Four days in Reykjavík

I spent four days in Reykjavík this week. Just going to meetings this time, no time to enjoy the Icelandic nature. It was cloudy, windy and raining most of the time. So, it wasn’t a big sacrifice to stay indoor.

We made some plans for how to proceed with the geoscience in and near the well we drilled one and a half year ago. It was the deepest and hottest geothermal well ever drilled, reaching more than 500 degrees Celcius (930 Fahrenheit) at a depth of 4.5 km (2.8 miles). 

In the evening we enjoyed the local draft beers  in the pubs. Walking back to my hotel in the dark and rainy night, I thought that I’m quite impressed and fascinated by this country.  They have plenty of fish, and plenty of water, both hot and cold. Except from that, naural resources are scarce. There are no trees and the climate is too cold for farming anything but sheep and horses. With a population less than 350,000 people, the Icelanders are doing great in science and in sports. 

When the country went bankrupt in 2008, they restarted the country and got through it with a shrug of the shoulders (to say it somewhat simplified). And they did it without prayers.

Some time ago, I read an interesting poll from the Pew research institue. It was about belief in God by age groups. Like the rest of Northern Europe, Iceland is very secular. Among adults age 50 and older, about 15 percent believe in God. The sensation was, however, for age 25 and younger, the percentage believing in God was none, zero. Iceland is about to come the World's first Atheist country. That would be a great achievement. It would still be worthwhile to see the Hallgrim's Church in Rekjavik for the cool architecture. 

The last night in Reykjavík, we celebrated meetings finished mission completed. We had a great dinner in a downtown restaurant serving exotic local food. We had puffin for starter, and whale meat for the main course. The pale ales we drank were excellent too >:)

(Picture taken in downtown Reykjanes this week. In the background of the picture, you can see the tower of the Hallgrim's Church. The Icelanders still have cars, though not as big as the SUVs they drove before the financial crisis.)

Travel diary of 2017

I usually write when I’m out traveling. That’s when I get time and space to do it, on airplanes, and in hotel rooms. As I mention some posts ago, I lost my dear notebook last fall, which means I also lost everything I wrote on my trips to various places, my travel diaries, kind of.

So, now I want to write it down from my memory, before it’s too late, before I forget. It’s not very important. It won't make a difference to the world. I do it just for fun, while enjoying a weekend alone, and wasting my time on whatever I want.

Moscow, March. 

Five-day work trip. I’ve written about this before, here.

Moscow, April.

Another work trip to Putin’s empire. We had a big meeting on a Tuesday, and I needed a full work week to prepare. This means that I had to stay over a weekend in Moscow, finally. I’ve been to Russia 25 times over the last 5-6 years, but never spent a weekend there. Just worked. Flying out Monday morning, going home Friday afternoon. That’s crazy.

Most of the time I worked, as before. I walked to the office in the morning, a nice walk along the river. It was colder than usual, according to my Russian friends. No nice and warm spring weather. Then I spent 10-12 hours twisting equations and interpreting data. Around 9 in the evening I went back to the hotel, had a beer and ate some borsch. Not too exiting. Wednesday through Saturday passed like this.

Saturday night I went downtown, to eat dinner together with the boss and another guy, at Vysota 5642. It’s a Caucasian restaurant, named after the summit elevation of Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, though the French dispute it. We got some strange dishes. It was delicious. Going back to the hotel, we took an Uber taxi. It’s the best taxi service in Moscow, if you stick to drivers with a rating of 4.5 or more.

Sunday, I took a full day off. I travelled around Moscow on the metro. First, I went to see the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where Pussy Riot made their famous gig by the altar (the video is is on YouTube). It’s a strange church. It looks old, but is almost brand new, decorated with neon-light signs on the inside. The original church was demolished by Stalin. Jesus Christ wasn’t very popular in the Soviet Union. The church was rebuilt 1997-2000. No objections. Stalin is dead. Putin and the clerics are buddies.

I happened to visit the church in the middle of a mass. I went in to watch the show. Very interesting. The mass was run by Patriarch Kirill himself, assisted by an army of holy men, all of them dressed in red and gold robes, and funny hats. The women in the congregation wore scarves to cover their hairs. Everybody kept their arms crossed over the chest while receiving the communion. They all drank the wine from the same spoon. Alcohol, or God, kill the bacteria, I presume. No photos allowed inside.

Then I went down to the Kremlin, to see the inside of the fortress. I have tried before but gave it up because of the long lines. This time I had plenty of time, and was determined to get in. First there was a one-hour line to get a ticket, then half an hour to get through the security check. It was worth it. I skipped the Historical Museum and St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square. I’ve been there before.

Tuesday was the day for our big meeting, with bosses from Big Oil and Huge Oil (the biggest, and probably the most corrupt, oil company on Earth). It’s kind of odd the way they do it in Russia. The bosses sat around the table in the meeting room. The technical guys, including me, were placed on chairs in the back, along the walls. We were supposed to present our technical work, and then shut up. I took the freedom to speak up whenever I felt like I had something important to say. I come from a country with free speech. The meeting was run with simultaneous translation between Russian and English. It’s somewhat tiring, everything is said twice, but you get used to it.

