I lived in Reykjavik at the time of the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, and I had a friend with a giant jeep... So we drove to about 500m from the hole in the ground spouting lava (safe, open to the public, quite a few people there) and had the nature experience of a lifetime.
We literally called it the tourist volcano, because you could get so close and still be safe.
>Katla is Iceland's most dangerous volcano and is located underneath the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap.
Had to look this up:
>Katla is a large volcano in southern Iceland. It is very active; twenty eruptions have been documented between 930 and 1918, at intervals of 13–95 years. It has not erupted violently for 99 years, although there may have been small eruptions that did not break the ice cover, including ones in 1955, 1999, and 2011.
I'm headed there Thursday, here's hoping it can hold off a few more days.
On a related note, is WOW Air actually running flights below cost in some sort of promotion for Icelandic tourism? I know a lot of people in my social circle in LA who have all independently booked trips there solely because of the ridiculously cheap direct flights.
I wonder if fermented shark tastes good with poisonous ash.
Please refrain from eating shark, puffin or whales. The only reason why we are still killing endangered species is solely tourism. The local population does not eat them. Please try lamb soup instead. Or one of the amazing Iceland hotdogs.
OT:
Both WOW air and Icelandair promote iceland as a great "stop" on your way to eurotrip. A lot of people I met there in the rykjavik hostel were people who were just staying in iceland for 4 days to tour around quickly and then fly further to amsterdam. Apparently there is some promotion that there is no additional cost to stay in iceland a few days if you book a trip to europe through them.
If you're there on a budget, I highly suggest hitch hiking. It's one of the last european countries where you can really properly do this. Longest i waited for a hitch was 3 hours in the rain in a mountain range. But I think the mean waiting time has been 15 minutes.
There is only one main road, so you cannot really go into a wrong direction, just keep going right and you end up going all around the island back to rykjavik. I did it clock-wise, whilst most tourists did it counter-clockwise I think. The upside was that we mostly hitched rides from locals and we really got to know the country and its people this way.
It took me 20 days (with no rush) to cruise around the entire island this way. Must admit, we spent most of our time in the myvatn area, as it's just beatiful. The landscape changes every 20 metres and it's just gorgeous.
I don't know for certain, but I'd guess WOW does the same thing Norwegian does: hiring staff on short-term contracts from places where labor is cheap (IIRC Norwegian hires its flight-deck crews from Estonia and cabin attendants from Thailand) in order to get low wages and avoid the overhead of full-time employment, registering most business operations in places like Ireland with favorable tax situations, and then ensuring most flights pass through at least one second-tier airport with low fees. Combine with being able to take advantage of half-in, half-out type EU pseudo-member benefits and you've got the makings of a profitable low-cost carrier.
WOW also appears to make do with a shoestring fleet -- they have only three long-haul planes, total, at the moment and seem to be relying on the range of much smaller A321s to do a lot of their US/Canada destinations.
I've been to Iceland several times and totally love it. Make sure to rent a car and get out of Reykjavik. Even driving around randomly to see there landscape is incredible.
At the time, there was a zero tolerance policy for volcanic ash with jet engines. However there are now upper bounds on the density of ash allowed, so if an Eyjafjallajökull-like eruption happened again today, not as much air traffic would have to shut down.
Morgunblaðið is a highly partisan newspaper in Iceland owned by the fisheries industries. It's run at a loss but noone cares because their primary purpose is propaganda for their owners (to some extent this is the case for all media but they are particularly blatant about it).
The english-language section on their site is just a place for them to sell ads-disguised-as-news to tourists. They have low-paid teenagers translating stories from the Icelandic version to maintain some semblance of being a news site. You'll never find good information in these, and oftentimes it's just plain bullshit.
There are around 60-80 volcanic eruptions per year; for a total of about 300 million tons of CO2; so all four together, even if they produce twice as much as an average eruption, would account for about only 3.5 million tons. (Human-produced CO2 is estimated at between 20 to 30 billion tons per year)
Tangential, but: That was a rare example of advertising done right. The top banner, from Air Iceland, is served inline as it should be, not from some sleazy external ad-provider.
And here's the thing: It works. Made it past my uMatrix and various other filtering. And thus became probably the first internet ad for twenty years which I have knowingly clicked. Could the rest of the world please look and learn?
Did you click because you actually wanted a Northern Lights holiday, or because it was novel? If the latter, then your traffic was pointless - if you weren't thinking of buying, then they won't be interested in your visit.
