Brenna Abroad

On our last full day in Iceland, we decided to venture further east, but not before having a delicious, fresh breakfast spread prepared for us by our friendly host. Local cheeses, vegetables, fresh-baked bread, smoked trout, and eggs gave us the energy to head out on the road bright and early. Our first destination was Skaftafell National Park with our first sighting of Vatnajökull glacier.

We met up with our tour guide and got crampons and an ice ax. We were given some instruction on how to hike on the glacier and awkwardly stomped our way over to it. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and the ice gleamed all around us.

We started out a little timid, quite sure that we were going to fall and bust our faces on the ice, but eventually, we got the hang of it and started climbing up and down steeper slopes.  Our guide gave us some history on the glacier and information on how much it retreats. She took us around different crevices so that we could see blue ice and ice caves.  We spent around two hours on the ice and had an amazing time.  Hiking a glacier sounded awfully cold to us so we bundled up in multiply layers. By the end, we were melting under the sun with the ice.

We decided to continue hiking after that anyway though, this time up a large hill to Svartifoss waterfall, a waterfall set amidst basalt columns.

We had to stop to take off layers multiple times on the way up.  By the time we got to the top, I was carrying half my clothes.

We finally got back to the car and devoured some bread and cheese and red bull. Since we have been searching for northern lights every night since we got here, we have not slept much.

We trod on, heading to Jökulsárlón, the glacier lagoon.

The area was full of photographers, and I could see why. The lagoon was magical, but unfortunately, our little camera couldn’t do it the same justice.

It was silent other than the creaking of ice on ice. We crossed the street to see the contrast of ice on black sand and watch the waves crash against them.

We stood there for awhile, taking it all in, realizing this was as far as we would go in Iceland. We turned back to the car and headed back to Vik for the evening, stopping to eat dinner at a charming restaurant overlooking the sea. The raw beauty of Iceland was really hitting us, and we prepared ourselves for our farewell the next day.

My fifth day in Iceland was my favorite day.  We packed up our stuff and headed east along the south coast toward the town of Vik.  Vik is a tiny fishing village on the southernmost tip of Iceland, but there is much to see and do on the way there.

Shortly after we got out of Reykjavik, we stopped in a town called Hveragerði to fill up the car and get some bread and cheese to snack on. While there, we decided to see if the town had anything to offer. It did.

It turns out it’s a little geothermal village with a long hiking path through steam vents and rivers.  We managed to spend around two hours exploring the area and still had more to see when we decided it was time to turn back and keep on.

 

We drove through mountains and small towns, stopping to take pictures when we found something of interest, like roaring rivers.

Or Icelandic horses, which are bred to be short, sturdy, and sure-footed. And cute, obviously.

Eventually we saw a waterfall a ways down the road and decided to go take some pictures of it, too. We got closer and closer, its size and beauty becoming more apparent.  We turned down the road toward it and realized it was the waterfall Seljalandsfoss, and it was breathtaking.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve had this fascination with waterfalls and have always wanted to find one that I could walk behind. I’m not sure why this was so appealing to me, but it turns out it’s as amazing as I had dreamed. I spent probably 20 minutes behind the waterfall, just gazing at it and feeling its spray.

I didn’t want to leave, but other people were starting to show up and I knew we had a ways to go still. So we kept going, counting around 30 more waterfalls (mostly small ones) on our way. But then we saw Skogafoss from the road, another stunning waterfall, so we stopped in.

There were stairs that led to the top of the waterfall, so we eagerlystarted climbing. Our appreciation for how big Skogafoss was heightened pretty quickly as we had to stop and breathe for awhile about 3 times on the way up. And we’re in pretty good shape.  Eventually, we reached the top and looked down. It was beautiful.

But did we stop there? Nope, we decided we needed to climb further to get views of as much of Iceland as we could.

My feet were exhausted, but seeing miles and miles of black sand beaches in the distance kept me going.

I finally had my fill and started the journey back to the bottom.  We headed straight to our new home after this to meet our new host. He gave us some suggestions of places to check out nearby, so we headed out again to Dyrhólaey, a nature reserve up on some tall cliffs, formerly a volcanic island, to view waves and bird life. It was unreal up there. The ocean was so violent with the strongest waves I have ever imagined crashing into the cliffs, shaking them and sounding like thunder.

We could have stood there all day, but we saw a lighthouse on the top of a distant cliff and decided to try and find it.

We hopped in the car until we found a road that said “Impassable”.  It didn’t look impassable though, so we turned our little car up the steep hill and drove to the top. It was the lighthouse.

And I felt like I was on top of the world. I pretty much was.

Eventually, we headed back down to explore the ground a bit. We found a road that took us straight down to the beautiful black sand beaches of Vik.

We walked along watching the tumultuous waves crash ashore, leaving white foam behind on black sand.

The sun was setting, so we headed home for the evening.

If you go to Iceland, drive the south coast.

On my fourth day in Iceland, I had plans to drive around the whole of the Snaefellsnes peninsula. Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night to incredibly high winds and rain. I checked the weather, and it told me there would be rain and 40-50 MPH wind gusts most of the day. Because of this, we chose instead to sleep in and head into Reykjavik again later in the day.

This time driving into town went much more smoothly, so I was able to avoid a heart attack.  We walked around downtown and stopped in shops that looked interesting.  We looked at the menus for all the restaurants to see what sounded best/affordable and settled on a cute restaurant in the middle of the city. One thing we have noticed about Iceland is that they know how to present their food.

Afterward, we continued on and found a cute bay with plenty ducks, geese, and pigeons to keep me entertained for awhile.

We walked around the bay to see the ships and the concert hall, and decided to head back afterward.

It was still early so we decided to try and find Krysuvik, a geothermal area. Unfortunately, our GPS led us to a muddy, gravel road that drove up through mountains, so after awhile, I chickened out and asked Anthony to turn back. But not before we got this view:

The weather cleared off though, and we decided to explore the land around our house for awhile and spend the rest of the evening in the hot tub.

Lesson learned- When visiting Iceland, it is always possible that the weather will get in the way of your plans, but it will not get in the way of having fun.