Glorious South Iceland

My wanderlust self never felt so happy to be in 1 place as it did by the time we arrived at our house in Vik in the heart of southern Iceland. We had been on the road a lot and packing and repacking each day for a few days. While that is necessary to see a lot of places, it is also emotionally and mentally taxing. We were all excited to be able to settle in to our house for 3 nights. We went grocery shopping and unpacked all of our crap, I mean luggage, from our car and pulled out the map to see where we would be exploring the next few days.

                                           

Southern Iceland is the mecca of outdoor adventure in Iceland! Our first stop was Jokulsarion Glacier Lagoon! We got up close and personal with beautiful ice blue glaciers laying on a black sand beach. It was such a cool experience to listen to the waves crash over the glaciers just like the waves crash on the shore of my beach at home. Boats take travelers out in the lagoon for a fee, but I personally preferred my free walk along the shore.

       

       

      

      

As we drove back toward Vik, we had to stop to take pictures of the field of purple lupine. We had seen this flower everywhere from the time we left Reykjavik, but between the glacier lagoon and Vik was a huge field of lupines with a breathtaking view of the snowcapped mountains.

      

Vik was a much smaller town that I thought it would be, but it had a little bit of everything. We stopped at the Iceland Wool factory and shopped for locally made wool items and peaked in the factory then we drove up to the beautiful red roof church sitting on the hill overlooking Vik. The purple lupines decorated the front lawn of the church and the church cemetery on a higher hill provided beautiful views of Vik and the beaches in the distance.

      

Once we saw the black sand beaches in the distance we new we had to go out there! The rock formations that are out in the water are called Reynisdrangar. This was honestly one of my favorite places and experiences throughout our journey. I was born and raised a beach girl so nothing revives my soul like sitting on a beach and watching the waves come and go. I laid down on the black sandy pebbles and let the realization sink in that I was half way across the world laying on a pure black colored beach. God created this beach in Iceland just like He created my beach in North Carolina. What a moment!

      

                     

Day 2 in Southern Iceland brought clear blue skies and sunshine! Hallelujah! We were determined to find the abandoned airplane we had read about and we knew it wasn't far from our house. We followed the directions and found a small sign that confirmed we were going the right way even though we questioned it as we entered the gates to a black sandy field. We followed the tire tracks until we finally saw our destination. In 1973, a U.S. Navy plane crashed on the beach when it ran out of fuel. Everyone survived the crash and the plane remains where it landed during the crash. There were a couple of other cars out there exploring the plane with us, but we were able to climb in and on the plane and take some great pictures.

      

      

      

Summer had been anticipating our next stop since we began planning our trip...mighty Skogafoss! This waterfall was incredible and we were lucky enough to see a double rainbow at the base of the falls. 

                                 

Since our house was so close, Summer stayed at Skogafoss to climb to the top and take more photos and the rest of us went on back to the house to organize all of our mess and rest. On our way back to pick up Summer we stopped at a little coffee shop that turned out to be a really cute quaint local restaurant. We had coffee and a coconut curry soup that was to die for! Morgan, Shelby, and Summer went off to explore 2 more waterfalls and I definitely regret not going, but I couldn't take more car time. Their waterfall was in a cave and even though they got soaking wet, their pictures were incredible!

       

                                     

          

    

Day 3 brought my most anticipated activity...snorkeling! Now I know you're scratching your head wondering why and where would we go snorkeling in Iceland...between the tectonic plates of the continental divide, of course! We had to adorn lovely dry suits that were not the least bit flattering, but they kept us semi warm and dry as we plunged into 30 degree water. It was such as amazing experience to be able to see clearly down at least 70 feet in the water! We saw a lot of coral and rock formations and seaweed floating around. 

                                                       

   

After snorkeling, we basked in the sunshine in Pingvellir National Park and enjoyed laying in the grass napping and talking before we loaded up for our last car ride and our last night in Reykjavik. 

    

Our last night in Iceland had to be done right so we showered and cleaned up nicely and prepped for our last night on the town! We wandered the city until we found a nice restaurant that looked appealing. We feasted on fantastic seafood and recapped our trip. It was a clear night so we were anticipating an Iceland "sunset" so we stopped for coffee and dessert at The Laundrymat to keep us energized to stay up late enough to watch the sky change colors. We had all read different blog comments about The Laundrymat and it was definitely worth going! It was a fun environment with fabulous coffee milkshakes! 

