Into the Iceland-verse
I capped off summer 2018 with a trip to Iceland with my high school friends! Most of this crew went to Waterloo for undergrad (while I went to Queen's). Shout-out to Cora for always keeping me in the loop with this squad, no matter the distance. The title of this blog post pays homage to the associated group chat, which is currently titled: "Into the Corona-verse: Multi-Dimensional Alfred Shaft Design Crew" (aka chaos). The cast of characters for this trip included me, Cora, Alfred, Sid, Derin, Abhishek, and Amit.
Recall that this trip happened in 2018, which meant that WOWAir was still operational. Accordingly, Iceland Air flights were cheaper back then too, and we certainly benefitted from the competition. In fact, we saw many opportunities for business optimization during our time in Iceland. For example, everything seemed to be closed until 11 am?! Surely people want to purchase things earlier in the day. And there seemed to be a lot of fees that were charged based on the honour system, like toilet and parking fees.
Golden Circle
On our first day, we embarked on a road trip from the airport to the Airbnb in Selfoss. This was our big "Golden Circle" tour day, which was honestly a bit overrated. But that might've also been because of this group's inclination to exclusively walk on paved, unmuddied pathways alongside a million other tourists. It was quite hilarious when we walked for 850 metres to Thingvellir, turn around as soon as things got muddy, and then congratulated ourselves for some "GOOD HIKES!"
On this day, we also stopped by some of the renowned sights like Gulfoss and the Great Geysir. At Gulfoss, we found that the weather changes ridiculously fast. I've never seen so many rainbows in my life — across Iceland, we found that it would be rainy one moment and sunny the next. At the Great Geysir, we got completely played by the eruptions. Maybe we just weren't patient enough? We stayed at a small one for too long, and only ended up seeing small eruptions at the supposedly "big" eruption site.
Not an eruption in sight!
By far, my favourite spot along the Golden Circle was Kerid Crater Lake. It had a rich green and red pattern to it, and the impacted spot was so clearly delineated. Compared to Santorini's Caldera, Kerid Crater Lake was perfectly round and quick enough to walk along the perimeter. Unlike other crater sites, this one was formed due to the magma flow rather than an explosion. I'm definitely a crater newbie though — Crater Lake National Park in Oregon remains on my bucket list.
To cap off the day, we got lost trying to find our Airbnb in rural Selfoss. In our defense, it was hard to find our white barn with a red roof, because it turns out that ALL the farms in the area have the exact same aesthetic?? Good thing sunlight lasts >10pm during an Icelandic summer.
Southward bound
The next day, we journeyed onward to Vik. Along the way, we stopped at Skogafoss, which had a double rainbow! In Iceland, it's extremely easy to get waterfall fatigue, especially if you were exposed to something as majestic as Niagara Falls growing up. If you need to be more selective, I'd consider this waterfall skippable.
An aside on food
The food situation in Iceland is not great. I get it, it's a remote island with a climate unconducive for agriculture. But still, $12 for a hot dog and the saltiest ever fries?! Criminal. For the most part, we ended up grabbing groceries at a discount retailer called Bonus. With a large group, it was easy to achieve economies of scale. Unless you love subsisting on a diet of fish and chips and hot dogs, I would honestly recommend packing some non-perishable goods in your suitcase. In fact, Cora filled HALF her carry-on with instant noodles. We love to see it.
Would recommend Mia's Fish and Chips near Skogafoss though. $25 for this portion was steep, but at least it came with a bunch of cool seasoning salts.
A reckless afternoon
One of the most "Instagrammable" spots in Iceland is the DC Plane Wreck. Our experience here was downright dangerous. Did you know it takes 1.5-2 hours to walk along a barren wasteland to get from the parking lot to the plane wreck site? It was sunny when we arrived at the parking lot and sunny when we came back, but approximately halfway through, it started raining and hailing like crazy. I reiterate: THIS WAS A BARREN WASTELAND. If lightning struck us, we would've been done for. In fact, we tried to shelter ourselves INSIDE the metal plane carcass, which... again... is a horrible idea in a thunderstorm. I would like to reiterate that this "shelter" was made of METAL. You shouldn't do this. In fact, we should've just looked at the sky before we embarked on the walk to the plane wreck and realized that a storm was coming.
I suppose the one silver lining was that the plane wreck wasn't too busy once the rain and hail subsided, so we were able to grab a few photos. I wasn't daring enough to climb on top of the structure like others tend to do. Again, I would skip this stop entirely. If you're a big plane person and this stop is non-negotiable though, I heard that this area has become commercialized (as of 2022) with a shack where some dude will drive you to the plane wreck site.
Our last stop for the day was the Dyrhólaey rock arch. It was a bit steep to get to, but we were rewarded with a nice view of the black sand beaches below and some puffins nearby. What a pristine shoreline! We also tried visiting the black sand beach late at night, but surprise surprise, we couldn't see a thing. Turns out the Northern Lights are also nowhere to be found in Iceland in late-August. :'( We then attempted to salvage the night by checking out Vik town, but our bar was unrealistic. Turns out that a "town" for 290 residents doesn't really exist.
