Iceland - Day 2

Sunday June 11, 2017

We woke up early (around 7 am) so we would have time to make it to our 10:40 boat tour.  It was already so so bright, something we never got used to. It's just weird.

Typical driving scene

We missed a turn on our way to Jokulsarlon, but lucked out and ran into this guy...

….aaaaaannnnddd this guy

Just some more gorgeous waterfalls, nbd.

I mean how can you not pull over for that?

Or that?

Or this? It's just ridiculous!

As you can see, the drive to Jokulsarlon was awesome. We stopped too many times though and got to the tour check-in at 10:38! You're supposed to check in 20 minutes prior to your tour. When I gave the tickets to the lady she was like, "Ok you need to get on the boat now!" haha. Needless to say we were the last two to board. Perfect timing I guess you could say?

The tour was cold but sooo worth it. It was so pretty riding around next to these massive icebergs that had calved off from the glacier in the distance.

We got to hold a 1,000 year old piece of glacial ice. There's some sort of Icelandic proverb saying, "If you can hold a piece of ice for 8 seconds you'll have prosperity for 8 years." ...or something like that. So the tour guides gave us all a chance to try. Poor John got stuck holding it for about a minute because everyone else had already had their turn and he didn't know what to do with it haha. Sucker. Another cool thing they did was chop up some glacial ice for us to eat. It tasted just fine to me!

The best part by far was enjoying the awe inspiring views of the bay though. I think this ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip. I don't know, it's so hard to choose, this day in total was one of the best though.

After the tour we spent some time on the beaches of the bay snapping some pictures and such.

Then it was time to head over to Diamond Beach, just across the bridge. THIS may have been our favorite part of Iceland. Such a contrast between the black sandy beaches, the grey ocean, and the white/blue ice that had washed up on the shore. Plus if you walk down the beach far enough you can kind of get it all to yourself, which we love.

I just can't narrow down these pictures any more. Sorry not sorry for posting so many.

He caught me trying to be artsy haha

Please ignore our awkward pose

Fjallsarlon, the smaller glacier bay, and a simple lunch in the parking lot was next on the agenda. It was so SO windy there! John could barely get his car door open and at one point my hat blew off haha.

We totally had to lean into the wind as we walked and our clothes were flapping so hard in the breeze we could hardly hear each other talk. Probably the strongest wind I've ever been in.

It was fun to walk around that bay for a bit, but I think Jokulsarlon and the Diamond Beach stole the show.

Vatnajokul National Park was our last stop for the day. We planned on hiking to Svartifoss, a waterfall, and to the face of  Skaftafellsjokul, another glacier.

Luckily we chose to hike to the waterfall first, because it ended up being kind of lame. Horrible to say I know, it just could not compare to everything else we had seen that day though. The hike was crowded and all up hill too! Talk about a let down.

The one silver lining was at the top we ran into a cute old Asian man who didn't speak a lick of English but insisted on having me take a picture of John with the waterfall falling into his hand hahaha! He hated it, which makes this photo even better.

The ~3 mile hike to Skaftafellsjokul wasn't anything spectacular either, but once we got up close to the glacier it totally became worth it.

You can basically walk right up to the thing; so we did.

I don't know what it is about the glaciers here. They just seem so pretty! It has to be partly due to the contrast in colors. Nearly everything in Iceland is dark black rock and sand with mossy green. Seeing the white of the glaciers and snow is such a contrast to the norm, it totally stands out.

After Vatnajokul National Park we made our way to Kirkjubaer II campground for the night and the rest of the evening was spent setting up camp, eating, showering, etc etc etc.

Of course we had to pull over a few times on the wat to the campground to snap these pics.

These gorgeous flowers cover the landscape. SOOOOO pretty!

Funny Things:

• The showers weren't working in the campground before we left in the morning and people were FREAKING OUT haha. Soooo happy we showered the night before, even though it meant cold ones.
• Filling up with gas is such an ordeal! At some stations you have to purchase prepaid cards. John had to look up how much our rental car's tank held, do the math to figure out how much we needed, and then purchase the correct gas card. Not the best system.
• Trying to figure out how to get 300 Krona each for a shower that only takes 50 Krona coins. We first went to a gas station to see if there was an ATM. I asked the attendant, hoping ATM would translate, luckily it did and she was very nice and pointed me down the road to a bank. It gave us bills of course. We then went to the camp attendant who was able to exchange for coins. But turns out we did the maths wrong, so we had to go back and exchange some more haha.
• As we were lying in bed trying to sleep some Asians pulled up and started setting up their tent. It sounded like they were pitching it literally on top of us! We heard every word. I'm sure the tent amplifies the sound weirdly, because the next morning we saw that they weren't that close. But man, there were a few instances where it seemed like they were chilling in the tent with us haha!