                      

  Summer had been talking about the Sun Voyager and I had no clue what she was talking about until we arrived at the beautiful sculpture by the water. The sculpture was situated perfectly to capture the sun set between the forks. We sat on the rocks by the water and watched the sun move diagonally in the sky toward the horizon. It was crazy to be watching a sunset at 12:30am, but we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful end to our last night in Iceland! 

       

       

Our journey through Iceland was nothing short of a glorious adventure. We pushed ourselves outside of our comfort zones, survived hostels, driving crazy roads, living with minimal wifi, and sharing 1 bathroom for 10 days. We survived and new friendships were made as we explored God's creation in the Land of Fire and Ice. 

        

  
Photo Credits: Shelby Goione, Morgan Leatherwood, Summer Saunders, Christina Hawkins

Northern Iceland and Waterfalls

Saturday was not only day 4 of our road trip, but also the 4th of July....pretty easy to remember, right? We began our day like a true local of the Westfjords...fearing for our lives as we drove along the edge of cliffs. We knew we had a long day of driving ahead of us to get to Akureyri so we began the day with a beautiful waterfall located about an hour from our house in the Westfjords.

As we embarked down the dirt road we quickly realized it was going to be another nauseating cliff side drive when we saw these signs far to frequently -

         

This little blue sign means "rollercoaster ahead", at least that's what we determined it meant after we took our first stomach rolling drop a little too quickly. Our fear-filled car ride had a gorgeous reward waiting for us that made us forget (somewhat) about the journey to get to the waterfall. 

          

Dynjandi had 7 tiers and you could hike up to each level if you didn't mind a shower, but I can't imagine it being anymore beautiful from the top than it was from the bottom! We spent an hour at Dynjandi soaking up the sunshine and having our own 4th of July celebration.

                                    

          

We braved the treacherous drive back up the mountain and along the cliffs of the Westfjords. Our drive went much faster since we knew we had already survived once. We felt like pros and I blew dust in the faces of the scared slow tourists...who were driving just like we had been less than 24 hours prior. 

Our 4 our drive to Akureyri didn't feel too bad once we got on highway. We arrived in Akureyri around 6pm and checked into our hostel, Akureyri Backpackers Hostel. Now this was what I envisioned a hostel to be like! We were located in the heart of the town and the hostel had a restaurant on the main floor and the bedrooms were located on the 2nd and 3rd floors and the showers and laundry facilities were in the basement. Our room had 3 sets of bunk beds and our hall had sinks and toilets. It reminded me a lot of the Clemson dorms I stayed in. We had dinner at the restaurant downstairs and it was fabulous! We went to a couple of gift shops after dinner and then went to bed early since we were leaving early the next morning. 

        

                                     

We woke early Sunday morning for another long day of driving, but this day held promise of several gorgeous waterfall stops! We wandered Akureyri after breakfast and I wish we had had more time to explore! Akureyri was such a cute town! It's the largest town in northern Iceland and it's a great base for those wanting to explore the nearby area. We saw a cruise ship in the harbor and there seemed to be a lot of activities and nightlife. 

       

                                  

                                 

       

When we finally loaded up in the car and left town, we began our day by....getting lost...for an hour and a half! We obviously hadn't had enough coffee because we thought nothing of the one lane dirt road we were on until we saw signs for a state park. I took a 10 point turn to go back to Akureyri where we saw where we went wrong...we were too distracted looking at the cute houses and we missed the sign that took us across the harbor and in the correct direction. 

                                    

Our first waterfall of the day was my favorite, Godafoss. Godafoss is a horseshoe shape similar to Niagara Falls and you can get much closer to Godafoss than you can Niagara Falls. We walked around both sides and it was absolutely breathtaking! 

                                

                                     

     

We kept driving East and our next stop was full of anticipation because Summer and I had read about Dettifoss and it was supposed to be spectacular. We drove for over an hour down the deserted highway and when I say deserted I mean empty! Few cars, no buildings, and only black dirt and rocks. Out of nowhere we saw a geothermal pool just as blue as the Blue Lagoon! It was so beautiful! This geothermal pool was not conducive to swimming but we stopped to take pictures. We kept driving down the isolated highway until we began to see more cars and even large motor coaches. Where did these people come from!? Finally, we pulled into a parking lot for Dettifoss...but I still didn't see the waterfall...or even hear water! We had to hike 15-20 minutes down to the view point. We definitely knew when we were close! Dettifoss was huge! We couldn't walk to all vantage points of Dettifoss, but we still had a spectacular view!

