Iceland

A boy came at about 7 am, asked the staff something in English and then sat down opposite to me. He later put himself on a chair and slept.

When he wakes up he gives me some information. He lived at the Salvation Army and strongly recommends it indicates on the map where it is located. Breakfast there costs 65 crowns (isl.). Recommends me not to walk there, it’s apparently far. Well, I’m a good walker, the truth is I must pull almost 30 kg (my luggage). He gave me a book written in English about the Iceland (guide). He went to geysers and waterfalls with the local tourist office (it costs about 800 crowns). I will manage it cheaper by normal buses. Especially, it is unlikely that a trip is just now, it is the winter season and virtually no tourists.

Meanwhile, stopped raining and the sun came out. So I bear on a pilgrimage.

I was at the Salvation Army after nearly an hour walk with many stops (trunk after all, uttered soon). A girl at the reception staring blankly on my question, if I can get a room. But there is a young man who translates. After the appearance of the uniformed fellow choir, I get a room no. 208 second floor. There is probably rooms enough. It is about 11 a.m.

The room is 3×2 m with a comfortable bed, a table, a comfortable chair, sink with hot and cold water smelling hydrogen sulphide, mirror and wardrobe built-in with hangers. Next to the window is a body of central heating (heating steam from the earth). I’m excited price is 250 kr., it is reasonable for me.

During walk between 12 to 17 hours. I found this: Reykjavik has 70,000 inhabitants. About 1/3 of the population of Iceland is in a bay on gentle ridges. On the other side of the bay and even to the north and east I see some snowcapped mountains. The original part of town at the port seemed peripheral, often corrugated iron. The streets are narrow, paved with pour-quality surface. There is the Deputy parliament building (about 62-65 members), the administrative building and the theater in another place. The city is decorated with numerous statues. The more distant locations from the center are part of a very nice villas and at one point rising housing estates with large tenements (reminiscent of Czech housing estate ). The roads are muddy everywhere at this time with water and damp. There’s a lot of churches. At new housing estate and in the city center are quite trendy shops like anywhere else in Europe. There is quite a lot of cars, and most of them are Skoda production (especially MB1000, as Spartak, but even Škoda1200), followed by VW and Jeep-y box. No many trees are there only in the gardens and then some in several places around the city. The trees are low, it looks quite sad. A pond full of ducks and swans feeding the children. On one hill above the town there are round steam reservoirs (or with hot water). which are supplied from some kilometers distance. Local transport are buses. There are some one-way streets and a lot of traffic light for cars and pedestrians.

I go to the “Café Trodat” after 5 pm, the German might be here. Indeed he is talking with some Australian. The Australian is working with a transport company for 1 year and now he has had enough and wants to go somewhere else, he does not know still where. He leaves soon. I take coffee (25 Cr), it’s up to three cups and the milk. Later, I give a third milk as the German does. There are only young people here. Elders are the exception. Mostly girls 15-17 years old. A couple of guys. About 35 years old Yugoslavs and one Italian sit next to our table. After a moment the Italian sits down to us under the pretense of looking for some people from the boat, he wants to leave. In Germany, where he was 5 years he met a Iceland girl, she told him, you find a good job in Iceland. He had come with her, but did not get a job. He is a waiter, but he would like to fish. He lives with the girl for 6 months and she feeds him. Oddly enough, nobody has anything against their status either parents. He is, however, dissatisfied with the state. He has no money and wants to go away. There is in fact unemployment now because there are few fish in the sea. Enormous Russian fleet contributs to it, as the Icelandic ships are nothing against big Russian fleet. A year ago Icelandic crown dropped (from 25 to under $ 1 per 89 Cr). So they are experiencing a crisis from which it is not yet a solution. Furthermore, he talked about the fact that there nobody steals here, no criminals, Icelanders are peaceful in nature. Although there may not drink in restaurants except some wine, but there’s a lot of drunkers. Everyone ordering Coca-Cola pulls a bottle of whiskey from his pocket. I finally saw it in this restaurant. The girls here are pretty nice and early advanced, so that they often become the 15 year-old unwed mothers. Officials doing nothing against it and apparently even the parents do not take it tragically, but this girl herself has a hard life.

We talk German up to 10 pm.

Interesting is this: in Iceland, each person after five years of residence gets citizenship while he changes the name according to the Icelandic model, which derives the name of his x her father. Icelandic is actually an Old Norse.

