Recently I went to Iceland which obviously was fucking great. Unfortunately I was on holiday with other people who didn't want to spend the whole time doing volcano focussed shit, why I'm even friends with these people I don't know. I actually went to a festival on an abandoned NATO airbase and it was daylight all the time which was very cool and did make you think a zombie apocalypse was about to start. But obviously no one cares about that so here is some of volcanic shit from my Iceland trip. It will only be some volcanic shit as everything in Iceland is really volcanic; on the journey from the airport to Reykjavik you go through lava fields which are insanely cool and have this weird moss growing over all over the solidified lava.
Also all the rocks in Iceland are mental.
The place I really wanted to go to was Snaefellsjokull National Park on the west coast. I choose this place partly as I have a theory about the UK that the Atlantic ravaged west coast is more exciting than the east coast which I thought would probably translate to Iceland too. There is no active volcano there but the main glacier in the centre of the park is the entry point in Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Sadly it's an inactive volcano but unless they are erupting, what's the fucking difference? As well as the glacier there is a lot of other cool shit around there, mainly really beautiful beaches with crazy rock formations and lots of waterfalls. Initially we were planning to spend more time there doing a bit of camping and stuff but it turned out we didn't have time. So we just did a tour with a crazy guide who kept going on about jailing bankers and elves.
This was on one of the beaches, crawling through this hole was a bit like being reborn as the beach was noisy, rocky and cold whereas on the other side it was quiet, sunny and peaceful. When I start a cult this will be the initiation ceremony. Swans played at the festival and they will be the soundtrack of my cult, in general Iceland is quite a cultish place.
The other main volcanic thing we did was to go to the Volcano Show which was run by another mentalist. I think lots of Icelanders are mentalists in the most fantastic and lovely way. Basically it was a tiny museum/cinema run by one guy who had been filming every eruption in Iceland for about 60 years, before that his dad had done lots of filming. It was two hours of films about volcanoes, an overview of eruptions in Iceland for 50 years or so, one about the formation of Surtsey and one about the Heimaey eruption. Obviously for me this was heavenly because I can happily watch film of erupting volcanoes for ever, maybe if this isn't your thing it's not so fun. There wasn't loads to see in the museum apart from some geological maps and rocks, which again I fucking love. There is another volcano cinema in Reyjavik called Volcano House which we went to but didn't see the film, it looked more professional and therefore not as good but they had some nice rocks and stuff.
In general Iceland is really cool and really crazy, I think it's the effect of being so cut off from everywhere. I really want to go back and travel around a bit and see all the volcanoes.
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