Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Day 6

Currently, I am sitting in the hostel in Hofn! I love saying Hofn because it's pronounced like "Hop!" But I'm going to talk about yesterday...it was one of those very special never forgetting type of days. We woke up at 8, out of our tents because we camped out. And might I add we camped out right next to a glacier... Not exaggerating, I came out of my tent to see a glacier and beautiful mountains. We woke up at around 8 and Tota, the incredible cook that has been traveling with us, prepared her usual amazing meal. After the meal, we walked down the road to get prepared for the glacier walk! I put on something called a clampon. A clampon attaches to your feet so that you will not slip and fall into a crevasse on the glacier. I put on my clampons, about 7 layers of clothing, gloves, hat, and a harness. Really not knowing what to expect, my group and I got into a bus and arrived at the bottom of the glacier 5 minutes later. Our guides Tom, Sif, and Burger were great. Tom was from Manchester, he was hilarious. The cynical kind of funny. Sif was from Iceland and of course gorgeous and very nice. And then there was Burger, we called him that because his Icelandic name was way too hard to say and it kinda sounded like Burger. They taught us the basics of walking on the glacier and just to not fall into a crevasse. I was kinda like okay that doesn't sound hard ya know just stay with the group, then I looked down the rock I had to climb down to get to the glacier and it was very steep...but I did it with Toms help. We started out climbing uphill on the glacier and it was very cool. The ice was solid deep ice and some parts were covered in volcanic ash. Then there would be random streams of glacier water coming down a small crevasse. Sif said it was okay to drink the water so we all got out our water bottles and scooped up glacier water out of the crevasse and drank the water... it was great water.  Hiking on the glacier was so beautiful but I'm not going to lie it was hard. The hike was a little bit intense, we sometimes had to harness ourselves to another rope and walk literally on the edge of a crevasse. Then we reached somewhat of a flat area and Tom told us to get out our lunches we packed in our backpacks and eat. I got my peanut butter and jelly sandwich out and ate it right on a glacier while looking out at the mountains. Best lunch I've ever had. But it gets better... after lunch we all went to the side of the glacier near the volcanic ash and Erika told us to spread out and just take in the fact that we are in Iceland, walking on a glacier. She told us to meditate and hold open our palms to take in the good energy like they do in Peruvian culture. So there I was meditating on the biggest glacier in Europe surrounded by mountains. It was probably the most spiritual experience I have ever had in my life. After our alone time on the glacier we made our way down and Chase and I bought about 4 bags of chips and ate all of them. We walked back to our camping site and saw a man playing the accordion with his family. Peter was talking to him and invited him to join us for dinner. Tota made delicious pasta and salad and we all ate inside the tent with Magmus (accordion player) his wife and two precious kids; Mia and Richard. Magmus got his accordion out and played us some Icelandic songs, they were very good. While in the tent, a cute young guy walks up to us and starts talking to Bora. I asked Bora who that was and Bora just casually said, "Oh thats my friend Tom I met him an hour ago I'm helping him with his photos." So Bora and I helped Tom sort out his photos and got to learn a lot about him. He is 23, from Germany, and his studying to be a graphic designer. He was very funny because he spoke english well but did not understand our slang. For instance, Bora says, "Ya Tom your apart of my crew." Crew meaning gang. And Tom kinda was just like excuse me what is that. Then he went on to think that each tent was a crew...it was hilarious. After we got Tom situated and helped him, everyone got got into their tents and began to relax. It was truly a spectacular day. I got some amazing photos on the glacier and of Magmus and his family. I love meeting all different kinds of people from different places. I have learned so much!

Alex

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