of November, 2016 that I set my foot in Iceland, and I’m writing about this almost a year later because, to simply put it, of many failed attempts to describe about my trip. Every time I sat down trying to write about Iceland, I couldn’t express what I saw because I wasn’t visiting any historical monuments, landmarks, or taking cultural tours, or going to restaurants or visiting museums. All I did when I was in Iceland was explore nature, and it’s often that nature doesn’t have a story behind it, it’s just there, and all you can say about it is that it is beautiful. The first time in my life I was lost for words, and the words I finally conjured up were not doing justice to what I saw and felt at that moment of courtesy of the enthralling landscape and breathtaking scenery.

I wouldn’t say winter in Iceland was particularly a good idea, because of its close proximity to the northern pole, leading to harsh temperatures below zero and very short days. But the only thing that made me make the trip there was the possibility to see the famous Aurora Borealis, better known as the northern lights, and I had no idea that Iceland had so much more in store.

Arrival

I remember the moment I stepped out of the plane in Jomsom (a small town located above 2500 meters above sea level in the west of Kathmandu which is particularly known to be very windy) when I was heading towards Muktinath (a religious destination a few hundred meters above Jomsom). Yes, I had a pleasant surprise when the wind hit me and I had to clutch on to my jacket in my hands a bit harder. The winds in Iceland, however, were in a different league altogether. Anybody who had been there would always say that Iceland would blow you away. But I didn’t know that what they said had a very literal sense. The winds were so strong that, yeah, it could actually blow you away. At the airport, me and my friends were in the middle of a discussion on how we could reach our Airbnb apartment when we were walking out of the main entrance, completely unaware that the winds outside were as high as 50 km/h. After stepping out, I couldn’t mutter a single word, and I looked at my friend who was having the same trouble. With narrowed eyes, he could finally mutter, which I think was “shit!” I had a hard time gripping on to my mini duffle because the wind was so strong that it was constantly pushing it against my clutches and it was difficult to even breathe. It was pretty much the same all the time for the five days I was there. The most you could stand outside in the freezing winds was probably like, 5 minutes, before your hands would feel numb and you eventually had to go back inside a car or a building. But it was quite an experience. Needless to say Iceland figuratively blew me away, it almost literally blew me away as well.

The Golden Circle Route

We had four days to travel around, and although Reykjavik was a cool place to hang, there were better things to see outside of the city. So, we rented out two cars and went to several destinations close-by the city. We made our way through various stops in the golden circle route, the first stop to which was the Thingvellir National Park, whose main attraction was that it was the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. 

Thingvellir National Park (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Thingvellir National Park (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Thingvellir National Park 

Thingvellir National Park, where the tectonic plates are diverging

The next stop was a hot spring Geyser which was also just five minutes away from the Golden Circle Route. Like other Geysers, the one we saw had a vent in the earth’s surface and every once in a while (like five minutes or so), hot boiling water would rush out of the vent up to several meters (check the video below). The shooting water would then be guided into the direction of the wind and the resulting phenomenon would look astonishing. Apart from this, another great location we went to was a geothermal area called Gunnuhver where you could see steam coming out from the surface everywhere (we walked through the steam and there's a video below). It looked like the whole area was covered in a thick mist. The steam was slightly acidic as it contained some amount of Hydrogen Sulfide, and sure enough, it wasn’t very pleasant to the nose (rotten eggs!!). 

Acidic Steam coming out from Gunnuhver (Picture by Nadin Brunnhofer)

We also made it to Gullfoss waterfalls, which is by far the best waterfall I’ve seen. It wasn’t very huge, but because the surrounding snow-clad hills and spectacular skies in the background gave a majestic, fairy-tailish façade to the waterfall which was ridiculously bewitching.

Gullfoss Waterfall (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

A selfie from the top of Gullfoss

Our last trip in the Golden Circle Route was the Kerid Crater Lake. So, basically, it’s a lake that is inside a volcanic crater. Nothing could be cooler than that. Except if the water is neon blue, and yes, it was. We reached there right when it was time for sunset, and walked around the whole crater, then climbed down towards the lake. I got so excited that I dropped my friend’s camera into the lake while I was taking pictures (I hurriedly took it out and we put it in a bowl of rice for three weeks or so and it started working again, so it wasn’t an unhappy ending). But I get to say that I dropped a camera in a Crater lake once in Iceland, which is pretty cool.

