Moving Day…Won’t you Come Along!

Image used courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/reykjavikmuseumofphotography/with/8079792223/

It’s true I’m moving.  Sorry to surprise you but it came on kind of quickly.

It took a couple of weeks but I’ve built a new webpage and I figured it made sense to house the blog over there too.

New Website!

I’m leaving wordpress and South of Ultima Thule and I’m getting resettled at www.woolentravels.com.

Come check it out…there are pictures of sheep:

and a place to buy knitting patterns.

Sea Otter & The Little Pup Hat Pattern

and this very same blog.

Chances are if you’ve enjoyed this space, then you’ll like  Woolen Travels, just as much.  It’s still me.  I’ll still be writing about life in Alaska, the quirks of Cordova, little adventures, big travels and of course more wool.

I have quite a few projects in the works at the moment and that’s what precipitated the move.  I needed a more versatile platform to present them to you.  More patterns, more yarn and some special Iceland related things.  I promise not to keep you waiting too long.  New website was the logical next step.

If you’d like to continue to receive the blog in your email you’ll need to sign up in the subscribe box here.

If you were following South of Ultima Thule it won’t automatically transfer, but I’d love to still have you as a reader.

And if you’re still reading now

maybe it’s time to explain why I chose South of Ultima Thule as a name for this blog anyway.

Let’s look at the definition:

ultima Thu·le  (thl)

n.

1. The northernmost region of the habitable world as thought of by ancient geographers.

2. A distant territory or destination.

3. A remote goal or ideal

So you see, Cordova, Alaska is considered North when compared to most places, but really if you’re up here you know we’re a long ways from the Far North and the real cold…thus South of Ultima Thule.  And as tangible and sometimes mundane as Alaska is,  it still remains mythic in the collective conscience.  So I thought it was a pretty fitting name.

But interestingly enough check out this definition:

Ultima Thule was also, “Posited as an island north of Britain, it has been variously identified with Iceland, Norway, and the Shetland Islands.”

Which, as I started to travel to Shetland & Iceland just started to make things confusing.  Maybe someone in the UK should really be using the name South of Ultima Thule…to be entirely correct.

So I do still love the name but I’ve settled on something less esoteric and more geographically correct.  But don’t worry the mystery and magic of Alaska will remain.

Denali Grizzlies

Thanks for reading South of Ultima Thule.  Can’t wait to see you at www.woolentravels.com!

Bald Eagle

Be Surprised By Iceland

1.  Stop Lights with more Color

Did you know that when driving in Iceland the stop lights change from green to yellow to red, like the states.  But then they also change from red to yellow to green!  A good idea really, but confusing to a brain that’s been wired to associate yellow with slowing down to stop rather than getting ready to go.  Drive carefully!

2.  Good Coffee, plain and simple

Lattes, cappuccinos, mochas and americanos were all good but  surprisingly the plain coffee was just as delicious.  Even in the smallest towns or from the free dispensers in museums I was pleasantly surprised by the drip coffee…and it was often less than $3, whereas a latte could easily approach $7.

Knitting & Coffee in Rekjavík

3.  Tourist Town

Iceland is a pretty hot destination right now, and it’s marketed for its wildness and stark landscapes.  This is all true but…there are a lot of tourists at the main sights.  It’s not impossible to get away from people but I wasn’t necessarily prepared to have crowds at the waterfalls or other natural wonders even late into the night.  So be prepared to enjoy your fellow travelers or really get off the beaten path…which means where you’re going probably wasn’t written up in the Lonely Planet guidebook.

This includes the Blue Lagoon.  I actually waited an hour in line before giving up to hit the Keflavík hot pots and swimming pool.  The Blue Lagoon was at its 700 person capacity on a rainy Sunday morning and it could only let people in one at a time as others left.  I’ll go back to the soak in the aqua blue water…but I didn’t expect that kind of crowds!

Have you been to Iceland, what surprised you?

Iceland Is In Europe…something this American did not quite realize.

This may not come as a surprise to any European readers out there, but to my American mind I never thought of Iceland as being part of Europe.  I mean, it’s an island out there in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, I just thought of it as a place of its own.

Do you see it there in orange, fairly close to Greenland and the British Isles?

In my travel preparations I learned that Iceland straddles both the European and the North American tectonic plates. But the sentiment is not also divided, Icelanders and Europeans consider Iceland to be part of Europe.  It hasn’t joined the E.U, yet,  and may not (touchy subject,) but it’s still European.

It’ seems to be a matter of culture and influence. The Icelandic settlers came almost entirely from Scandinavia and the British Isles…mostly Norway and Ireland.  And they estimate that by ship at that time, a 1,000 years ago, with the right winds you could make it from Iceland to Norway in just 72 hours!

courtesy of Reykjavík Museum of Photography

Icelanders did travel to North America on multiple occasions (remember Leif Erickson) but they weren’t making regular trips back and forth like they were to Europe.  There was that small issue of North America being inhabited and those inhabitants not being too keen on the Viking visitors.  With Europe though there were more regular trade routes.  For example, the trees for the Icelandic boats and later, the kits for their timber houses were coming from Norway, not New England.

And then there is the whole historical issue of brief Norwegian Rule, quickly followed by 500 years of Danish Rule with eventual mandatory Danish language education in schools.  I guess my American history lessons didn’t exactly emphasize Icelandic history when they were covering Europe, leaving me just a little confused.

The design aesthetic is also far more Scandinavian inspired then any other region.  So while it may only take 4 hours to fly to Rekjavík from Boston or 6.5 hours from Anchorage..it’s still Europe fair and square.  Which now ups my tally to a measly 4 European countries….don’t tell, I feel so very unwordly.

If you have any final doubts they can be put to rest as Europe claims Vatnajökull to be their largest glacier and Dettifoss to be the most powerful waterfall in all of Europe.  Both are located in Iceland.

Dettifoss, Europe’s Most Powerful Waterfall

Music for the Weekend…à la Iceland

I made a playlist to share with you!

And now that it’s the weekend maybe you can enjoy listening to it while making breakfast or lounging around and catching up from the week.

Iceland has some fantastic original music and an impressive percentage of residents who are also musicians (and writers and artists for that matter!)  One year I’d love to check out the  Airwaves festival featuring Icelandic bands as well as international talent on the brink of making it big.  It happens at the end of October and looks like a fantastic time…watching concerts while hanging out in geothermal hotpools!

Until then we can both listen to some innovative Icelandic artists from the comfort of our own homes.   Here’s a playlist I made, a collection of songs that I enjoyed on my trip, just click on the play button on the water below to enjoy them yourself!

Let me know who you like, feel free to share and please recommend more!

Don’t Go to Iceland if…

Snæfellsnes Hike

1.  You want to be warm

At least not this summer!  I live in Alaska where 65 degrees is a great summer day.  I love winter.  I went to Iceland in mid-August and I was cold.  I wore my winter down jacket most days with a wool hat and more than once wished I had mittens on. It wasn’t too cold to sleep in my tent (with two sleeping bags) or be outside for long stretches of time, provided you were wearing wool.  But I wouldn’t head to Iceland if a warm weather vacation was your top priority.  But to be fair I heard that this summer was particularly cold and rainy.  If you want proof listen to this little soundbite and language lesson from I heart Rekjavík.

2.  You want to travel on the cheap

Iceland is as expensive as they say.  I found that often $22 USD was the cheapest item on the menu lunch or dinner and I paid $17USD for a glass of house wine at a hostel!  That being said, if you have some willpower I think you can see Iceland without breaking the bank.  But that’s going to mean not eating out all that often, not going out for drinks and not bringing home oodles of great souvenirs…and what fun would that be!