Not so Icy-land and the Midnight Sun

I have arrived and am glad to report, in reference to my last post, that I am not at all underwhelmed with what I find here in Iceland. First, the landing ranks among the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. My plane glided over a thick and unbroken blanket of clouds for the last ninety minutes of flight. As we approached Iceland, the clouds began to dissipate until Iceland emerged as the center of a cloudless circle. Dipping down through the last cumulus patches, I saw flashes of a pockmarked moonscape with green hues suggesting some deep fecundity in the soil.

On the horizon I saw the midnight sun. This landing occurred at 11:30 PM, yet the sun still hovered some apparent inches off the horizon. It beamed a dark red and purple pallor across the sea, land, and clouds, and for one remarkable minute, perhaps owing to the exhaust from my jet’s turbine, or perhaps from Iceland’s magic aura, the boundary between sea, sky, and clouds dissolved. The horizon became a mélange of red, purple, and orange pastels with one texture flowing into the next. I became totally disoriented in this visually blurred moment – it lasted only several seconds, but I will not forget it. It was one of those things that a photo cannot capture, and I did not even bother an attempt at photography.

I disembarked, collected my bags, boarded a bus, called Carola (with some technical difficulty, ultimately resolved), and found myself standing in shorts and Otter Creek polo outside the Viking Village. The temperature, even at "night" is not so cold that shorts feel uncomfortable. Carola came to my rescue, and together we hauled my bags up a surprisingly long and steep hill to her house. I’m typing from my room high above the Viking Village with shades drawn to keep out the night’s sun. I was warned that the hot water from the faucet will scald me and stink of sulfur, both heat and smell owing to the phenomenon I intend to study here.

Tomorrow I will head to Reykjavik. Carola recommends the “whale blubber on a stick.” Yippee.