It is always a risk to re-connect with someone you once were happiest with. It might be the best thing that could ever happen to you, taking you to the moon and back, or it might come back biting you harshly in the a**, because you forgot to account for how much the two of you may have changed, forgot or just plainly got lost in a bubble. Or both. Or sometimes neither.
My case? The jury is still out on this one.
Either way, it took me to Iceland and that is just as good as it can get. Or at least this is how I am going to tell the story. My side of the story.
It all started with a 3h15min flight from Copenhagen to windy and significantly colder Keflavik airport and picking up our car from Hasso company [no advertising intended, but I will say that it is a cheaper option than most of the companies in Iceland to rent a car, we did not have troubles on the road, so I cannot comment on their help line, the car (clutch not so much, but I mean, it‘s a rental car) was in good condition and spacious enough for the two of us. It could have easily fit more people, but as I am the kind of girl who finds it difficult to travel with even one more person than myself [Steffany excluding], this was just the two of us.
And so we went. We crossed Reykjavik without stopping, because the plan was to leave it for the last day [depending on time, as nature things are preferred by both of the people in the vehicle] and took a turn towards Snaefellsjokull and the surroundings. We stopped on a way for an expensive [what isn't in that part of the world] Icelandic lunch, stopped on the way a few times to take pictures of the scenery, which is quite different from the usual landscapes you are used to and arrived to the Londrangar cliffs in water.
Moving forwards we stopped at a `baby volcano` that you can climb up to the crater. Not to disappoint you, but since this is a super old baby volcano, there is no water in the crater, nothing, just a little hill with a weird top, but already all covered in grass. Then we saw a waterfall and our curiosity `so is it coming from the lake or from the river` won and we went to check it out. A quick detour to cross a small river, a little climb up and ... it was the river.
I had a room pre-booked for our first night stay as August in Iceland is a high season for tourists and I felt that at least the first night we deserve to be sleeping in beds and not in the cae, so after all that days‘ excitement, we settled for the night in Olafsvik. Not to insult the town [I can hardly even call it town], but it was a tiny fishermen village that had like two streets and not much else. Even not much people in the streets. There were two `restaurants` open for food and one outdoors kiosk, but that‘s about it. Also, the place we were staying at had a self-check in. So even less interaction with actual human beings.
That night we went out for some beers and dinner in one of the two open places. I have ordered mussels and they were really good. Local too, so except for the fact that it was way too small and too quiet of a place for anything, it ended up being a quite good night.
The second day was basically just driving from Olafsvik to Akureyri [unofficial capital of the North] and stopping on a way wherever we felt like we wanted to stop. The landscape kept changing every few kilometers, making it an interesting drive.
Once in Akureyri we faced a little problem – everything is booked and where the hell are we going to spend the night. So we took a beer in the bar with the Wi-Fi and started searching. After a while everything fell into places – we found a sleeping place, we found a happy hour bar [completely empty though. Weird] and even a place to eat that was not bad. We also went for a little walk around the old town of Akureyri, but it is so small, that it only takes a few minutes. We even visited their botanical garden, and even though it is nice and tidy, unless you are just passing by, do not go specifically for it to Akureyri.
Day Number 3 was supposed to be quite good and I believe it delivered. First stop – Asbyrgi canyon/national park. After around two hours of driving in the morning we got to the parking spot, which takes you a pretty well made path and walks you through the `forest` to the little lake and then from there around 10 minutes little ascending path to the view of the full canyon. It was a nice sunny day and the canyon was beautiful, however according to my travelling partner, he was expecting it to be something bigger, as it was on the `10 things you must see while in Iceland`.
After a quick stop at the store for some food supplies we got on the road again and started going towards Dettifoss waterfall which is said to be the most powerful in the Europe. Since this is a more popular destination with tourists we met quite a few people there, plus the marked paths where to go so you don‘t end up killed by the waterfall. It‘s not Niagara, don’t get me wrong, but this was definitely one of the better ones I’ve seen.
We checked this place off the list and headed towards Krafla – the old’ish volcano that erupted in the late or early 80s [I can’t really recall anymore]. So first we went to see the crater and then we walked around on the old black lava, which, if you look at the horizon, is everywhere in that area. Whatever the eruption it was, it modified the surroundings for sure.