The Kerid Crater Lake (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Kerid Crater Lake (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

The Black Sands and Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

The Black Sands beach is a very rare beach in the southern coasts of Iceland, and as the name suggests, the sands are pitch black (even the pebbles). The reason the sands are black is because of volcanic lava flowing into the ocean, solidifying and then washing up to the shore. We woke up early the next day to go to this place and catch the sunrise there, which turned out to be a very good decision. Out of all the places we visited in Iceland, this was the best. The sunrise was downright mesmerizing, as you could see the first few rays of the sun approach the beach and reveal the enchanting and exceptional beauty of the black sands. The skies were a mixture of yellow, orange and blue, which was also being reflected by the surface of the sea, and the blackness of the beach provided a unique contrast to the whole landscape, and such a blend I believe could probably not be found anywhere in the world. We were so captivated that we spend around three hours there not doing anything, enjoying the sun and looking into the horizon. Some of my friends and I conjured up our strength to open our shoes and walk in the shores, which probably lasted for a minute because the water was ice cold. We walked further down the shores to find huge columns of basalt, which was also caused by lava flowing. If there is one place I could go again out of all the different places I’ve visited recently, I would choose the black sands beach.

Sunrise in the Black Sands beach (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Black Sands Beach (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

The column formations (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Black Sands beach (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

We finally said goodbye to the Black Sands beach and headed to Seljalandsfoss Waterfall. It wasn’t as spectacular as Gullfoss waterfall that we saw the previous day, but the best thing about this waterfall was that the pool it made was frozen, and it was thick enough to walk in it. Also, you could see a spectacular rainbow forming right in front of it, and the frozen surface below would reflect the rainbow so that you could actually see a full circular rainbow, and it was amazing (check the video out below).  

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

We had some other places in our list but we spent a lot of time in the black sands and therefore couldn’t go. But it was a time well spent in the black sands, and we decided it was all worth it.

The northern Lights

Yeah, we didn’t get to see them.
We went for northern lights hunting three nights for hours by checking out some website about its activity and probability of occurrence, but we weren’t lucky enough to find it. We drove through gravel and earthen roads, got stuck in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch black and the freezing cold just to see if we could find the lights but we didn’t get to see anything. It was kind of disappointing because that was the whole reason I jumped aboard the trip, but I saw so many other things that in the end it didn’t matter at all. I guess seeing the northern lights will probably be an excuse for me to visit Iceland again.

In a nutshell

I have to say, the first holiday trip I had in Europe was probably one of the best I’ve ever had. Iceland’s sumptuous hills, skies, volcanoes, lakes and waterfalls bewitched me so much that I could go there again in a heartbeat. While I think the city Reykjavik is nothing out of the ordinary, the places outside is something that is completely out of the world. I’ve never seen any place similar to the places I’ve visited in Iceland before, and this unique landscape and natural beauty it has makes visiting this place a must for every travel bug. 

Somewhere along the road near the city (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Kleifarvatn Lake (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

Kleifarvatn Lake (Picture by Madhu Gotety)

The Crew (probably the reason why the trip was super fun)

The shades of Portugal

My Masters’ program was hosting a spring meeting in Aveiro, Portugal for us students and we decided that we couldn’t ignore Porto and Lisbon while we would be so close to them. So, our initial plan to spend 2 nights in Aveiro for academic purposes turned into a weeklong vacation with a lot of travel in Portugal.

While we were missing a lot of classes back in Hamburg, the whole trip turned out to be very worthwhile especially because we were escaping the not-so-charming weather in Hamburg for some good sun, sea and sand; and we were meeting a lot of friends from the Masters’ program in Aveiro.

So, although I didn’t spend a lot of time in each place I was in, and I couldn’t actually get the real feel of the cities, I still managed to learn a few things about Portugal and the cities I stayed in, had a few new first times and gobbled up good experiences from the South of Europe >>

1       Walking tours

These free tours given by charismatic young people (sometimes who were locals) of the city, where you walk around mostly the central parts were amazing. They covered everything interesting, from history, art, music to food. And you could ask anything you wanted. They would give recommendations to good restaurants, bars, shopping areas and other touristic places, and in the end of the tour, you usually had a list of things to do before leaving. The best part of the tour was that you could set the value of the tour yourself and tip as much as you thought was worth your time. And, you meet new people too. I learned a lot about the history of Porto and Lisbon, and ever since those walking tours, I’ve decided to never miss an opportunity for such tours in other cities.