04.09.2015 – Wednesday

I am at the bus station (towards the airport) at 8:45 am. I buy a ticket to Selfoss, worth 95 crowns. I choose a postcard (7 cr.) and stamps (for 9 crowns airmail to Europe)
at the post office.

They are only a few people in the bus to Selfoss at 9 pm. The journey takes about 1.5 hour. We’re going landscape, which hurts with gloominess. Slight dusting of snow makes it seem as if they were plowed. Nowhere tree or grass, in short, nothing but lava, clay (dark), then just as bleak hills (lunar landscape). The road is bad, asphalt ends soon and it’s macadam road full of holes with water in it. The windows are completely muddy mainly on the left side, where I’m sitting, windows are opaque. Sometimes it rains, hails or snows. Clouds stretch low to the ground, these are such wad of black or brown fog. Strong wind. The only evidence of human foot has stepped here I can understand only in accordance with poles and high voltage wires that stretch across the landscape, nothing else, except here and there a road sign that seems almost pointless. Oh, and some completely abandoned gas station in the area where you can buy Pepsi-Cola, which proclaims the great advertising.

Going down eastern hills I see the village of Hveragerdi, where vapor rises in many places. You can see numerous greenhouses. The vapor escaping from the earth is used in greenhouse heating.

Driving up here took exactly 1 hour. Some passengers disembark, some picked up, the driver at several stops transmitting mail and packages.

We continue under the high mountains for about half an hour to Selfoss. There was raining cats and dogs. My umbrella turns in wind and my hands are freezing soon. I am trying to ask in several shops of this village, where the local waterfall is. Nobody speaks English, only in a small hotel a chubby girl, speaking poor English as myself, says that there is no waterfall in fact, perhaps just a little one below the bridge. Not even this news did not upset me, rather the contrary, if it’s Iceland such that, then I must recognize it from its site.
I do a couple of shots and then decided that I would not wait nearly two hours for the bus but I try to hitch-hike. I had seen few cars going on the road, hopefully some will go next.

I wave and the truck stops. I show him on a map that I want to Hveragerdi. I can not pronounce the name, Icelandic sounds is a little different.

We have nothing to say, because we both know that it just wouldn’t understand. We go in silence, just squeaking wheels on the road, banging numerous flying particles from pavement stones in the car and radio-music. This and many other cars are equipped with radio. This is equipped with a long rod-shaped antenna, sometimes I hear a voice, but for which the driver does not react.
I ascend in the village of Hveragerdi. I take photo of greenhouses and bubbling and steaming water from the bowels of the earth in the wind and blizzard with hail. . Steam that envelops me sometimes smells strongly with hydrogen sulphide.

I hitch-hike another truck 10 minutes before 12. we go in silence again. My driver stopped on top of hill for me to take photos, he saw I took photos through the car-window. We reach Reykjavik just over an hour drive.

I go through the western part of the city between appealing villas. I buy two movies and chocolate (25.10 Cr). I sit in the same restaurant as yesterday and drinking coffee.

After about half an hour the German comes. Later, we sit down to two Yugoslavs. They are already 10 years in Iceland. One of them, however, wants to return home until the situation improves in Jugoslavia. Also one Italian sit down to us, he lives here for 15 years and is married to a Iceland girl. Eventually comes yesterday’s jobless Italian, and his girl too she says that a two-day strike will take place throughout Reykjavik. My question whether someone pays their loss of earnings, she says that when it comes to such a short strike, then not, but for longer periods would get support. The strike is to raise the lowest wages.

At seven o’clock, the company breaks up and another hour I talked to the German and get more information. He is 21 years old just today, by the way (I thought more) . Then it points out that the Icelandic money anywhere outside Iceland do not exchange. He is so good that he exchanges 270 crowns to me for 3$. The rest crown I just need for a bus to the airport (75 crowns). At eight o’clock we break up, he is convinced that I will stay in America, I do not. I go to the hotel where I had my luggage, and then laboriously goes to the hotel Lefleidir where I am after 9 pm waiting for the bus to the airport.
I am writing notes up to 12 hours.

