Day 4, Part 1 — The Eastern Fjords
It seems that each day that passed we did more and more things, and I shot more and more pictures. On Day 4 we took to the Eastern Fjords, deviating from Route 1 so we could take our time to skirt the mountains and enjoy the beautiful landscapes of the fjords. The day started with us waking up early in Seyðisfjörður and heading to a gas station for some coffee. We drove around the village for a while to check it out because of how beautiful it was.
Soon we left Seyðisfjörður, climbing the mountains that separate it from the rest of Iceland. As we went up it started to snow, a reminder of how mountains have some crazy weather patterns. After being back on route 1, we deviated and headed to the Fjords. To reach the Fjords we crossed a large mountainous area that makes up the Fjords. Driving through mountains is one of the best things of Iceland, and luckily, it is very common.
A lot of times you read some thinkpices telling you to slowdown to really feel the place you are in and the view. In Iceland we didn’t have much time to do this, but at least for me, that wasn’t really necessary. Sure it would be nice to always stop when you see something beautiful, but in this case it was impossible. The best thing of Iceland then is that you don’t need to stop to feel it. The feeling you have is always the same. You’re always seeing something amazing that leaves you in a perpetual state of awe. Stopping, walking, driving slow or fast. It’s always there.
Of course, sometimes you just have to stop. My point is that this thing of traveling slow and whatever these illuminated travel experts say is great, but for most people, impractical. Yes, I would love to stop in every village and every set up viewpoint on the side of the roads in Iceland but I don’t have 3 months to stay there. Traveling in Iceland is expensive, even when you’re sleeping in a car, eating bread, cheese and tomatoes you bought in a supermarket and cheap gas station coffee. We had 7 days, and we tried to make the best of it.
As we got out of the Eastern Fjords in the south, we headed for Höfn, a small town in the southeast corner of Iceland. Before it we took a small unpaved road that skirts Vestrahorn because I had saved a place on Google Maps there, but couldn’t remember what it was. I still can’t. We ended up not knowing where we were going, but found some cool Icelandic horses on the side of the road so we stopped to check them out. They are very calm and friendly, and came closer to us when we reached the fence keeping them out of the road.
After this quick stop we headed to Höfn, where we had lunch. We tried the famous Icelandic hot dog. Pretty OK if you’re hungry and don’t have much money. We had some coffee as well to keep up, because we still had half of the day to go.
