Chasing the Light: June 2011

Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Icelandic Diet; for "REAL" men only...

During both our trips to Iceland my son Johan and I lost about 5 pounds in two weeks. So although Kristina (16) wasn't the least bit interested in birds, nature, hiking or wilderness, the prospect of losing weight that easily had her sign on for the first family trip to Iceland.

The diet is easy:

Get up at 4 AM, have toast and coffee for breakfast.

Don't bother making any lunch or snacks. Just bring along your dehydrated trekking meals and your Primus stove.

Photograph anything that moves or sits still until 2PM

Enjoy your trekking meal in the Icelandic countryside. Maybe take a nap.

Keep photographing until 8PM.

Enjoy another trekking meal, or if you happen to find a restaurant or grocery store try the local cuisine.

Take some more pictures until 10:30

Go to bed and repeat.

(On second thought maybe I should call it the photographers diet?)

The only problem with the diet was a schoolteacher named Lena who also happens to be mother to Johan and Kristina and insisted that this would simply not do and instead provided us with a two week plan that included always having a supply of sandwiches or snacks.

A great meal in Reykjavik

Needless to say the diet failed miserably, and we weren't allowed to wake the ladies up at 4AM either. I'm not sure how the vikings made it work on Iceland, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have any Swedish school teachers along...

The geyser Strokkur

During two weeks we traveled the entire perimeter of Iceland along the Ring-Road. We made 3 stops at geothermal springs to bathe, including the Blue Lagoon outside of Reykjavik, the community bathhouse in Myvatn.

Now I just have to see if I can convince the family to join me to see the Northern Lights during the winter...