2       Porto

Porto was my first stop in Portugal, and I stayed there for a day before moving to Aveiro for the meeting. I was immediately in love with the city because it was so much green and lively, and the weather was perfect, and it seemed like everyone there were there to have a good time. There was music everywhere!! I heard bagpipers being played for the first time and it was amazing. The atmosphere was magical. Right in one corner, you could see people playing music and others dancing to it, and in the other, you could see people blowing air bubbles in the city squares while children and adults tried to pop them. Its one of the rare places I’ve been to that had happiness embedded into it.

A guy blowing bubbles in a square in Porto

Porto, around the riverfront

A church in the city, the tiles very characteristic to the city

Porto Central Station

3       Aveiro

My next stop was Aveiro, a small city to the south of Porto was an escape from the touristic Porto. The city was peaceful and picturesque, and there were canals that crisscrossed the entire city I had never known that Aveiro was called the Venice of Portugal, and I found out why. The Moliceiro boat trips through the canals across the colorful houses and buildings, below the bridges covered the entire city and was fun to say the least, and although I’ve never been to Venice before, this trip gave me a pretty good reason now to go there. All in all, Aveiro seemed like a student city, and the prices in bars and restaurants there were incredibly cheap (probably the reason we had a very interesting night in Aveiro). It had a student atmosphere to it and it felt like the whole city was a huge university, which was nice.

A factory turned restaurant in Aveiro

Boat trips in the city canal, Aveiro

4  The beach-house in Porto

The idea of the beach house was basically just to get together and party. So, we were almost thirty people, had booked three beach houses, and had a common intension to blow off some steam (after two days of meeting and receiving a lot of information, it was the perfect time to give the brain some rest) and have a good time (which we did). We basically didn’t do anything the whole day except chill by the house and the beach. The water was freezing cold so most of us couldn’t actually go to the water (I say most because some of my friends were crazy enough to swim in the extremely cold water). The day ended with a very good barbeque dinner, where we had long conversations with all the people we had grown so fond of, knowing that we might not meet again in a very long time. It was here where we diverged afterwards, after saying our goodbyes and hoping that we would see each other soon again.

We got a pretty good deal for this amazing beach house!

Flatmates!!

5       Lisbon

Last but not the least, my trip took me to the capital of Portugal, Lisbon. And for me, it was like we saved the best for last.

Yes, Lisbon was my favorite city out of the three. Firstly, because it had hills. As it turns out, Lisbon is known as the city of seven hills, and its no surprise that it kind of reminded me of Kathmandu. The hills more or less surrounded the city, and the hills were a maze of narrow streets, houses and staircases. So, there would always be surprises waiting for you at every turn of every street across the hills where there was open space because they presented magnificent views of the city.

Another reason was Alfama, one of the neighborhoods there that didn’t have any bus or metro services and even private vehicle transports because the streets were simply too narrow. “You will, with no doubt be lost for hours in the Alfama maze, but being lost in Alfama is a time well spent”, said the guide who gave us the walking tour, and if I did have more time in Lisbon, I would go back to explore the streets even more.

Like Porto, Lisbon had a very vibrant and musical atmosphere. Lisbon was probably even livelier, with music in every corner and every square around the main city, with musicians, puppeteers, artists, and plain crazy people wearing weird costumes. And the difference, I think, was that while Porto felt only touristic to me, where you couldn’t actually step off that tourist boundary and explore the real city, Lisbon offered way more than the usual touristic attractions. We went from city tours, to wine tastings to pub crawls to sightseeing all in the span of only two full days. And the two days were extremely memorable.

Praça do Comércio, Lisbon

Around Lisbon City Center

Narrow streets near Alfama

Street Art in Alfama

The narrow alleys would always open up to views like this

Lisbon by night

So, as I sit down in my room right now, finishing off all the good words from my limited vocabulary to describe my experience in Portugal, I realize with each second how much I want to go back there again. Well, apparently I am very vulnerable to having attachments with places, but attachments for all the right reasons nonetheless. I had only experienced the northern, colder parts of Europe, and Portugal gave me a sneak-peak of what else Europe had to offer, and well, it seems exciting.

Shenanigans on the last night at Lisbon