The Land of ICE

There are 4 words that come to mind when I think of Iceland now.

Cold. Expensive. Windy. Deceitful.

 Weather.com said the forecast was 50 degrees… but I think they forgot to factor in wind chill because my hands and feet were numb the whole time! It was seriously so freezing. It was funny though because it is their summer time now and we passed a festival where kids were playing on a slip’n’slide while I wished I would have packed a hat and gloves.

Couch Surfing!

I expected everything to be more expensive in Europe, but I’m pretty sure Iceland is even more expensive – especially when it comes to gas. A tank that would normally cost about $40 to fill up, cost about $150! The restaurants were also very expensive so we opted to buy a few groceries at the local food store, “Bonus” instead. We tried a few local snacks and some Icelandic fish. The hotels and car rentals are also very pricey, so I’m glad we found a fellow Couch Surfer to stay with in Keflavik and he happened to have a car rental business and cut us a good deal. Many thanks to Gints and Irene! He also gave us a map which included a fun tour of the southwestern peninsula. We traveled from Keflavik to Blue Lagoon to Grindavik and then back up.

Gulfoss Waterfall

Iceland has spots of great beauty but a lot of it is really ugly and desolate. Some parts looked like another planet, full of rough brown

Blue Lagoon

and gray rocks leftover from a past volcanic eruption. My favorite part of Iceland was the coast with cliffs and crashing waves. I also enjoyed the many waterfalls. They have a lot of thermal pools and hot springs that reminded us of Yellowstone. We visited the most famous, Blue Lagoon, which is like a giant natural hot tub. Apparently this “geothermal spa” is world famous for having special natural minerals that cure skin ailments. It was relaxing and really beautiful!

Hiking to the falls

Funny story: we were looking on our map and there was a star with text that said, "the tallest waterfall in Iceland." I thought wow, we better see this. So we navigated ourselves to the point but then once we arrived it said the waterfall was a 3km hike.  I thought hmmm... I'm not really dressed for a hike (ballet flats and a dress coat) but I decided what the heck, it can't be that bad. Oh my, was I wrong. This was the hardest (and scariest) hike I've ever been on!

Tallest Iceland Waterfall

We literally had to rock climb up a mountain, shimmy across a log, and crawl through a cave. The worst part is that once we finally arrived at the waterfall, it was half blocked by a cliff and wasn't even that great. It was quite the adventure though and I'm lucky my husband is so patient and optimistic. Otherwise I might have had an emotional breakdown. At times I thought I wouldn't make it out alive.

I did love flying on Iceland Air. They gave us fleece blankets, pillows and delicious Icelandic water. They also had TVs with movies, music, TV episodes, games and trivia. We learned a few fun facts like the Prime Minister’s number is in the phone book, the highest percentage of restaurants are hot dog stands, 60% of the population lives in the capital, Reykjavic and half the population believes in elves… I joked and said maybe it’s because they’re so close to the North Pole.

Reykjavik

I guess one cool thing about Iceland is there are so many hours of daylight! The photograph of this sunset was taken 15 minutes before midnight. It was nice because then we were able to see a lot more and still have good pictures. It was weird though because my mind didn't think it was time to sleep, it felt like 7pm.

Will I go to Iceland again? Probably not.  The only reason we went in the first place was because our flight was delayed from Iceland to Germany due to a recent volcano eruption. We did enjoy the tourist attractions like Blue Lagoon and the Golden Circle (despite the fact that we were greatly disappointed by their famous Geyser. The brochures said it put Old Faithful to shame and this is definitely false. While the Iceland Geyser erupts more frequently (every 4-5 minutes) it only lasts a few seconds. 

All in all…Iceland was a fun adventure, but I think the few days we spent there are enough for a lifetime.