Saturday: Reykjavik - Oslo - Helsinki

Four-wheels for everyone

4x4 is the Islandic way to travel!
There was something for everyone - really for everyone...

The most beautiful and traditional way...

There are appr. 20 horses per person in Iceland;
that means over 6 miljon horses in the island!

And modern way...

The other traditional type

SOME SCALE - 4x4 Icelandic way compared to RAV4



Four-wheel for tourists



And for bigger group!

...

Last night at Reykjavik, Iceland

Shopping Center Smaralind

The Golden Circle

Friday: Around Reykjavik

 

Capital Inn, Reykjavik

Interesting thing is that we don't have a single foto about this accomodation...
All pupils were at the basement
- guys at four group rooms
- girls at mutual big dorm: all twelve
Adults were upstairs - Timo was even at the 3rd floor alone.
So- the juvenile enjoyed their peace without adults...
But all of us were so tired about the trip, that all were actually sleeping quite early.
We had an early wakening at Friday, so we should be sharp for the trip :)

Shopping at Kringlan

We walked from Perlan to Kringlan for about 2 km and when we were at Kringlan everybody was hungry!
We picked up the restaurant area at middle and everybody could choose, what they wanted to eat - except Pizza, which was not allowed - and soda like Coca-Cola.
There were still left five alternatives
- Hamburger-place
- Tacos
- Italian restaurant pasta
- Subway
- Chinese restaurant.
The choise was clear: every guy ate hamburgers with fries, every girl at Subway and adults ate at the chinese. And everybody was happy!

After the supper everybody vanished to the shopping center for 2,5 hours after checking the meeting time to the adults...
Nobody actually shopped so much, but were looking around...
Everybody was also in time at the meeting time and place and we walked again back to the Capital Inn.

Thursday, Perlan and Saga-exhibition

Thursday, bus to Reykjavik

We left our guesthouse Gula Villan about at little past 8:30 am. The next upcoming 6 hours we spent in the bus, with stops included of course. People were first energized but in the end most of them were exhausted.
Atmosphere in the bus was warm, literally, like it was in our every trip. - Ale

Church at the saga(?)

Geologic forecast

Metering the movement of plates

 The metering was connected to emergency center, that  superviced all geologic movement and temperature also at some point. This metering was only for the movement.
This is why Icelander can forecast every happening and prevent the disaster in advance...

Wednesday, Mývatn

What a wonderful day wednesday was!
We woke up at 8 o'clock, personally a little later because I didn't sleep very well that night because of my roommate snores. After having a breakfast and a quick shower we set our feet in to the bus. Atleast most of us were excited about the upcoming trip. The seat belts were fastened in the bus at little past 9 am.

During the way to Mývatn -lake our "personal guide" Jónas taught us many things about Iceland and showed a couple examples. For example most of the deaths happened because of the nature in Iceland are not because of vulcanity or eruptions, but because of the avalanches(if you don't know the word, it's "lumivyöry" in Finnish).

We visited lots of places before going to Mývatn nature bath which was maybe the best experience in Iceland yet. Especially at our first stop, Godafoss waterfall, we took some awesome pictures as you might see below.  After seeing the waterfall we saw quite a lot of places like Dimmuborgir lavaformations, geothermal mud and Skutustadir craters where our bus driver drifted on a nearby frozen lake. :D We even saw a part of Jónas' life when he showed us his former home, a sheepfarm, where he lived when he was young and a cave where he used to swim in the hot water until the water temperature warmed up a couple degrees, making it too hot to swim at.
With all the nature wonders around us we truly realized how beautiful place Iceland really is.
The nature bath was the highlight of the whole trip. The +40celsius baths were very relaxing after a long day.