In the evening, I went out to eat and drink beer with my Russian friends. The next morning, I overslept. I ran to the Paveletskaya Metro Station, with my suitcase. I jumped on to the ring line to Belorusskaya Station, and got on the airport train to Sheremetyevo. I didn’t miss my flight back home.

Iceland , June.

I went to Reykjavik with a couple colleagues, on a quick business trip. Just two days, to discuss upcoming geothermal projects. The meeting was in an old hydroelectric power station. Nice building, nice location by the river. After the meeting, we went on a quick road trip to see the geothermal area, with two power stations, near the Hengill volcano.

Iceland is full of tourists in the summer. The airport is crowded, and hotels are expensive. I paid $400 for one night in a downtown hotel. Breakfast not included. If you ever go to Iceland, don’t forget to buy the Icelandic licorice candy, probably not very healthy, but very good.

Amsterdam, June.

Weekend trip to Amsterdam with the boys. Canals, bicycles, and the smell of marihuana from the so-called coffee shops. That’s Amsterdam to me, a city full of sin. The Dutch are probably the most liberal people in the world. Very good.

We went to see the Rembrandt Museum and the van Gogh Museum. Great museums, both of them. Mad men. In the Moco Museum they had an interesting street-art exhibition, with works of Banksy. Nobody knows who he is. Lucky guy.

There's also a sex musemum and a torture museum, which we didn't visit. I,ve been there before. Bizarre stuff, the latter. 

Sao Miguel, July.

Vacation on Sao Miguel, the largest of the Azorean Islands. The islands are located on a plate boundary, just like Iceland. The Azores popped out of the sea where the Eurasian, American and African crustal plates meet in a triple junction. We rented a car to get around. Craters and crater lakes, hot springs and fumaroles. Very cool, and hot.

We stayed in Ponta Delgada, the biggest town and capital. The neighboring town of Ribera Grande, has a geothermal power plant, with wells drilled by the Icelanders. There’s a lot of interesting geoscience on the Azores. I couldn’t completely forget my job.

We went on a whale safari on the ocean, to watch sperm whales and dolphins. They don't hunt the whales in the Azores anymore. In Winterland, we do. Why shouldn't we. The meat is delicious. We ate it regulary for dinner when I was a kid. Now whale meat has become very expensive.

The best thing about vacation is getting plenty of time to read books. I read “Capital in the 21^st Century” by Thomas Piketty, 700 pages, great read. Recommended.

Iceland, August.

We went to Iceland to do some field work. We studied the geology of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and measured the magnetic field and the acceleration of gravity. The weather was nice and sunny. We were lucky. Good weather doesn’t come too often on Iceland. That's my experience.

Iceland has 300,000 inhabitants (almost all of them are Atheists), and 1.5 million tourists every year. Getting a hotel is difficult in the peak tourist season. The first 3 nights, we stayed in a motel in Keflavik, near the international airport.  It’s a weird place in many ways: It’s probably due to the US air force base that used to be there during the cold war. The base is closed down now, but still the town is like a piece of America. Going to a burger place in Keflavik, feels just like being in a Wendy’s restaurant in Colorado or Wyoming.  

We spent two days in the lava fields in the geothermal area close to the airport. Then we drove for an hour along the south coast, and checked in to a hotel in the town of Selfoss. The next two days we worked in the lavas near the Hellisheidi geothermal area. Again, we measured the magnetic field and the gravity. I walked around like a shepard with the magnetometer in my hand. Magnetism is mysterious. Gravity is real. Neither are magic. It's just science.

It’s the anomalies that are of interest to us, because that’s where the subsurface geological information is hidden. After we came home, I’ve spent weeks and months analyzing the data. I’ve been digging into some really cool science, and I’m currently working on a publication. My masterpiece. No, just joking.

Salt Lake City, October.

I went to Salt Lake City to attend my first ever conference on geothermal energy, and presented some of our recent research. It was a good week. My talk was well received. I got some challenging questions from a French professor. That's the way it should be. I learnt a lot more from going to my first geothermal conference than I would have done on my 20^th conference on petroleum geoscience.

Salt Lake City is an interesting city, but also somewhat bizarre, with the Mormon influence on everything. I admire the Mormons in many ways, but I also think it’s the most stupid of all religions. It’s so obviously fake. That’s the drawback of a new religion. All the bullshit is more easily revealed than for an ancient religion obscured by 1400 or 2000 years of history.

I spent hours at Temple Square, to see the Tabernacle, and the visitor centers (there are two of them). I had some interesting and entertaining discussions with the missionaries, a holy army of polite young men and women. The nice thing about the Mormons is that they’re tolerant, apparently. They accept that you have a different view on their religion (I think it’s pure nonsense), but they disagree of course. At least they are peaceful, and don’t chop your head off.

The last time I was in SLC, alcohol was allowed only in private clubs. Now I was happy to see that beer was available in all restaurants. I had some very good beers, with funny names, like Polygamy Porter, and Latter Day Stout. Cheers. Maybe the Mormons have a sense of humor, or more likely, the heathens are playing jokes on them >:)

(Some pictures taken on the various trips)