My summer trip 2016

My Summer Trip 2016

Denmark + Faroe Islands +

+ 3x Iceland + Scotland & London

Kristi Rohtsalu © August 2016

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First stop: Denmark

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19 July: Sightseeing in Copenhagen

From top left: 1. Cyclist culture. 2. Nyhavn. 3. The Little Mermaid. 4. Some red houses.

(The tourist guide advised that it may be better for one’s health not to take pics in Freetown Christiania.)

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20 July: World Santa Claus Congress (WSCC) in Bakken

From top left: 1. Spotted a Santa Claus. 2. Found plenty of them. (Now I know how Santa Claus can visit so manychildren during just one night ) 3. They DO have a car… 4. On the way back… Okou…

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21 July: Billund – LEGOLAND. Yoo-hoo!!!

From top left: 1. Which train to take to get there? 2. Do you recognize real world in Lego bricks? 3.Adventures in Lego World. 4. Stayed over night in a local country house. (My host had been working 26years for the Lego company, btw.)

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22-23 July: Hirtshals and around

From top left: 1. What are cars doing in the beach??! 2. Heading to Nordsøen Oceanarium. 3. Feeding a big fish(the Ocean Sunfish, to be precise) in the big aquarium (the largest of its kind in Europe, to be even moreprecise). 4. My little almost invisible favorites among all the fishes.

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23-24 July: From Hirtshals (Denmark) to Tórshavn (Faroes)

From top left: 1. To the boat. 2. Leaving Denmark behind. 3. Over night… Fairly modest, shared the room with abunch of German girls. 4. In Sky bar. (Side note: There were a cinema, a swimming pool, a gym, hot tubes, livemusic etc. on board too. So maybe not this modest, after all But still no free WiFi/internet.)

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Second stop: Faroe Islands

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25 July: Tórshavn, Kirkjubøur and what is in between

From top left: 1. My first look to Tórshavn (late evening of July 24th). 2. The walk from Tórshavn to Kirkjubøur iseasy and fun, except if you happen to a wrong path right at the beginning. Just climbed down this hill withoutobserving any path whatsoever. 3. Houses in Kirkjubøur – look at those grass roofs. 4. A very selfish selfie.

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26 July: The Northern Islands, getting to my next stop

From top left: 1.Bus to Klaksvik. 2. Stop over in Klaksvik. 3. A far look to Viðareiði, the Faroe Islands mostnorthern community. (I got nicely wet while climbing that hill Villingardalsfjall in rain.) 4. A pic of my room inHvannasund: apparently, my host is playing drums (which was confirmed later, btw.).

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27 July: The Northern Islands, ferry trip and seals for food

From top left: 1. A look to the Hvannasund harbor in a Wednesday morning. 2. Leaving Hvannasund behind fora while. 3. Foggy Hattarvík on the island Fugloy. 4. The same Hvannasund harbor three hours later.

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28-29 July: Adventures from Hvannasund to Vágar Airport

From top left: 1. Missed the bus and had to walk through this tunnel there in dark corner on the right (2 km) inorder to catch the next bus on the other side of the mountain. Risk warning: don’t try it. 2. A look toÁrnafjørður. 3. Stop over in Miðvágur: Quite an adventure to find the guest house. 4. Morning walk to theairport through rain and wind.

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Third stop: Iceland

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30 July: Reykjavík

From top left: 1. On Free Walking Tour Reykjavik – funny and informative. (Ouch, they do love making jokes onDanes, in a good way.) 2. Sólfar - the Sun Voyager. 3. Nauthólsvík Beach, the only beach in Reykjavik with sandfrom the Atlantic Ocean . 4. A relevant piece of art in the so-called landmark building Perlan.

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31 July: Blue Lagoon and around

From top left: 1. Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa. 2. Holding a piece of… silicon? What exactly? 3. Blue Lagoonextension before there is (was) water. 4. A view from the hill nearby.

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1 August: Geysir

From top left: 1. On the way to Geysir: walk in Þingvellir. 2. The area around Geysir. 3. Stokkur erupting (onceevery 3-10 minutes), a view from the nearby hill. 4. The Geysir (The English word geyser derives from Geysir.).

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Couple of tips for life that I took home from Geysir Hestar Guesthouse

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2 August: Gullfoss and Highlands of Iceland

From top left: 1. Probably my best pic of the Gullfoss waterfall – or a part of it, to be precise. 2. Road throughHiglands of Iceland. 3. View to volcanoes and glacier from the bus window. 4. Boiling water in a natural tea pot inHveravellir.

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3 August: Akureyri, the Capital of North Iceland

From top left: 1. Hof, a landmark building in Akureyri. 2. Just another street in the town. 3. Road and river.4. Heart shaped red lights.

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4 August: Walking in Dalvík and around

From top left: 1. Dalvík from above. 2. To the trail. 3. The way. 4. A view from the top on a foggy day.

