Thursday, October 2, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Laugafell trip attempt :P
During last weekend we decided to go to highlands once more, to see hot springs in Laugafell and Aldeyjarfoss waterfall. We checked road conditions, the weather also seemed not bad, so we left Akureyri in the morning.
Mountain tops in snow.
Sign warning drivers, that they'll have to cross the streams on the way.
Well not only crossing, but actually flowing on the road :P
The higher we were going, the more snow was appearing.
On the top - it was starting to get really dangerous - the weather became terrible and amount of snow on the road made it almost impossible to drive on summer tires.
And as a result at this point we had to turn back.
Well, maybe we didn't see what we wanted, but I gained a lot of experience in driving and we learned that you shouldn't mess with Icelandic weather and sometimes it can be really dangerous.
Mountain tops in snow.
Sign warning drivers, that they'll have to cross the streams on the way.
Well not only crossing, but actually flowing on the road :P
The higher we were going, the more snow was appearing.
On the top - it was starting to get really dangerous - the weather became terrible and amount of snow on the road made it almost impossible to drive on summer tires.
And as a result at this point we had to turn back.
Well, maybe we didn't see what we wanted, but I gained a lot of experience in driving and we learned that you shouldn't mess with Icelandic weather and sometimes it can be really dangerous.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Fuel Cells go to Reykjavik... again.
Fuel Cell concentration is a bit specific and different from others, that we have here at RES. Some courses are taking place in Reykjavik, so we have to go there quite often. This time we went there for two weeks. It's good to leave small Akureyri for some time and go to the "big city" :P
On the way to Reykjavik we tried to see Glymur once again (the highest waterfall in Iceland) and we finally succeeded :D The path was quite dangerous and hard to access for a typical, lazy tourist, but as we are pretty experienced in hiking we managed to get there safe :) I also found some eatable mushrooms near the waterfall!
We spent first week mainly visiting different companies. We had some fun too, in ÍSAGA, a company which produces different types of gasses, we had a show of what liquid nitrogen can do (nitrogen ice-creams are quite tasty).
We also went to see Stokkur and Gullfoss again, this time without any hurry.
On Sunday we attended a huge festival in Reykjavik, called Reykjavik Culture Night. There were many concerts all over the city, and also one main, on a big stage, with most known Icelandic bands, such as hjaltalín and Bloodgroup. There were also many exhibitions and events connected to any kind of art. At the end there was a big fireworks show.
We spent next week on courses in University of Iceland. We had some laboratories there and we got to know some methods of how hydrogen dissolves in metals.
But besides that, we also visited some museums and galleries we didn't have chance to see before. One was really interesting, kind of "skansen", with old houses, but you could actually touch and try everything that was inside of them. So we were able to play on a good, old Nintedo in Mario Bros., try our drums skills or check how the discotheques looked like in 60-s in Iceland.
We left Reykjavik on Friday, with a huge storm and very strong wind which made driving very hard, but after 400 km we reached sunny Akureyri again.
Click here for full screen.
On the way to Reykjavik we tried to see Glymur once again (the highest waterfall in Iceland) and we finally succeeded :D The path was quite dangerous and hard to access for a typical, lazy tourist, but as we are pretty experienced in hiking we managed to get there safe :) I also found some eatable mushrooms near the waterfall!
We spent first week mainly visiting different companies. We had some fun too, in ÍSAGA, a company which produces different types of gasses, we had a show of what liquid nitrogen can do (nitrogen ice-creams are quite tasty).
We also went to see Stokkur and Gullfoss again, this time without any hurry.
On Sunday we attended a huge festival in Reykjavik, called Reykjavik Culture Night. There were many concerts all over the city, and also one main, on a big stage, with most known Icelandic bands, such as hjaltalín and Bloodgroup. There were also many exhibitions and events connected to any kind of art. At the end there was a big fireworks show.
We spent next week on courses in University of Iceland. We had some laboratories there and we got to know some methods of how hydrogen dissolves in metals.
But besides that, we also visited some museums and galleries we didn't have chance to see before. One was really interesting, kind of "skansen", with old houses, but you could actually touch and try everything that was inside of them. So we were able to play on a good, old Nintedo in Mario Bros., try our drums skills or check how the discotheques looked like in 60-s in Iceland.
We left Reykjavik on Friday, with a huge storm and very strong wind which made driving very hard, but after 400 km we reached sunny Akureyri again.
Click here for full screen.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Climbing Súlur.