In the evening we went to a fine restaurant to have some pizza(again) and some other traditional dishes. After the meal a part of our group went to hang out and have fun on the streets with some of our hosts, while rest of the group went back to our guesthouse Gula Villan.  -Ale

Godafoss

Other leg at America and the other at Europe(Dimmuborgir)

Happy travellers at Troll-Park(Dimmuborgir)

Geothermal mud(mutaa)













Farm of Jónas' brother, Mývatn

The old house from year 1916, museum protected

The sheep - almost all of them pregnant

First we visited the sheep farm of Jonas' brother. The farm was located at the lake, that never froze because of the water coming from under the lava-layer. The water was all clear and the beach-sand was black - yes, black. And it was soft also like the beach-sand usually is :)

DINNER WITH FAMILIES

Definitely the most exciting part of the trip was the dinner with local families.

All students enjoyed themselves with good company and nobody had no problems with language or anything. The served food was very international: tacos, hamburgers, grilled hamburgers, pizza (again), pasta and of course at some families lamb. Only one family served fish, which we expected all to do…
Food was good according the students!

But us adults had the best dinner ever! Jónas and his lovely wife offered us the best grilled lamb with mushroom sauce and caramelled potatoes, we had ever tasted!
And for the dessert, Anna has baked us a Skyr-cake (something like cheese-cake, but more tasty.
IT WAS JUST FANTASTIC!
Thank you for the fantastic dinner and lovely company! 

Thank you again to all families with your generous hospitality!

SCHOOL VISIT at Tuesday

The Finnish lady-teacher Anna (who lives and works here in Akureyri) came to Gula Villan to get us to the school.
The first lecture started at 8:15 about Geology of Island. Very interesting!

Jónas is surely an expert at these stuff and has his own personal style to tell the stories and everybody listened quietly and eyes open even when we were all very exhausted about the adventure last night.

He told funny jokes about happenings at past and we all loved his stories.

The second lecture was about Icelandic language by teacher Anna – and in Finnish.
There were some interesting similarity with English; like apple – eple (omena) or mother which sounded almost the same, but has these special letter like Icelandic language has…

Then the most exciting moment: our students met the Icelander students for the first time, when they told them about our home town Espoo, our capital Helsinki and Finland.
Our whole class was divided to 5 groups and all groups had their presentation at 5 different classes.
Icelandic students seem to be very interested about Finland and Finnish language. After the presentations students learned words from each other. One class sang a song even to our students! Bravissimo!
Our students handed also some Finnish candy: salmiakki and chocolate. All the students loved the chocolate, but salmiakki divided opinions… Also the teachers loved the chocolate and behavior to have the chocolate was exactly the same among both students and teachers – very excited.

One of these classes was our host/hostess and soon after the presentations all students met each other at the auditorium. We had made a list with Jónas last night and divided all students as pairs.
So, there were 10 4-student groups with 2 Finnish and 2 Icelandic and two 3-student group, where Icelandic girl Jána had two our girls and two Icelandic guys had our brave Justus.
All students were told to do a little project all around the town after lunch and get to know each other on the way. There was two hours time to explore the town and do this.

Before getting to town or lunch we had this interesting tour also around the school: the oldest part of the school was from 1800 century with wooden structure and we got a glance from the upstairs attic also, where had been dorms for the pupils at early days. Nowadays there is storage with old teaching equipment. The old structure was all pale to see and for fire safety it was not allowed to use for anything else. The atmosphere at the old part was dignified, but cozy. Also the principal office with main meeting room was at this part of the building.

12:00 we had a lunch at school cafeteria: salad bar, pasta with cheese and mushrooms and “skyr” with tea/coffee.
Interesting part about the food was that the desert Skyr was same size as the main course, which amused us Finnish – we have these microscopic dessert at school, if any.
Milk was very good – cold and same kind like the 1%-milk back home :)

During the project work adults had a tour around the town with Jónas – but with car.
And there were some things to solve out also for the Wednesday and pay for the bus, so we didn’t have time to go around walking…

Very interesting day at school :)
 

Our islandic teachers seem to like our soveniers from Finland

Akureyri – our main town to visit

Akureyri is surrounded with mountings, lava mountings.

The weather chances very quickly, if the wind comes from the north, but usually it is much calmer place than the rest of the island. The mountings are protecting the village from the wind.

