Summer Solstice

On the night of the recent solstice we decided to drive about an hour out of Reykjavik along the coast to watch the midnight sunset. We brought blankets and hiked up a cliff to get a good view. We past an area which had some neat cliff formations and I was able to get a good shot.
Once we were at the top, this was the view looking at the beach below.
This was the skyline when we first settled in. Clearly we made it a little earlier than expected, which wouldn't have been a problem except that it was pretty cold. We tried to dress warm but we all underestimated how windy it would be, so we sat there for almost an hour huddled together in blankets waiting for the sunset to happen.
This was the inland view, and on the left is a lighthouse which had to be rebuilt because the old one used to be on the edge of the cliff when it collapsed into the sea. They decided to build it a couple hundred yards inland after that. The rest of the structures in the picture are a geothermal plant, and the white stuff coming out of the ground is actually steam (not smoke), as most people would assume.
Although I took lots of pictures as the sun was setting, I think this is my favorite.
All in all, not a bad way to kick off a Friday night!

More pictures of this beautiful place can be found here.

Bouncing Around Southern Iceland (Part 2)

Destination: Vik
After the two waterfall locations (see Part 1), we continued South on the main highway. Along the way we turned off the main road at the suggestion of our guide and drove a bit inland to a place which we all thought looked like a mini version of the badlands. I climbed one of the rocky pillars and took this shot looking inland.
Our final destination was Vik located on the Southern tip of the country. Although the town itself is very small, it is supposed to have amazing beaches. They even occasionally make the "World's Top Ten" list. Unfortunately we made it there fairly late and it was very windy. But you can't tell that from the pictures, of course.

Since Iceland exists only because it sits on Europe's and America's tech-tonic plates, there are volcanoes (both active and dormant) everywhere. As a result almost all the beaches have black sand coming from their volcanic ash. It still feels the same as normal sand.
The experience was cool because we were the only ones there. Here is one looking more inland; notice how high the sun still is...it's around 8:30pm.
We split into two parties...lets call them Alpha and Bravo because it might make for a more risque sounding story. Alpha team took it upon themselves to hike the largest nearby cliff, which was at least a couple hundred meters (~600 feet) tall. If you click on the larger version you can see Alpha team.
Bravo team, which included myself, decided that looked strenuous and opted to continue walking along the beach. We quickly reached the same large rock formation, which coupled with the incoming tide was blocking our path. Perhaps feeling inspired by Alpha team's sense of adventure, we decided to wait for the waves to go out and "make a run for it". Not knowing what might be around the corner (or even if it was a corner at all), we ran. Fortune smiled upon us as we found a cave just around the bend. This was taken at its back looking outwards.
One of our group slipped off the rocks and fell into the water on our return sprint. I still feel the calamity was well worth the photo, but maybe that's because it wasn't me. The water is as cold as you might imagine, considering it's Iceland and all.

Additional pictures can be found here.

Bouncing Around Southern Iceland (Part 1)

Location: Skogafoss

Iceland is not a particularly large country. It's about the size of Kentucky and includes ~300,000 people. The majority live in the capital, Reykjavik, located on the Southwest part of the island. Here is a map to provide some reference - the star shows where the various destinations are in each post.
On Saturday we hopped in a car and drove about 3 hours away to a village in Southern Iceland called Vik (the only town on the Southern tip). Along the way, we quickly learned that what passed for a town on the map was actually a farm. We drove past a town sign which reported the population to be 7. I wonder how they elect a mayor...

While Vik was our terminal destination, there were a few interesting places to stop by along the way. The first was Skogafoss, which has some amazing waterfalls running strong this time of year with snow melt. Here is a picture taken right when we got out of the car. I don't know how tall it was, but the people below provide a sense of scale.

NOTE: I've purposely not shrunk the resolution down on any pictures but if you want to see its full quality you'll have to click on it.
Even cooler, there is a trail which runs behind and then up alongside it. The water was coming down pretty hard and kicking up a lot of mist once we got close. This made it harder to take pictures, but its one benefit was that it created rainbows everywhere. It didn't matter where we were standing...there was always a rainbow staring back at us. Here's a pic taken along the trail I just mentioned.
This was actually taken at another location about 30 minutes away from Skogafoss, but I can't remember its name. At the top there is this rock formation with a face overlooking the main waterfall, and I thought it looked like something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.
We also hiked up a hill to get a better look at the entire ridge line, and here's what we saw.
I particularly like this one because it gives a sense of just how green everything is here. You know that old schoolyard fact about how the Vikings purposely mis-named Iceland (which is actually very green) and Greenland (all ice)? It's true.

