I never finished posting about our Iceland trip! You can see the first post here.
We flew in to the Keflavik airport at 6:30am. There's a 5 hour time difference, so our internal clocks said it was actually 1:30am. We each only got a little sleep on the plane, so we planned to head toward our room to take a nap. Our check in time wasn't until 2:00pm, but our awesome host said we could check in early! We had a couple stops to make on the way.
First, we needed to get gas. SadCars does things a little different. You get a car with very little gas and you return it the same way. We stopped at a gas station, filled up and racked up on some snacks since we knew we wouldn't find anything open for breakfast for a while and we were both hungry.
We flew in to the Keflavik airport at 6:30am. There's a 5 hour time difference, so our internal clocks said it was actually 1:30am. We each only got a little sleep on the plane, so we planned to head toward our room to take a nap. Our check in time wasn't until 2:00pm, but our awesome host said we could check in early! We had a couple stops to make on the way.
First, we needed to get gas. SadCars does things a little different. You get a car with very little gas and you return it the same way. We stopped at a gas station, filled up and racked up on some snacks since we knew we wouldn't find anything open for breakfast for a while and we were both hungry.
Here are our snacks
The Viking Snack is dried fish. We were not big fans.
We were about 2 hours away from where we were staying, but we stopped at a geothermal park and stayed there for quite a while. It smelled horrible from all the sulfur, but it was SO cool! Even if it stinks, it was worth it to watch boiling mud! We got there just a few minutes before a tour bus, so we had a little bit of time alone. They came and went and another one came. I really liked having a car so we could go where we wanted and stay as long as we wanted. It was just great to be on our own schedule. We thought we would just get out and take a couple pictures. There was a huge hill and we decided to keep going to check out some more of the park. There were some slippery parts and I was definitely not dressed for hiking up slippery hills at this point, but we still really enjoyed ourselves. I was able to keep my balance and somehow I didn't leave with a muddy butt - just muddy boots.
At the top!
Next, we saw another area we wanted to stop. There were mountains in the background and we were right by the ocean (which meant it was really windy, which made it feel really cold).
Sidenote - we bought new rain jackets before we went to Peru. We did lots of research and decided to splurge on a Gore-Tex jacket. That was a good choice - I'll probably make a separate post about our jackets at some point, because we love them. They were AMAZING at keeping the wind out, so they played a HUGE part in us keeping warm without us being bundled up like Eskimos!
There were lava rocks all over. There were information boards about the wildlife that I enjoyed reading. Somewhere nearby, there was an old village that had been destroyed by lava. We couldn't find it at the time. We found out later, that it was on the opposite side of the road and we would have had to hike to it for a bit. We decided to keep making our way toward our room to get some rest. We managed to get lost on the way to our Airbnb...and just about every time we drove after that. It's not that there are lots of roads or turns - there's really one main road. The directions were just not right sometimes. We would be looking for a roundabout in 2 miles, then we would either reach it in a half a mile or 5 miles. The road names were also impossible to pronounce. My navigation skills, while still lacking for sure, improved a lot on this trip! By the time we finally made it to our place, it was almost noon! Time was already flying!
We stayed our first 2 nights at a really cute horse farm. The owners had converted a farm outbuilding into a 3 bedroom apartment. It was basic, but it had everything we needed. We REALLY enjoyed our time here. They had a really friendly dog. I did get to go say hi to the horses, but since it was dark and I didn't want to spook them, we didn't take any pictures. The first night we stayed, one other French couple stayed. The second night, 2 other couples stayed. It was cool to talk to everyone and learn about their travels. Some of us were just traveling for a short time and others were traveling the world.
Back to the farm! We finally pulled into the farm, which was probably 20 minutes from the nearest small town. I had read that it was normal for babies to sleep outside in Iceland, but I didn't expect to actually see it. Sure enough, we pulled up to the house to check in and there was a stroller (or a buggy, as they would say in Iceland) on the front porch. I read a little about this when we got back. If you care to read about why babies nap outside in Iceand, here's an article.
They had just harvested turnips
Such a sweet dog! Perfect for when I miss Bailey!
Anyway - We got checked in, took our things in and laid down for a nap. We were only going to sleep for an hour, but I set the alarm for 30 minutes later when I woke up, then fell back asleep for another 15 minutes when I turned the second alarm off. I woke Josh up and we got ready to head out to start some sight seeing! We both felt much better after resting and I'm glad we did, because we ended up staying out pretty late that night!
We grabbed a snack, changed and headed out for our adventures!
We decided we would drive a portion of the Ring Road (which actually goes around the whole country - we would love to go back and drive the whole thing at some point!) to make the most of our short time. The plan was to visit a couple waterfalls and a black sand beach, then grab some food and head back to our room to get some sleep.