There are about 12.000 habitants in Akureyri and about 20.000 at the hole area.

Akureyri is the second largest town in Iceland after Reykjavik.

Town is quiet – even the city-centre. People are polite and friendly to the strangers, but don’t talk to us anything extra than needed (like ask us, where we are coming from…)
We can see from their eyes, that they are wondering about it because of our language, but they don’t ask.
Or… Maybe they know already!
But anyway the same eyes are smiling and look friendly and interested of us!

Gula Villan, Akureyri

After an exhausting trip and 4-5 hour sleep we got up in Gula Villan.

Lady Elín made us breakfast and after couple cups of tea/coffee we were back in the action!

Gula Villan is just what we were expecting: cozy house with several rooms, shared bathrooms, kitchen and dining room. Our group fulfills the entire house! Only concerning thing is that we have only two showers to 24 persons – yes, you got it right! Three girls have their own bathroom behind their room, but the others have two showers… and three toilets. But two toilet-seats are in the same bathrooms with the shower, so the entire room is occupied for a while… But with a little good organize we can manage!

The house itself is nice and clean with reasonable furniture. And taken good care…
And ms Elín is a very nice lady, who has been in Finland two times already...

And excellent location – just in the city-centre close to the shopping street.

We recommend dearly this accommondation :)

Dining room at Gula Villan

Exciting journey from Reykjavik to Akureyri

First stop at Pizza Hut, Reykjavik. Food was good and selection wider than Finland... Excellent!
We started our trip at schedule, but that was all that came from that plan... ;)

First the weather was fine. After a while we drove to a tunnel, which was going under a fjord for 200meters under the sea level. The tunnel itself was about 5,7 kilometers long.
There was nothing to see at the tunnel, so we don't include pictures from that.

After an hour first snow storm began. All snow went horisontal front of the bus and over the road.
The wind was about 24m/s strong at that time and we were almost top at a 450m high hill.
You could see only the next road markings beside the road, but not the next ones.
But we went on... "This is normal", said Jónas and kept driving... :)

And for a while, weather changed to normal snowing and the speed was again about 90km/h in the bus...

We had a stop at a middle of the trip at gasolin station and had some snacks - and of course visited toilets.
There is about 2,5 hours left to go...

But then...
1,5 hours later the snow storm hit us again - and this time it was terrible... We couldn't see anything - at all!
The pictures don't show it, what it was, but this time we didn't see even the next marking but had to go blind for some meters to see next... You shouldn't stop at this weather, because that makes accidents, said Jónas - and there was no place to stop eighther...

Co-driver at her work

The wind was even harder (later checked to be over 30m/s!!!)
And the bus stopped behind couple of trucks - completely!
There had been an accident at the road and we couldn't cross the scenery...
The rescue team had been called and was coming, but we had no information, how long would it last!
So we waited... And waited...
And then guys had to go... really had to go... at this weather!
And finally they went, first one brave one and when he was still alive to come inside the bus, then th others... They were wet and could, but excited about the experience...

We actually stood there about 30-40minutes only, but it felt like longer, when we were all tired already...
Finally the rescue team came and pull out the cars and we could move again :)
It was slow, but moving. About 10 minutes later we had crossed the mounting and were on the otherside: and the weather was fine again. "This is Iceland!", Jóna stold us...

So we were much more later at the Akureyri than planned, but in good condition even totally exhausted!
Lady Elín waited us with warm beds :D

Gula Villan, Brekkugatan

Good night!

Ongelmia nettiyhteyksissä

Majoituspaikamme nettiyhteys on niin hidas, ettei se jaksa ladata blogi-sivustoa ollenkaan, joten olemme olleet hieman hukassa blogin suhteen...
Kirjoitammekin tätä nyt Jónaksen kotona illallisen yhteydessä ja yritämme laittaa mahd.paljon materiaalia tulemaan...
Kaikki hyvin siis!

