“This is the most overblown thing in the history of the world…”
Yes – this is an actual sentence spoken by me.
Not only once, but on numerous occasions, while I vehemently defended my position that nothing at all would happen at Bárðabunga, that no eruption would happen and that it was in fact all just a big overblown media circus, with the sole purpose of exploiting some sort of discussion and interest sparked by the Eyjafjallajökull eruption back in 2010.
I maintained this position for quite a few days, basically until the eruption itself happened. At that point I changed a little bit, instead claiming “This is still the most overblown thing in the history of the world – as there’s no ash and it’s just molten lava, fire and basically just New Year’s Eve fireworks on steroids”.
And then Gandalf the White walked in to What’s On Tourist Information (that is, the world-renowned actor Sir Ian McKellen, famous for his portrayal of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, as well as Magneto from the X-Men and numerous other roles, guy is a modern day super-hero). He booked a flight to see the eruption with a company called Eagle Air. Coincidentally this eruption site more or less looks like Mordor from the aforementioned Lord of the Rings – so this metaphor immediately formed in my head – that Gandalf is flying on an Eagle into the Land of Mordor.
It doesn’t really get crazier than that…
That’s the point where I started to shift my position. Since Sir Ian McKellen though this was worthwhile doing, maybe it wasn’t so overblown after all. Maybe it was simply worth it.
So I arranged to get myself over there in person to actually check it out and see what all the fuss is about.
Turns out…this eruption is as far from being overblown as humanly possible. If anything it warrants 10 times the coverage and in reality everyone should get themselves over there right now because this is seriously so amazing that I’m at loss for words.
Oh yeah, you might have noticed by now that I’m a man of extremes. My opinion of things tends to be very strongly in either direction.
But I’m very willing to change my position if I’m proven to be wrong. And boy was I proven wrong…
I mean…just look at the pictures and judge for yourselves!
On this excursions was myself – Hjalti, a contributing writer for What’s On – whose article is already up (read it here) and Danni – filmmaker extraordinaire – whose video will be posted as soon as it’s ready.
This was an experience of a lifetime and something I’d recommend anyone in Iceland right now to try out while the chance is there.
Though some people would like to claim so – an eruption is not an everyday occurrence in Iceland – and one like is simply something you have to go for when the opportunity arises! So if you’d like to arrange for a trip – contact [email protected] or visit our Tourist Information Center at Laugavegur 4, in downtown Reykjavik, and we’ll take care of the rest!
Meanwhile – I’ll be planning the next step of the What’s On Volcano Hunt – which is getting to the actual eruption site BY CAR and experiencing the eruption completely up close and personal!
Stay tuned for more updates and don’t forget you can reach out to us on Twitter and Facebook.
