globetrotting in iceland: floating in a glacier lagoon

in the sparsely populated southeast iceland, lays vatnajökull, the largest glacier in europe. driving in this area of the country, you are exposed to glacier tongue after glacier tongue, so many that in a short time you lose count.  many of these are receding; a famous one, breidamerkurjökull has been melting into a glacier lagoon, jökulsárlón, only since the 1930s.

we took a 45 minute boat trip around the lagoon littered with little icebergs. never mind that the vessel was uncomfortably overflowing with people.  peering out at the water, you quickly forget the strangers practically pressing up against you. instead, you stare out in wide-eyed wonder, trying to understand how something so eerily beautiful exists.

the lagoon constantly changes. even in the short time we were there, we saw giant boulders of ice collapse and move before our eyes. it was mystical and absolutely breathtaking.

globetrotting in iceland: the horse not named frida

"what was the name of your horse?" the guide asked cheerfully, pen poised to jot it down onto my certificate.

"um, i'm not sure...she was solid white and i think it started with a F." i replied.

after a moment's thought, her eyes lit up and she scribbled down the name and triumphantly reported that my horse's name was frida.

my horse was most certainly NOT named frida. but as my certificate now clearly stated so, i decided not to argue.

maybe i should back up a little. the husband and i were just in iceland, on a 10 day vacation around the country. it was the second day of our trip, and we had just completed a little icelandic horse excursion right outside of reykjavik. although in general possessing lukewarm feelings toward horses, i had become somewhat enamoured by the idea of icelandic horses. therefore, i was very enthusiastic about this excursion, and had a made a point to book it early in the trip planning process. it wasn't until the end of our drive to the ishestar center (they conveniently picked us up at our hotel for the tour) when i decended from the mini-bus and hit my head on the door frame, that i began to wonder if this was actually a good idea.