Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Song for my Father

Hallo all!

Welcome to Iceland! How cool is it that I'm typing on a keyboard where ð, þ, and æ are actual keys!? But, as per usual, I have to re-learn the placement of all the punctuation, so please forgive me if I leave out something - it's just 'cause I can't find it...

It has been ages since I last posted and soooo much has happened! From a wild bike trip in Amsterdam, to sipping the perfect chai latte in Copenhagen, to (almost) getting seasick on the ferry... the list goes on!!

Amsterdam is a very interesting city... I would never go alone again. It is truly a city that demands a group of friends to enjoy I think. I was only there for about seven hours, but I still managed to see most of the city on the INCREDIBLE network of bike lanes! Basically, if you ever look around you, and you don't see at least 300 bikes (no lie - I have photos) chained to everything you can chain a bike to, then you´re not in Amsterdam. (Or how about a three story parking garage dedicated just to bikes outside the train station!) As one of my hosts in Belgium said "People in the Netherlands are born on a bike..." It was truly a treat to cycle there, and catch some live jazz over lunch before hopping on my train to Copenhagen!

Copenhagen was wonderful. A wonderfully low key city, with such a vibrant music scene! I remember so vivadly grilling steaks and sausages in the park with my CS host (Hey Trine and Dion!!), and a group of her friends! Such a great sense of comunity (holy spelling batman...)! The language in Denmark is out of this world - super angular and just plain strange, yet it sounds so beautiful!! The food... oh the food...

I always ate "danishes" in Canada for the filling inside. Now that I have actually tried the REAL Danish, I will never be able to go back to an americanized version... the pastery was SO delicious! The filling actually played a secondary role to the pastery!

I know that I'm sort of making this a really rough summation of what has happened in the last two weeks, and for that I do appologize - it's not what I wanted to turn this blog into, but it´s just that so much has happened!

The Faroe Islands are unspeakably beautiful. Waking up at 4Am to watch the sunrise over Tórshavn was truly something - the grass-roofed houses shimmering in the morning light! So this is what it's like to live in the Arctic (I guess it's technically the sub-arctic). The Faroes are simply a must see! I will never forget the 8 hours we had to wander around Tórshavn... starting at 5am, when the city is still sleeping, and you're the only person out - truly unforgetable!

The boat hit a pretty good storm coming into Iceland, and my first view of the country was shrouded in a thick layer of clouds, with just these jagged dark mountains looming in the distance... really eerie! As we got closer, the mountains began to rise out of the ocean, covered with every colour that nature has to offer, and capped off with a fresh layer of snow! It was well below zero with a (probably close to 60kmph) wind, and I remember being up on the top deck, tucked into my little exhaust vent trying to keep warm, and I heard this french man exclaim loudly to his group of shivering women "Je vous ai dis qu'on aurait du aller à Cannes!" (I told you we should have gone to Cannes!) and I burst out laughing, only to quickly try to stifle it as I realized I was the only other person on the top deck who spoke french and understood them...

But once you get used to the "hovering around zero" temperatures, (being Canadian, this is not too difficult) this country could not be more stunning...

As you come into Seðisfjörður, the fjord engulfs the boat on either side (and it was a pretty big boat) in a celebration of colour and life! Waterfalls pour off every cliff, and sheep munch quietly on serene farmlands. The water calms down, and the wind dies off as we approached the tiny little town of less than 1000 people. Such beauty! Many hikes, bike trips, and three pizzas later, I set off for Reykjavík! I could write every single one of you a letter for every hundred meters I ride here - there is life EVERYWHERE - the rocks are covered in the most dense moss I have ever seen, the waterfalls nourrish beautiful grasses, and birds seem to find even the smallest nook to rest and maybe even build a nest. Everything here is dwarfed by the landscape! Wild camping here is fantastic - just climb up the ridge over the road, and you are suddenly isolated from the rest of the world! It is wonderful to sleep on thick beds of moss, drinking ice cold water straight out of the glacier fed springs... WOW. I am speechless...

Anyways, it's that time of day where I need to consider heading off - I have some distance to cover today as I head in the direction of Höfn! I imagine that I will be about four or five days without internet, plumbing, electricity, or heating again, but hey - as I'm starting to realize - this is why I'm travelling.

Paris was wonderful, the north of France was such an adventure, Belgium was incredible, such a blast, the Netherlands were exotic, and Denmark was lots of fun... But this is truly what I am about - connecting with the natural world. I am so glad I am doing this trip by bike - even if there are occaisionally moments where it's not easy or whatever... but I'll try to explain that in my next post.

I appologize for the intense LACK of photos... (but there is no lack... there is an abundance - they're just on my hard-drive in the other room)

My camera reached photo 12000 last night, which constitutes about 4000 on this trip to date. I'm gonna have one mother of a sorting job to do once I'm back. I guess I listened to Eriks last text before I left "Take lots of photos!!"

Anyways, I do promise more frequent posts if I can, and lots of photos to come!

Tonnes of love to all,

Goða ferð!

-Ryley-


"You are Loved. All is Well"