A Song of Ice and Fire
Despite the unremarkable day from Selfoss to Vik, the stretch from Vik to Hofn along the southern shore of Iceland represented my favourite day of the road trip. To start, we kicked off with a short hike along metal platforms to Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon. It was so pretty and warm, with sheep frolicking nearby!
Drive times are a bit deceptive in Iceland, probably because of the stops along the way. We went to Svartifoss to check out yet another waterfall, paid for parking, got a little wet, and then... realized we wouldn't have enough time to visit. Instead, we prioritized the Jokulsarlon Lagoon, which was 100% worthwhile.
The Jokulsarlon Lagoon was my favourite place in Iceland. We saw floating icebergs!! We tossed the ice into the sea! We met professional photographers and met other Canadians!
Nearby, there's also the "Diamond beach" with beautiful ice chunks creating a stark contrast against black sand. Alas, all the "diamonds" had melted by the time of our visit at the end of summer. Either that, or climate change is simply too real.
The eastern edge of Iceland
Rather than doing the full Icelandic Ring Road (which goes along the full perimeter of Iceland), the east coast was as far as we ventured before circling back. Here, we checked out the Stokksnes mountain range (cool) a Viking Village which reminded me of those pioneer re-enactment sites back home.
Why do people stop here?
We also went to a free hot spring called the "Hoffel hot pots." They were essentially warm plastic tubs, and I sincerely doubt that anyone maintained them (other than our towel vendor Sid, of course).
For lunch, I ended up finding a super cool place called Flatey Farm. They had an all-you-can-eat buffet of schnitzel, pasta, and potatoes in the middle of nowhere. We could even see the cows and farm production through glass panes (aka it didn't even smell!). Would highly recommend this place for a great-value meal along the southern coast of Iceland.
Derin was feeling a bit thirsty, har har.
We made a second attempt to visit the Svartifoss waterfall, which was definitely worth the second pitstop! While it rained again in the parking lot, the weather magically cleared up by the time we started hiking along the trail. It was an easy 5km paved path, and we got to see some super cool basalt columns surrounding the falls. While most waterfalls ended up blending together, the basalt made this one stand out. It was certainly one of my favourites.
Afterwards, we had a long drive back towards the west. The best part of long road trips is always the real talks!!
The next day, we checked out more waterfalls (Seljalandsfoss and Gljufrabui) on the way back to Reykjavik before bidding farewell to Alfred. :( These waterfalls were also worth the stop because we could walk BEHIND one of them and trek through a watery canyon path to get to the other one. We got a bit wet, but not exceedingly so. As with all things, enjoyment depends on one's level of preparedness.
Running around Reykjavik
Civilization!! For our first meal in the ~ big city ~, we ate... Asian noodles. The storefront looked Sichuanese, but it turned out to actually serve Thai food?? Beggars can't be choosers. We then proceeded to walk around the town, which had nice colour block-painted houses. We took a million pictures.
After making dinner at the Airbnb, we went out for a night on the town. A place called Kaffibaren was supposedly the most happening place in Iceland, but we saw a guy sitting around reading and using his computer. I know the #plsfix life doesn't stop for anyone, but oof... wasn't really the vibe we expected at 11 pm! Unfortunately, all the other cool-looking shops were closed by that hour too, although we did get a chance to see the Hallgrims church all lit up! It was way better and emptier at night than during the day. Oh, and we bumped into a "gifted kid" from Lorne Park who also grew up in Erin Mills. The world is so small.
The next day, I made my signature blueberry pancakes. It was rainy, so we headed to the National Museum and learned about Icelandic history. Turns out that most witches in Iceland were male, with 21 men (vs 1 woman) burned at the stake during their witch trials.
We then got some more Icelandic fish and chips. These were much fancier than the serving we got at Mia's, but not necessarily better. I did enjoy their truffle and tarragon sauce though. There's also a fairly renowned ice cream shop called Valdis. I had salted liquorice (I know, what an unusual flavour! Especially with MY palate!!) and pistachio. Cora had mango gelato, and she said it was her FAVOURITE MANGO GELATO EVER. That's a high bar.
Finally, the main event of the day... we went to the Blue Lagoon!! This was an EXCELLENT experience, and definitely unmissable if you visit Iceland. It was so calming and nice, with a bunch of interesting hot spring areas to swim around. A ticket also includes two mud masks and some drinks. There was even a guy going around taking photos for us. One word of caution: the sulfur is TOUGH on the hair. I think the minerals might actually be good for your hair, but it did leave it feeling crunchy for a few days (even post-washing).
We ended off the trip with a bit more cooking, chilling, and city exploring. Overall, Iceland was a fun place to visit with friends with a good mix of nature and culture. We could have likely done more activities, and if I were to ever go back, I'd hope to chase the Northern Lights and check out some of the west coast (Kirkjufell is pretty iconic). And we could've probably skipped a waterfall or two (Gulfoss and Skogafoss, I'm looking at you). But as always, it's more about the company and the journey than the destination.
