Icelandic Road Trip Diaries | Northern Ireland

June 9, 2015

Icelandic Road Trip Diaries | Northern Ireland

Gap Striped Shirt (similar), Gap Black Overalls (similar), Madewell Chambray Shirt (similar), Timberland Authentics in Burgundy (similar)

After spending a night in Akureyri, we continued our drive further west to explore more of the north. On our way out of the city, we couldn't help but stop by a little, orange lighthouse in the neighboring town of Svalbarðseyri. We all scrambled up to the top of the lighthouse like a group of maniacs because at that point we were just so used to climbing everything we saw in Iceland that it just became second nature to want to conquer this little guy too. But it didn't come close to the next time we climbed...Goðafoss.

LIKE, JUST LOOK AT IT. If anything in this world was to be my home boy, Goðafoss would absolutely be my home boy. You were able to climb all over the rocks along the side of the waterfall, as long as you were willing to jump over random streams of water to get to the edge. Just sitting on the rocks and listening to the roar of the water crashing, nothing could really beat the peacefulness of it all. The enormity of it all. Imagine living close enough to just stop by for a quick nap or just to read a book.

To wrap up our relaxing day, we stopped by the Mývatn nature baths, which is right around the corner from Lake Mývatn, which was created by a large lava eruption over two thousand years ago. In my opinion, this was incredibly more enjoyable than the Blue Lagoon (which we went to our last day) since it was smaller, less crowded, and less congested with tourists. Also, talk about that view from the springs. Swoon. We stayed in way too long and ended up looking like raisins from head-to-toe.

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Icelandic Road Trip Diaries | The Long Drive Along the East

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. 

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Icelandic Road Trip Diaries | Southwest Iceland

June 6, 2015

Icelandic Road Trip Diaries | Southwest Iceland

Forever 21 Denim Jacket (similar, similar), Urban Outfitters Black Loose Knotted Tee (similar), Black Dress c/o Lulu*s (similar), Urban Outfitters Garter Tights (similar), Timberland Burgundy Authentics

Day number three found us driving all along the southern coast of Iceland, from our airBNB home in the town of Hella to the southern-most town of Vik. Our first stop was Seljalandsfoss, which is a waterfall along the ring road that you can actually walk behind, which was insane to experience. By the time we got back in front of the waterfall, a few of us who ventured all the way down were pretty soaked from head to toe. But dude, absolutely worth it.

As we kept going further down the ring road, we decided to pass on seeing Skógafoss, since some of our group members were tired of chasing waterfalls. Luckily though, it was visible from the road and even driving by it from a distance was glorious.

Speaking of driving though, let's talk for a second about the lack of cops during our entire road trip around Iceland. Living in the NYC/NJ area, I'm used to keeping an eye out for cops around literally every corner and behind every tree; but I guess the fact that only around 320,000 people live in Iceland (which is only about 4% of New York City's population), it's essentially a waste to have cops roaming around. This also caused me to get a little too road happy passing every single car I came across.

One of the coolest things we saw during our trip was definitely the wreckage from the United States Navy Douglas Super DC-3 airplane crash landing. The plane was forced to land on Sólheimasandur’s black sand beach after experiencing severe icing, but luckily all the crew members survived so the abandoned remains weren't haunted. To get to it, we had to drive 10 mph for a good thirty minutes since the unmarked road was covered in rocks and rough gravel (should have invested in that 4WD), but it was worth it just seeing it finally come up over the sandy horizon.

Toward the mid-afternoon, we finally arrived in the beautiful, little Vik, a small city of only around 300 inhabitants. Even though it's such a small city, it's still the largest settlement in the area known for its black sand beaches. We made our way to the beaches to check out Reynisdrangar, which are basalt sea stacks coming out of the ocean.

Icelandic legend says that the stacks originated when two trolls dragged a three-masted ship to land unsuccessfully and, when daylight broke, they became needles of rock. They are also susceptible to lots of penis jokes, and I didn't disappoint in that department, being a mature adult.

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Icelandic Road Trip Diaries: The Golden Circle

June 2, 2015

Icelandic Road Trip Diaries: The Golden Circle

Joe Fresh Faux Leather Moto Jacket (similar), Gap Black Overalls (similar), Red Oversized Plaid Flannel c/o Sheinside (similar), Timberland Burgundy Authentics (similar)

After finally getting some shut eye after the day that never seemed to end, the ten of us headed out of our hostel and toward the Golden Circle. The Golden Circle is a popular route that tourists take, featuring a bunch of beautiful landmarks conveniently close-by to Reykjavik. We figured, since we were tourists, there was no way we were going to pass that up; also, it was relatively on our way toward southeast Iceland.

Our two cars accidentally split up once we left the city center and my group ended up taking a good number of detours before getting to our first stop. I mean, if you're going to be as ridiculously good looking as Iceland, even the most mundane things make you want to stop and even the smallest mountains make you want to run to the top.

Eventually, we made our way to the first stop, which was Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, shown above. It features a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Adlantic Ridge, which is where the Eurasian plates and North American plates separate. So I was pretty much in both Europe and North America at the same time, which was what I got out of it. It's pretty geologically breathtaking as well when you realize the majority of the ridge is underwater. So the ridge was pretty much like, "Ayo, Iceland, I'm coming up...just for you bro."

After taking a quick pit stop at Efsti-Dalur II for some incredible homemade ice cream and some horseplay (har har), we reunited with the other car and made our way to Strokkur Geyser. Strokkur is one of the largest and most famous geysers in Iceland, erupting up to 40 meters every 5-10 minutes. My favorite one was the "Little Geyser" though because, even though it didn't erupt half a meter, it tried ever so hard to keep bubbling and bubbling. It's the effort that counts. Also, it's the smell that counts, because no matter what the size, every single geyser had the beautiful smell of sulfur. Strong, egg-like, sulfur.

Our last stop of the day was Gullfoss, which translates to Golden Falls. It's known for it's sheer power due to the multiple directions the waterfall flows before it finally crashes down and vanishes into the depths of the earth (which is the craziness going on behind me). Back in the day there were even talks of using it to generate electricity when it was privately owned, but now it's protected by Iceland.

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