Where the Wild Things Are-- Iceland!

Ever since I was a little kid, I've always loved animals. Animals of all sorts; cats, dogs, cows, especially horses (and I guess that I've never let go of that love). So, Iceland was like a little animal haven for me. When I was little and my grandparents owned a farm in India, some of my earliest memories were playing with 7 huge German shepherds and cute little puppies! I think this entire experience with all the animals was kind of a trip down memory lane for me, with all the animals that I found!

This was my favorite part of Iceland; even though we went there to experience the natural beauty of Iceland, I ended up admiring the animals and the wildlife!

Note: If you guys like the pictures, just know that they're taken by mom, not me! (Yeah, I wish). She's really amazing (so she thinks) (I'm just kidding. You can find her pictures at www.500px.com/bhanuk)

This was literally my favorite part of Iceland; the guest house that we stayed at was amazing. And they had lots of animals, like two little puppies and a lamb (;

It's going to be a bit difficult to organize this, so I'm just going to write what I remember and what I think when I look at these pictures again. Horses are my favorite animal, so I'm sorry if I constantly drone on about these cute Icelandic horses, but I've seriously never loved a breed so much. These horses are pretty much pure; they haven't been tainted by outside breeds! These horses will probably never see anywhere except Iceland; if these horses are sent out of the country for a tournament, and you can't bring them back! (Time to find out where these competitions these Icelandic horses go to are, and then just buy one). And horseback riding was amazing! Most horses have four kinds of gaits: walking, trotting, cantering and galloping. But Icelandic horses have a fifth gait, which makes them extremely special. They are the only horses that actually have this gait (and it's so smooth, it was amazing to experience). It's called a tolt, and it's similar to a trot, but well, it's better. Because I'm not an experienced horseback rider (I've tried to convince my parents since the age of 3 to let me have horseback riding lessons to no avail) trotting is actually a bit of a rough experience for me. You have to sort of learn to "hold on" to the horse, but when tolting it's a sort of fluid movement. I definitely recommend horseback riding while in Iceland!

As you'll notice, I love horses; this is why I practically forced my mom to take all these pictures of these horses. I practically spent almost all of my time in the cars rereading the passages about Icelandic horses and waiting for the day I could go horseback riding.

I think I'm rocking that hat and the green jacket. This was the sweetest (and oldest) horse on the entire ranch.

Can I just say Icelandic cows are the cutest thing ever? They're so friendly and fuzzy. I'm not sure how many of these cows I've passed in the cars, with my face pressed against the glass as I looked at them. And these cows that my mom took photos of were extremely friendly. I'm wondering if they just needed food and thats why the entire crowd came to curiously gaze at these humans that obviously didn't have food.

That cow smolder.

Just look at those ears. They look like they belong to a bunny!

This was my favorite cow!  I'm pretty sure it was the only one in this particular herd of this particular coloring and it was really curious, and really shy at the same time.

Let me sniff your face please.

When I say look at the ears, I mean look at them! They're really really soft.

The cows came over to inspect the newcomers (us) and the camera. 

So maybe I'm just truly Indian at heart, but I  really love cows. In India, I always notice how many cows they have roaming around on the streets; my grandparents always find the time and the food to feed them! (I guess old farm habits never die). So, I've grown up loving cows, and in comparison to the cows in India, these cows are so much cleaner and fuzzier, so I think I love these cows EVEN more. 

This cute little sheep was found wandering around on it's own. And it was extremely shy. Of course, because I'm a little kid at heart, I wanted to go and pet it, and it ran over to seek the protection of the cows.

Meet explorer sheep. Explorer sheep is.... exploring.

This little cutie above (I'm actually not talking about myself) was a little lamb who was around 9 months. After drinking her little bottle of milk, she started running around chasing after the dog. And, I mean just look how cute she is!

Husavik, the Whale Watching Capital of the World! Just imagine, living underwater, being like 26 tons (Honey, does this blubber make me look fat?) and just diving around in the water, pigging out? Well, obviously it's pretty hard to adjust to life as a blue whale when you've spent so long being a human. While traveling the oceans in freezing cold weather in an Icelandic boat, my family and I went "searching" for whales, and eventually found 3 humpback whales and one blue whale.

