Iceland Pt.1
This post is all about my recent trip to Iceland. Below is a word for word account taken from my Field Notes detailing the trip. This is part 1 of 2
4th May Iceland Trip
Day 1
Really early morning start with panic as we have next to no petrol in the car. It’s 3am on a bank holiday and we have to drive all the way to Luton. After getting really angry with myself and cursing in a hushed voice, we cross fingers and hope that somewhere is open. Obviously somewhere was. Relaxed and with Slaney in tow we headed for Luton. It wasn’t long before Slaney and Frank were nodding and I was pulling at my eyes to help myself stay awake.
Parked up and shuffling through the airport we boarded the airplane in rapid time. The torturous chat of the couple and lone traveller behind us made it equal parts entertaining and very fucking annoying.
Eyes closed until the approach to land where we flew over bright blue water dotted with swatches of white. Landing was smooth and the shite was still spewing from the people behind us. The cold hit upon exit and we made our way to Budget to pick up the car. It is here that we would learn that Icelandic customer service is painfully slow and mind numbing.
Suzuki Swift at the ready with a full tank of petrol we headed from Keflavik to Reykjavik. The drive was fairly straightforward and we parked outside where we were staying that night. Our first stop off was for a coffee at the must-go Reykjavik Roasters. It was surprisingly affordable for a capital city and the quality of coffee.
The city seemed almost deserted as we made our way down to the waterfront. The wind was whipping real hard against our face and left a slight stinging sensation on our cheeks for the next few hours. Faces chapped we headed for more coffee and pastries at Sandholt Bakari. It was a very cute place to hand out before heading to our air b’n’b for the night.
More coffee and napping before getting our arses in gear and making our way to Strava for a huge serving of bread bowl soup. Dillon Whiskey bar was somewhere I had wanted to go and was recommended as a top dive bar in the capital. Johnnie Walker Red was the choice of whisky for happy hour so we made do with that . The whisk(e)y selection was pretty damn good, but as expected it was all priced far out of our budget.
We talked and walked our way across town to kill some time before the next happy hour at Bjarni Fel. The TV screens were showing a crunch match of the local football teams. My attention was taken by the Arsenal V Hull highlights. A long detour back home to get our head down for a fairly early start.
Day 2
Back on the road we drove to the Blue Lagoon. It took what seemed like forever to get in (was actually only 40 minutes) but it was well worth it. The whole experience was surreal. The drastic difference between the geo-thermal heated water and the ripping wind drove home the point of land of fire and ice. It also induced shrieks and shrill cries from people getting out of the lagoon.
All primed up and skin tightened we headed towards Selfoss for snacks and supplies. I was able to stop in the middle of the road to take pictures while lying flat on my stomach. The traffic just seemed to be non-existent. At Selfoss I picked up some dried fish, a bit like fish jerky. Frankie and Slaney were than joyed with the stench it gave off.
We gave up looking for the liquor store and headed to the horse farm where we had planned to stay that night. The trust map got us there safe and sound (fuck Google maps). After the tour of the farm from our top host (the wife of whom was from near Edinburgh) we got to see the world-famous Icelandic horses. Shortly after we headed down to the river and the quicksand beach to take some photos. In the distance we spotted a house which we later learned was on its own huge island and functioned as someone’s very personal and private getaway.
With the timelapse set up on the GoPro to capture the sunset (very disappointing results) we watched Mean Girls. Frank and Slaney were extremely shocked when they realised I hadn’t see the movie all the way through. After watching You, me and Dupree we set alarms for 1am to try and get some photos of the starry sky while we were so remote. It turns out even in the dead of night, Iceland doesn’t really ever get dark once out of the winter.
Day 3
Frankie had whipped us all up some killer breakfast to satisfy us on the way to Seljalandfoss. Staring blankly at the horizon we spotted a beautiful stretch of water with a wide waterfall. This was Urriðafoss. More water flows through this waterfall than any other Iceland. It was also a huge breeding ground for sea trout and salmon.
Awe-struck we continued on with the aid of our map. The size of Seljalandfoss got us excited and really pumped to walk behind it. Standing at 60m it is very rare to get a view from the rear of a waterfall of this size. The only problem was that it was far to icy to get anywhere near the back of it. Needless to say we were a little disappointed but happy to make it at least partway round.
We carried on walking the path past another nameless waterfall to Gljúfrabúi which stole the show. It was masked from a distance by a huge wall of rock. I climbed up to the right of it and was able to view it from the top down. It wasn’t until Frank and Slaney told me that you could walk through tge cave opening at the bottom and jump across the stepping stones to see it in all it’s glory from the base. The sound was really unique due to it echoing in the hard surfaced chamber of awesomeness.
Chucking our clothes onto a picnic bench to dry out we took in more of the surroundings. Huge mountains and volcanoes dotted with isolated houses painted all different colours. Red roofs seemed to be the fashion for most buildings.
Loading back into the car we made our way for the very isolated village of Hali. We made another unscheduled stop in Skogafoss. Double rainbows and a thigh-burner hike in the bag we pushed on to Hali and passed Jokulsarlon glacier on the Golden Circle. Isolated and peckish in Hali we made a 120km round trip to Hofn. It was the nearest place to get food and petrol together. The sunset was full of all the colours painting silhouettes on the mountains and flat barren land.”
Part 2 can now be found here.
Thanks for reading,
AJY
Here is what I was listening to on Spotify while writing this -
