Travelling, exploring new places. It’s been quite some time since I last travelled, and I really miss it. But it also makes me think of past travels that I did. And appreciate those travels even more. I guess we should do that more, appreciate what we have done, instead of going into the negative flow of that everything sucks right now. (Although, there might be some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel).
So it’s time to reminisce again, this time we go back to the summer of 2019. Not too long ago, but with recent times it actually feels like ages. I spend two months in a small town in Northern Iceland called Húsavík. You might know/seen or at least heard of Húsavík, if you have seen the Netflix movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, and heard the beautiful song of Húsavík from the same movie. During those two months in Húsavík I worked as a volunteer in the Húsavík Whale Museum.
In the end of 2018 while working on my bachelor thesis, I already figured that after graduating I wanted to do some volunteer work somewhere in the world during the summer. So I started searching for volunteer opportunities, and I came the website of the Húsavík Whale Museum, where they were looking for a volunteer. As Iceland was one of my bucket list countries to visit, I decided to write an application to the museum with a thought if you don’t try, you will never know. And well, obviously I did get to go to Iceland and the Húsavík whale museum. It was my first time of actually travelling to a new place/country on my own, I was a bit nervous, but in the end I actually loved it. Although sometimes it would be nice to share an experience / adventure together with another person. I left for Iceland at the end of June 2019, just after the summer solstice and stayed in Reykjavik for a couple of days to explore the city, and explore a small part of the south coast of Iceland. I arrived in Iceland late in the evening, and I had never before experienced the midnight sun, it was so strange to go from getting dark around 23:00 to full sunshine in the middle of the night. As you can imagine the first night of sleep was pretty much non existing, as the apartment I didn’t have the best blind in front of the windows.
To explore the south coast I went on a 10 hour bus tour past most of the highlights of southern Iceland. With this bus tour I visited the famous waterfalls of Seljalandfoss and Skógafoss which were just as impressive as in the promotion pictures you see everywhere of Iceland. This tour also went to the village of Vík and the beaches and rock formations of Reynisdranger and the glacier of Sólheimajökull. I really need to go back to all these places and many more as Iceland is just too beautiful to put to words and needs way more time to explore properly. (I have added some pictures from Iceland to the gallery) After basically a short city trip to Reykjavik it was time to travel to Northern Iceland.
There are various ways to travel to the north, either take the bus round the island, or take a domestic flight. However in the summer months there is a third option (at least when I travelled through Iceland), which is a bus straight through the highlands of Iceland. Naturally to me that seemed like the best way to go. And it’s easily the most gorgeous bus journey I have ever made. The bus goes from the Reykjavik bus terminal to the city of Akureyri in the north. It took around 12 hours to travel the Highlands with plenty of stops to let the chauffeur rest, and the passengers to take in the sheer beauty of the highlands. The Highlands of Iceland are a vast volcanic dessert surrounded by volcanos covered under massive glaciers. The views were absolutely stunning, but the bus did give me a new explanation of a bumpy ride, as its completely off-road, and in the en my back was happy when we got onto some tarmac again. Akurayri is seen as the capital of the north and I stayed here just for the night, to get the bus to Húsavík which was about a hours drive.
The Town:
Húsavík is a small town in northern Iceland, located at the eastern shores of Skjálfandí bay and is the oldest town in Iceland. Húsavík is the only town located at the bay, with an absolutely gorgeous view on the mountains on the western shore of Skjálfandí.
Skjálfandí bay is a under the influence of ocean currents and two nutrient rich rivers which provide the bay with plenty of nutrients. These nutrients are one of the reasons why the bay is full with wildlife. All these nutrients cause for massive plankton blooms, which attract many other animals like whales, dolphins and plenty of seabirds. Skjálfandí means shaky bay, and is named as such because the seafloor is constantly under seismic activities. But all these little ‘’earthquakes’’ are so light that you won’t feel them. On occasion there might be a larger tremor that might be felt in the town. There hasn’t been a proper earthquake in 100 years. Most people who visit Húsavík come here to see whales. As Skjálfandí bay is one of the best places in Iceland to go whale watching. There are plenty of the whale watching companies and ships to take you to see whales. The bay is also home to Lundi island, where from mid-April until mid-August Atlantic puffins make their nests in burrows. Now I hear you asking, what species can be seen in the bay? The most common sightings are that of Humpback whale, Minke whale, White-beaked dolphin and harbour porpoises. These are the four species I have seen as well. Other sightings include, Blue whale, Pilot whale, northern bottlenose whale, Orca, Sei whale and Fin whale. While I was in Húsavík there have been two sightings of a blue whale. Unfortunately I was never out on the bay, and have thus yet to see the largest animal on earth.