First glance about Iceland

The flight was 20min late, but that didn't matter to us. Flight was smooth and students enjoy themselves about the free drinks (soft drinks). There were sometimes 5 students sitting at 3 seats.
At the airport we had a suprise: Jonas himself was waiting for us and was also our bus-driver :)
And the interesting journey to Akureyri began...

First glance about Iceland





TIME-TABLE FOR THE TRIP



"PLAN TO BE"

 Schedule 19.3. - 24.3.2012 in Iceland:

1) FLIGHT:
- 11:30 MEETING AT Helsinki-Vantaa airport, Terminal 2
- 14:20 Icelandair FI 343 (3h35min)
- 15:55 Keflavik (KEF)
- Bus is waiting

2) Dinner at Pizza Hut, Reykjavik

- Bus from Reykjavik to Akureyri
About 22:30 at Gula Villan, Akureyri

3) Together 3 nights at Gula Villan, Akureyri

Tuesday:
- 6:30-8:00 Breakfast
- Visiting at school: 8:15 on Lectures, Finland- show, Pjoject work
- Lunch at school cafeteria
- Project work around Akureyri, bot Finnish and local students
- 16:00 swimming pool
- 18:00 date with host families, Dinner at families
- 21:30 back at Gula Villan

Wednesday:
- 6:30-8:00 Breakfast
- 8:30 start the trip to Lake Myvátn (4)
- bag-lunch from supermarket, eating on the way
- light lunch in cafeteria by the road
- 18:00 back at Akureyri
- 19:00 Dinner at Pasta-Pizzeria with Icelandic friends
- 21:00 back at Gula Villan

Thursday:
- 6:30-8:00 Breakfast
- PACKING ALL THINGS
- 8:30 Leaving Akureyri

5) 2 nights at Capital Inn, Reykjavik

- 13:30 Arrival and leaving all the package at Reykjavik, Capital Inn
- 14:00 Buffet-lunch at Pizza Hut, Reykjavik
- 15:30 National museum ?
- 17:30-20:00 Free time
- 20:00 Back at Capital Inn

Friday:
- 7:30-9:00 Breakfast
- 9:30 Saga-museum
- 11:30 Quick lunch at town (Subway ect.)
- 12:30 Going around Reyjkjavik
- 19:00 DINNER together at restaurant: starters, main course, dessert
- 21:30 Back at Capital Inn

Saturday:
- 4:30 WAKE UP
- 5:15 Bus to airport Keflavik
- 7:35 Icelanair FI 318, 11:05 Oslo (OSL)
- 13:15 Icelandair FI 7324, 15:40 Helsinki-Vantaa, Terminaali 2

Muutokset mahdollisia / Possible changes around the trip

Week to go!

Passports (or personel cards) should be ready in the pocket.
Paperwork should be also done and delivered to school / supervicors;
the list of allergies is also delivered to the Icelander hosts.

Now we are waiting for the program from Icelander school...

Hopefully everybody understands, that there is about -5C ... +8C and probably windy and raining.
The weather won't be a reason to avoid any program, if it isn't completely impossible.
Warm and dry-fit clothes and shoes are the most important things to pack...

Waiting pupils/travellers to join the blogsite - nobody yet :)

Reissua odotellessa

19.päivä lähdetään reissuun :)
23 oppilasta, 2 opettajaa ja 2 valvojaa

Suunnistamme heti Keflavikin lentokentältä bussilla pohjois-Islantiin.
Pohjoisessa ensin kolme yötä Akureyrissa, jossa meitä odottaa isäntäkoulu.
Torstaina sitten takaisin Reykjavikiin, jossa vielä kaksi yötä.
Hieno reissu tiedossa!

Kaksi viikkoa vielä - jännittäväksi menee...
- Lomakkeita pitäisi täyttää ja palauttaa koululle maanantaiksi.
- Passit on jo valmiina onneksi...
- Laukkuja ei viitsi vielä pakata, mutta pikkuhiljaa pitää varusteita käydä läpi.
- Pieni tuliainen pitäis käydä kaappaamassa isäntäperheelle - mitähän hankkis?

Iloisin mielin Islantia kohti!