The famous whale tail picture that is like a requirement for all photographers when going whale watching.

Just imagine, this is less than one fourth of the actual whale!

These seals will probably be the sealiest thing you'll ever see. (I should really work on the quality of my puns). All they did was lounge around on the beach, and occasionally went swimming.

So cute!

I know we all have seen a duck before, but I mean, I couldn't resist. Look at the colors, and its just sitting down right in front of us!

To see the birds of Iceland, we actually went on a mini wildlife cruise, where we went to areas that these animals nested. This entire time we were looking for just one bird; the puffin. Over the entire trip, we were suppose to go the Westmann Islands, where there's a huge puffin colony, but the day that we went, the waves were pretty rough so the tours were canceled. So this was our way to say, yes we HAVE seen a puffin! And along the cruise we found other species as well!

Above, you'll witness the Bird Wars July '13. These birds all found a school of little fish sitting just below the water and needless to say with all these birds, war broke out. 

Heheh, a puffin butt shot. Caught in the middle of diving and trying to hide it's cute face .

Other than these cute little bird chicks that were just hatched, I constantly remember my mom saying "It's not fair, I don't have those $10,000 lens that can zoom super far away". I'll keep that in mind mom,  one day when I become a successful billionaire (don't crush my dreams) then I'll buy her one. But I still think that with a lot of cropping, these pictures turned out pretty well.

The majestic little puffin admiring the view of the ocean sprawled before it

The light brown bird that you see above is actually the baby! Look at how big it is! It's almost as big as the parents!

The Lone Puffin

Although my parents are vegetarian, on the little bird expedition we went on, they took mussels, clams and sea stars directly  from the sea and made a fresh "Viking sushi" right on board in front of us. I decided to take out the pictures of the creepy animals that live on the floor, because while looking at the pictures, I actually got a bit scared.

This was an amazing journey, and I regret to say that this is the end of the Iceland blogs! However, I will eventually begin posting more frequently (once I get use to this school schedule) and I'm going to be writing about my past adventures and travels! The wildlife that I got to experience while in Iceland, the animals, and the natural beauty of the green grass and the glaciers was all an experience I will always have in my memory! Until next time, enjoy this picture of a sea urchin!

The Ice of Iceland (Finally!)

I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to post on today, I still have so much to cover about Iceland; it truly was an amazing experience to go there! And then I realized.... I've been talking about Iceland so much, and never even about the ice there. 

Sorry, there's no more ice in Iceland. Global Warming. Oops. Bye. 

Just kidding! For me, viewing the glaciers here in Iceland was one of the greatest experiences that I can remember; although I've been to Alaska when I was young, I really can't recall anything this fantastic about the glaciers. The one glacier I saw in Canada was nothing in comparison to these glaciers. The only thing I remember about the glacier I saw in India was just the hike up there; the hike was long (14 hours, I'm not kidding!) and tiring. So even if you don't go to Iceland, thats okay because there are still many other glaciers around the world! If you ever get a chance go and see one!

Quick tip for all those people who don't speak Icelandic: jökull actually means glacier, so the next time any complicated name has jökull as an ending, you'll now know its a glacier!

I never really typed in the name; my first view of Myrdalsjokull

This was one of my first views of any glacier up-close. We'd picked up some hitchhikers on the way, and they were about to go glacier trekking, so we decided to go and see this glacier.  I remember thinking when we got there, "Finally, we actually see a glacier. This must be where all the ice is!"And I also remember falling down quite a bit, because lets face it, this path looks a bit rocky. Near this glacier was a pool of murky brown water, with glacier fragments floating around in it. (Oh no, it's melting!) We got pretty close to the beginning of the glacier, and then we decided we'd come back tomorrow to do some glacier trekking.

The rock-filled sediment water!