From there we took a very quick detour to the other side of the road where you can find those tiny ponds, kind of looking like small geysers and smelling like rotten eggs. We climbed up a little hill to get a better panoramic view and slowly walked back to the car. Next stop was supposed to be Myvatn lake and the thermal baths there. But once there, it looked more like a warm pool than anything so we decided not to waste time and/or money on it and better go to the Blue Lagoon. It might be a little more expensive, but at least it’s bigger and from what I’ve heard, better experience.
Unfortunately nowadays you need to pre-book Blue Lagoon and when I tried to do so, it was fully booked. We even tried calling and asking about it, but apparently there are no walk-ins anymore, so on this level we were screwed. Did I want to go to the blue lagoon? Sure I did. But was I going to cry about it? Probably not. I’m sure thermal baths are great experience, but I could definitely live without it.
So after not experiencing the thermal baths in Myvatn, we drove to Egilsstadir for the night. The town itself kind of has nothing much in it to do or to see, even not so many places to go and eat, so we picked one that was not fast food, had to wait a little to get seated [no wonder when that is the only affordable okay place in town] and had lobster dinner. I took pasta, Sascha took soup and even though my stomach was not sure how it felt about it, it was really good food and really nice place.
We spent the evening back in the guesthouse and went to sleep quite early as the next day was supposed to be a long one.
The morning started with a visit to a shop and a quick 40 minutes’ drive to the Litlanesfoss waterfall [waterfall is probably not necessary here as `foss` most probably means that already]. It wasn’t very busy with people and the further we went the less people were there. It was a nice hike through the rocks on the little river to almost the base of the waterfall. Sascha went ahead quite fast and at some point I gave up, but then I saw this French family over taking me and I thought to myself – if they can do it, so can I. Not longer after that I stepped on unstable rock and my foot went to the water, to which I could only respond in curses, as it made the rest of the walk much harder while being all much more slippery now. But it was worth it. The waterfall itself may not have been that great, but coming so close to it and not have crowds of people around – this is what you are going for after all.
After that we drove quite a bit the coastal roads enjoying the scenery which was, once again changing quite often. And we drove as close as we could to the Vatnajokull glacier’s one of the tongues – Flaajokull. I read somewhere that this is the one you can get as close as possible without the tour and tour guide and special gear, so we went for it. In the beginning it look weird, since there was no people, no signs, nothing there, just a little drive path. We drove as far as we could until we hit the fence and it was still quite a walk to the glacier, but since we were there, we went for it.
It's a simple easy walk in the beginning, then a little rocky at points where you could see there probably used to be a path to walk on, but the slide of the rocks kind of `took over`, but all manageable and after ~45 minutes we were close enough to touch the glacier. It was dirty and black, so did not look anything like the one in El Calafate, Argentina, but on the other hand, we did not meet a single person while walking up to it, or from and even not a single person while we were walking along the glacier on very unstable rocks for the cleaner ice, so it had it’s own charm that I enjoyed. We had to give up on finding the clean part of the glacier, because it was simply not even visible and the climb was getting more and more challenging, we turned back. And in a way, I really liked this glacier. That black colour gave it a special `spice` that made is all so more exciting experience.
Quickly after that we came to what they call `glacier lagoon` - Jokulsarlon. It was full of people, but I could easily understand why. It looked like the views you could find in Patagonia or Antarctica [not that I’ve ever been to Antarctica], because they seem a little divorced from reality. And this being a late afternoon with sun falling down it gave quite an extraordinary and breathtaking view. There were even sea puppies [or seals, if you will] swimming around, just a few meters from us.
That was almost the end of the day, except that we still had no place to sleep and every place we stopped on a way, phoned or looked up online was fully booked. I was starting to be anxious and worried about it, but Sascha, as always, was very chill. Hof, a tiny town with no more than 20 houses came to the rescue. We stopped in this small `guesthouse` that did not have much online visibility and I went in to ask if they had any space for the two poor us. It’s a family run business so I had pleasure of talking to almost everyone in the family. First the grandpa saw me in the living room/reception. He then went and called one of his grand-daughters and once I asked her about the room she went to get her sister. Sister was willing to help, but before answering went to get confirmation from her mom about the price. In the end we got the room and that meant we did not need to sleep in the car.
For the dinner we went to a fancy, only place around gas station/grocery shop/restaurant, which was closing at 9p.m. but the guy working there ensured us, that no one will kick us out and we can stay longer no problem. So it was beer o’clock and it was good. Mostly because I knew that we had a bed for the night.
