Iceland - Day 1

 Saturday June 10, 2017

Our flight landed in Reykjavik around 6:30 am; neither one of us slept much on the plane ride over so it was kind of a rough morning. The airport was nice, but honestly looked abandoned! Hardly anyone was there. They also had us get off the plane on the tarmac and then bussed us over to the terminal. Interesting. John disembarked the plane in shorts and a t-shirt haha. He dumb.

The rental car place took about an hour, after which we tried to stop at a Bonus grocery store just down the road, but it was about 7:30-8:00 am at the time and the place didn't open until 10 am on Saturdays. We decided to drive on to Selfoss (about 1.5 hours away) to hit up the Bonus there. The drive over was pretty fun. We immediately felt the "emptiness" of the country. We kept saying, "where are all the people?" The best part of the drive was just how epic everything looked. I mean seriously, it was ridiculous!

Saw an IKEA on the drive and freaked out... idk why

We pulled up to the Bonus in Selfoss at 9 and decided to sleep for an hour in the parking lot until it opened. 2 hours later.... haha! Funny Story: both of us were still a bit foggy as we were shopping and I think it took us about 2x as long for that reason. We also ended up purchasing some weird things. The biggest mistake was made by me, I grabbed some orange marmalade for our PB&J sandwiches thinking it would be fun to try something different. BIG MISTAKE. Orange marmalade may be good, but it is NOT meant to be used with peanut butter. By the time we got Groceries and were on the road again it was almost 1 in the afternoon. Oops.

Found a perfect spot to keep our Icelandic snacks!

John: "lock and load" haha

Our first stop was Seljalandsfoss and Glufrabui, two waterfalls within walking distance of each other. The first waterfall was pretty big, but also quite crowded. There's a walking path that takes you behind the waterfall and we decided to do it. I mean why not am I right? We both got kinda soaked, but were prepared with our rain jackets and it was cool being back there. Totes worth it.

Seljalandsfoss

If you look closely you can see me behind the falls looking at the camera

Looking out from behind the falls

It was pretty cool back there

From the other side

Glufrabui, the "hidden" waterfall, was our favorite though. Not only were there less people around, but there were some paths that allowed you to climb up around it getting some sweet views of the falls and the surrounding area.

Gljufrabui

Nice people took our pic. It doesn't show the sheer drop offs on either side though. I was nervous.

View looking out from the scamper to the "top" of Gljufrabui

Someone had also strategically placed rocks at the bottom of the falls allowing you to make your way "inside" the waterfall without getting your shoes wet. We almost didn't do this (not seeing the rocks) but then we saw someone come out just as we were turning away and decided to give it a go. Man we were not disappointed. It was so pretty! Words and pictures don't do it justice.

Looking from the outside in; it doesn't look like you can get in there without trudging through the water right?

Gosh it was pretty in there!

Even walking back down the path towards the parking was amazing. There were "little" waterfalls along the way, and the views. Can't get enough of all the amazing views!

View from the pathway back to the parking lot

Our second stop was Skogafoss, another waterfall. This one was pretty crowded as well. The waterfall was really big and the riverbank on the bottom allowed you to walk right up to it if you wanted. We got fairly close, but were getting pretty wet, so we decided to take the stairs up to a platform overlooking the top of the falls.

Made him stand there for way too long and he got soaked haha! sucker.

The stairs were a bit strenuous and helped thin out the crowds of people (we weren't sad about it).

The overlook

View from the overlook at the top of the falls

The platform was still pretty busy though, so we decided to continue walking up the path that follows the river at the top. This little walk turned out to be our favorite part. We got some crazy good views and pretty vistas from up there. #noregrets

Saw this poor couple trying to take a selfie with a DSLR camera, so we offered to go tradesies with them.

I mean whoa

Looking back down the trail we had hiked up.

