First time in Iceland

After getting my first Icelandic sheepdog, Iceland started to become more and more interesting, so finally I had to go there. In july 1998 I and my cousin travelled to the land of Sagas where we spent two weeks living with a family in the Southern part of Iceland. During this first trip, I didn't visit many breeders or see many Icelandic dogs, but I met Sigriður Pétursdóttir. She was the one who initially saved the breed. She has been breeding since the 1960s. Nowadays she also judges Icelandic dogs in dog shows. She totally changed my idea of an ideal Icelandic sheepdog's appearence.

I spent my time by riding daily and by wondering about the different nature of Iceland. I saw the biggest sights and got the possibility to be a secretary for the judge in a horse competition. The trip was so marvelous that I was close to tears when our airplane was taking off from Keflavík airport. I knew I had to come back to Iceland - as soon as possible.


Second time in Iceland

In June 2000 I was on my way to Iceland again. This time I was going to stay three weeks in the Southern Iceland and visit some breeders. The second week I spent mostly in Reykjavík at the "kultur & ungdom" -camp. I learned to use the local traffic in Reykjavík and found the warm baths very relaxing.

I managed to meet the breeders almost like I had planned. A day trip to Northern Iceland to visit a breeder near Blönduós was a very impressive experience because of the wonderful landscape and weather. I didn´t find anything wrong about the breeder's bitch either.

I have always wanted to see a volcanic eruption. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to see it, because there was one just after my first trip and also before my second trip. But, little did I know - almost the biggest earthquake of the 20th century was going to take place in Iceland while I was there, and even so that when the quake started it was only about 20 km from my residence. The first quake came when I was on a horseback gathering the horses to come home. The horse under me didn't mind the quake and neither did I first realise what was happening. I just saw the crass moving back and forth around me. Some of the quakes made new cracks to the wall of our house. After that it wasn't sure whether the house was safe enough to sleep in at night so the Red Cross brought us two containers to sleep in. At daytime we lived normally in the house.

Still I didn't see a volcanic eruption and the glaciers were just shimmering in the horizon in the distance. Now I'm planning a trip to Iceland by my car via Norway and the Faroe Islands...


Third time lucky...

Here again! In June 2002 I stepped out of the plane at Keflavik airport and felt the refressing Icelandic summer rain. Boy, I had really missed it! This time I was travelling with my mother and two other people. We rented a car and drove through southern, western and northern Iceland. We saw many beautiful and strange places and got into quite a few little adventures. We had good luck, because there was a dog show in Reýkjavík on 22th of June. Little Kolur-puppy travelled with us from the North of Iceland to theSouth and all the way to Finland. During our visit we saw altogether 56 Icelandic Sheepdogs in all, with the help of many breeders and Icelandic Sheepdog lovers. Thank you all!!

Everyone we visited was very hospitable and nice. Special thanks goes to Helga Andrésdóttir (Sindra kennel), who looked after little Kolur for five days. Þorsteinn Thorsteinson (Sunnusteins kennel) took us to an unforgettable trip to see the wilderness of central Iceland. Thanks to Þorsteinn, I got a bit closer to the glaciers. There are still many things for me to see and do in Iceland. It´s a land of strong experiences and even a seasoned traveller will be suprised every time he visits Iceland.

I feel that I´ve had enough of short visits to Iceland, and would like to spend a little bit more time there. So I´m thinking of going to work there some summer.