The next day Iceland greeted us with a clouds and rain and we were not looking forward to get out and start a cold day. But we only had 2 days left, lots to do and even if forecast people were saying it will be raining non stop until our flights, we took off. First stop – yet another waterfall, except this one was full of colourful jackets and people, that it was kind of impossible to take a nice picture. But on a bright side, while we were there is was not raining in the beginning and then only rained a little bit.
Next stop – Vik, a little town that has grocery shops and black sand beach right next to it. In the beginning I just wanted to see the black sand beach, but soon we realized why it was so full of people – it was full of puffins. You know, those little penguiny kinda looking birds? Like this.
We walked along the beach and a little up the basalt columns and then drove up to the other side of the beach, with arc and even more of those little puffin birds.
Later on we decided to skip the old plane wreckage site, for one because it was a 4+4 km walk, and for two, because it was just a plane on a beach and for three, it was cold, rainy and windy. Instead we went to the Skogafoss waterfall and got a little rained on.
It was getting late’ish after that so we just drove to Selfoss town where we had a night booked and stayed in it. Our quick beer before we go out for dinner turned into a long one, especially because Sascha made a friend – a 45 year old divorced German, who was travelling around, so we sat there talking about a lot of things, mostly diving though, because this is what those two are really into. So by the time we finally got out and about to get some food, everything was closed – Iceland is apparently early birds‘ country. The only option without going too far, looking too much was KFC and for the first time in my life, I have tried KFC. It wasn‘t horrible, although I don‘t think I am coming back.
The next day greeted us with rain again – this was getting better and better, but then again, this was supposed to be our last day in Iceland and it was supposed to be a highlight of the trip since we saved the best for the last – better known as the golden triange. Off we went and stopped at the first place we had to pay to enter – an old crater or an old volcano with a `lake` at the bottom. It was more of a pond and it was more funny than anything, as it was small and not so exciting, but there was nothing left to do but laugh at the situation.
So we moved forwards and went for the Geysers. The first shot up was disappointing small `poof` and I was thinking, if that‘s it, this is sh*t. But then it brought up it‘s A game and suddenly it was almost what they promised online – a 20 meter shot up in the air of the boiling water. And we did not even stand at a wrong side where you could get sprayed with it.
Next stop – the last waterfall of the trip – Gullfoss. The most visited Icelandic waterfall and in a way you understand why – it is close to Reykjavik, it is fairly nice looking and has easy access to it. But if I am completely honest – I‘ve seen better. On this trip as well.
The last thing on the agenda and in the golden circle – Thingvellir national park, a place where tectonic places of the continents meet. It is very nicely made for people to access it easily, but I expected for it to look a little more spectacular. So we walked around, saw some people snorkelling where Sascha also wanted to dive, but decided against because of the required two days minimum time and insane prices and got into the car. Just in time, once again, because it started raining like hell about 5 minutes later.
We headed to our last stop – Reykjavik. After a little drive to the capital of Iceland we got a map from tourist information and we saw basically everything the girl showed us – a metal sculpture, cathedral and two main streets. And I am sure there are more and very nice spots in there, but it was getting late, we had early flights and still a little drive to the place where we were going to stay, so we went for some Icelandic food in cafe Loki and called it a day. We both had their tradicional meat soup, plus some herring sandwiches and 4 whale bites. They were tiny and I was grateful, because they were tasting super awkward and strange. They had this stron amoniac smell and taste that was not evaporating fast enough. Still though, I got to try whale [don‘t judge me].
And that was pretty much it. After dinner we got into the car, drove to the warehouse area of some small town close‘ish to the airport, dropped our stuff, went to sleep. Next morning we took the car to the car rental place, got dropped off at the airport, went through securities and it was it. I walked with Sascha until the passport controls, heard a little crack inside and he was gone. A few minutes later I got on my flight, took off and waved Iceland goodbye. I may never come back to it and who knows, I may never see Sascha again too, but something inside of me changed irreversibly and even though it was too much of chaos in my head at that precise moment, I knew that once that storm passes, I will have a much clearer view of my surroundings and what I need to do.
I may not have it all figured out, but both of them gave me a kick I needed and now there is no way back. It might be a disaster, might be a blessing, but before I try, I cannot know and therefore I cannot afford not to.
Off Topic
Somehow you got under my skin and it is scaring me to the fullest. You still have that effect on me and I don’t mind really, it’s just a pity that I lost that power. Everything changed so much that I am not even able to get close. Somehow I still feel like I needed this in order to continue. My scar have almost faded and I feel lost, because there is nothing left for me to hang on to. Almost nothing. I guess that means I need to let go.
But it’s so scary.
