Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice

Post written and then 4 months later finally got photos uploaded.

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Here's the plan for Iceland chronicles: I'll give the brief overview and then follow-up with a post on nature (landscapes, animals) and a final one on history. This post is a tad long, though I promise I'm trying to be concise!

Day 1: Keflavik Airport - 5am local time, Reykjavik -7am. This was perfect, we were able to see the town and the sea front with few people around. We hit some of the main sights in Reykjavik, including 1) the Hallgrimskirkja, 2) Phallological museum, 3) Reykjavik Cemetery, 4) Micro Bar for beer tasting.

Viking Ship sculpture on the waterfront; approx 7am local time

My overall impression of Reykjavik is that it is not especially pretty. Much of the city is cement buildings (not many trees on a lava island). 

1) Hallgrimskirkja has some of the best views over Reykjavik - in all directions. Church itself is relatively new, finished just in 1986. The organ has 5,275 pipes, 4 rows of keys, and so many stops I couldn't count.  We were lucky enough to be there first thing on Sunday morning to hear the church organist warming up!

View from the top of Hallgrimskirkja over Reykjavik

Tim standing next to a blue whale penis. 

2) The Penis Museum. Wow. Lots of preserved phalli of all species. The most shocking was the blue whale penis, which can be up to 8 feet long, weigh up to 60 lbs, and ejaculate FIVE GALLONS.

Reykjavik city cemetary

3) I always make a point to see the local cemetery and this one fell into the top 3 ever, without a doubt (the other top 2 being Fiss, Austria and Aran Islands, Ireland).








4) Micro bar where we tried 10 Icelandic samples (for $50... more on obscene cost of living later), from 4 breweries. The IPA and session IPA were not good. But they had a delicious Amber Ale, and the mango pale ale definitely could compete with Harpoons Wannamango.




Day 2:
Heading out of town! We commenced on the Golden Circle - a loop that can be done as a day trip from Reykjavik. We stopped and saw 1) Thingvellir National Park, 2) Strokkur and Geysir geysers, 3) Gullfoss Waterfall and 4) the Kerid Crater Lake. The Golden Circle is packed with tourists because of the easy access from Reykjavik, but I still would recommend this trip.

Mountains in Thingvellir

1) Thingvellir National Park is where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet so there are canyons and lots of earthquakes. The plates are moving about 3mm per year. This was also the place where the vikings met for their national parliament for over 300 years  and for court until as recently as the 19th century (more on this later).

overlooking Thingvellir

2) Geysir is now inactive, but Strokkur goes off about every 10 minutes without warning. It was a bit startling to say the least and a lot of mist was rising from all over different places in the ground. Some holes were bubbling and the water could be 80-100 C (ouch!!). Some of the pools were eerily blue.

Waiting for geysirs

natural color! But looks very unnatural

3) The Gullfoss Waterfall is essentially the Niagara Falls of Iceland. It was extremely impressive.

People on the trail at the left for scale. 

Tim at the edge of Kerid crater lake

4) Kerid was underwhelming.

Tim stooping to look in the Fisherman's hut

We set up our tent in Selfoss, had a snack, and then drove down to the coast and visited 2 coastal towns to wrap up the day - Eyrarbakki and Strokkseyri. We were not initially planning to do this, but turns out Tim gets bored easily... and it was too early to go to bed. This was actually really interesting and beautiful.

In Strokkseyir we saw: an old creamery (not in use since 1950s), lighthouse (same architect as Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik), coast with lots of birds, old fisherman's hut. Eyrarbakki was the main port for south Iceland - but what a tiny town! We saw the abandoned port, some fish strung up to dry, and drove through town to see the old fishing houses, etc. Back to camp for a late dinner fell into bed.

Fish drying in Eyrarbakki

Tim behind the Seljafoss

Day 3: Lots of driving, but many stops to see waterfalls and other beautiful nature things (more photos to come in next post). Skogafoss and Seljafoss. We walked on a footpath behind the waterfall and got soaked! We stopped at Dyrholaey Arch for a picnic lunch and to stretch our legs. Puffins!!! Right next door is the town of Vik - on the edge of the largest national park in Europe, and almost 14% of the entire country of Iceland. Vatnajokull National Park is a glacier so of course we decided to set up camp in Skaftafell, on the edge of the glacier park.

