Sakura Dreams

Hello! I'm on vacation in Japan. Right on time for the cherry blossom peak bloom in Kansai, I'm getting my fill of sakura viewing.

Expect to see lots more posts under my 'Japan' tag soon...

ICEland? Oh, I get it.

For the first six days of my stay in Iceland, I was catching glimpses of glaciers here and there. It wasn't until the seventh day, when our group reached Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, that I experienced an actual Land of Ice. Jökulsárlón is as the edge of Vatnajökull which I've heard described as the largest non-polar glacier and Europe's largest glacier (although Wikipedia confirms only that it is Europe's largest by volume not by area, not counting anything in Russia).



Either way, this is an enormous mass of ice. Our guide Anna suggested that the eariest voyagers to Iceland must have made their approach from the southeast where Vatnajökull sits, and faced with this view of nothing but ice, they named the whole island Iceland (Ísland). 

At Jökulsárlón, icebergs break off the fresh water glacier and drop into the sea water lagoon. It takes two to three years for the 'bergs to reach the open ocean. In the meantime, that salt water works away at the surface of the ice, creating astonishing textures in blue and white.






My little group arrived at the lagoon early in the morning. We were usually a chatty lot but the site of this frozen parade struck us rather quiet. The only sound was the very faint cracking, creaking and bobbing of the chunks of ice as they shifted slightly in the still water.






The lagoon empties into the harbour. More ice is scattered on the volcanic black sand, left where it has been tossed back by the waves. The whole place is beautiful in a surreal, serene, isolating way. Blue, white and black.

Iceland by Instagram

1. Yep, no doubt I'm in Iceland., 2. Safety walk zone., 3. Harpa flags, 4. Viking cheese, complete with Runic label. Love it!, 5. Very quiet Sunday morning in Reykjavik, 6. Picking and mixing at the candy store., 7. A trip to an Icelandic convenience store., 8. Reykjavik street art., 9. Fuzzy, friendly Icelandic horsie!, 10. Snæfellsjökull (glaciar) and white house., 11. It nearly killed me to climb to the viewpoint for this 180m high waterfall., 12. This is Eyjafjallajökull. Remember her? Actually, she is beautiful!, 13. Goðaland canyons below Eyjafjallajökull: officially the most beautiful place I've ever been., 14. Iceberg lagoon PLUS Iceland's highest peak!, 15. Today's scenic spot: black sand beach littered with icebergs at Jökulsárlón., 16. Glacier hike on Vatnajökull, Iceland about 3 weeks ago., 17. Nature, are you KIDDING me with this?, 18. Home for the past two nights: little house below the glacier., 19. Svinasfelljökull, 20. Endless mossy lava bubbles from eruption of 1784. They feel like giant sponges., 21. Home, after watching 1 Icelandic movie, 1 Icelandic documentary and 2 Icelandic TV episodes on board Icelandair., 22. Farewell, Iceland! We had a marvelous time even without any Northern Lights.

Þórsmörk/Thórsmörk

I've had the good fortune to visit a lot of beautiful places. Thórsmörk in Iceland might just be my #1. I like bold, rugged scenery. Greens and blacks. I like to feel overwhelmed by nature and to lose all sense of scale. Thórsmörk was perfect for all of this.

Þórsmörk/Thórsmörk/The Forest of Thor is an area in southern Iceland enclosed by three glaciers: Tindfjallajökull, Mýrdalsjökull and Eyjafjallajökull. If you were alive in 2010, you may recall Eyjafjallajökull and its ash-spewing, airplane-halting eruption. (I have learned to pronounce the word correctly - test me next time we meet!)

Driving into Thórsmörk valley can only be done in a serious off-road vehicle. There were sizable glacial rivers to ford, and we hung on tightly while the van bumped over banks of sediment left from previous floods. During our one hour plus drive in, we only saw two other vehicles, both driven by very beard-y men dressed in woolen jumpers who were searching for a wayward dog. I wonder if they found that dog out there in all that space...

By chance, it was my day to ride in the front seat of the van so I had the pleasure of the perfect view across the landscape. It was the colour contrast that struck me most. The ground surface is black, fine sediment and pebbles deposited by the volcano. Braided rivers meander across the valley floor and on this day, they were reflecting the orange-pink sky. Colossal blocks of black rock tumble and jumble along the horizon, their texture highlighted by dense green moss. Finally, at the perfect level to dazzle your eyes, the three glaciers blaze in brilliant white against the black mountains.





Naturally, my photos don't do the place justice. I couldn't capture the scale or the colours.

The night we spent at the Götaland Basar Hut was a little rough but in the morning, we were faced by this view which we'd missed by arriving after dusk the night before. Apart from a couple of huts and picnic tables, there is no other sign of human interference in this valley.



