I was lucky to not be a pioneer on this trip, because let me tell you... Iceland takes A LOT of planning. But you know what's great about planning for really beautiful, cool, eclectic places? The planning is SO FUN. Friends gave me fantastic tips, and my main man Rick Steves just wrote his first ever Iceland guidebook this year. That is fate right there.
Quick intro on my travel mate Sarah: She's the nicest, most outgoing person you will ever meet. Is a flight attendant. Hates planning. Down to do anything and go anywhere = perfect travel buddy.
For this trip, we flew in on different flights. I know, I know - when paragraphs start this way, they always end badly, but this time it worked out OK! Well, as far as meeting up went. We had one thing in common when we landed in Iceland: neither of us slept a wink on our flights. But it was 6am, so according to my itinerary, it was time to start the day!
It's pretty easy to jump right into the day's activities when the first thing on the agenda is the Blue Lagoon. Included in your visit: unlimited Silica face masks, drink at the bar, oh and if you make friends with the face mask girl? Upgraded face masks... whatttt. Perks of traveling with Sarah who makes friends with EVERYONE. Was this a very expensive experience? Yes. Am I scheduling a layover in Iceland for every trip from now on no matter where I go? Absolutely.
Next stop? The Snaefellsness Peninsula. This was about a two and a half hour drive which Sarah happily volunteered to undertake. I volunteered to sleep.
First stop on Snaefellsness Peninsula: Rauðfeldsgjá Gorge. Raining? Yep. Super cool though? Hell yes. Pretty much the theme of the day (:
Stop 2: Gatklettur. So I had seen all of these pictures online of people on top of this super cool arch. I asked the owners of this coffee shop about how to climb it, and they just laughed hysterically saying that I was wrong and would fall to my death. Oops. It was still cool.
When we picked up our rental car, we had been given a wifi attachment so that we could use Google Maps to get around Iceland. It stopped working. For THIRTY minutes. We drove around aimlessly in the fog and rain, pulling into random spots hoping that they would be cool because we had no idea where we were. Suffice to say we both had a mental breakdown. We had no sleep (well I had a little, Sarah had none in the past 40 hours). It's all a bit blurry, but I remember us yelling at a lot of things: the wifi, the car, the rental car guy, the fog, you know - the usual.
Sarah made a lucky turn and boom we made it to this cool volcano crater thing. And then... wifi came back! And with it... THE SUN.
After a quick stop at Skardsvik beach, a gorgeous white sand beach (actually quite a rare sight in Iceland), we just sat back (well I did, Sarah focused on the road) and enjoyed the insane views before us.
Next (and last) stop: Kirkjufell. And what is this mountain famous for?? Why being photoshopped into a mountain range in Game of Thrones OF COURSE. I don't even have any great photos of this mountain, but check out the surrounding views. Suffice to say we camped out here for a bit to soak it all in.
Also, did I mention, at this time of year, it does not get dark. The sun just does a little dip to dusk and then is high up in the sky a couple of hours later. So at this point in our day, sun shining and all, it was already 9pm. And we had a two hour drive back to Reykjavik ahead of us.
As if it were a sign that it was time to go home, the fog dropped down over us as we headed to our hostel. Sarah, ever the rockstar, drove for the first hour. Then, feeling noble, I offered to take over, for which she was extremely grateful. I guess she was a little tired or something?
I felt great as I drove along, jamming out to my music, enjoying the views, contemplating life etc. And then we hit... The Tunnel.
It is a very long tunnel. I don't know exactly how many miles, but there were many of them. At about mile 3 I started feeling VERY tired. And then I started thinking about how bright it was. THEN I began contemplating the fact that it actually felt like I was driving in the sun outside. And then I thought that I wasn't in the tunnel anymore. This is the point where I realized I was hallucinating. This fact freaked me out. I got really hot, REALLY claustrophobic and started to see stars. I figured this was a good point to tell Sarah what had been going on in my mind in the last ten seconds. I just looked at her and said "I think I'm gonna pass out."
She looked at me and said "hazards." I threw them on, and then out of nowhere, a pullover point. This poor girl had only gotten a 45 minute break from driving (if that), and now had to takeover again because our lives literally depended on it.
Our plan had been to go out in Reykjavik that night, but suffice to say, this did not happen. I popped some sleeping pills for good measure and was out for the next nine hours.
Sarah made a lucky turn and boom we made it to this cool volcano crater thing. And then... wifi came back! And with it... THE SUN.
