Lake Myvatn, Iceland

This is the road to Lake Myvatn…from the north. While we were driving there, we spotted this house perched(literally) a top an old lava flow and we took the road that lead to it to see what the heck it was. Well, it was a house that had been abandoned and converted into a sort of camping spot for travellers. There was a small, very rustic kitchen and some less than clean bunks that you could stay in. On the table, there were some books for travellers, as well as, a guest book. The guest book listed people who had stumbled upon this house since the late 90′s. There were paths that allowed us to climb around a bit on the lava flow, but this was difficult because the rock itself is extremely rough. Our kids were fascinated and it is one of our favorite moments from all of Iceland…odd, I know…it might even be a very popular place to visit we have no idea how many people know about it(the last person who had signed the book had been there only a couple of days earlier), it felt like a very special find to us. Something we stumbled upon…the kids still mention the hour or so we spent exploring there. Bob likes to point out that had this abandoned house been in Canada–this close to the most major road in the country(in full view)–it would have been trashed. Spray painted. Abused. This house is actually pretty well taken care of…Icelanders are proud of their country and take great care of it(at least that’s what we think). And, as a guest there, you feel the need to take care of it, too. This house is a testament to that.

The next few images of the ‘orange mountain’ are as we came into Lake Myvatn from the north. The area is called Namafjall Hverir and is a high temperature geothermal area with many fumaroles and mudpots. And…a high stench of sulfur. Almost unbearable at times. But, when the orange mountain first came into our sight we were struck by how unusual it was…plopped there amongst otherwise fairly normal looking landscape(normal for Iceland). There is an underground bakery near by(just a bunch of covered holes where the underground heat is hot enough to bake bread) and the restaurants in town all serve the dense bread that they make there. It is INCREDIBLE. If you like dense scandinavian bread which I do.

This is Icelandic Fish Stew…not really a stew in my mind but more of a mash of white fish, onions and potatoes…but, really quite tasty.
Icelandic black sand.Our book said that there would be lots of tiny flies here…they weren’t kidding. Although, this one spot was the worst.
This is where lava once flowed right up to the yard of the local church and then went around it. The locals strongly believe it was due to the prayer of the parishiners. I also like how it shows how adaptible Icelanders are…building their homes, etc in amongst these odd geological occurances as you can see the recent buildings behind it.
See how far the lava flows stretch out across the landscape…
This is Kirkja in Dimmuborgir. Kirkja means church and it is a big underground cave. The kids enjoyed exploring here…Jack called the light coming into one spot his ‘Indiana Jones Light’…

From the front and then from the back…an arch in Dimmuborgir. A picture I think every tourist who makes the trek there must have in their possession…

Slowly making my way through my Iceland images…this was a large post cause it actually covered a couple of days. The warmest ones we had while we were there. And, we stayed in a wonderful hostel in Arbot where the lady running the hostel had a little girl in between my kids in age. They enjoyed watching Icelandic kid shows with her

I’m missing summer vacation today…

~ Dana