Hello, one last time.
Iceland. The land of Fire and Ice. Or so they say. What "they" don't tell you, is that this country is more, much more. We have never in our lives seen such landscape, such natural wonder and phenomenon. From enormous glaciers, to marshy fields. Natural hot springs and volcanoes. Horse and sheep filled pastures. One season you have the northern lights, the next, the midnight sun. Amazing.
While in Ireland, we made the decision to rent a car for our ten days in Iceland. Best. Decision. Ever. That blue 1995 Toyota Corolla was our home...literally. With the back seats down, it was a perfect bed for two. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting to sleep as well as I did.
With our little home on wheels, we took 5 days to drive from the airport in Keflavik, to a small town called Höfn (pronounced like "hup"), stopping at hot springs, lagoons, glaciers, National Parks. Pretty much whatever caught our attention.
We started the trip out right with a visit to the Blue Lagoon. Set amongst fields of black lava rock, and fed by water from a slightly eerie and futuristic looking geothermal plant, this is a place for utter relaxation. Add conditioning and exfoliating mineral salts, algae, and silica mud to the perfect 38 degree water, and we have ourselves a party. Not to be missed by anyone planning a trip to Iceland. If only it was free.
After a good soak, we continued on to find a place to park our car and sleep for the night. The scenery was incredibly strange. Volcanic rock covered in grey moss, everywhere. No trees, no grass. It felt more like Mars then Earth.
Forty minutes later we'd found a nice little hideout for the eve. We hung some towels and scarves up on the windows to block the light, and settled in for our first nights stay. Oh, didn't I mention? It doesn't get dark in Iceland during the summer. Strange as it is, we have not seen darkness for ten days now. I've always loved the sun, but at 1:00am it isn't as nice anymore. Be careful what you wish for, right?
The next morning, we were up and heading east towards a town called Selfoss, in search of breakfast and an ATM (still hadn't figured out the conversion from Dollars to Króna at that point...it ends up being about $1 to ikr126). We ventured in to Selfoss, found ourselves a bakery, grocery store, and bank machine and continued on. In about twenty minutes, the scenery went from rock and moss, to marshy, shrub-filled fields.
We made a stop at Pingvellir National park, where we hiked in and around the huge fissures and sat by the falls. Later, we stopped at Geysir. We stood by as the hot, bubbling pools of water slowly gained momentum before bursting up from deep within the ground, like an upside-down waterfall. Counting down the minutes in between each eruption was maddening. Such anticipation. I've never tried so hard to get a picture!
Next stop, Gulfoss, a magnificent waterfall with a double cascade thundering down into a narrow ravine. Major tourist spot, but it was beautiful to see.
We made it to a town called Hella by about 5:30pm, where we stopped for a cup of tea and some wifi access. Later, we had a picnic dinner on the riverside.
Again, we found a good spot to camp out, hung our "curtains" and called 'er a night. We were exhausted!
We woke up and drove to Bakki, where we jumped on a ferry to spend the day on Heimaey Island, the only inhabitable island of Vestmannaeyjar (Westmann Islands). Vestmannaeyjar is made up of 15 looming islands, all but one formed by submarine volcanoes around 11,000 years ago. The one exception rose from the waves in 1963.
Heimaey is spectacular. Puffin-filled cliffs on one side of the busy harbor, and two volcanoes on the other. We spent the day hiking around the top of Herjólfsdalur and I watched as Andrew army-crawled through puffin poop to take some pictures of those brilliant-looking, but not so bright birds. I quite enjoyed it really. Iceland actually has the largest population of Puffins in the world.
We had lunch, and then went to explore the Pompei of the North. In 1973, one of the volcanoes on Heimaey erupted, burying 400 houses underneath it's lava. Thankfully, the town had evacuated before the volcano erupted. It was strange to walk though the flowers and shrubs growing up through the rocks, knowing that someone's beloved home lies beneath.
After catching a ferry back to mainland, we took a drive in search of a hot spring to relax in before bed. We found Seljavallalaug nestled into the hillside. Hidden from sight if your on the highway, this concrete pool is in the middle of freaking no-where. Its filled by a natural hot spring, and it and the spectacular view is completely free. We soaked there for a while, before setting up our car for bedtime.
In the morning, we continued driving east towards Vik. We stopped along the way to take a walk around Myrdalsjökull, a dirt and volcanic sand-covered glacier.
Once in Vik, we found a cafe, ordered a latte, and sat in the beautiful sun. Yes, SUN! Not just bright grey clouds, but real, hot, sun. We tool advantage of the weather and stayed in Vik for the entire day. We hiked up Reynisfjall, where Andy did some Puffin chasing, and I caught up on some reading. The sun stuck around for us, and we basked in the 23 degree weather (that's HOT for Iceland).
Skaftafell National Park was our next stop. We spent the night there, and in the morning set off on a 6 hour hike through the plateaus, mountains, and glaciers of Skaftafell. Unreal scenery. Ive never seen anything as beautiful and peculiar as an enormous glacier wedged in between two mountains. And the colors; you have black dirt and rock, green grass and shrubs, and in between is the blue-white ice.
We camped out at the Jökulsárlón lagoon that evening. Sitting along the shore and watching the icebergs float and bob through the ripping current was really amazing. Seals popped their shiny black heads in and out of the water, oblivious to us humans watching intently. Andy set up a little trap for his beer to cool in the glacial water, and we watched the midnight sun slowly graze the horizon, before peeking back up again.
Höfn was our next stop, where we spent the day soaking in the outdoor pool and hot pots (hot tubs). We decided to make our way back west towards Reykjavik.
We spent four nights in Reykjavik, and what a city! You'll find everything from quiet book-cafes, to rowdy night clubs. Graffiti-splattered walls to immense concrete churches. The best part was waking up in the morning, finding a new cafe, and then walking the streets of Reykjavik. You won't run out of people-watching or photo opportunities here. The city screams creativity. Local designers set up shops selling clothes, jewelry, photography, and EVERYTHING on between. The food is unreal(although expensive), the people icy, but still friendly, and the music a little bit quirk, a little bit funky, and constantly changing and evolving. The talent is endless. All in all, Reykjavik was a cultural experience we weren't expecting! We spent a coupled evening laying in a park called Heart Square, where different DJ's played on a graffiti-filled stage. Tons of locals hung around there, beer in hand, listening and bobbing their heads to the beat. Ah, it was so great.
Now, here I am nestled in to seat 8D on our flight from Reykjavik to Halifax. You would think the reality of HOME would have set in by now, but it still feels as if we are just flying to yet another unknown country. Another adventure.
With that said, I suppose going home is an adventure. Unknown? No. But are we excited, anxious, and ready? Absolutely.
We're coming home.
A&C
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