While we were setting up for the glacier trekking, we were being taught some information about the equipment that we would use to hike up the glaciers. Since glaciers are pretty icy and really hard when you fall (trust me, personal experience) you need special attachments to shoes, known as crampons. They're like pointy little metal traps that you step in and tie into your shoe. Although they're definitely useful for staying in place on the glacier, they're actually pretty difficult to walk in. Through the journey, several people ripped their pant legs, because while walking normally the crampons come to close to the legs of our pants, and they're very pointy, so the pant legs tend to rip when they come in contact with them. Just in case we ever fall and we need some grip to remain stable, we're also given these walking sticks, which look almost like adjustable ski poles. And to top it all off, just like with any other dangerous sport, we're given helmets to at least protect our heads if we fall!

I think this was one of my favorite moments on the trip; although I was worried that I was completely destroying something that had been there for thousands of years. (To top it all off, the tour guide was telling us about how badly recent changes have been affecting the glacier and how much it has receded in the past couple of years... I wasn't sure if it was our fault for walking on the glacier, or whether the change in temperature over recent years had affected the glacier that drastically.) And I'm pretty proud of myself, for hiking around a large glacier that had been there for many years and actually not falling for once!

The lovely scenery.... oh and me!

While trekking and enjoying the scenery, I was also really worried, because I wondered how much dirt each tourist's crampons contained, and the effect that it would have on the glacier.  I began to consider if a lot of this dirt already present on the glacier was due to other tourists; but it's actually something called moraine. This glacier is in the process of forming a valley, and so when the glacier rubs against the mountains on the surrounding sides, the mountain begins to crumble, and the dirt remaining is left on the glacier. So I guess it's not really all my fault!

I was actually really scared of falling into a crevasse when I was hiking...

Even though there's moraine just about everywhere on the glacier, the water is still fresh and pure; it's one of the reasons my dad and I both love Icelandic water! (Icelandic water is taken directly from the glaciers) So we actually got to drink the water thats been solidified in a glacier for thousands of years! And can I just say the water is really good!

Remember when I said that my family and I got lost somewhere in Skaftafell National park? Well, I guess you could say we first got lost in this view, because this part of the Vatnajökull is so breathtaking! Although it's shrouded by some clouds in this picture, this should just give you a glimpse of how big the entire glacier would be if this is just a little part of the entire glacier!

Just a bit closer to Vatnajökull

Even better than the entire glacier trekking experience however, was actually floating around in a lagoon with the glaciers; the boat trip in the Glacier Lagoon. This beautiful lagoon was actually partially created by global warming! It's hard to believe that something so beautiful can be formed by something that's actually destroying the glacier bit by bit. This is actually the deepest body of water in Iceland! (I believe it's actually a large lake, but I actually don't remember) Seeing the full glacier itself was an amazing experience, along with walking on it, but coming close to the icebergs broken off from the glacier was something that's unforgettable! The cute little seals floating around in the water, the beautiful chunks of glacier bits that were icy white and blue all made this experience amazing! (I'm not even kidding, the seals were just swimming around the entire lake; they were so adorable!)

The boat we were on was called an "amphibian boat" because it could work on both land and water, a mechanical amphibian. When I first heard the name, I thought we were going to ride a giant mechanical frog, and I don't even have the excuse that I'm 4 years old. I guess there isn't an age limit on using your imagination!

My mom, the master photographer, and the child who's wearing her mother's shoes. Shoe models? I think so.

What I loved about this view especially was the lovely shade of blue on the ice. What happens is that a lot of these icebergs that have broken off from the main glacier are actually mostly submerged under the water, and so when they tip over and tilt under their own weight, the newer parts of the icebergs are actually more blue to the eye. Or if you don't really understand, just remember "blue is new" and "icebergs are pretty" and you should be okay.

Right above, you'll see a picture of me eating Icelandic ice. But it's not just any ice, it's 800 year old ice, that was about to melt! And if you can believe it, it tastes better than the tap water, and the fridge water!

If you decide to count the number of exclamation marks I've used throughout this entire post, you'll realize how excited I was writing this! The glacier adventures were some of my favorite parts of this entire Icelandic adventure. And the best part is, this beautiful lake and parts of glaciers, can actually be spotted directly from the freeway! So if you're running short on time, it's really easy to just take a couple of pictures and be on your way!

You should keep an eye out for my next blog post about the animals I saw on my travels in Iceland!