State finances: $ 395; 227 CHF

On Jul 21 “Maasdam” docks in Charlottetown in the Canadian province Prince Edward Island (PEI). Again, I do a tour. We drive through the city. No high rise building here. There are fields and woodlands outside the city. Potatoes are the main crop. There is a stop at the “Confederation Bridge” built 1992-97 connecting PEIwith the rest of Canada. After lunch I take a walk-through Charlottetown by myself.
On Jul 22 our ship comes to Sydney in the Canadian province Nova Scotia. In the afternoon I take a bus trip to Baddeck on the Cape Breton Island to see Graham Bell’s Museum.Next day we land in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia. Here I do a city tour on my own. First, I walk uphill to the “Citadel.”Then down and through the city.
On Jul 24 “Maasdam” drops anchor in Bar Harbor, Maine in USA. We go on tender to shore, then on bus through Bar Harbor and its vicinity. Many rich people built villas here.
Our ship docks in Boston, Massachusetts, USA in the morning. Many passengers depart and new board the ship here. I take a taxi to Aquarium in downtown. I am at Long Wharf. I buy a 45-min. boat ride on the Boston harbor and 1 hr. bus tour of the city. In the Navy Yard we see the ship “USS Constitution” called “Old Ironside.” Then a bus tour of the city. I return in a taxi to ship. Next day is a sea day going north to Canada. There are interesting lectures available.
On Jul 27 “Maasdam” inches its way through the fog to “Cap-Aux MeulesMagdalen Islands, Quebec, CANADA. By a tender to the island. We seethe island individually.The following day our ship drops anchor in Bonne Bay on Newfoundland, another province of CANADA. To shore by tender. Next day we anchor in Red Bay in Labrador which is part of Newfoundland province of CANADA.
“Maasdam” spends another day on the North Atlantic Ocean before dropping its anchor at Nanortalik in Greenland, dependency of DENMARK. A ship tender brings us to the village. I notice the Greenland flag with rising sun. I walk through the place taking pictures of local kids. No trees or bushes just grass and few flowers like dandelions. Some houses are nice. There are 2,500 people living here. In the whole Greenland there are 56,366 inhabitants.The following day we sail through the Prins Christian Sund bordered by sheer cliffs. Day after is on the ocean with interesting lectures.
On Aug 3 we land in Isafjordur innorthwestern corner of ICELAND. My first visit to Iceland since 1969. In the afternoon I take a boat to one of the local islands. I see the “puffins” funny looking birds of the arctic region. Day after we moor in Akureyri on the north coast of the island. The shore excursion takes us to a large waterfall called “Godafoss.” From here to Lake “Myvatn.” In the afternoon we visit a break in the crust where the European and American plates meet. There is a hot water in it. Then we pass used to be sulphur mine and later a power plant run by volcanic steam. Following day, we are at Husavik also on the north coast. We see the small town individually. The day after a stop at Seydisfjordur in a deep fjord on the east coast of the island. Again, we walk through the town individually. The next day we are sailing towards Scotland.
On Aug 8 our ship docks in Invergordon in Scotland in UK. During the shore excursion we stop at “Colloden Battle Field,” where the last battle in Great Britten took place on Apr 16, 1746. The second stop is a “Cawdor Castle” sitting in a beautiful garden still run by the Cawdor family.
On Aug 9 “Maasdam” anchors at South Queensferry near the famous cantilever bridge on Firth of Forth. We get to shore by a local boat. Buses take us to “Falkirk Wheel” (from 2002), which amazingly connects two vertically distant canals. We experience it on a canal boat, which takes us to the near Antonie Wall built by Romans in 142AD. There is a walk to one of the wall fortification, Rough Castle. Past a castle where Mary Queen of Scots was born we return to our ship.
After a sea day, when a sick passenger was extracted from “Maasdam” by a helicopter,the ship docks in Rotterdam, NETHERLANDS on Aug 11. Here most of the passengers leave and new board the ship. Today shore excursion takes us through Rotterdam and on the levees outside the city. That brings us to “Kinderdijk Windmills.” There used to be some 10 thousand windmills throughout this country. There are about 1,000 now. We get full explanation of past and present use of windmills. By a different route back to Rotterdam. Then “Maasdam”leaves Rotterdam through the Maas River into the North Sea and to the English Channel. We continue sailing also the next sea day.
On Aug 13 our ship drops anchor at Dunmore East in IRELAND. By tender to the shore. Our bus takesus to Waterford. There used to be a famous glass company here, but this spring it was closed. Then we go to town Inistioge and stop at “Woodstock Gardens.” From here we drive to New Ross, the place Kennedy family came from. There is an Irish show on the ship in the afternoon.
