In February, I made another visit to Aberdeen, Scotland to visit my Finn. When I visited in October, we took the bus south to Edinburgh, so this time we went north to Inverness. We’ve both become big fans of the show Outlander, so visiting Jamie and Clair’s stomping grounds added an extra bit of fun. We took the bus to Drumnadrochit and then took a beautiful walk along the lake to see Urquhart Castle. As we walked, the last rays of sunlight were moving across the hills on the other side of the lake, leaving a hazy lavender landscape behind.
And noooo…I did not see Nessie.
[35mm taken with my 1999 Olympus 105G Superzoom.Click here for more pictures of Scotland.]
Tag Archives: sunset
ÍS: Akureyri /Midnight/ June (pt. 3)
And my last set of pictures from literally the most spectacular sunset I’ve ever seen. I shot these during my three days staying at the Akureyri campground (which is really great- super central) in northern Iceland on my June tour (both by car and by hitchhiking) of the Ring Road.
[35mm taken with my Canon EOS Rebel 2000. Click here for more pictures from my June Ring Road trip around Iceland]
ÍS: Akureyri /Midnight/ June (pt.2)
Nicknamed the “Capitol of the North,” Akureyri is the second biggest city in Iceland, with an population of about 18,000 (including surrounding neighborhoods). It is situated on one of the longest fjords in the country, and boasts a mild climate with temperatures up to 25 Celsius in the summer, despite being only 60km south of the Arctic Circle. Two observations from my stay: there is a huge amount of arts and culture for such a small city (but such is typical of Iceland), and I was really surprised by how many trees were in the city. Iceland is known for it’s sparse, small, almost shrublike trees, but Akureyri felt more like a mainland European country. I took these pictures somewhere around midnight during my three day stay in mid June. It was as if the midnight sun was showing off what it could do. Mmmm.
[35mm taken with my Canon EOS Rebel 2000. Click here for more pictures from my June Ring Road trip around Iceland]
ÍS: Akureyri /Midnight/ June (pt.1)
After a week and a half packed with exploring from Reykjavik up north through the Westfjords and all the way around to Akureyri, I was ready for a few days of relaxing. My mom and her friend stayed for an afternoon in the city, then continued on without me around the rest of the island. I had nowhere to be for another two weeks (when I would leave for Finland), so I stayed at the Akureyri campground for a few days before embarking on a hitchhiking adventure around the rest of the Ring Road. 
Akureyri is absolutely charming, but there’s not really much to do in the way of attractions or activities. So, I spent three days writing postcards to everyone I know in the bookshop, wandering around soaking up the fabulous sun (It reached 20 Celcius those days, which is really high for Iceland. After being in the country for 10 months, it felt like a heat wave and I got a wicked sunburn). In the evenings, I read at bars, usually outdoors, because the 24 hour daylight was delicious. I finished up the second half of Lord Jim by Conrad and the copy of The Fault in Our Stars that my mom’s friend had passed along.
And then, when the bar closed at 12:30 or 1, I would walk around, marveling at the spectacular sunsets. I didn’t get these pictures developed until two weeks ago, and I was so pleased that I had managed to capture the magic of the huge, sherbet sun sinking behind the mountain across the fjord.
[35mm taken with my Canon EOS Rebel 2000. Click here for more pictures from my June Ring Road trip around Iceland]
Finland: Sunset on the Gulf of Bothnia
During my three and a half week visit to Finland in July, my boyfriend and I made a four day trip up north. We stayed on his grandparents’ farm in Piehinki , a tiny town near the top of the Gulf of Bothnia. It was a short walk to the Gulf, and after a long day hiking in Lapland, we went for a swim at sunset (which was still pretty late then…after 10pm). The water was quite shallow, so you could walk pretty far out before it started to get deep enough to actually swim. However, it was also really cold, but the gorgeous northern sunset turning everything gold was worth the chill.
[35mm taken with my Canon EOS Rebel 2000.]
