As for my third and final vacation of 2013, I visited Iceland with my buddy Eric, the land famous for it's ice as well as it's fire. It is relatively still a very young island compared to the rest of the world and is regarding nature and peace a top country to visit for anyone!
We hired a Hyundai Tucson 4X4 in order to do a Fly and Drive session, making a full circle around Iceland's main road simply named as "1". As my first Scandinavian country, we were constantly surprised of nature's different landscapes every single day.
From glaciers to lava fields, from black beaches to mountains, Iceland's picturesque visuals are constantly stunning, even during winter, the lesser popular time to visit, but in our minds arguably the best time to do so.
As we started in Reykjavik, we drove to Akureyri in the north and along the way stopped at Þingvellir National Park,where we saw a waterfall, cliffs, fissures and it's home to the world's longest running Parliament.
When it became dark, which happened around 16.00 PM every day, driving to the north turned out to be challenging, when a snowstorm occured and the roads became slippery while occassionally cars would pass us by. Cars would usually only pass us by once per hour.
Iceland is indeed very small regarding population, actually the city of Utrecht could fit into it. Arriving in the north at Akureyri, we liked the town more than the capital, but there was not much time for citytrips, our next course lay ahead!
Departing from the north, we went to Lake Mývatn after hearing about lava fields, birds and more being situated there. Passing by Egilsstaðir, we stopped at our next location in Fáskrúðsfjörður, at an Icelandic family's guesthouse(Elin and Hermann), who were exceptionally friendly, helpful and social.
We had another day here in the east, so we decided to explore the fjords, see some interesting spots and take a look at Henkifoss, one of many beautiful waterfalls being active here in Iceland. After an evening of discussing Iceland's current actual topics including economics, trade, history, religion and culture, we embarked towards the south the next day.
Going through more eastern fjords, we stopped at Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon, one of the highlights for anyone travelling here. At this place, I foolishly made some pictures while my right hand was naked and exposed to the very cold air sweeping here, which resulted in excruciating pain and I almost had the first symptoms of frostbite upon me.
Having my lesson learned, I never packed in colder for the rest of the journey. Stopping by at Vatnajökull National Park, we learned of what was available to do here. Our main interest was the ice cave, but we had to travel further south towards Vík í Mýrdal before returning here for this specific tour.
We would stay in the south for 3 nights. On the second day, we explored the Falljökull ice cave, translated as Glacier Fall. As another of our personal favorites, we were astonished by nature's magic working here through the thick ice laying around.
The next day, a very heavy blizzard was happening only in our area, which resulted into cancelling our activities for this particular day, as snow had already fallen down as high as 1 meter, and it was impossible to move even with a 4x4.
Luckily we anticipated this, calling it a buffer day. After this, we left the south and along the way stopped at many terrific waterfalls including Seljalandsfoss and Faxafoss before we experienced the most famous tourist attractions of Iceland, which are Geysir and Gullfoss.
Gullfoss was mesmerizing, while Geysir wasn't showing much at this geothermal field. It's little brother called Strokkur on the other hand was the main show around here, erupting roughly every 5 minutes, but the field was nevertheless interesting for smelling like rotten eggs and having bizarre land growing around.
Staying at Selfoss inside a lovely cottage, we were very impressed by the owner's kindness and this was frankly my favorite night of them all. On our final day, we wanted to visit another cave, but this turned out be stuck with a lot of snow fallen inside, rendering it unable to explore it.
Instead, we went to the famous Blue Lagoon spot where normal tourists would first go to after landing in Iceland, but we decided to save it for the last. After that, we visited Reykjavik one more time, and then it was time to fly home after a long roadtrip.
With remarkable everchanging landscapes, unbelievable friendly people, memorable landmarks and unpredictable weather including hail, snowstorms, blizzards, mist and sunshine, Iceland is ideal for anyone who loves nature and wants to have a quiet yet warmful adventure.
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