As if it were a sign that it was time to go home, the fog dropped down over us as we headed to our hostel. Sarah, ever the rockstar, drove for the first hour. Then, feeling noble, I offered to take over, for which she was extremely grateful. I guess she was a little tired or something?
I felt great as I drove along, jamming out to my music, enjoying the views, contemplating life etc. And then we hit... The Tunnel.
It is a very long tunnel. I don't know exactly how many miles, but there were many of them. At about mile 3 I started feeling VERY tired. And then I started thinking about how bright it was. THEN I began contemplating the fact that it actually felt like I was driving in the sun outside. And then I thought that I wasn't in the tunnel anymore. This is the point where I realized I was hallucinating. This fact freaked me out. I got really hot, REALLY claustrophobic and started to see stars. I figured this was a good point to tell Sarah what had been going on in my mind in the last ten seconds. I just looked at her and said "I think I'm gonna pass out."
She looked at me and said "hazards." I threw them on, and then out of nowhere, a pullover point. This poor girl had only gotten a 45 minute break from driving (if that), and now had to takeover again because our lives literally depended on it.
Our plan had been to go out in Reykjavik that night, but suffice to say, this did not happen. I popped some sleeping pills for good measure and was out for the next nine hours.
Day two: The Golden Circle.
After stocking up on snacks, we hit the road for the most famous Iceland day trip.
Stop 1: Þingvellir National Park. This is the only place in the world where you can "walk between two continents." In essence, it is the point where the North American tectonic plate and the European tectonic plate meet. You can also scuba dive between the plates (next time).
Stop 2: Haukadalur Valley to see the geyser, Strokkur. Super cool, super beautiful. It erupts so often that I think we got to see it five times in the space of 30 minutes.
Stop 3: Gulfoss Waterfall, considered by some to be more magnificent than Niagara Falls. I don't know if I would go that far, but WOW was this impressive. Got sprayed by the waterfall and everything.
Stop 4: the Secret Lagoon and the highlight of my day. I'm telling you, if only more countries had hot springs around every corner; it is a fantastic way to break up the day.
Stop 5: Kerið Crater. The colors at this stop will blow you away. Bright red mud, a shining blue lake, and some vibrant green moss for good measure. We hiked around the circumference and then down to the water.
And just like that, it was 9pm again, but we still had one more stop that we were determined to hit. In retrospect, I'm not entirely sure why we thought it was a good idea to begin a 4 mile hike at such a time, but alas, that is what we did.
Stop 6: Reykjadalur Valley. We were very excited for these thermal springs, because who wouldn't be after a day in cold nature?! I cannot even explain to you the amount of rain and wind that was slamming us in the face as we began our ascent. Sheep were crossing our path. Sarah's umbrella broke from the sheer force of the storm, but still, we trekked on. People hiking back would stop us, and be like "are you sure you want to keep going?" We just looked at each other and were like, "wow, rude."
We kept having to pause to take in the beauty around us, but the pauses never lasted long because we were SO COLD. Finally we arrived and there was absolutely no one else around. Rick Steves had mentioned that there were some makeshift changing rooms... he did NOT mention that these changing rooms were not rooms.
We quickly stripped off our clothes, threw on our swimsuits and dove into the river. Sarah got in first and just looked and me and said, "it's barely warm." I started laughing at her super funny joke. I got in the water. She had not been kidding.
The rain continued to poor down on us. The current was strong. We were shivering... but we had hiked so far..! So we stuck it out, laughing, near tears from pain and disappointment, but somehow still very happy... most likely from the hypothermia that was sending our brain all kinds of weird signals.
This "happiness" lasted ten minutes. We were soaked, our clothes were soaked, our towels were soaked. Suffice to say we ran the entire way back to the car. When we arrived at the car it was 11pm.
Day three: The South Coast.
I had planned this trip so that each day would be better than the next. I'm not gonna lie... I very much succeeded. After taking a little tour of the town of Reykjavik (we had clearly been using all of our daylight elsewhere), we set out for...
Stop 1: Hotdogs. The one food that everyone kept telling me that we had to have was... hotdogs. They were delightful. Why you may ask... because they are made mostly of lamb. Ate a lot of those the rest of the trip. Yes, that is all I had for meals from there on out.
Stop 2 (not counting the 200 stops we made to take pictures of the insanely gorgeous scenery around us): Seljalandsfoss waterfall. Got to hike behind the falls - 'twas grand.