Our first waterfall was Seljalandsfoss. You're supposed to be able to see this one at night too, but we didn't stop on the way back through. You can walk behind the waterfall and it's so pretty! It was raining and windy, so it was difficult to get a picture without water being all over the camera lens.
Our next stop was Skogafoss. This one has a trail you can hike and I would love to go back and do that some day. We knew we didn't have much daylight though, so we made this stop pretty quick.
After this, we headed toward Vik, which is a little coastal town with black sand beaches. This was COLD. I'm not going to not walk barefoot on the only black sand beach I've seen in real life though, so I did it.
It was getting dark by the time we made it to Vik, but it was still a beautiful place!
After the beach, we were starving, so we found a place to eat. We decided on a place we found in our Lonely Planet book, Sudur Vik, and we were very pleased. Josh got a fish soup, which I was very interested in, but I wasn't sold on the idea of fish soup, so I passed. It was delicious! I got a steak sandwich, which was also very tasty.
We started to make our way back to our room and I was watching the sky for the Northern lights. It had been rainy earlier in the day, so I was hopeful, but still convinced we wouldn't see the lights on our first night. We did notice a large glacier on the side of the road that we hadn't noticed on the way through the first time. Josh stopped to take a picture and it has turned out to be one of my favorites from the trip.
This is a map showing the glacier that we saw. Very cool!
Josh had told me about a tip he read in a book about photographing the Northern Lights. If you photograph the sky and you see green, there's a pretty good chance that you'll see the lights! I kept staring out the window, looking for anything unusual. At one point, I saw a funny, hazy looking cloud. I stared at it for a couple seconds and realized it was moving, so I grabbed Josh's camera and snapped a picture. Sure enough, there was some green! I was SO excited (this has been way way high on my bucket list for a long time)! I told Josh, "Babe, they're gonna do it!" Of course he had no clue what I was talking about, so I had to calm down enough to tell him the lights were coming out to dance! He didn't believe me, but he pulled over. He finally saw the haze too, so he set his camera up. The lights gradually got stronger so that we could see them with our naked eye. It was SO awesome! It was freezing out, but I didn't even care! Here are a few of the shots we got.
After seeing them for a good while, we decided we should make our way back to the farm and we would try to get a few pictures there too.
These are some of the ones he got on the farm.
At some point, I'll have to have Josh edit some of these so I can do something cool with them!
I say this was a very successful first night in Iceland!
They had just harvested turnips
Such a sweet dog! Perfect for when I miss Bailey!
Anyway - We got checked in, took our things in and laid down for a nap. We were only going to sleep for an hour, but I set the alarm for 30 minutes later when I woke up, then fell back asleep for another 15 minutes when I turned the second alarm off. I woke Josh up and we got ready to head out to start some sight seeing! We both felt much better after resting and I'm glad we did, because we ended up staying out pretty late that night!
We grabbed a snack, changed and headed out for our adventures!
We decided we would drive a portion of the Ring Road (which actually goes around the whole country - we would love to go back and drive the whole thing at some point!) to make the most of our short time. The plan was to visit a couple waterfalls and a black sand beach, then grab some food and head back to our room to get some sleep.
After this, we headed toward Vik, which is a little coastal town with black sand beaches. This was COLD. I'm not going to not walk barefoot on the only black sand beach I've seen in real life though, so I did it.
After the beach, we were starving, so we found a place to eat. We decided on a place we found in our Lonely Planet book, Sudur Vik, and we were very pleased. Josh got a fish soup, which I was very interested in, but I wasn't sold on the idea of fish soup, so I passed. It was delicious! I got a steak sandwich, which was also very tasty.
We started to make our way back to our room and I was watching the sky for the Northern lights. It had been rainy earlier in the day, so I was hopeful, but still convinced we wouldn't see the lights on our first night. We did notice a large glacier on the side of the road that we hadn't noticed on the way through the first time. Josh stopped to take a picture and it has turned out to be one of my favorites from the trip.
Josh had told me about a tip he read in a book about photographing the Northern Lights. If you photograph the sky and you see green, there's a pretty good chance that you'll see the lights! I kept staring out the window, looking for anything unusual. At one point, I saw a funny, hazy looking cloud. I stared at it for a couple seconds and realized it was moving, so I grabbed Josh's camera and snapped a picture. Sure enough, there was some green! I was SO excited (this has been way way high on my bucket list for a long time)! I told Josh, "Babe, they're gonna do it!" Of course he had no clue what I was talking about, so I had to calm down enough to tell him the lights were coming out to dance! He didn't believe me, but he pulled over. He finally saw the haze too, so he set his camera up. The lights gradually got stronger so that we could see them with our naked eye. It was SO awesome! It was freezing out, but I didn't even care! Here are a few of the shots we got.
After seeing them for a good while, we decided we should make our way back to the farm and we would try to get a few pictures there too.
At some point, I'll have to have Josh edit some of these so I can do something cool with them!
I say this was a very successful first night in Iceland!
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