More gorgeous pics of Skogafoss are here.

Landing in Reykjavik

It was smooth sailing into Reykjavik. After a short layover in JFK Airport, we boarded the 6 hour flight across the Atlantic. Since it's a 4 hour time addition from East Coast, we landed fairly late. As we were getting close the captain comes on the speaker and says the standard "we're descending into Iceland...local time is just before midnight". I had been keeping my window shade closed up to that point to help me sleep, but I raised it to see what was out there.

Since Iceland is at such a high latitude, its daylight hours fluctuate wildly over the course of a year. It's been an interesting transition for me these past few years coming from California (which doesn't change much over the seasons) to Boston (with four very distinct seasons), to the extremeness of Iceland.

How extreme exactly? Here's what was outside my window at midnight when I was landing!
That's right - the sun currently sets right around midnight. Even more odd, it rises about 4 hours later.

Driving to our house was also interesting. All the road signs and street names are in Icelandic. While the language shares a similar alphabet to English, it does have extra letters and is totally unintelligible to those who don't speak it. It sounds kind of like German to me, but I'm told there are little similarities.

Even though we got in around 2am, the roommates didn't get home until an hour after us because they were at a party which ran late. There are 3 of them, and they're all Hungarians. We seem to be getting along with each other really well. It helps a lot that they're really funny and their English is very good. We're also hosting 3 additional students from MIT who happen to be passing through, so our 5 bedroom house is currently pretty crowded. It doesn't matter much since we don't expect to sleep a lot considering the time difference and the funky daylight hours.

Wrapping up at MIT

Hello friends & family!

This post is a "prequel" to my adventures, and its sole purpose is to set the stage. For those who either don't know me or need a refresher, I graduated with my Master's Degree a little less than a week ago and am now embarking on two internships abroad over the next 9 months (3 months in Iceland and 6 in Spain).

It's currently 5pm on June 12th, 2008. In less than 24 hours, I'll be well over the Atlantic on my way to Reykjavik, which is the capital and main city of Iceland. I'll be working and living there until the end of August for a company called Mannvit, which amongst other engineering specialties has a lot of experience in Energy. My job will be to look into the environmental impacts of Geothermal energy and to assess its likely legislation and roadblock considerations should the company decide to expand such technologies into the US.

Today has been hectic. I spent a few hours at the Spanish consulate working on my visa (that adventure starts right after Iceland in September), but thankfully it worked out ok. I was pretty nervous since this was my one and only chance to get all the required materials submitted in the proper format.

Following that experience, furious packing coupled with shipping out packages to parents ensued (they are wonderful for being such a trusty storage locker). This also involved me walking for 15 minutes with a 30lb box on my head - a little trick I learned in Ghana. Multiple bags of clothes were then deposited to The Salvation Army, and with that my room is finally starting to look empty. According to my count, I have boarded the campus shuttle 7 times today.

As I write this, I can't help but feel that my 9 month stay at MIT has gone by remarkably fast. I find this an interesting contrast because most days were agonizingly slow. Probably because of my personality, I feel it's better to focus on the positive aspects of my experiences here, and as such I thought I'd post a few pictures of Cambridge and Boston which I particularly enjoy. Flipping through my pictures has also helped me to get closure, and to let reality sink in.

The first one is probably the favorite shot I've gotten from my apartment, and it overlooks downtown Boston at sunrise.
This one was taken walking along the Charles River and it also covers the Boston skyline on a Spring day. Although the weather was especially windy, there remained no shortage of brave souls attempting to sail.
And no summary of recollections around MIT would be complete without a shot of the picturesque dome in the center of campus. This is one I took in the dead of winter on my way to an early morning class.
That's it for Cambridge and Boston. I hope you're just as eager to read about my experiences as I am to have them. I promise to post as often as I have interesting stories to tell, and the next one should start with the good stuff!