The Land of Ice

No picture will ever compare to the breathtaking views Iceland has to offer.

Landing at the airport to rain (typical Iceland weather) starting a new day when ours should have been ending thanks to the time change, we grabbed our rental car and headed for the highway with no plans, no sleep and no expectations.

Iceland is nothing and everything I thought it would be. The landscape is so vast, sweeping and unique, every corner uncovers new things to see. You have mountains on one side, ocean on the other and an open road at your fingertips.

Our base plan was to drive around the country, dip into the West Fjords and head home. I think I could have stopped every ten minutes to take pictures if we had time, but I had to settle for many out the window or we never would have gotten anywhere. Starting from the airport, we headed to our first stop of the trip, Seljalandsfoss waterfall between the main cities of Reykjavik and Vik. This amazing 60m tall waterfall allows you to get a 360 view from a walkway that leads behind the falls. From there we continued counter clockwise towards Vik and our first stop for the night.

 Reaching the town of Vik, we took a nice stroll to explore the famous Black Sand beach. There was definitely more tourist in these areas towards the south, but nonetheless, didn't take away from the view.

After lots of walking, we headed to our guesthouse for an early night and well anticipated sleep after not sleeping for over 24 hours. A cute little guesthouse with four rooms, a shared kitchen and bathroom greeted us with mountains towering over this small building. We woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and stoked for the adventure ahead. Hofn, a small city along the ocean was our next nights stay, at a beautiful guesthouse called Litlaybi. Such kind staff, small yet comfortable rooms and even a farm dog made this one of our favourite accommodations of the trip. Hofn sits right below Vatnajökull National Park, that takes up almost a third of the country. We passed views of large glaciers, waterfalls trickling from mountains and amazing glacier lagoons. They offer hikes up close and personal to the glaciers, and even glacier walks if you're willing to pay.

Now let me tell you, we were prepared, but could we have been more prepared... always.

Iceland in May is still cold.. little to our knowledge there was more snow than anticipated, but we should have known. It is called ICEland for a reason. Thankfully, we brought hats and warm sleeping bags so we got by. With our sleeping mats and sleeping bags set up on the folded down seats of our rental , we pulled into an empty campground and prepared for bed to await the next mornings adventure.

A few days before our trip, we booked last minute spots on a whale watching tour in a small fishing town on the north tip of the country. Never having seen a whale before, I had high expectations but I was not disappointed. What an amazing experience to be able to see these magnificent creatures swim past. It's hard to understand the sense of scale when you see 1/8th of their body.

Slowly making our way up back down away from the coast, we stopped in Myvatn. My non existent knowledge of the complicated language that is Icelandic pronounced it just as its shown, but apparently correctly pronounced mee-vaht. Who knew! Such a cute little town but man does it smell of Sulfur. Nature baths with blue water, heated by thermal within the earth are known to have that lingering sulfur smell, but the experience and beauty of these natural pools outweighs the smell 100%. Clouds of smoke billowing from the ground creates this mars like atmosphere (or what I image Mars to be) as you feel like you're on another planet. The people say you get used to the smell but I wouldn't want to.

Our guesthouse in Myvatn was owned by this lovely older couple who had multiple guesthouses along this road with horses, sheep and cows. Individuals bedrooms made us a small guesthouse with a shared kitchen and bathroom. Sometimes its great to experience these small hostel like settings for a chance to meet people from other parts of the world seeking the same experiences. We met a lovely couple from Germany who booked their trip 3 weeks in advance. The spontaneity of it sounded so fun.

From Myvatn, we headed towards the western part of the country with no real destination of where to sleep , only the West Fjords in mind. A small town in the West Fjords called Holmavik with a free campsite and bathrooms seemed like the perfect place to camp for the night. This time we weren't alone as a few others car campers braved the cold as well. Preparing for our drive into the Fjords came with so many unknowns. What will the roads be, what will we see, where are gas stations, what will the the weather be like. I read before going that the West Fjords is unlike any other part of the country that takes time to tackle. With many, many inlets and winding roads up and down mountains, the drive is more difficult than that of the flat ground experience on the ring road of Highway 1 as its called.

Despite the slightly rougher conditions, it was some of my favourite parts of the trip. Our guesthouse we booked in the small town of Flatleyri called Litlabyli was a small house with 4 guest rooms. Oddly, we were the only guest staying there so we had the whole house to ourselves to cook dinner and relax. Not a very popular tourist town in the colder, off season months.

From Flatleyri, we headed deeper into the Fjords around countless more inlets to reach our final destination of Reykavik. The 8 hour drive was long, but road snacks and the sheer beauty of the country made it easy to just gawk out the window. We found the West Fjords to be sparsely populated, from the residents to the tourist. We felt like the only outsiders willing to venture into this part of the country. The roads took up from the valleys of the mountain and up to flat snowy ground meant we were truly on top of the mountain. To be expected , these mountain top roads had lots of snow and questionable safety measures. With no guardrails and a road barely wide enough for two cars we came across a few vehicles, undoubtedly the locals wondering who was crazy enough to venture to these parts of the country. After a few hours of sketchy roads, the snow started to slowly disappear as we headed slowly out of the Fjords and closer to the capital city.

Reykavik is a beautiful capital city,  large in population (for Iceland standards) with 123,000 people. Though its a large city, the roads and buildings still make it feel quaint, comforting, with a european feel.  I wish we had more time to explore more than just one day, as we were catching our flight the next afternoon. We went out for a nice dinner, and after sleeping in the car and small guesthouses the whole week we decided to treat ourselves to a nice hotel on our last night. Packing in early, we climbed into bed and dreamt that we could stay in this magical country forever.

If i can say anything about Iceland, its unexpected and wonderful in all the best ways. We had nothing short of an amazing experience from the beautiful landscapes to the kind and welcoming people. I plan to go back many more times in hopes that i can experience more of the details that make Iceland the unique country it is.

P.S. If you would like to see more of our adventure, you can click this link. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/GlSzl4oMVtQ