Amazing experience!
(The official motto of our trip, to be thought of in an Italian accent ©)And here comes another minimally delayed travel article! I obviously had to finish the one about Tallinn & Helsinki first...
So basically just after finishing our exams, we treated ourselves with a trip to Iceland. As we had already booked the flights in February, when they were still somewhat cheap, at least I had always something to look forward to - post-exam life, you know. :P With six people and two cars, we explored Iceland for a week on a round trip. And that I mean literally: we made a full circle around the island during that week!
I'm gonna tell you a bit about Iceland first - which is not going to take too long, as I don't really know a lot, I have to admit -, but stay tuned, there'll be some really stunning pictures coming up!
Let's start with the basics: Iceland is a nordic (not Scandinavian) country. This is its flag:
(Yes, that counts as "basics" - seems like all the nordic countries are very fond of their flags. Plus, with the nordic cross and the colour scheme, it looks kinda similar to the Norwegian flag. Do not confuse.)
Iceland has a population of a bit less than 348.000 on an area of 103.000 square kilometres, so it wins the distinction "most sparsely populated country in Europe". For comparison: Germany has 357.000 square kilometres (factor ~3.5), but a population of 82.8 million (almost factor 238!!).
Of these 348.000 people, a bit more than 123.000 live in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. That's more than a third! Even more extreme: more than two thirds of the population live in the Greater Reykjavik region in the southwest of Iceland. So, basically, the rest of the country is empty. Fun fact: every Icelandic municipality that has more than 1.000 inhabitants counts as "city". :D (In Germany, everything below 5.000 is a village, and cities only start at 100.000...)
The official language of Iceland is Icelandic. Its alphabet has some strange letters like ð or þ, that we were struggling to put into the navigation. :P Other than that, it has some similarities with the Scandinavian languages, but is not close enough that the Scandinavians could understand them the way Norwegians and Swedes understand each other. That's a one-sided communication problem by the way: Icelandic people understand the Scandinavians - but that's because they learn Danish in school, I heard.
Also, if things are written in multiple languages, it's usually Icelandic, English, and Danish. I was wondering, why Danish though? And then I had to realise that I literally don't know shit about Icelandic history. Nobody ever mentions it in history class in German schools! (You most likely only hear about the country in geography class, due to volcanoes, hot springs, and glaciers...)
The answer: Iceland basically belonged to Denmark forever, as part of the Denmark-Norway union. From 1918 to 1944, it was an independent and sovereign country, but in personal union ruled by the Danish king. From 1944 on, Iceland has been a republic.
Iceland's currency is the Icelandic Crown (ISK). But don't let yourself be fooled: although it has "crown" in its name, it has nothing to do with the Scandinavian currencies. Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish Crowns are all roughly of the same value, with 10 Crowns being a around a Euro. Meanwhile Iceland: 1.000 ISK = 8€!
Oh, and you've probably heard of Iceland not only because of its landscape, but also because of football. Huh! (Presumably a Viking chant.)
Our Iceland trip!
We took the plane from Oslo-Gardermoen to Keflavik Airport, the international airport in the Reykjavik region (only the domestic airport is directly in Reykjavik). The flight took almost 3 hours, during which we crossed 2 time zones, at least now in summer, as Iceland uses Western European Time, i.e. Greenwich Mean Time / Coordinated Universal Time all year long (no daylight saving time, causing a time shift of not one, but two hours between Norway and Iceland).
At Keflavik Airport, we picked up our cars including extensive information on how to drive in Iceland (blind summits, one-way bridges, do not drive through rivers, and other fun stuff). After a short stop at the outlet of the Icelandic clothing store 66 Degrees North, where I got myself a rather expensive but necessary souvenir - a proper Icelandic rain jacket! -, we entered the road and basically stayed there for a week. :D
I'm gonna point out the attractions we went to, but naturally, there's also just gonna be a lot of road pictures. Like these:
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| Nice weather. :P |
Selfoss
We quite randomly stopped in Selfoss on the way to our actual destination because of this:
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| Still very nice weather. :P |
Didn't know it's actually the largest residential area in South Iceland - with 6.900 inhabitants. xD
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(I'm gonna add these lines to indicate the end of sightseeing stops, so you can prepare for more road photos.)
