More Northern lights!

Last week we got another SMS notification alerting us to the appearance of the Northern lights :). This time we drove to the Western end of the city, near the Grótta lighthouse. Since there are no houses in that area we had a better view. And indeed there were already several cars parked there and people watching the lights!

Unfortunately when we got there the lights were starting to dim, but we still got a couple of shots.

Filling up the sky

A view of Esja at night, thanks to the long exposure

Morning commute

In the mornings, I walk about 10 minutes from home, then I take a bus that drops me off near work (except when the weather is bad, then I just take a bus closer to home but with a much more winding route).

I took these pictures last week, when the sun was rising by the end of my commute. By now, it's obviously darker, as the sunlight keeps receding until the winter solstice.

For the commute, I could shave a few minutes by walking along a main street of the city. But I'd much rather walk in quieter and less polluted areas, so I end up going through courtyards, alleyways and a cemetery parallel to the main street.

Oh, and it had snowed a bit the previous night.

Obviously, I wasn't the first person to go to work that day

Snowy leaves

Red Nintendo mushroom graffiti guy

Green Nintendo mushroom graffiti guy

Tree, stone, and former prime minister

Snow on moss

Leaning tree

Brave flowers

Cemetery alleyways

Graves here often have professions listed on them. This guy was a doctor.

The sky was looking slightly ominous

The university library, built to look like a fortress (complete with a moat around it)

Strætó

Sunrise

Esja in the pink light

Móskarðshnúkar

Last weekend, Jó and I went for another hike on Esja in the lovely weather. We didn't take the main hike (from the bus stop) which we took last time, but rather decided to avoid the crowds and go on another spot in the moutains. We settled on a hike going up to Móskarðshnúkar, a set of 3 rhyolite peaks in the south-east of Esja. We hiked the middle peak (a bit under 800m of elevation).

The hike was quite interesting, especially towards the top where the slope is quite severe and where stepping through the rhyolite stones feels like getting trapped in glassy sand. Rhyolite is a light, almost glassy volcanic rock that can take on yellowish colors. Those three peaks are a typical example, the amazing Landmannalaugar is another.

Little flowers

Rhyolite!

So... there should be a mountain right in front of us!

Near the top

The peak

Summit self portrait

Jó and the tabletop mountains behind her (you can even see a glacier from that spot, though not in this picture)

A snack on the way down

A cute waterfall with basalt columns

Esja

Last weekend, Jó and I managed to get out of the city and hike on Esja. For those not in Iceland, Esja is the mountain north of Reykjavík. And luckily for us there's a bus stop at the base of the mountain, so off we went!

We hadn't hiked much lately, but we had gotten new equipment (mostly, hiking poles) so we were looking forward to this. We headed towards a summit at an altitude of almost 800 meters, but only made it to around 600 meters before heading back down. We had to catch a specific bus, otherwise it would be two more hours till the next one (We had to stop by relatives of Jó who were having a graduation party for one of their kids. Oh, and some guy at the party offered me a job selling Pylsur [hot dogs] at the van in Lækjargata at night. Tempting... but I'll stick with my job so far. Anyway...).

It was a nice hike, easy in parts and a bit more strenuous in others (though we didn't do the hardest part, at the top). The weather was overcast but warm by Icelandic standards (at least at the base). We later got a hiking map showing many different hikes on the mountain, so it will be fun to try some of those later.

And now, the pictures!

The view from sea level

Hiking Jó

Hiking me

Green

Purple

Cloudy

The shoreline from above

A self awarded victory cookie for reaching station #5