ÍS: Harpa in the Glow of the Midnight Sun
Completed in 2011, “Harpa’s glass façade is designed by renowned artist Olafur Eliasson, in cooperation with Henning Larsen Architects. The design is based on a geometric principle, realised in two and three dimensions. Reminiscent of the crystallised basalt columns commonly found in Iceland, the southern facades create kaleidoscopic reflections of the city and the striking surrounding landscape.” (via)
I was sitting at home on a May evening (around 10:30 or 11pm). It had been rainy and gray all day, but I stepped outside just in time to see the clouds pull back for a magnificent northern summer sunset. I threw my coat on over my pajamas and ran out with my camera to take advantage of the gorgeous light.
[35mm film taken with my Canon Rebel 2000 SLR]
A Kópavogur Sunset
Like most suburbs, Kópavogur is not particularly interesting. However, this municipality of Reykjavik happens to be perfectly situated above the city to catch some magnificent sunsets against the backdrop of snow-capped mountains. I had an errand to run there last week, and I snapped a few pictures of the glorious sunset. Besides a little tweaking for presentation, these photos are mostly unedited…the sunset really was that magnificent.
A Magnificent Northern Sunset
After an unusually dark and cloudy day, the setting sun mustered up a last hurrah and burst out from behind the mountains. Individual wisps of cloud soaked in amber hung low against a wall of steely blue storm clouds that were held up above the peaks by a perfect border of titian red. The frozen lake had begun to thaw; lit up by the winter sun and spun by the wind, the water resting on the ice was liquid gold. The windows of every house and building on the hill facing the light had fallen to the Midas touch, as if the city was trying to outshine the sudden unveiling. As I walked home from class, the wind whipped my hair and clothes around, completely overwhelming my senses with fresh, clean, northern air and ruffling the feathers of the swans resting on the ice with their long necks tucked under their wings.
I had no camera, and just as well; perhaps it would have been an unholy thing to try to preserve something so glorious forever- like a gothic anti-hero lusting for immortality. Moments like these, when the wind and the light seem to be a brief glimpse into some ethereal ideal- moments like these, even after the memory has slipped beyond recall- moments like these lift me higher as I trudge upwards, longing to finally fall through that temporary and painfully tangible veil softly into the penumbra of greatness whispering across the gloom.
Skaftafell National Park Trip || Part I
At the end of September, six friends and I rented a van and drove to Skaftafell National Park for a three day camping/ hiking adventure. Skaftafell is on the south coast of Iceland and a several hour drive from Reykjavik. It was incorporated into Vatnajökull National Park (Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Iceland. It covers about 8% of the island). Unfortunately, I did not have a camera for the trip. Fortunately, everyone else did, and was kind enough to share their gorgeous photos of our trip.
On the way to Skaftafell (Route 1 is the ring road that will take you around the whole island) we stopped at two gorgeous waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss. The above photo is from behind Seljalandsfoss. It was taken by Stephanie Seeger, as are all photos in this post unless otherwise marked) Seljalandsfoss is one of the most recognizable of the Icelandic waterfalls, and there is a path that lets you walk behind and look out through falls if you don’t mind getting a little wet. Because it was sunny, there was a gorgeous rainbow flickering around the falls for our whole visit.
Skógafoss (photo above) is one of the largest waterfalls in Iceland at 25 meters (82 feet) wide and 60 meters (200 feet) tall. It sits on the Skóga River, at cliffs which used to be the coastline. Legend says that Þrasi Þórólfsson, a Viking and an early settler in the area, hid a chest of treasure behind the falls. It’s said that local treasure hunters found the chest many years later, but it disappeared before their eyes, leaving only the chest ring that one of them had grabbed to pull it out.
We had hoped to arrive at the campsite before dark, but were delayed by a gorgeous sunset that simply demanded we get out of the car and enjoy the last bit of daylight. (We were also delayed by one of the van windows refusing to close. A little lesson I’ve learned over the last month or two: Cheap Jeep is the best deal in town for car rentals, but treat their clunkers like the fragile, geriatric vehicles they are.)
It All Started In Iceland... 