I still haven't sorted or edited all of our photos photos properly, but I am going to attempt to give a run-down while our trip is fresh in my memory.
Day 1:
We left Denver at four pm and, seven hours later, landed in Reykjavik, Iceland where it was six in the morning.
From the airport, we were shuttled to our car rental, SadCars. SadCars happens to be in a Quonset hut in the middle of nowhere. When we pulled up, I was a little worried that we were about to be robbed and left in the middle of Iceland to fend for ourselves, but the SadCar operator turned out to be incredibly kind and helpful. His inspection of our car included a pen light (it was still dark at 6 am) and the repetition of the phrase, "we only really care about major dents..." He informed us that we could bring our car back with or without a full tank of gas (which meant our car was completely empty), and as we drove away in search of fuel, the engine light came on. Ah, adventure. Those things aside, our car turned out to be very clean, reliable, and absolutely perfect for the rest of our trip. Eric was actually pretty awesome at driving it and I felt more than once like we were
in a Bourne movie.
We meant to go to the Blue Lagoon for our first stop, but upon realizing we had no map and that we couldn't actually read any of the signs we were passing, we decided to head for Reykjavik and our hotel which was an hour away. Two hours later, I remembered that our hotel had looked like it was close to the domestic airport when I had typed in into google earth the week before. Thirty minutes after that, we saw a plane in the sky and followed its general direction to the airport at which point Eric got out and asked a taxi driver where our hotel was. Thirty minutes later, we were finally pulling into our hotel. THANK. GOODNESS. After checking in and a quick nap, we decided to hit the city!
One good thing about all our driving around, we had a pretty good idea of how the city was laid out and were able to walk straight from our hotel to the city center. We wandered through shops, had the most delicious soup of my life at a place whose name I can't remember, and ended up at Hallgrimskirkja, a giant Lutheran church in the heart of the city. It was breath-taking.
More walking revealed gems such as a skate part covered in incredible graffiti art.
Also, we wandered around the harbor and stopped at the opera house to use the toilet. And the wifi.
We didn't stay out too late as we were exhausted after getting no sleep the night before and knew the following day would be busy...
Day 2:
The trip we booked included a "glacier hike" as part of the deal. We figured that the "hike" would be more a leisurely "walk" since most tour packages consist of activities in which an eighty-year-old lady with a heart condition could participate. We were wrong.
The tour guide took one look at my footwear and announced that we had to make a stop before beginning our journey; we headed back to "Glacier Tours Headquarters" and spent twenty minutes being outfitted with rain pants, snow boots, ice picks, and crampons. Eric and I weren't the only ones in need of gear, but I still felt like a failure as a Montanan. Here we are in all our glory:
And here's the glacier in all its glory:
The glacier itself was a gorgeous blue color striated with layers of ash from the volcanoes in the area. It was lovely, but I was pretty glad to have had all that gear; the wind started howling before we were finished and hail began to pelt us as we headed back down.
After the glacier, we headed to Skogafoss waterfall.
From there, the tour bus headed to a hotel for dinner and then we began our hunt for the Northern Lights. We saw them faintly in the distance, but nothing too spectacular since the sky had been cloudy all day.
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The next days we had to ourselves (and our SadCar) and followed a similar pattern: In the morning, we'd drive into town and park by our favorite pond.
From there, we'd walk to a coffee shop and have some breakfast.
Then we'd grab a loaf of bread and some cheese and salami in preparation for a picnic lunch at whatever location we'd planned to see that day. After a day full of activity, we'd head back to the city and either wander around and get some dinner... (here's Eric eating a whale steak)
...or sit in our hotel pool and then have a drink at the bar.
Day 3:
After a croissant and some coffee, we headed a bit inland to Gullfoss and Geysir. Gullfoss was an amazing waterfall and Geysir was like a mini Yellowstone park. Both were beautiful!
Day 4:
It was too overcast (read: rainy) to walk around the city so we headed north and drove around a fiord. There were sooo many waterfalls!
Day 5:
We drove south along the coast, then stopped at the blue lagoon before flying out that afternoon.
Sigh.
I loved it in Iceland. I think I would move there in an instant. Everything was so clean (YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE BATHROOMS), and people wear
awesome sweaters there, and
beards are a cultural norm, and everyone is
beautiful, and there's Scandinavian design out the wazzoo.
I love it. I want to go back.
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