The following day our ship is moored at a pier in Liverpool, England (UK) . I take a bus tour to “Conway Castle” in the town of Conway in Wales (UK) . After about 30 min. we cross to Wales. An hour later we are in Conway encircled by a 1.2km wall. Above it is now ruined “Conway Castle” built by the English king Edward I. and finished in 1287. This king built several castles to stop the Welsh attacking the English.
On Aug 15 “Maasdam” docks in Greenock, west of Glasgow, Scotland (UK) . For the shore excursion I picked up a trip to “Stirling Castle.” Our bus needs 1.5-hr to get there.A fortress used to be here.The current buildings date between 14th and 16thcenturies, when it was a residence of Stuart monarchs. It is the grandest of all Scottish castles. We get a full sightseeing tour of the castle. Mary Queen of Scots was crowned here. After our return, our shipdeparts Greenock. Next day it sails the Atlantic Ocean north.
On Aug 17 “Maasdam” lands at Torshavn on Faroe Islands,dependency of DENMARK. A shuttle bus takes me through harbor to town. The sightseeing is on my feet. The town is on inclines leading to the harbor. Faroe Islands are fully autonomous region of Denmark and with their own currency. Faroe Islands and Greenland are not part of EU though Denmark is. I am walking around the town making pictures. On the end I visit a grass covered fortress with a lighthouse and a great view of the town and its harbor.
Overnight our ship reaches a small town Djupivogur on the southeastern coast of ICELAND. Tenders take us to shore. I spend about an hour walking here before I return to ship. After lunch on Aug 19 “Maasdam” docks in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Afternoon a bus takes people from ship to city. I browse through the city on my own. I am thinking about the 2 days I spent here 40 years ago. By chance I come to the building of Salvation Army. I slept in Salvation Army hotel that time, but I don’t recognize this building. Inside I ask in reception, if this building was here 40 years ago. A young man tells me that it was. It was built in 1912. The following day I am taking part in a bus tour outside Reykjavik. First stop at the greenhouses in Hveragerdi, then through Selfoss a place I traveled to 40 years ago looking for waterfall (foss) I did not find it. A photo stop at Kerid volcano. Another one at a two-storeyed Gullfoss waterfall. It is very impressive. We have lunch at Geyser Hotel near the famous Geyser. All geysers got their name from this one. In the afternoon we see the rift valley where American and European plates move from each other. There is a place here, where the Icelandic Parliament met first time in 930AD. Back in Reykjavík we stop at “Perlan.” It is a glass building from where the hot volcanic water is pumped through the city. There is a museum, shops, and a restaurant in it. From its roof there is 360 degview of the city.
Next day we sailwest. On Aug 22 in the afternoon our ship navigates the “Prins Christian Sund.”The following day we anchor at Qaqortog village with 3,500 people at the southern tip of Greenland,which is an autonomous part of DENMARK.After tender brings me to shore, I do some walking with my cameras in the harbor and the village. Again, I make few photos of children. Then we have another ocean day with lectures.
On Aug 25 “Maasdam” drops anchor off the northern tip of Newfoundland, a province of CANADA. A tender takes us to a village St. Anthony. From there by bus to the visitor center of “L’Anse aux Meadows.” A foundations of a 1000-year old Viking village was excavated here. We get 2.5 hours to see the visitor center, the foundations of the Viking village and a make-believe village showing the life 1000 years ago here. Next day we dock in St. John’s, which is the capital of Newfoundland province. There is a bus tour of the city and its vicinity.
In the morning on Aug 27 our ship should anchor off the coast of 2 French islands, St. Pierre and Miquelon. They are the last vestiges of once large French possessions in North America. However, the first I hear from intercom this morning is that for bad weather and few other excuses we can’t anchor there, and the visit of the islands is canceled. I don’t want to believe it. The weather is beautiful, and we are far from any land. The cruise companies use this excuse to prolong its ocean going to keep their stores and casinos open and get more income. While in harbor all above must be closed. I am very disappointed, I complain to the staff, but nothing would help. So today and tomorrow we are on the ocean.
In the morning on Aug 29 “Maasdam” docks in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and our cruise is over. In midmorning I take a taxi to my hotel in the city. It is often raining over next 2 days. With an umbrella I do some sightseeing of the city on foot. On Aug 31 in the afternoon I take a taxi to the airport. I fly from Boston on United Airlines plane to Los Angeles. In LA I get a car at AVIS and drive home to Vista where before midnight.

Travel office: Holland America Line (HAL) with help from Spiekermann Travel Service
Who took part: “Maasdam” can take 1,258 passengers and 560 crew members
Maasdam: 55,451 gross tons, length 720ft. (220m), width 101ft. (31m), max speed 21k