Roadtrip in Iceland

I haven’t spent much time thinking about my life skills lately, other than to acknowledge that I need to practice cooking more.  And learning to build my own home would be great.  But I discovered two days ago that I have two skills particularly valuable in an Icelandic tourist: the ability to drive in snowy conditions and the ability to handle a manual transmission.  I made new friends Shivani and Bhaskar, rented a VW Golf with them (best way to see the country, but too pricy for a solo traveler), and cruised on up to Snaefellnes Peninsula.  Stykkshulmur was a perfect little town, and I could stay there for months.  It’s beautiful and has very little there.  Two restaurants, a bakery, a pool, and a fishing fleet.  And wifi.  What could be better?  Iceland has such great food!  The fish are so fresh and delicious!  And at the end of any day you can go to the public pool and hop into hot water.  Very, very civilized.

Stykkshulmur

As for the peninsula itself: I know that in this blog I have oft mentioned howling winds.  The bell tower in Bruges.  Malta.  The Millau Bridge.  It brings to mind this exchange from The Princess Bride:

Vizzini: I can't compete with you physically, and you're no match for my brains.
Man in Black: You're that smart?
Vizzini: Let me put it this way. Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?
Man in Black: Yes.
Vizzini: Morons. 

The wind in Iceland doesn’t howl.  It bays, it yips, it shakes you to the ground and shimmies you back upright just to see how much yoga you’ve done in the past few months.  I have never been in winds like this before.  And for all that, it’s completely beautiful.  One moment snow, the next sunshine.  Lava, ocean, glaciers, fields, ponies…. 

Now back in Reykjavik, and I have been touristing around.  Looking at churches and parks and such.  The architecture here is very striking.  There is no school for architecture in Iceland so everyone is trained elsewhere and brings back ideas with them.  And virtually all building materials are imported.  There is a rare lava rock building or a sod house, but that’s just the outliers.  But more than that what surprises me is this: heat is cheap here.  The geothermal power plants are very efficient.  So even being in a northern clime, houses are not built in the manner of those I am accustomed to in North America and Scandinavia.  Windows are kept open all year.  Floors are heated.  Warm water is available everywhere.  So triple paned windows aren’t used.  Metal roofs are okay.  It’s just discombobulating.

Also discombobulating: the Iceland Phallological Museum.  This started with one man’s (ha) passion for all things penile.  About half of the collection is whale members.  I’ll just let you look if you wish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Phallological_Museum