But there is more to Húsavík then just whales and seabirds. Húsavík has three museums, the whale museum, the exploration museum and the Húsavík museum. And if you want to relax after a day of whale watching and going to the museum(s), there is a geothermal sea bath on the cliffs called Geosea. From the geothermal bath, you have an amazing view over Skjálfandí bay, from where you can see Puffins fly past, if you are lucky you might see a whale, and I have been told, that in the winter you have chance of seeing the Northern light from the geothermal sea baths as well. The land behind the town is gorgeous as well. Húsavík is part of the diamond circle together with, Dettifoss, Lake Myvatn, Godafoss and Asbyrgi Canyon. And there are some lovely hikes that you can do from town as well, for example a hike to and round lake Botsvatn and climb to the top of the mountain behind Húsavík, Húsavikerfjell
The Húsavík whale Museum:
With all these whales it logical to have a museum which is solely dedicated to whales: The Húsavík Whale Museum. I found the museum absolutely amazing. When I first came into the museum I immediately loved it. The museum itself is relatively small, but full with interesting exhibitions. These exhibitions cover important subjects like whaling in Iceland, threats to whales, whale evolution and biology. Besides these exhibitions they also have a small ‘’cinema’’ where the show various whale documentaries. The first room you enter is the whale hall and to me it was absolutely impressive to see. There are 11 complete whale and dolphin skeletons hanging from the ceiling, with information signs about the species. And then there is another skeleton, that of a Blue whale and is actually one of the two places in Europe where you can see a complete skeleton of a Blue whale, the other museum being the Natural History Museum in London. The blue whale skeleton in the museum is 25m long, and to see the size in real life is just staggering to see! I think that the room after the skeleton hall, is a very important room as well, as it is about whaling in Iceland and the world. Whaling has always been part of the Icelandic culture and should, of course, therefore be included in the museum. Iceland still allows whaling to happen, but the last few years it happened less and less. The reason for the decline in whaling is partly because of the increase of whale watching tourism. Tourists are coming to Iceland to watch whales and not necessarily to eat them. Since 2019 the Icelandic whalers haven’t slaughtered a single whale and it seems that Iceland is now done with whaling.
But what did I do in the museum? Well, let’s start by saying that the Icelandic government has some strict rules about volunteers working in Iceland. As a volunteer you are not allowed to work a full working week, nor are you allowed to handle any money. So I didn’t work behind the counter, which meant that I mostly walked around through the museum and answered questions from visitors. The museum also has a little coffee corner with books for visitors to read. I made sure that there always was fresh coffee present. I also translated the English guide book into Dutch. And I did some more behind the scenes work for the museum. Further I worked on an idea for an quiz with the sounds that whales and dolphins make. As the acoustic soundscape of whales and dolphins are very fascinating. I would sometime sit in the museum and let visitors listen to some examples and let them guess which species made that sound.
All in all I loved the experience of working in a museum, especially one that is dedicated to such amazing animals. I loved the interaction with visitors and to be able to answer their questions about whales. And I am grateful for getting the opportunity to do this volunteer work! Living in Húsavík was different as well, as it's a small town. There aren't to many shops, so don't expect to go shopping. The town has 1 large supermarket, but there are enough restaurants to have a lovely dinner.
What did I do in my spare time? I mostly got on the whale watching trips, if space was available and weather permitting. As summers in Iceland can be quite rough weather wise, with a storm or just some cold days. I have seen snowflakes falling down in August but also experienced lovely 20 degrees Celsius days. If I couldn't go on a whale watch trip I would go on a hike into the hinterland, like climbing to lake Botsvatn.
In my last week my parents also came to Iceland, and they had rented a car, So we explored the highlights of the diamond circle. And ended our Icelandic travels and my Icelandic adventure in Akureyri. But not before we also set our eyes on the northern lights!
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