On Sunday (with terrible hangover after the party, cheers Seba! :) ) we decided to have a hike to a peak near Akureyri - Mt. Súlur, about 1200 m over the sea level. Weather was perfect and I managed to take some good pictures. Part of the collection is also Michał K. work :)
In the slide show, there are also pictures from the week before the hike. Many things happen and most important we moved to a new dorm! Also Grand Princess, one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, came to Akureyri.
Click here for fullscreen.
In the slide show, there are also pictures from the week before the hike. Many things happen and most important we moved to a new dorm! Also Grand Princess, one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, came to Akureyri.
Click here for fullscreen.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Trip to the polar circle.
We planned this trip for a long time. There is an island, about 50 km north from Akureyri, on the open sea, laying directly on the polar circle - Grímsey is it's name :P Since the ferry goes there only on week days, and we don't have any vacations or holidays, our only opportunity was 4th of August - one of Icelandic national days, free of school of course. So we packed ourselves in the cars (we were more than 30, they had a discount for big groups, quite nice one) and went to Dalvík, from where the ferry was leaving. Along the way, we spotted some dolphins jumping near the ferry. Visiting the local toilet also payed off, as I noticed that pissoirs were made in Poland :P As it occurred, not everybody was sea-sick proof, but we got to the island safe and sound.
Grímsey is very small, with population of about 100 people, it seems a bit deserted. But not people are main inhabitants of this small island, but birds. There are millions of them, majority are Puffins and Arctic Tern. We spent about 4 hours on the island, and we managed to walk almost all the way around it. There is not much there - airport, some houses, one shop, petrol station (I really don't know why they need cars out there), bar, guesthouse and a post office. But the trip was a great experience and I managed to do some nice pictures which I present to you just below:
Click here for full screen.
And small off-topic - last week we had a workshop on electrolysis in one of the high schools in Akureyri - it caused some interest from the local and national press:
Shot from the local newspaper ...
... and from Icelandic News.
Grímsey is very small, with population of about 100 people, it seems a bit deserted. But not people are main inhabitants of this small island, but birds. There are millions of them, majority are Puffins and Arctic Tern. We spent about 4 hours on the island, and we managed to walk almost all the way around it. There is not much there - airport, some houses, one shop, petrol station (I really don't know why they need cars out there), bar, guesthouse and a post office. But the trip was a great experience and I managed to do some nice pictures which I present to you just below:
Click here for full screen.
And small off-topic - last week we had a workshop on electrolysis in one of the high schools in Akureyri - it caused some interest from the local and national press:
Shot from the local newspaper ...
... and from Icelandic News.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Askja.
This Saturday we went for, I think, last trip with our beloved cars. We took Askja as our destination. From the beginning we knew that it can be one of the toughest trips we had here and we weren't far from the truth as it occurred. Askja is a stratovolcano situated in a central part of Icelandic highlands. It wasn't known until enormous eruption which took place in 1875. In the center of the volcano there is a lake - Öskjuvatn - which is also the deepest lake in Iceland (about 220 meters). Next to it there is a smaller explosion crater - Viti. It's filled with rich-mineral water, but unlike Öskjuvatn, it's maintained at the comfortable temperature for swimming. The area around Askja looks like desert. Covered with black sand and pumice, it looked like a moon surface. Actually it's not only me who noticed that - NASA used it as a training ground for astronauts before Apollo missions :) Who knows maybe this "fake" shots of the moon-walking were taken there? :D
To get to Askja we had to cross some rivers, they were actually quite deep. Good that we didn't get stuck there, although we lost a car front plate on one of them :)
Click here for full screen.
To get to Askja we had to cross some rivers, they were actually quite deep. Good that we didn't get stuck there, although we lost a car front plate on one of them :)
Click here for full screen.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Laboratory in Reykjavik & Landmannalaugar.
This week we had visited Reykjavik again because of the laboratories we had there. I finally had an opportunity to work on a real fuel cell. After 3 days of taking measurements and testing, we had to go back to Akureyri. We decided to take a road through the interior and visit Landmannalaugar on the way. Landmannalaugar area is famous for its incredible natural beauty. Many mountains around come in all the world's colors; pink, brown, green, yellow, blue, purple, black, white and more. Although the weather wasn't perfect and the way was rough (we had to turn back and take another road, because of the river) we got there after 4 hours drive. There were many tourists there, but luckily for us, the sun started to shine and we could experience the beauty of the place. We didn't have much time there, so we left the place and took F35 road back to Akureyri.
Click here for full screen.
Click here for full screen.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Weekend trips.