Finally, we took what ended up being my favourite hike of the trip (and not just because it was flat!). We went all the way back into one of the hundreds of canyons. This felt like a real adventure! We had to figure out our own way across the creeks, and we could venture into any of the small caves and side-canyons.













At the very back of this canyon was a cave:


and a waterfall of melt-water from the glacier:


The word 'awesome' is very much overused but for me, Thórsmörk is truly awesome. I will return someday.

Three Icelandic Musicians

Here are some tunes to accompany my much delayed Iceland posts.

Dýrð í dauðaþögn by Asgeir Trausti
We listened to this album probably 50 times on the drive around Iceland. The video below amuses me. It's like Asgeir told his six best friends that they could be on TV if they learned to play the snare drum and all six came through for him.

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I Forget It's There by Lay Low
You probably would not guess that she is Icelandic if I hadn't told you. Sounds more Nashville than Reykjavik to me, but I like it.

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Góða tungl by SAMARIS 
Apparently the band members are all 18 years old. Are there any teenagers making such atmospheric music outside of Iceland?

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Bonus: Rain by Eivør
She is not Icelandic but Faroese. We listed to her album maybe 27 times on the tour and now I can't think of anything but erosion and glacial geology when I hear it. Incidentally, I definitely want to check out the Faroe Islands someday. Anyone else?

Iceland First Time

Lucky me - I have an overseas trip coming up in less than three weeks! But I still haven't posted much about my trip to Iceland in October. I'm going to try for a flurry of posts before I take off again.

The thing about Iceland is that every day, I somehow experienced something new, something that had never happened to me before.

-I'd never been mobbed by ponies before.


-Never seen icebergs close enough to touch (and eat).


-Never been so cold indoors that I slept in a coat and hat.


-Never walked behind a waterfall before.


-Never been so sure I was about to break an ankle.


-Never seen a glacier with such an odd profile.


-It was my first time swimming in a high-end thermal pool.


-Also my first time swimming in a "secret" pool (hot water flows out from the cliff face).


-Never been so tempted to buy woolen goods.


-Never seen such ruggedly beautiful landscape (the lack of trees means the geology is unobscured)


-Never stood between tectonic plates before.


-Never climbed to the rim of a perfect crater before.


-Never stood on a beach while gazing at a glacier.


-Never seen swans and geese flock together.


-Never walked on a glacier before.


-Never seen a lava bubble landscape like this before.


-Never seen such fascinating nature-made textures.


-Never paid so much money for a beer...
-Never been so delighted to be mistaken for a local.
-Never been anywhere like Iceland before, that is for certain.

V Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'll be buying my own chocolates again this year, but I'm okay with that. Better to be a content singleton than to be stuck with the wrong partner.

Coconut flour Nutella Brownies (gluten-free!) for World Nutella Day!

February 5th is World Nutella Day! Read all about it on the World Nutella Day site. Nutella is one of the most delicious substances ever created by humans and it is well worth celebrating.

As a small offering in honour of the greatest of the nut-based spreads, I present a simple brownie recipe. This is adapted from the awkwardly titled 'Cook Yourself Thin' book. The Guiltlessly Delicious Fudge Brownie is my low effort standard for when I suddenly get the urge to bake some brownies. I adjusted the recipe to work with coconut flour and to incorporate Nutella.

Over the past several months, I have removed or limited certain foods on the advice of my naturopath (dairy, egg, almond, corn, gluten and a few others).  These brownies are gluten-free but they are not dairy-free  - Nutella itself is gluten-free but it contains milk ingredients. I avoid eggs, too, but this recipe does have three of them because I didn't want to change too many aspects of the original.

Coconut flour Nutella brownies (gluten-free)

Ingredients:
50 ml vegetable oil
3/4 cup white sugar (caster sugar is best but regular sugar is fine)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/3 cup coconut flour
roughly 1/2 cup Nutella (or however much you like, really)
cooking spray

-Preheat oven to 350˚F/175˚C.
-In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the oil and sugar.
-Beat eggs, add to oil/sugar along with vanilla. Still vigorously until well blended.
-Carefully add cocoa, baking powder and coconut flour (I sifted these ingredients in). Mix well.
-Prep a 9"x9" baking pan with cooking spray.
-Pour in the batter.
-Now add the Nutella. I dropped blobs of it across the batter then used a knife to swirl it through. I left it a little bit uneven, not stirred through, but I made sure that there was some Nutella in all areas of the brownie.
-Bake for 15 to 20 minutes but watch carefully. Coconut flour bakes more quickly than regular flour. You'll have to judge for yourself when the brownie looks to be cooked.
-Enjoy warm or cold, maybe with a scoop of Coconut Bliss ice cream!

Thanks to the coconut flour, the brownies are quite nutty even with the unevenly spread Nutella.