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5 August: Hrísey

From top left: 1. The ferry is coming to take a group of tourists from Árskógssandur to Hrísey island. 2.Approaching Hrísey. 3. The Energy Zone here, according to the information board. 4. Life and death go hand inhand also on this little island with the population of about 200.

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“The Cold Beauty” (That’s how I felt at that particular moment…)

Picture taken: 5 August 2016, between Hrísey and Árskógssandur

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A bus stop where buses never stop… (As far as I can tell)

Picture taken: 5 August 2016, in Árskógssandur

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6 August: The Great Fish Day in Dalvík

From top left: 1. Some of the 20,000+ guests. 2. The Annual Buffet in Dalvík. 3. Taste of raw fish. 4. Guesswhich company is among the sponsors of the event

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7 August: Whale watching with Arctic Sea Tours

From top left: 1. Getting ready. 2. “Catching” a whale with camera. 3. Sea angling; had a pretty good fishingday, btw. 4. Barbecue, made of the fish that we caught (NOT whales).

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8 August: Grimsey – the Pearl on the Arctic Circle

From top left: 1. The village. 2. Nature and puffins. 3. The northernmost point of Grimsey. 4. Me at the ArcticCircle Monument

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9-11 August: On the way, stop “in the middle of nowhere”

From top left: 1. Akureyri, once again. 2. A pic from the bus window. 3. Stopover: Staðarskáli N1 petrol station. 4. Ihad just booked North Star Hotel Staðarflöt, the best hotel in the middle of nowhere.

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12 August: In Borgarnes

From top left: 1. Another desktop background image . 2. Borgarnes at glance. 3. Monument to Þorgerður Brák.4. Borgarnes swimming pool (participated in Icelandic ‘pool culture’).

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13-14 August: In Grundarfjörður and around

From top left: 1. A pic of Grundarfjörður, the Iceland’s most photographed mountain Kirkjufell on the background.2. Staying at a ‘farm in beautiful surroundings’. 3. Tourists taking pics of the surroundings. 4. Locals seem to likepainted rocs.

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Mount Kirkjufell on just another (rainy) August day

Picture taken: 14 August 2016

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15-16 August: Rainy holidays in Borgarnes and Reykjavík

From top left: 1. Another look to Borgarnes. 2. Blómasetrið Homestay, one of the coziest hostels during this trip.3. Reykjavik – inside Harpa. 4. Tower made of bottles in a dark corner inside Harpa.

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17 August: Walking on the Ice Side (Sólheimajökull glacier)

From top left: 1. Glacier gear: everyone was given an ice ax and crampons. 2. Our tour guides sharing tips for anice side walk. 3. 50/50 chance to survive. Ok, thanks to good tour guides our chances to survive were apparentlyhigher; everybody survived this time . 4. That’s what they are calling the Grand Canyon of Sólheimajökull.

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17 August: Waterfalls

From top left: 1. Skógafoss waterfall, arguably one of the Iceland’s most beautiful waterfalls. 2. Seljalandsfoss ,according to Wikipedia, one of the best known waterfalls in Iceland. 3. Surroundings of Skógafoss waterfall. 4.Behind the Seljalandsfoss waterfall.

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18 August: The last pic from Iceland Ok, this time I did not try it. Missed the edible insects

somehow…

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Fourth stop: Scotland & A(nother) day in London

(Just to visit my brother and have some good time – not allthat excited about specific locations while having beenthere several times before.)

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19 August: Arriving to Scotland

From top left: 1.Sure enough: I AM in the “Good Old Scotland”. 2. Edinburgh. 3. V.I.P. Bus from Edinburgh toHawick. (V.I.P. bus, because I was the only passenger until the next stop.). 4. Hawick.

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20 August. Visiting Chisholme and Samye Ling

From top left: 1. Chisholme Instituteˇ, the school for getting know yourself & discovering unity. 2.Chisholme MainHouse inside. 3. Samye Ling, a Tibetan Buddhist temple in the “coldest and wettest part of the United Kingdom”.4. Samye Ling, the temple inside.

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21 August: A day in Chisholme

From top left: 1. Sitting in my favorite room in Chicholme Main House. 2. Climbing to the Monument to Man, the“holy place”. 3. Looking around and finding the Yurt Village. 4. Helping at cleaning after dinner.

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22 August: Moments from Hawick

From top left: 1. Me and those who have been immortalized in the memories of many. 2. A textile exhibition. Thepictured sweets are made of wool, btw. 3. “Dark business” (in the sense of the lightening): My brother making apurchase in a local steak shop. 4. A view from the park.

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23 August: London, the Science Museum

From top left: 1. Medicine. 2. Human history of driving cars and flying with the airplanes. 3. The Newton World. 4.The first steps on the road of discovering the universe, immortalized.

The End.

The aircraft is ready to take me home... …back to ESTONIA.