Iceland and volcanic eruption

End of May, Erik and I travelled to Iceland for a multitude of purposes. I had to pack my office at the University of Iceland as I’m no longer employed there, and we had to sort things in our apartment in Reykjavík. Erik came for research, too, and is right now taking part in the annual glacier trip up on Vatnajökull. He can tell more about it later. However, the really exciting thing during our stay was the trip to the volcanic eruption site at Geldingadalur! We went there in beautiful weather along with several school classes, tourists, Icelandic families, everyone from age 5 to 95 I would guess. Just to highlight the excellent hiking paths taking you to the amazing volcanic scenery. And if respecting the warning signs, which many people didn’t, and having common sense this is the perfect eruption for everyone to watch without being in danger. Erik and I were staying for 1-2 hours simply utterly fascinated by forces of nature and realising how some of the volcanic products and landscapes are formed. The eruption was almost like a geyser, having 10 minutes cycles where it would jet up lava, gas and lava bombs into the sky.

Besides eruption, we managed to see a lot of friends and former colleagues. My old Institute of Earth Sciences arranged a goodbye breakfast for me where I got a chance to say a proper farewell to all good colleagues. It’s been tough and interesting three years at HÍ. I was very grateful for the kind and honest words of Freysteinn Sigmundsson, who is the new Institute Leader. My hope is this will prevent others from ending up in the crazy work environment I experienced.

While in Iceland, it was my birthday and we managed to celebrate it with a nice dinner at Grillmarkaðurinn in Reykjavík. If you are in for meat, excellent cocktails and huge desserts, this is the place.