Stop 3: Skogafoss waterfall. Believe it or not, completely different experience than Seljalandsfoss. We were able to hike right up the mountain, alongside the waterfall and then back to its source. V cool. Sarah especially loved this one. I was soaking wet from Seljalandsfoss soaking me, and from the rain, and from the current waterfall we were hiking next to... oh, AND my rain boots were disintegrating as I was walking, so that was a new experience. But yes, I too loved Skogafoss. We also met this "photographer" who loved taking pictures of us, but took no good photos of us, so here is a picture of him taking pictures of us.
Stop 4: Sólheimajökull glacier. It was our first glacier of the trip and we loved it. Hopped right past all of the "do not go past this point", "at your own risk", signs and climbed right onto the glacier. We were in awe.
Stop 5: Vik beach. Extremely stunning black sand beach, also has these very cool basalt rocks and caves. Sarah immediately climbed right up; I then followed. Then the 500 tourists that were also there realized that they could do that and followed suit. It was funny and a little scary because it was raining, and I thought I was going to fall. But I did not fall. Success. This is me upset at all other people...
Stop 6: Diamond Beach. It is very hard to describe how incredible this sight was. Giant chunks of ice from the nearby glacier that are perfect in every way are deposited onto this black sand beach. It was rainy and very windy, but we were just running up and down the beach, inspecting all of the "diamonds" and yelling at each other to come and look at the one that we were looking at.
Stop 7: Jökulsárlón (glacier bay). My favorite stop from the whole trip. Words can't describe what I felt when I saw this. Pictures don't do it justice, but that's all I got... plus a video of Sarah.
Stop 8: A beautiful guesthouse in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains. It was perfect. We drank wine and went to bed... at midnight... with the sun still up.
Day 4: It was sunny!
After a very satisfying breakfast, we hit the road and headed back to Diamond Beach and Jökulsárlón because how could we not. The sun had come out once again so why not see these sights again in the sun...
We stopped at the other side of the glacier, stopped for some hotdogs, did a little tour of the town of Vik, frolicked through Mars and just enjoyed the sun and our last day on this other planet called Iceland. Did I mention we had a six hour drive back to the airport? Everything went so smoothly; here are the pictures from this day...
Upon arrival at the airport, Sarah realized that her flight had been canceled. She was somehow put on another flight; they held the gate for her. She made the flight. I wasn't really sure where she had gone, so I came to the logical conclusion that she is good at being in airports and bought myself some wine and watched Iceland play in the World Cup. Little life hack on Reykjavik airport... while their bar does close at 6pm, it is extremely socially acceptable to drink the duty free wines in the open there :)
After stocking up on snacks, we hit the road for the most famous Iceland day trip.
Stop 1: Þingvellir National Park. This is the only place in the world where you can "walk between two continents." In essence, it is the point where the North American tectonic plate and the European tectonic plate meet. You can also scuba dive between the plates (next time).
Stop 2: Haukadalur Valley to see the geyser, Strokkur. Super cool, super beautiful. It erupts so often that I think we got to see it five times in the space of 30 minutes.
Stop 6: Reykjadalur Valley. We were very excited for these thermal springs, because who wouldn't be after a day in cold nature?! I cannot even explain to you the amount of rain and wind that was slamming us in the face as we began our ascent. Sheep were crossing our path. Sarah's umbrella broke from the sheer force of the storm, but still, we trekked on. People hiking back would stop us, and be like "are you sure you want to keep going?" We just looked at each other and were like, "wow, rude."
The rain continued to poor down on us. The current was strong. We were shivering... but we had hiked so far..! So we stuck it out, laughing, near tears from pain and disappointment, but somehow still very happy... most likely from the hypothermia that was sending our brain all kinds of weird signals.
This "happiness" lasted ten minutes. We were soaked, our clothes were soaked, our towels were soaked. Suffice to say we ran the entire way back to the car. When we arrived at the car it was 11pm.
Day three: The South Coast.
I had planned this trip so that each day would be better than the next. I'm not gonna lie... I very much succeeded. After taking a little tour of the town of Reykjavik (we had clearly been using all of our daylight elsewhere), we set out for...
Stop 1: Hotdogs. The one food that everyone kept telling me that we had to have was... hotdogs. They were delightful. Why you may ask... because they are made mostly of lamb. Ate a lot of those the rest of the trip. Yes, that is all I had for meals from there on out.
Day 4: It was sunny!
After a very satisfying breakfast, we hit the road and headed back to Diamond Beach and Jökulsárlón because how could we not. The sun had come out once again so why not see these sights again in the sun...
