FFF #10 – Volcano House

The Volcano House lives on the ground floor in that house on the left. Unseen, left-ishly behind me, is the Reykjavik Main Library, previously visited here.

I couldn’t be bothered to walk across from the house (which is a funny shape) so I ‘borrowed’ this image from Google’s Street View. Thanks Google!

The entrance was on the other side. Btw, “Eld-stöðin” literally translates to “Fire-Station” but means volcano.

I arrived shortly before 1 pm, and since we’re in the off-season, the lunch menu consisted of basically two things… and the kitchen was about to shut down. So I quickly ordered the Icelandic meat soup (it’s a national dish with lamb and veggies). The soup was nicely filling, although it was on the salty side. The rybread was good too.

The lights were pretty nice-looking, but very much of the do-not-touch-unless-you-want-to-risk-a-cut-finger variety.

The tables and chairs were pretty colorful. In the far corner they run a tourist-info service (probably more active in the summer though).  Everybody in there was a foreigner (except me).  It was lovely to hear real spoken English again.

On the other far side they have a rock-display and cinema entrance. Oh, and those people sitting there were knitting.

Having finished my soup, I then ventured into the rock-corner.

This is what all the fuss is about. Iceland lies on the plate boundary of the american and euro-asian tectonic plates, resulting in frequent volcanic eruptions. Yay!

The main tourist attraction are the videos that are shown every hour, on the hour. The entry fee is pretty steep though: 1990 isk ($18).

On one wall was a display of volcanic ejecta.

Hrefna remembers to take a selfie, and stares suspiciously into the camera as usual, fully expecting it to steal her soul.

Volcanic ejecta from the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption, apparently for sale. Was fun to touch!

Also on display: rocks from the Westman Islands eruption in 1973 – one of the film subjects I was about to see.

More volcanic rocks. These are ridiculously light and almost fluffy, but I still had a hard time pulverizing them by hand (as in, I failed).

Some text on Hekla, and an explanation on why the stones coming from one eruption all look so different.

Stones on a wall, not ejecta, but stones formed by time, pressure, and water seeping through volcanic rock (I think).

Some pretty rocks in a glass cage…

Hey, surprise! Some more rocks!

Looking back towards the entrance.

All these rocks made me mentally flash back to geology lessons from 20 years ago, which mostly involved learning lots of rock-types. Of which I remember next to nothing. Ugh.

Obsidian (hrafntinna) is always cool though!

Mildly freaky photo. It’s technically upside down. Sue me.

Pretend furry stones. What I really would have liked to see were a) some sort of family tree for rocks, and b) little videos showing how they are created over time, and what makes the different types. Might have to hunt something like that down on YouTube one day…

Yup, a room you can either walk really quickly through, or really meander. Take your pick!

Ok, this is the last rock picture. I promise! (This is jasper.)

Also, I couldn’t resist photographing a photo on the wall of Icelanders flocking to see a volcanic eruption. Crazy people.

Having out-rocked myself, I went to buy my cinema tickets, and noticed that they have a monitor showing recent-earthquakes. Also, a guy had joined the foreign knitting circle. Yup, I was the only Icelander in that place the whole time aside from one out of the two baristas.

The main counter.

Time to enter the cinema (which lives behind the main counter) and take a weird photo because the shutter decided it needed to stay open for a loooong time.

The two videos were 60% interesting for me as an Icelander. The first one, from the 1973 Westman Island eruption had some familiar footage, but lots of stuff I really hadn’t seen before. It told the whole story, from when the eruption began until it ended and how the islanders cleaned the place up. I couldn’t help but be impressed by all the work that volunteers put into salvaging the homestead. The second film was much more modern and had tons of faaaaancy air-shots of faaaaancy landscapes while it recounted a few modern (and one very old) eruptions. They had a little bit of the ‘life was tough and then, shockingly, it went pretty much back to normal’ stuff, and yet again I found myself shaking my head at these crazy Icelanders. Why? Why??!!?

The view out the window as I sat down again in the cafe.

Yes, after the movie I decided to splurge on a hot chocolate, but was too full to go for cake too, although it was very tempting. The chocolate was passable, gets a 3.5 out of 5.

With the hot chocolate came this piece of chocolate wafer, which yes, is called Hraun (Lava) but I’ve never seen it in such dramatic wrappings!

Yes, the movies cost me 1990 isk, but hey, I got this neat bookmark as well! If only my reading tablet could use it…

Ok, sorry. One more rock. I couldn’t resist. All the tables had rock-candle-holders, and some of the rocks had been elaborately decorated. Like this one.

Did I mention they offer some light reading too?

Anyway, having successfully squandered over two hours with minimal walking, I headed back to the car again.

The Reykjavik Main Library gable has a huge graffiti which translates to “The Word is Free” (as in “feel free to speak up” or “scheduled speakers have finished talking, anyone can now speak”.

Boring city-scape is boring.

I accidentally traffic-jammed myself when leaving the area, and snapped this photo of the most popular hot-dog stand in the entire country. Presidents have eaten there (I’m looking at you, Bill Clinton!). I kid you not!