[+] [-] peterhartree|9 years ago|reply
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/41812768@N07/albums/7215764724...
If you're planning a visit to Iceland I'm happy to answer questions here or by email.
[+] [-] klausjensen|9 years ago|reply
We literally called it the tourist volcano, because you could get so close and still be safe.
http://imgur.com/a/I1qyv
I am going back to Iceland next week for a few days, and my fingers are crossed that Katla and friends can wait until later to erupt.
[+] [-] SideburnsOfDoom|9 years ago|reply
And at that range, there might be a risk of fumes affecting the people?
[+] [-] kybishop|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robin_reala|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Isamu|9 years ago|reply
Had to look this up:
>Katla is a large volcano in southern Iceland. It is very active; twenty eruptions have been documented between 930 and 1918, at intervals of 13–95 years. It has not erupted violently for 99 years, although there may have been small eruptions that did not break the ice cover, including ones in 1955, 1999, and 2011.
Small eruptions that did not break the ice cover?
[+] [-] throwaway5752|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jboggan|9 years ago|reply
On a related note, is WOW Air actually running flights below cost in some sort of promotion for Icelandic tourism? I know a lot of people in my social circle in LA who have all independently booked trips there solely because of the ridiculously cheap direct flights.
I wonder if fermented shark tastes good with poisonous ash.
[+] [-] arianvanp|9 years ago|reply
OT:
Both WOW air and Icelandair promote iceland as a great "stop" on your way to eurotrip. A lot of people I met there in the rykjavik hostel were people who were just staying in iceland for 4 days to tour around quickly and then fly further to amsterdam. Apparently there is some promotion that there is no additional cost to stay in iceland a few days if you book a trip to europe through them.
If you're there on a budget, I highly suggest hitch hiking. It's one of the last european countries where you can really properly do this. Longest i waited for a hitch was 3 hours in the rain in a mountain range. But I think the mean waiting time has been 15 minutes.
There is only one main road, so you cannot really go into a wrong direction, just keep going right and you end up going all around the island back to rykjavik. I did it clock-wise, whilst most tourists did it counter-clockwise I think. The upside was that we mostly hitched rides from locals and we really got to know the country and its people this way.
It took me 20 days (with no rush) to cruise around the entire island this way. Must admit, we spent most of our time in the myvatn area, as it's just beatiful. The landscape changes every 20 metres and it's just gorgeous.
[+] [-] M_Grey|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ubernostrum|9 years ago|reply
WOW also appears to make do with a shoestring fleet -- they have only three long-haul planes, total, at the moment and seem to be relying on the range of much smaller A321s to do a lot of their US/Canada destinations.
[+] [-] yaur|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ajmurmann|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] juandazapata|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johansch|9 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_travel_disruption_after_th...
[+] [-] turbohedgehog|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emodendroket|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abraves10001|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomhoward|9 years ago|reply
http://www.iflscience.com/environment/four-icelands-volcanoe...
[+] [-] throwaway7767|9 years ago|reply
Morgunblaðið is a highly partisan newspaper in Iceland owned by the fisheries industries. It's run at a loss but noone cares because their primary purpose is propaganda for their owners (to some extent this is the case for all media but they are particularly blatant about it).
The english-language section on their site is just a place for them to sell ads-disguised-as-news to tourists. They have low-paid teenagers translating stories from the Icelandic version to maintain some semblance of being a news site. You'll never find good information in these, and oftentimes it's just plain bullshit.
[+] [-] ironic_ali|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] edmccard|9 years ago|reply
There are around 60-80 volcanic eruptions per year; for a total of about 300 million tons of CO2; so all four together, even if they produce twice as much as an average eruption, would account for about only 3.5 million tons. (Human-produced CO2 is estimated at between 20 to 30 billion tons per year)
[+] [-] solidr53|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bwilli123|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] runeks|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] staticautomatic|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dfischer|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] interfixus|9 years ago|reply
And here's the thing: It works. Made it past my uMatrix and various other filtering. And thus became probably the first internet ad for twenty years which I have knowingly clicked. Could the rest of the world please look and learn?
[Edit: typo]
[+] [-] vacri|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] c-smile|9 years ago|reply
The world will die trying to pronounce another Eyjafjallajökull name.
[+] [-] sehr|9 years ago|reply
It's easier than you think!
[+] [-] juandazapata|9 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] troelsSteegin|9 years ago|reply
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