      

                           

                                 

We continued driving toward Eglissadour, our town for the night. We rented a house through Air BnB and we had a full house to ourselves! After being in a hostel and small cabin-like duplex, it was exactly what we needed! We picked up frozen pizzas at our always reliable Bonus grocery store so we made dinner and settled in to our large living room for movie night. Watching The Notebook in English with Icelandic subtitles was just as good as watching it at home! Momma Summer treated us to a wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs...Icelandic bacon smells just as amazing as at home! 

      

Another long day of driving ahead of us took us to our most anticipated destination, Vik, in South Iceland. We were in the car for over 7 hours and by the time we arrived we were all a little tense and tired of being in a car by the end of the day, but our reward was our cute house in the middle of a field where almost everyone got their own room for 3 nights! 

       

 Photo Credits: Christina Hawkins, Morgan Leatherwood, Summer Saunders

Beyond the city to the Westfjords

Friday morning, July 3, we picked up our rental vehicle I had arranged through Auto Europe and loaded our many bags into the SUV and hit the highway to drive North toward the Westfjords. I drove and Summer navigated with a paper map...yes, you read that correctly, a map not a GPS. We were determined to explore like real adventurers! We were advised to shop at the Bonus grocery stores because they were less expensive so we stopped at the first one we saw outside of Reykjavik and stocked up on snacks and lunch because no roadtrip is complete without snacks.

                          

 

As we drove the roads got a little more winding and steeper. We saw sheep and horses along the side of the roads and endless amounts of purple flowers. Several hours in to our drive, we reached the top of a hill with a breathtaking view of a valley and lake. With no other cars in site, we parked and jumped out to take in the picturesque view. It was in that moment that it struck all of us that we were really in Iceland! We were no longer in just another large city, but we were embarking on a journey through the Land of Fire & Ice! 

                                       

         

         

      

Our excitement quickly turned to nerves as we hit the gravel road of our first fjord. Let's get this clear, I am a flat land beach girl not a girl who is used to driving up and over curving roads without guard rails! My grip on the steering wheel was at a white knuckled 10 & 2. I wouldn't dare look over the cliff I was driving on in fear of losing my Bonus bought lunch out the window. 

                              

   

We breathed a sigh of relief as we slowed through a beautiful valley with a field of horses, purple flowers, a home, an absolutely beautiful church. We knew we had to veer off to take pictures of the scenery. As we were peeking our cameras through the fence, 2 little boys ran toward us. They asked us what we're doing and they asked if we would like to see the church...not just see it but go inside of it. We all looked at each other a little leery of following 2 Icelandic boys, Marcus & Oliver, into an empty field and little church, but we shrugged and said "when in Iceland" and followed the boys up the dirt road toward the church. They were so excited to see friendly people they chattered the whole time. We learned their parents were not home at the moment and they were ages 8 & 11 and go to school about an hour away from where they live. They moved to the area just a few years ago for their Dad to pastor the church which apparently fills up every Sunday. The boys were proud to show us around the farm area and even picked up the dead sheep that eerily greated us at the gate. Oliver, the oldest, opened the large doors of the church and we wandered inside the tiny building. Marcus ran up the loft stairs to show us the bell tower and Morgan and I followed him up to peek out. They showed us the pulpit and the organ and let us take pictures and they even asked us to sign the guestbook. We took a group selfie after they closed up the church, thanked them and drove off as we breathed a sigh of relief that we survived a potential CSI episode.

                                       

                                       

                     

We braved the remainder of the fjords and finally arrived at our first Air B&B accommodation. Summer and I found us a small house in the Westfjords where we had 2 bedrooms, a sleeper sofa, bathroom, and small kitchen. It was nice to spread out a little bit after being in the hostel. 

        

We drove up to the only restaurant in town for dinner then thought we would venture to the first waterfall nearby. We encountered another death defying dirt road and as Morgan sailed over the hills we all decided we may have had enough near death experiences for the day so we stopped and spent time at 1 smaller waterfall and took a group picture to prove we survived the day and headed back. Iceland has roughly 21 hours of sunlight during the summer months so we didn't expect to see any sunsets on this trip, but God surprised us with the Icelandic version of a sunset so we stopped along the lake to take pictures of the color changing sky.

         

                                    

            

Photo Credits: Christina Hawkins, Morgan Leatherwood, Summer Saunders, Shelby Goione