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Vestmannaeyjar: "The Pompeii of the North"

3/12/2016

It took me four tries, four times purchasing a ferry ticket before the ferry actually sailed to Vestmannaeyar (Westman Islands in English). My first attempt in May was foiled due to the weather and it wasn't until Thanksgiving Day this year, that the weather finally cooperated (barely) in order for me to actually visit the island!

The hills of this island are both mystical and magical.

If you want to book a ferry to the island, you can do so here. I highly recommend frequently checking their Facebook page, where all the latest updates on the schedule are posted. Sometimes they do send out text messages or emails with changes, but I have found these notifications to be inconsistent and the English translations rather inaccurate. This time, the ferry did depart for the island at the planned time, though it was a very bumpy ride. It also left the island three hours earlier in an attempt to avoid bad weather. If the weather got worse and the port at Landeyjahöfn closed, our ship would get diverted three hours to Þorlákshöfn.

The blurriness of this photo shows just how rainy and rough it was on the journey to the island.

On the journey home, we were holding our breath as they made the announcement in Icelandic about where we would arrive. When the Icelandic passengers were laughing and smiling, I hoped that meant it woud be a 35 minute journey and not a 3 hour one and that was fortunately the case!

Vestmannaeyjar is best known for the 23 January 1973 eruption on the main island of Heimaey. Thanks to stormy weather the day prior, the fishing boats were docked on the island, and the 5,300 residents were able to escape with only one death. The eurption lasted for six months and 360 homes were buried.

A modern day Pompeii incident left the city in ruins

Housing these ruins is Eldheimar, a volcano museum. I've visited Pompeii twice and was fairly certain Mt. Vesuvius was about to wake up during my most recent trip. I somehow always find myself around an active volcano. During a geology class my last semester of university, we had a unit on volcanoes. My professor had a slide with various volcanoes and asked "Has anyone ever been to Mt. Etna in Sicily?" Me: "Yes." The rest of the class: "No." "What about the Poas Volcano in Costa Rica?" Me: "Yes." The rest of the class: "No." "Has anyone ever been to Iceland where the Eyjafjallajökull volcano caused all those air traffic problems a few years ago?" Me: "Yes, and I am moving to Iceland in January." The rest of the class: "No." "Did anyone go see the Pompeii exhibit when it was in Denver?" Me: "No, but I've been to Pompeii." The rest of the class: "No." I don't actually seek out active volcanoes, I just sort of gravitate to them.

The fog descends on the volcano museum.

Aside from hanging around an active volcano, there was a bit of time to explore the town. I was surprised at how populated it was (by Icelandic standards of course). I finally got a handknit Icelandic peysa at Gallery Heimaey. The peysa I selected was 16000 ISK, far cheaper than anything you'd find in Reykjavik! The lady working was helpful and had quite the selection of handknit clothing.

The hills were gorgeous, but there wasn't enough time to explore much without missing the boat. And we didn't want to miss the boat because the Emerald Isle was calling...but more on that later.

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Other Writings and Features

2/12/2016

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