Soon we are going to move to a new dorm, to the "city center" of Akureyri. RES will probably take our cars, as we won't need them anymore for transportation. That's why we decided to organize trips each weekend, to just use the opportunity, and see as much as we can.
First one last weekend (Sat. 12.07) was to Húsavík, for Whale Watching and to see Dettifoss, the mightiest waterfall in Europe. The road there is only available for cars couple of months a year, because of the mud from melting snow and rivers, which are becoming impossible to cross.
I decided to change a bit the form of my blog, it takes a lot of time to put all of those pictures directly on the site, I'll just post them as a slideshow from my Picasa web albums along with some movies I record.
Click here for full screen.
Next weekend (Sat. 19.07) we took a famous and popular F35 gravel road which connects north and south of Iceland through the interior. Nowadays it's even possible to cross it with normal 2-wheel drive car, because of the bridges they built on it. The road, which is also called Kjölur, is entirely gravel and it crosses highlands between two glaciers - Langjökull and Hofsjökull. We decided to have a hike near Langjökull glacier and after that have a barbecue and a bath in hot springs in Hveravellir.
Click here for full screen.
First one last weekend (Sat. 12.07) was to Húsavík, for Whale Watching and to see Dettifoss, the mightiest waterfall in Europe. The road there is only available for cars couple of months a year, because of the mud from melting snow and rivers, which are becoming impossible to cross.
I decided to change a bit the form of my blog, it takes a lot of time to put all of those pictures directly on the site, I'll just post them as a slideshow from my Picasa web albums along with some movies I record.
Click here for full screen.
Next weekend (Sat. 19.07) we took a famous and popular F35 gravel road which connects north and south of Iceland through the interior. Nowadays it's even possible to cross it with normal 2-wheel drive car, because of the bridges they built on it. The road, which is also called Kjölur, is entirely gravel and it crosses highlands between two glaciers - Langjökull and Hofsjökull. We decided to have a hike near Langjökull glacier and after that have a barbecue and a bath in hot springs in Hveravellir.
Click here for full screen.
Monday, July 7, 2008
All the way to the West.
We planned this trip for a long time and we were also told that this is one of the most beautiful regions in Iceland. Because of the distance, we decided to make it over 2 days in the weekend. We booked rooms in a hotel in Ísafjörður and, in the early morning on Saturday, we left our beloved dorm in Skjaldarvik.
Map of the route.
First stop on the way - farmers moved horses from one field to another.
Lunch break - by accident we stopped near, what looked like, a sheep cemetery...
Near Drangajökull glacier. If you look closer you can see a man playing piano carved in this stone. It's one of the most famous Icelandic composers.
RES jump!
On the way to a glacier.
Stop by a waterfall.
Way to Ísafjörður.
Barbecue in the hotel's garden.
Ísafjörður by night :P
Our group in front of the hotel - Sunday morning.
It was a foggy day.
Near Dynjandi waterfalls.
Airport in the middle of nowhere.
Sandy beaches :P
Látrabjarg, marks the western-most part of Europe. It hosts millions of birds, sometimes up to 40% of the world population for some species e.g. the Razorbill. It is Europe's largest bird cliff, 14km long and up to 440m high. On the picture - Atlantic Puffin - symbol of Iceland.
Puffins weren't scared of us at all, we could approach them very close.
"Cucumber" :D
On the way back we chose an "F" type road, which means it's only suitable for jeeps or cars with 4-wheel drive. We had a lot of fun there :)
Into the valley near Akureyri.
Map of the route.
First stop on the way - farmers moved horses from one field to another.
Lunch break - by accident we stopped near, what looked like, a sheep cemetery...
Near Drangajökull glacier. If you look closer you can see a man playing piano carved in this stone. It's one of the most famous Icelandic composers.
RES jump!
On the way to a glacier.
Stop by a waterfall.
Way to Ísafjörður.
Barbecue in the hotel's garden.
Ísafjörður by night :P
Our group in front of the hotel - Sunday morning.
It was a foggy day.
Near Dynjandi waterfalls.
Airport in the middle of nowhere.
Sandy beaches :P
Látrabjarg, marks the western-most part of Europe. It hosts millions of birds, sometimes up to 40% of the world population for some species e.g. the Razorbill. It is Europe's largest bird cliff, 14km long and up to 440m high. On the picture - Atlantic Puffin - symbol of Iceland.
Puffins weren't scared of us at all, we could approach them very close.
"Cucumber" :D
On the way back we chose an "F" type road, which means it's only suitable for jeeps or cars with 4-wheel drive. We had a lot of fun there :)
Into the valley near Akureyri.
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