Seljalandsfoss and Gljúfrafoss
Our first actual sightseeing stop. We stopped for Seljalandsfoss, one of the touristy waterfalls in Iceland. Which you could tell from the fact that you had to pay for the parking area directly next to it. We took the free one that was a bit further away, where we were greeted by a puffin!
Side remark: we avoided paying for parking for the whole week.
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| Just follow the road to the waterfalls and try to not get killed... |
You can't see that on the photos, but it was extremely windy on that day. It felt like we were almost blown away.
And here we have: Seljalandsfoss! (I especially liked the rainbows at waterfalls! :))
A special feature of this waterfall: it falls down the rocks in a way that you can walk around it. Not without getting wet, of course - the investment into the Icelandic rain jacket therefore already paid off on the very first day. Prepare for a lot of blind shots - I literally couldn't see what I was doing since I had a million water drops on my glasses...
We headed for Seljalandsfoss, but actually, there are four waterfalls. Like Seljalandsfoss' little brother living in the shadow of its famous big brother:
If you follow the path until the very end, you'll find Gljúfrafoss (at least I think that's it?), the last waterfall. If you look for it, that is, because it's in a canyon:
Needless to say, we took off our shoes and put on our rain jackets again (really good investment!) and went in there!
Again, some quick blind shots, since I couldn't really see what I was doing... and didn't want to ruin my camera.
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Reynisfjara Beach
Reynisfjara Beach is a black beach made from lava. It does not have a Wikipedia article, but it's close to Vík í Mýrdal (yup, it really does have 3 strange letters), the southernmost village of Iceland. And it has basalt stacks which are called Reynisdrangar - they do have a Wikipedia article.
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| Hi sheep! :) |
Side remark: the whole country was full of sheep and especially sheep babies! ^_^ Same for cows and horses - I've never seen so many baby animals before...
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| Yup, that's accurate. Big waves are a thing. |
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| The basalt stacks |
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| Keeping a safe distance from the unpredictable waves. |
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From Reynisfjara Beach, we still had to make it back to our Airbnb for the first two nights. We had originally planned to stay at two different places to reduce the driving time from the sights to the accommodation, but the south of Iceland was basically booked out. So we ended up in a remote place in Stokkseyri. Or rather: behind, as our Airbnb was a bit outside of town. Finding it was a challenge in itself, as neither the GPS in the car nor Google Maps was able to show it. We found it between midnight and one in the morning, I think. It was a vacation home of a Reykjavik-based family - and "it looks like the beginning of a horror movie", was the first assessment of no. 1 of us to enter the house.
I wonder why... :P
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| Creepy dolls - with the Icelandic flag, of course! |
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| ... maybe with some photos of deceased people... |
Anyway, killer dolls might not be the only thing to prevent you from sleeping during the Icelandic summer. Think about all the light! I mean, it was still light outside when we arrived at our accommodation! To illustrate: these pictures are from around 1:30 at night!
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| One side of the house. |
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| Other side of the house. |
It. Just. Does. Not. Get. Dark.
I see why they don't need daylight-saving time in Iceland. xD
The next day (definitely not morning): random stop at a hydropower plant:
Generally, we went to destinations on the Golden Circle that day. The name is a marketing term, but it's quite accurate: if you want to see a lot of beautiful things, this route is definitely valuable.
Þingvellir National Park
Or Thingvellir, if your keyboard cannot deal with strange Icelandic letters. :P Þingvellir National Park is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site - thanks, Wikipedia, I really did not know that...
Uh, is that an elf house?
Elves under the name of Huldufólk seem to be a thing in Iceland, as sometimes even plans for building projects are changed when elves might live there. There's surveys that up to 70% of the Icelandic population believes in elves.
Öxarárfoss
- in Þingvellir National Park -
Öxarárfoss is a waterfall in the national park - and it's one of the main tourist attractions there. You can see that by the number of tourists climbing (and almost falling) on the rocks in the pool where you're not supposed to climb. And by the fact that you need to pay for the nearby parking. Unfortunately, the ticket machine wasn't working when we arrived. We were very sorry! :P
& nearby area - that should feature Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland.
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| And the Icelandic flag again, of course! |
Silfra
- in Þingvellir National Park -
In Þingvallavatn, there is a place called Silfra. It's a rift that is formed where two tectonic plates, the Eurasian and the North American one, meet. It's popular for snorkeling and scuba diving, because this is how it looks under water. And, I mean, how often do you get the opportunity of swimming between two tectonic plates?
