The Bone Women of Iceland: Cairns

“Oh, the joys of travel!  To feel the excitement of sudden departure, not always knowing whither.  Surely you and I are in agreement about that.  How often did my life seem concentrated in that single moment of departure.  To travel far, far — and that first morning’s awakening under a new sky!  And to find oneself in it — no, to discover more of oneself there.  To experience there, too, where one has never been before, one’s own continuity of being and, at the same time, to feel that something in your heart, somehow indigenous to this new land, is coming to life from the moment of your arrival.  You feel your blood infused with some new intelligence, wondrously nourished by things you had no way of knowing.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke

Iceland’s rock cairns, bone women

“Throughout Iceland, cairns mark the way, over mountain passes, across the moonscape of the interior, through frequent lava wastes. . . . Cairns were sometimes called ‘bone women,’ or ‘beggar women.'”
— Charles Fergus, Summer at Little Lava: A Season at the Edge of the World

“From the sound of stone comes the silence of space.”
— Richard England

Seeing distant stone cairns from a bus window

Cairn near a road, Keflavik

Bone women of Iceland

The Rilke quote opening today’s post captures for me the excitement and intoxication of travel.  I was certainly in the first thrills of my journey on my two-day stopover in Iceland.  I was still my old self, but in a foreign setting.  This “continuity of being” meant that it was extremely unlikely that I would suddenly turn into a new person, who hung out in nightclubs, for example.  No, I was still the same old me whose evenings were spent curled up in bed editing and uploading photos of the day.  And yet, I wanted to be broadened by my travels and open to new thoughts and ideas.  It remains to be seen how this trip will shape my future self.

My first taste of Iceland whetted my desire to return someday to explore more of this amazing country.  I think that next time I would like to return with my husband, rent a car for a week, and travel along the road that encircles this island.

I left Iceland with some of its iconic images burned in my memory, especially these rock cairns that so resemble people.  One of my regrets for this trip was that I found/made so little (almost none) time to sketch and paint.  Once again I carried my sketchbook and watercolors in my luggage, extra weight and bulk I could have left at home.  I was simply too busy every day to carve out the quiet time to paint.  But the one painting that I did manage was a watercolor sketch of Iceland’s bone women.  Here it is:

Preliminary pencil sketch for my painting

Watercolor sketch of Iceland’s rock cairns, bone women

Iceland Impressions 2

“We do not take a trip, a trip takes us.”
— John Steinbeck, from Travels with Charley

Paved path following the coastline near Keflavik

One of my favorite things to do on my travels is to simply walk or drive around, see what presents itself, and take photos.  So on my stopover in Iceland, I donned walking shoes and set out from my lodging at the Hotel Keflavik and followed the paved path along the coastline.  I walked for about four miles before I turned around to come back, and I did not even reach the end of the path.  I felt like a solitary walker, so few people did I meet en route.

I fell in love with the tidy, modest-sized houses, with their red and blue roofs.  One yellow house was particularly cheerful.  I felt that, in comparison, our huge sprawling houses in the U.S. are too often ostentatious and wasteful.

The red-roofed houses of Keflavik

Blue roofs, Keflavik

Cheerful yellow house along the Iceland coast

Two historic “summer houses” in Keflavik

Downtown Keflavik, how tidy and clean

Along the path was a restored cottage called a “Stekkjarkot.”  This sod-covered dwelling was typical of those from the mid-1800s.  The family who lived here would have made its living from the sea.

Stekkjarkot near Keflavik

Keflavik is a sea town, with fishing boats and working harbors.  Very picturesque.

Breakwater leading into a harbor

One of Keflavik’s harbors

Weathered blue shed

Fishing boat seen from a bluff

After walking four miles in one direction, I returned to the hotel and then walked in the other direction, through the town, and up a bluff where I followed a hard path of volcanic rock along the cliffs.

Hard path on the bluff over Keflavik

Coming back down, I passed this woman basking in the spring sunshine like a seal on a rock.  (Don’t we all celebrate the return on light and warmth in the Spring?)

Welcome back sun!

I ended my day by swimming with the locals at Keflavik’s public swimming pool.  For one-twentieth the cost of the Blue Lagoon, I enjoyed four or five warm soaking pools/hot tubs, a lap pool, a big general swimming pool while around me families played in the kiddie pools and water park with giant slides into yet another pool.  And then I splurged on a dinner of Icelandic lamb.  A perfect day.

My dinner of Icelandic lamb at the restaurant in the Hotel Keflavik

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iceland Impressions 1

“Life is but earth translated into force. . . . We are only earth transposed into force, just as coal is formed into flame and heat by the transmutation process applied to it.”
— from The Notebooks of David Ignatow, edited by Ralph J. Mills, Jr.

The landscape around Keflavik, Iceland

Lava rock

In Iceland, you can’t escape noticing the violent volcanic forces that shaped, and continue to shape, the landscape.  Coming from the Pacific Northwest, I was especially aware of the almost total absence of trees.  During my two-day stopover, I limited my explorations to the area near the Keflavik airport — I did not even make the hour bus ride to Reykjavik — and this rocky, moss-covered lava landscape was what I saw in all directions.

The Blue Lagoon (notice the people in the foreground soaking in the thermal waters)

Stones and waters in the Blue Lagoon

Of course, no trip to Iceland is complete without a soak in the thermal-heated waters of the Blue Lagoon, this country’s number one tourist attraction.  While Iceland does have plenty of natural thermal pools, the Blue Lagoon is actually artificial, created from the overflow from the adjacent thermal power station.  I enjoyed a relaxing soak and my skin felt revitalized from silicone mud available in tubs around the pools.

Iceland’s stark and alien landscape feels not forbidding, but rather remote and barren.  The wide open skies give a feeling of clarity and expansiveness.  I felt that my impressions were best captured by some of my camera’s photographic effects like the following:

Lava rock with tunnel effect

Blue Lagoon with kaleidoscope effect

Mossy growth on lava rocks with tunnel effect

And these photos taken on a short hike over the lava rock: