Iceland – Day 1

The flight from Newark to Reykjavik is only about 5 hours, so we only got a little sleep. Iceland Air is basic, but we were in business class and had a lovely meal. The highlight was the pre-dinner snack. I was served these cheese, seed crackers/biscuit things as a snack. It was like a Cheezeit on steroids. It was amazing. It is the best snack I have ever eaten. Unfortunately, while I was in Iceland, I searched for it and couldn’t find it online.

We landed a few hours later at about 6 AM local time. It was very early, pitch black, and the wind was extreme. We rented a Jeep Renegade from Blue Car Rental and hit the road. If you are traveling in winter, change into your tights and other winter clothes before leaving the airport. I didn’t suit up appropriately and was chilly the entire first day.

Our first destination was Seljalandsfoss, about 150 KM from the airport. We stopped at the Almar Bakery in Selfoss for coffee and breakfast. We also stopped at the grocery store to buy a few supplies for the car. Unfortunately, my cheese snacks were not available. When we finally left the bakery, we started to see our first hint of daylight at 9:30 AM. I knew there was going to be very little daylight, but darkness at 9 AM left me feeling uneasy.   I was very relieved to see daylight. After that, we made a quick unplanned stop at a waterfall called Urriðafoss. It’s not a cascading waterfall but more like a set of rapids. It was next to the road and let us put on our crampons.

Unfortunately, the wind and snow hadn’t relented, and we were exhausted from having so little sleep. So when we arrived at Seljalandsfoss an hour later, we decided to take a 30-minute nap in the car before we did anything else. The rest lasted almost an hour, but we both felt a thousand times better after taking it.

Seljalandsfoss is a 200′ massive waterfall. Waterfalls always impress me. I think of them as messages from Mother Nature reminding humanity of access to an awesome amount of unrelenting force. The temperature was such that the spray from the waterfall turned into snow and fell back on us. It was gorgeous to see.  

We walked down the path to see the Gljufrabui waterfall. The pictures of these waterfalls are stunning, but the water level was too high for us to enter the cavern. We would have gotten our boots soaking wet to go in to get that picturesque view. Instead, I could see a glimpse of it through the fissures. Tourists were trying to balance on rocks to get in, and most were misstepping and plunging their feet into the ice-cold water. We saw one guy remove his boots and socks and wade into the water as we left. My only thought was, “what an asshole.”

One of the things I noticed about Iceland is that there is a breed of disrespectful tourists that is highly pervasive. A couple of times on the trip, people disregarded the signs stating where they could and couldn’t go. On our way to the parking lot, an open clearing was roped off, marked “do not enter.” Its backdrop was Seljalandsfoss, so it is a nice photo, but you are not supposed to go in. Of course, I see a couple telling their kid to cross the barrier and stand there for a photo. Someone says to the guy, “You are not supposed to cross,” and his response “go call the cops.”

Icelandic people are amicable and may not know the malevolence British and US tourists can bring to their land. I advise Iceland to be stern with our rule breakers because we are the worst.

Our next destination was Skogafoss, which is just as tall as Seljalandsfoss but much wider. Now that we were rested, driving in sunlight, and energized by the awe of nature in Iceland, we turned to our playlists to keep us entertained. We road-tripped most of our time in Iceland, so we relied on: the audiobook How Iceland Changed the World by Egill Bjarnason, The Fifteen Icelandic Swimming Pools playlist by the Elska Magazine creator Ian Campbell, and The Iceland Roadtrip! Playlist by Iceland With a View creator Jeannie.

Skogafoss

Skogafoss has a thunderous amount of water, and getting anywhere close on a windy, snowy day is not easy. We parked at the bottom but planned to walk up to the observation deck on top. Unfortunately, it was closed due to the weather and season. Several people were stepping over the chain and making their way up. Though many rules are made to be broken, genuine public safety is not one of them. We didn’t go up to the deck; we took a few photos and returned to the car.

Our next planned destination was Dyrhólaey Lighthouse, but while we were driving, we saw a bunch of cars in the parking lot, so we pulled in to see what was happening. We found ourselves at the Sólheimasandur airplane crash. At this site is a DC-33 airplane that crashed on a black sand beach on November 21, 1973. When planning the trip, I was never interested in seeing a junky old plane on a beach. It’s an Instagram destination more than anything. I grew up in the rural midwest. I’ve seen more decaying vehicles on wide-open fields than I can count; nothing seemed interesting about it, so I ignored it from the plans.

However, here we are, and the shuttle to the plane is leaving any minute. How much could it cost? We jumped on the shuttle, and it departed immediately. Samer paid the driver and asked me to confirm 6000 ISK is about $4, right?   

Wrong. Very Wrong. The round-trip shuttle for two people was over $40! It was quite a bit more than we expected. It’s a 2-mile hike to the black sand beach of the plane, and on a nice day, it’s probably a decent way to stretch your legs. When we got to the plane, the driver told us to get out and that he’d pick us up in 30 minutes. For 30 minutes, we were pelted by hail and sand from the high winds on the beach. We couldn’t get near the water because it was too difficult to walk into the wind. The weather worsened, and it was pretty cold, so instead of taking photos in the otherworldly setting, I sought shelter in the dilapidated aircraft’s remains. My instincts were right, and this was a tourist trap.

The shuttle driver returned, and not everyone that boarded with us returned with us; some needed more time. MORE TIME! I cannot fathom how you need more time in this windswept beach nightmare. So I happily got on the shuttle and shook my head at the misery people put themselves through for a few “likes” on Instagram. (Unlike the dignity I get from my blog … lol).

From here, we traveled on to Dyrhólaey Lighthouse. Dyrhólaey is this arched rock formation that extends into the ocean. It reminded me of the Raouché in Beirut, and I kept referring to it as the Icelandic Raouché while we were there. We parked at the lighthouse parking lot, and to this day, it was the strongest wind I have ever experienced. The lighthouse is at the top of the hill, and we had to hold on to one another out of fear of being blown over. It was pretty remarkable and slightly terrifying; more than once, I thought, “oh, I can totally see some fool getting themselves killed up here.” We walked the loop, and I got to snap a photo of Dyrhólaey rock before retreating to the car.

Dyrhólaey

It wasn’t very late, but it was already getting dark, and we were exhausted, so we made our way to Hótel Vík. It was a very nice hotel with modern amenities. After dropping off our bags and freshening up, we hit the local craft brewery to end the day. Smiðjan Brugghús had good beers and served American-style barbecue, which was much better than I expected. If you find yourself there, I thought the buffalo cauliflower paired with their pilsner was smashing.  

Next Day: Iceland – Day 2

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