September 9th... Icelandic travel
Well flying into Iceland was beautiful, the moon was reflecting off the endless ocean and bits of northern lights could be seen from the plane, but arriving was a little less majestic. Coming off the plane it was pouring so everyone was soaked by the time we got to the terminal. I got through security no problem, but realized once I was out that Reykjavik, the capital city, was about 45 minutes from the airport. Being that it was only 6am at this point I wasn't worried. I jumped on a bus and headed to Reykjavik.
I got to the capital and the rain continued to pour so I quickly cut my original plans to hitchhike north and set up camp right in Reykjavik. By the time I walked to the campground it had been about 30+ hours of no sleep, so I took care of business, set up the tent and had a nap.
I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Reykjavik, seeing the museums, art shops and funky downtown atmosphere. Reykjavik was by far more musical city than I expected. Bands playing outdoor gigs and record stores on every block. Supper that night consisted of almonds and fruit juice, right before I had an early night.
The next morning I woke up at 8:25, five minutes before the bus I had booked the day earlier left. Unfortunately my phone died in the cold weather that night so my alarm never went off... So I jumped out of my tent, pants barely on to catch my bus just as it was rolling away.
We headed south, complete opposite of my original plans, headed towards Vik. We made stops at 2 of the most famous waterfalls in Iceland and saw the black sand beach. The black sand beach was quite insane, waves a good 10ft high were crashing on shore, and when I first arrived an unusually large wave crashed on shore and almost took and old man for a ride. Wouldn't want to surf in those conditions!
On the bus ride back we had to take a small detour down a quad path because the main highway was closed, so after crawling around for 30 minutes in the bus, joking around about getting stuck, we finally made it back to the highway and home.
That night was a long one, it hailed so when the weather finally calmed down I manage to sleep in till after noon. So with not having a ton of time to do anything out of town I hit Reykjavik once again. I had lunch at the Chuck Norris Grill, which is highly recommend if you ever make it to this part of the world! From there I hit a few more museums, volcano, northern light and I even stumbled up the penis museum... Didn't stay there very long.
On the walk back to the campground, the wind picked up and it went wild. It topped out that night at 76km/h with gusts up to 120km/h. Safe to say, not a lot of sleep that night either, but it lead to some cool conversations with a few people whose tents broke down that night. All of us wet and cold we hunkered down in the laundromat, telling stories for the rest of the night. And I was even honored to take a shot of Icelandic vodka with a true 7th generation Viking! Not something that happens every day. Now seeing it was already 5am at this time I figured I’d get a head start and walk the bus depot while it wasn’t stupidly windy… well oops I was wrong, ended up stopping at a bus stop to strip down and change into some clothes that were a little more waterproof. From the bus depot I went to the world famous, and part of the top 25 wonders of the world, Blue Lagoon. It was quite nice to relax in some hot pools and saunas after the cold last couple days.
Now we catch up to where I am now… sitting, waiting for my plane that is leaving 12 hours from when I am writing this. So now not having eaten anything except a few fibre bars in the last 24 hours I will try to conserve heat and energy by having a That 70’s Show marathon on Netflix with the free Wi-Fi here!
Cheers all! I’ll have photos up soon hopefully!