We just made a quick photo stop there, since the parking situation was... uhm, exciting.
(Free) viewing platform
- in Þingvellir National Park -
And then, we went to an... alternative viewing platform, because the recommended one had the parking fee problem again. :P
Geysir hot spring area
Following the Golden Circle, this was our next attraction. The area is actually called Haukadalur valley, but I don't think anyone (any tourist, that is) would know it under that name. It's a geothermal area with hot springs (seriously hot, around 100° Celsius) and active geysers, with the two biggest being Geysir and Strokkur. Yup, the biggest one is actually named "Geysir", that's where the English term "geyser" and the German terms "Geysir" or "Geiser" come from. Plot twist: although this geyser gave the whole concept as well as this particular area its name, it's not the one that you'll see erupting when you go there. The geyser that erupts every 5 to 10 minutes (very dependable!) and makes people go "Uuuuh!" is Strokkur. Geysir rarely erupts nowadays.
An important thing to begin with:
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| Leave nature in peace! |
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| A weird combination of "fascinating" and "a bit disgusting". |
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| Strokkur erupting! |
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| Geysir: not erupting. |
What the pictures don't tell you: the smell in the whole area! Some people called it "The Smell of Hell", I prefer to describe it as rotten eggs - doesn't really make eggs more attractive to eat, does it? :P Anyway, it's the smell of sulphur that comes from the hydrogen sulphide gas contained in the geysers. When the wind turns and you end up being in the steam, it almost makes you puke. Amazing experience!
Gullfoss
When googling the places we went to for this article, I found out that we actually went to the three supposedly main attractions of the Golden Circle: the national park, the hot spring area - and this waterfall! We're so touristy... xD
Anyway, Gullfoss is a rather big waterfall. I also read somewhere that it is the most powerful waterfall in Iceland and even in Europe - but I think the credits for that go to another waterfall - just wait a bit, and enjoy the photos in the meantime. ;)
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| Size comparison: look at the tiny person on the left! |
As all the photos can't really capture the experience of Gullfoss, I tried to take a video. I hope it appears in the right orientation - my video player keeps playing it rotated by 90° ...
On the way back, even the sun came out, causing a rainbow to appear. :)
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| Sheep next to the road. :) |
Kerið
On the way back to our Airbnb, we casually stopped by Kerið, a volcanic crater lake that was created by a volcanic explosion. That was actually one of the few things we paid for - not for the parking, for the actual crater lake!
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| Translation: behave! |
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| You could also walk down to the crater lake. |
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| Sunset at around 22:40. |
Sólheimasandur plane wreck
I had no idea this was a thing, but ok. In 1973, a United States Navy DC plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the black beach at Sólheimasandur. Everybody on board survived though. The remains of the plane are still there, nowadays being a tourist attraction.A tourist attraction with a drawback: you cannot drive all the way there. There is a parking space with an info sign, but from there, it is still a walk of several kilometres to the actual plane wreck. Probably too many tourists got stuck in the sand with their rental cars...
(No idea how they came up with the 3-4 hours estimation though. One way took us no more than an hour, so the actual hiking time is two hours maximum. Plus whichever amount of time you spend there. Probably not two hours, since, after all, it's still just a plane wreck.)
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| Nothing... |
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| ... and a plane wreck. |
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(There's gonna be some more road pictures, because we went up all the way from the south west to the north east on that day.)
A glacier tongue - in real life, not just in geography books!! (I think it belongs to Vatnajökull.)
And then, after the glacier tongue, there was even a glacier lagoon.
Glacial lagoon
If I'm not mistaken, it's called Jökulsárlón.
And another video, for the whole picture:
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Somewhere after the glacier lagoon, we entered the mountains. And from there, the whole experience and atmosphere was somewhat magical. We basically went from bright sunlight to dense fog and back within seconds. Oh, and at some point, there was no paved road anymore, but a gravel road. Amazing experience - I was always torn between excited and scared to death.
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| One-way bridge. |
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| No winter service? I would not even go anywhere close to there in winter! |
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| Blind summit? We really got everything on that journey... |
Non-touristy stop in the mountains
Seriously, this was in the middle of the mountains, so there was basically nobody but us. But it was beautiful!
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We arrived at our Airbnb in Eiðar rather late, around 23:00. And that's another photo taken in the middle of the night, at 1:30.
