June 7, 2015
Icelandic Road Trip Diaries | The Long Drive Along the East
Madewell Plaid Flannel (similar), Joe Fresh Faux Leather Moto Jacket (similar), Levi's Denim Leggings (similar), Obey Navy Sweatshirt (similar)
The next day we had a ton of driving to do; approximately 12 hours of driving, calculating in the number of random stops we would be making along the way for pee breaks and driver swaps. Due to the tight schedule, we weren't able to stop by Vatnajökull National Park for any glacier hikes, but we made up for it by making a pit stop at the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon at the southeast edge of the park.
The lagoon formed from Breiðamerkurjökull glacier when it started receding from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean into the lake you see here behind me. (Also, how many more unpronounceable words can I throw at you guys before the end of this post?)
One of my favorite little pit stops that we made was along the Eastern coast; we found a random pull-off along the ring road surrounded by fog and the sound of waves crashing and there was no way we weren't going to step on the brakes. Within seconds of stopping the car we were all climbing on different rocks and running on the black sands in all directions like crazed animals. Living in the city really makes you ravenous for beautiful open spaces. The cliffs were particularly green and moss-covered which made for a really pleasant climb and I could have stayed laying there for hours.
A few hours later, we stumbled upon the most breath-taking (literally) view any of us have ever seen in our entire lives. Leaving Höfn, as we kept going straight north, we decided to take Route 939 and cut through a mountain pass instead of staying on the ring road since both directions would lead us to unpacked roads but the mountain pass would cut the time down. Dude, no exaggeration when I tell you both of our cars were just screaming our heads off in pure joy. Actual screams echoing off the mountains. We drove so far up we could stick our hands out and graze the snow-capped mountains, which we absolutely did like a bunch of idiots. And then ensued more screaming when we saw the waterfall above and proceeded to scramble out of our cars to scream while standing. Photographs could not even come slightly close to capturing the insanity of those ten minutes but I damn well tried.
The rest of the journey up to our airBNB locations up north (we had to split up since there weren't many available houses to fit all 10 of us) consisted of random stops just like the previous ones. We pulled over to jump over barbed wire and creep over abandoned bridges for brilliant views and to touch the untouched. I could have done this for the rest of my life, you guys. Life never felt more right.
But just as I was about to give Iceland a 5/5, we stopped by some bubbling mud pits and let me tell you, that was no field of daisies. If you took the smell of sulfur and then amped it up twenty more times, this would be it. My gag reflex was having quite the field day. But regardless, it was still nature being a bad ass so I couldn't be mad.