A waterfall near Seljafoss

Beautiful Skogafoss

Dyrholaey Arch in the background (barely!), black sand beaches below

Day 4:
Our campsite turned out to be perfect for watching the sun rise over the glacier. Most of the day you can't see the glacier because it's covered in fog, but early in the morning, it was perfect.

Svartifoss

 Right after breakfast we took a hike up to Svartifoss,  a waterfall that has these incredible basalt columns that occur when the lava cools in these hexagonal shapes. Hilariously, on our way down from the waterfalls, we ran into a family with mom wearing a Pembroke, MA t-shirt (our current hometown). Turns out she is a teacher (in a foreign country, we could not determine and forgot to ask... Germany, Spain, Italy, or France...) and does an exchange with Pembroke High School every fall. We talked about the Dairy Twist ice cream shop in town, took a photo with her, and she will be arriving this year in September! Small world!

Another hour down the road, we found Jokulsarlon, a glacier lake. WOW I have never seen anything like this!  (more photos in next post) Huge chunks of ice floating in this lake and out to ocean. Many geese and a seal! The streaks of lava black mixed in with this brilliant blue was shocking. On a side note, they filmed scenes from a James Bond movie here. 

Jokulsarlon

We arrived in Hofn around lunch time and after setting up camp, took off for a hike and then a stroll around town. We saw the ruins of a Viking settlement and hiked across a black beach collecting lava rocks. We walked on the path around town for an evening jaunt, beautiful little fishing village. 

 Viking ruins

Day 5: 
Today turned out a bit different than expected!! A "hurricane" hit Hofn last night (not actually, but I have never camped in anything so severe) so we got very little sleep (Tim especially as he was supporting the tent). The wind was blowing so hard one of our tent poles was inverting. We didn't/couldn't abandon ship and sleep in the car, but it was unclear if the tent would make it through the night. It did! Although we were planning to do another hike on the glacier today, with little sleep and crappy weather, we decided to hightail it back to Reykjavik and do museums. We went to the National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik, which turned out to be incredibly interesting and satisfying and filled in many of the gaps in my Iceland knowledge (more info to come)

Day 6:
Blue Lagoon. We arrived at 7:45 (our scheduled arrival time was 7-8am), which turned out to be wonderful! If anyone is planning a trip to the lagoon, definitely reserve an earlier morning time. They do this to keep the wait times from getting too long, but you can stay in/at the Lagoon as long as you like. We had the earliest arrival time so when we got there, there were only a couple dozen others in the lagoon. With our tickets, we got a free drink (blueberry smoothie!) and an algae face mask (in addition to the silica face mask). We spent just over 2 hours soaking, doing a steam bath, relaxing in the lounge, drinking smoothies, and being amazed by all the people who took their phones into the lagoon with them!!!! what?!?! some people were literally carrying their phones around on selfie sticks. How stressful for them. But overall, this experience was so relaxing. In the days following our visit, I channeled my "inner lagoon" for a quick relaxing feeling.

A quick trip, but wow. We agreed that this was definitely a trip worth taking because of the amazing scenery and landscapes, but never again because of the astronomical cost of being there.

A few notes on Iceland in general. We had about 22 hours of full daylight, with the other 2 hours being more gray/dusk - very bizarre to wake up at 3am with daylight outside. It was also quite cold. I thought it would at least be in the 60s? Summer, you know? but the evening lows were in the low 40s and day time highs in the 50s, which was great for camping! Also, the expense! We went grocery shopping and did all of our own cooking for a couple reasons: 1) seafood is huge here and as Tim doesn't like seafood and I'm generally more vegetarian than pescatarian (but don't put me in a box!) and 2) the expense of eating out. A pre-made sandwich at the grocery store was 10$, a lunch out at a restaurant would easily be $25 per person. Filling up the gas tank cost about $125 (we drove a tiny little VW Up!). Having a beer was $7 (for a bud light lager type) to $16 (for an IPA). A 6oz gas station coffee was frequently $3+ whereas a coffee shop 8oz no larger coffee was $5-9. None of these 12oz or 16oz coffees.

However, in spite of the cost and the cold and the constant daylight, the nature was amazing. This was my favorite part of Iceland (of course) so stay tuned for more landscapes and nature photos - coming soon!!!!