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| So surreal. |
The next day, I had my personal "amazing experience!" - in a supermarket. We went to a supposedly "budget" store (for Icelandic standards, I guess :D) in Egilsstaðir. I mean, ok, it's the biggest settlement in the east, but I'm sorry, that's still only 2.300 inhabitants! And in this small place, a discount store (which is synonymous for "poor choice" in Norway, I learned in Strategic Management class) had this super-extensive range of vegan products:
In Germany, in a village of that size, you can probably consider yourself lucky if they offer tofu. And in Norway... never mind. Anyway, this amazing view of a supermarket shelf made me very happy. I guess there's hope for the future. :)
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| A quite good road picture, if I may say so. ;) |
Dettifoss
And here's the winner of the waterfall battle: Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Iceland and Europe with respect to water fall times fall distance. The area around is Vatnajökull National Park, which must be quite big.
You know you're approaching a major waterfall when... you can already see the massive rainbow before you can even see the waterfall!
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| Did I mention that I love rainbows? ^_^ |
Námafjall Hverir Geothermal Area
And then, we basically just came across another smelly geothermal area. :D Naturally, we stopped to take photos at Námafjall Hverir Geothermal Area (which does not seem to have a Wikipedia article - can't be extremely touristy, I guess...) as well.
The article I linked says you get used to the smell. I'm not sure that's accurate though. It's more about perfectionising the skill of holding your nose with one hand while taking photos with the other hand. :P
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| Or simply put: behave!* |
* Will keep the footprint saying in mind in order to apply it to a more positive context though.
Mývatn
Mývatn is a big shallow lake that is 2.300 years old. (Not so much) fun fact: the name literally translates into the lake of midges, referring to the enormous numbers of insects there in summer. We weren't aware of the meaning of the lake's name, but it couldn't be more accurate. We were basically attacked by swarms of midges...
Goðafoss
Goðafoss is, as you might have guessed from the ending, another waterfall! Iceland really has a lot of them! Its name means "waterfall of the gods" or so, but it does not seem to claim any superlatives (most powerful, widest, etc.) for itself.
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At some point, we drove through something that felt like an actual city. I mean, it had traffic light - heart-shaped traffic lights! Quick research yielded that it can't have more than 30.000 inhabitants, however...
A short stop for the horses:
And a quite nice view at our Airbnb in the middle of nowhere in the north east of Iceland (Varmahlíð):
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| Slightly rural area. |
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| Just a little bit. :P |
The water of our slightly rural Airbnb had a bit of the hot well "rotten eggs" smell, by the way. So some of us decided to not shower there and go to a public swimming pool the next day. So we drove to Hofsós, which felt like "going to town", but it turns out it also has only 200 inhabitants... Never mind, it had a swimming pool. And by that, I mean: outside pool!
Amazing scenery, isn't it? The swimming experience was quite unique, too. On that day, it was super windy and therefore a bit cold. But the swimming pool was heated to something above 30 degrees, so we were basically busy keeping as much of our bodies in the water and occasionally diving full body, including our heads, which were exposed to the wind and cold most of the time. So much for my plan to not get my hair wet... There was also a second pool that was even warmer (37°, I'd estimate) and that was not for swimming, just for hanging out. Very relaxing. :D
Impressions from Hofsós:
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Reykjafoss and Fosslaug
Reykjafoss is - surprise, surprise! - another waterfall. It does not seem to be extremely famous, as it only has a Dutch Wikipedia article (I'm linking something else instead). Plus, it's not that easy to find, as Google Maps is quite misleading here! If you follow its instructions, you end up on some road, and at some point, you'll see a sign telling you something like: "Looking for the waterfall? Turn around and take the next street!" We ended up asking a local lady with horses. She explained to us how to get to the (free) parking. From there, you had to follow the signs and pass half a dozen gates to make it to the waterfall. And please do not forget to close the gates again, as there might be horses running around...!
But hey, we found the waterfall after all:
And we also found Fosslaug next to it. Wondering what that is? It's a geothermal pool, a hot spring just by the river! That's why there were so many people in the water: it's not like they were resistant to the ice-cold water of the river - the water was actually warm!
As I already had a cold *sniff* and my hair was still a bit wet from the swimming pool experience, I only put my fingers in to test the water temperature, but didn't actually go in there.
