Scissorum

Weekly Newsletter 26 January 2024

This Week Merchant Taylors’ found out about this because my parents told me. Apparently, while I was peacefully dreaming, there had been a huge snowstorm, and the roads were extremely icy. The wind was howling like a wolf outside and I could imagine being blown away if I stepped outside. The blizzard swirled and twisted like a hurricane. It was also quite frightening for my dad, who was driving, because his vision was limited due to the storm. Snow was flying into the windscreen like bullets – another crazy experience during our vacation.

In the evening, the most exciting part of our trip occurred. You must believe that everything you read about this evening is one hundred percent true! So, it all started at around 8pm and we were scheduled to go on a Northern Lights tour. However, that night, the sky was very cloudy and there was very little chance of viewing any aurora lights as a clear sky would be preferrable. Our guide drew us to a spot, and we switched off all our lights to have a better chance of seeing the Northern Lights. So, we stood outside in the freezing cold, drinking hot chocolate and eating cinnamon buns when we spotted a faint green light in the sky. Everyone was excited when our phone cameras revealed a clearer image of the lights. So, we all started taking pictures when we spotted a big red light in the sky. We were all very confused until out tour guide said,” You are looking at a live volcanic eruption.” It was crazy. For a second, nobody believed him but then, if we squinted, we could see the lava hurtling out of the ground. The sight was incredible. The attached photos reveal the true beauty of the volcano. To think that we were one of the first people on Earth to discover this eruption… it was unbelievable. I mean, the news channels started reporting the volcano almost an hour after we saw it. Our tour guide had driven us to a spot where we could get a closer look at the eruption. We could see the angry, boiling lava flying high up and crashing into the rocks. There was so much smoke – it was almost like fog – and it had drifted everywhere. The whole sky had lit up red. And the best part? Not only did we see Northern Lights, but we also saw a live volcano – a once in a lifetime experience. Day 4 It was around 1 am. We were driving back from our Northern Lights tour and we were around an hour away from our Air B&B home. Personally, I was asleep in the car, so I only

Day 5 There isn’t really much that happened in this day. We woke up and drove to the airport, ready to come home. We relished in our last few views of the snow-covered country – it truly was A few things I haven’t mentioned yet. The weather in Iceland was so cold, yet it was beautiful. The icy winds ramming into me, the constant precipitation (whether it was rain, snow, or hail) and the freezing temperatures. It was unbelievable that the Icelandic people could get used to this weather. I had to wear four layers, a hat and gloves, double socks, and thick shoes. Also, a few other cool things that we saw during our trip were a geyser. These are small holes in the ground with water underneath. There are a lot of gasses and pressure so every few minutes, a lot of water comes shooting out of the whole and goes about ten feet in the air. We also went to a volcanic crater, and we could walk around it and look down. The crater was massive. I also think I should mention the smell of Iceland. Although geo-thermal water is extremely pure and clean, it certainly doesn’t smell nice. I mean, we thought there was a sewage issue in our Air B&B house! Well, that’s it. We made it through my entire vacation! It was more like an adventure or an expedition than a vacation, to be honest! Thank you so much for reading! beautiful. Summary

So that was our last day in Iceland, and it was probably the least tiring. We just explored the capital city, Reykjavik (pronounced Ray-Ka-Vik) for the whole day and went on a food tour for dinner. The idea of the food tour was to go around to the traditional Icelandic restaurants and try some of the traditional Icelandic dishes. It was a fantastic experience: our guide told us many Icelandic folktales, gave us a short history lesson on some of the oldest buildings in Iceland and of course, we tried many unique dishes. We ate several dishes including casseroles, soups, curries, you name it! Unbelievably, we even tried a small piece of shark! I definitely don’t recommend it! We were each given a small cube of fermented shark. Straight away, its nasty odour wafted into my nostrils and I almost gagged. Then we were told to put it in our mouths, chew ten times and swallow. The meat was tasteless; however, I was relieved when I swallowed it. It was very slimy and unpleasant.

September 29 2017

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