After the waterfalls we continued on Highway 1 heading east for our next stop. (Pro Tip: if you plan your trip months in advance you kind of forget what each destination is allowing you to be surprised each time. It's totally awesome.) On the google map I had made a few months ago for this trip and we had downloaded for offline use while in Iceland, there was a pin kind of in the middle of no-where indicating Solheimajokull (a glacier). I couldn't remember what there was to do there and the roads didn't look too promising, so we decided to skip it and go to the next stop, Dyrholaey Arch. But, as we were driving to the Arch, we saw a sign for the road to the glacier and some people driving down it, so we flipped a U really quick and decided to take a peek. We followed a winding road to a parking lot with a trail that led to the glacier face.

We were both really glad we made the decision to flip around and check it out. It was pretty spectacular looking, and the first time either of us had gotten that close to a glacier. We walked about halfway down the path before turning around; it seemed like each time we'd come to a bend in the trail the views would get just a little bit better and we'd have to keep going (this became a theme for the trip). Eventually we picked a final turnaround point in the distance and stuck with it.

Like I mentioned before, Dyrholaey Arch was our next stop. This is some sort of Puffin nesting site and in my research I had read that the roads were closed at times to protect the birds. We weren't quite sure if we'd be able to make it there, but decided to try nonetheless. Luckily the roads were still open because this turned out to be the highlight of day 1. We went up a side road that took us to the top of a bluff along the beach. The road required 4x4 vehicles and was a bit sketchy without much space to pass cars coming down. There was a nice little parking area at the top though with maybe 5 cars up there. To the right of the parking area was a ridge with steep cliffs dropping off to the ocean and beaches below. It was pretty windy up there, but man was it breathtaking! We had the area basically to ourselves too, which is always awesome.

The top of the ridge looking towards the parking area and lighthouse. We're on a cliff edge like what you see in the background.

Look close and you can see John

Still on the ridge to the right of the parking area, looking down the beach in the other direction.

To the left of the parking area was a pathway leading to a cute little lighthouse and the cliff view of the arches. Sooooo pretty! The path took a big loop around the bluff and we followed it along until it took us back to the car.

View from the pathway towards the lighthouse and the arches

Cool arches. It took John a full minute or two to realize there were two of them haha

I'll be honest, as we were driving up everyone in the cars around us continued on the main road and I thought we should follow the crowd, but Google Maps told us to turn and we decided to trust The Google. You win Google, you win.

After spending time up on the bluff we went back down to the main area where the majority of the tourists were. There were some little walkways down there that gave some pretty good views of the crashing waves and beaches, but nothing compared to what we got up top. So, we didn't end up staying down there for long.

Isn't it ridiculous when this view isn't one of the cooler ones?

Our next stop was Vik, the little town where we'd be spending our first night. The campground was pretty much in the center of town, and Iceland has cute road signs directing you to all the campgrounds, which came in handy. We paid our fare (about $15 per person) set up our tent, made dinner, and then took off to see Reynisfjara, the black basalt beach.

Love those black sandy beaches

The beach had very cool rock formations, but we were pretty tired, so we didn't stay long. Just long enough to scamper up the basalt columns for some pictures and walk down the beach a bit. Then it was back to the campsite for a shower (cold!) and bed.

On the way back these cute little sheepies crossed our path

It's true that the sun never does set there in the summertime, but something you don't read about is that because the sun never goes down, the stupid birds never shut up either. I'm sooooo happy I brought ear plugs and an eye mask. #blessed

The campground

View from our campsite. Not bad eh? 

Funny things:

• At the black basalt beach there was this girl, who had to be 12-14 years old, who had managed to get her mom to take "sexy" pictures of her in the water. OMG, we were dying.
• We pit stopped at a gas station during the day to top off the tank (diesel is awesome! We only had to full up once basically), use the restroom, and grab some supplies. John accidentally ended up spending FIFTEEN dollars on 4 bottles of water. The same amount of money we paid for gas. HAHAHA totally ridiculous.
• We listened to soundtrack music basically all day as we were driving cuz it's like we in an epic movie

Sidenote: I was a bit worried about using Google Maps to navigate as I had heard it's not very reliable in Iceland. But, we decided to test it out on day one. There were a few times it was a bit wonky, but if you're somewhat competent and paying attention to road signs and basic driving rules it should work just fine for ya. We ended up not purchasing a map and just using the app for our whole trip and it worked out splendidly!