However, the others stayed in there for quite a while before we made our way to the next Airbnb ha, actually not. For this night, we had booked a hotel, because it was, for some reason, the cheapest option in the area...
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The next day, we went to check out the town. No, actually, we had a quite extensive breakfast first: breakfast included in the price + something vegan available = amazing experience! :D Then, we went to check out Ólafsvík, a town of about 1.000 inhabitants. Quite big for Icelandic standards. :P
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| Ólafsvíkurkirkja |
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| Hi cat! ;) |
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| The port. |
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| Oldest house - with the Icelandic flag, of course. :P |
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We drove a bit through Snæfellsjökull National Park, including a short photo stop for interesting landscape formations:
Saxhóll Crater
In the national park, you can find Saxhóll, a volcano crater that formed 3.000 to 4.000 years ago. You can easily climb it - thanks to stairs:
Rauðfeldsgjá canyon
Rauðfeldsgjá is a canyon/ravine into the mountains. The name refers to a tale of a family tragedy with a half troll. You can find the story here.
You can climb up in the ravine, but you need serious climbing, not only hiking, skills, so, yeah, no. I mean, going up there would have been challenging enough already, but getting down again? Hell, no.
Kirkjufellsfoss
Kirkjufellsfoss is another waterfall that only has a Dutch Wikipedia article. xD Kirkjufell, the mountain after which it is named, does have an English article though. Apparently it was in Game of Thrones at some point. :P
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Reykjavik
Afterwards, we headed for Reykjavik, where we stayed for the last two nights. Our Airbnb was a bit outside the city, and it was quite modern. However, it was quite obviously a family home. Check out my room. xD
We spent half a day exploring Reykjavik. Including its shopping street. :P That's where our impression was confirmed: Iceland is not really any cheaper than Norway... But never mind, I got kinda not-so-necessary stuff anyway - like socks with puffins on them for the fancy socks collection of a friend. :P
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| In front of a souvenir store. |
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| Huh? |
Well, and that's all we did in the capital.
- Just kidding, here's other stuff we did:
Hallgrímskirkja
Hallgrímskirkja, the church of Hallgrímur, is one of the landmarks of Reykjavik. And you can enter it for free.
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| Visible throughout the city, oh yeah. |
Dómkirkjan í Reykjavík
Dómkirkjan í Reykjavík is also known as Reykjavík Cathedral. Another protestant church that was open, yay!
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| Church of Iceland(ic flag), I see. :P |
A funny statue
It took me a while to figure it out, but this is a "Memorial to the Unknown Bureaucrat" by Magnús Tómasson.
Ráðhús Reykjavíkur
Ráðhús Reykjavíkur is the City Hall of Reykjavík. Wikipedia titled its article "Town Hall", but I think Iceland's capital is big enough to deserve being called a city. :P The tourist information is in the same building by the way. If you need a bunch of free maps or a free toilet...
Alþingishúsið
Alþingishúsið looks a bit absurd (the word, not the building), but it's just the Parliament House. "Alþingi" is the name of the Icelandic parliament.
Harpa
Does it remind you a bit of Operahuset in Oslo, too? Harpa is a big concert hall that also houses the Icelandic Opera.
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| Missing something maybe? |
Walk by the water
Sólfar
Sólfar is a steel sculpture by Jón Gunnar Árnason. Its name means "The Sun Voyager". Fun fact: people tend to think it's a viking ship, because, you know, Iceland, vikings, makes sense, I guess - but it's not. It's meant to be a dreamboat, an ode to sun, light, and hope.
Secret Lagoon
In the evening, we went to Gamla Laugin, the Secret Lagoon. That was basically our alternative to the super-touristy and extremely overpriced Blue Lagoon. Which I'm not gonna link; they get way too much attention anyway, and I'm sorry, but the price is already ridiculous.
The Secret Lagoon is the oldest pool in Iceland: it was created in 1891. The pool gets its 38-40° warm water from hot springs. And yeah, it was seriously hot. First, we were wondering why you would need a lifeguard in a pool where you can stand everywhere and that is obviously not meant for swimming. Well, probably because you might get dizzy and faint after a while. Before that happens, you should get out and take a walk on the path around the pool, watching the hot springs and geysers. Caution: 100° hot, don't jump in!
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Saying goodbye to Iceland with some more road pictures:
:)
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