ICELAND: PART I

Earlier this year, Matt and I had the wonderful opportunity come up to travel with a couple of other couple friends, Padmay and Kristake. We all know each other from our Lubbock days but have since moved around the country. Aside from traveling to meet up with friends for a long weekend, Matt and I have only gone on a long trip with another couple once, a cruise in college with my best friend—so obviously, it was the best week ever! We liked the idea of doing it again, and we jumped at the chance to spend extra time with old friends again. The icing on the cake? We decided to go to Iceland!

Iceland’s popularity has definitely grown in the last decade, but we’re all outdoorsy and thought visiting the land of fire and ice would provide lots of adventure. Together, we decided to rent a vehicle and circumnavigate the island. That meant that every day, we planned to drive about 2-3 hours, stop to explore along the way, and after 8 days, we’d be back at our original stop for one last night. This plan was great for the length of our trip! We had enough time to not rush, although after doing it, I now realize just how much more there is to see there. Here’s the very rough breakdown:

Each number on the map above, designates where we slept. Each of those nights was in an Airbnb, except for number 4 and 6 when we camped at a campground. Camping was a choice made partially to save money, but also because it was a bucket list item that many of us had. We were all flying IcelandAir and the plan was for each person to pack a carry-on full of their daily needs, while each couple packed a checked bag of camping gear. The checked bags were free on the airline, but we wanted to maximize our space in the rental car so we tried to pack efficiently. Spoiler: every did and it worked out well!

Before we get too far, there are going to be some crazy looking words in anything that I post about Iceland, so let me just put a little cheat sheet/phonetic lesson here:

• Рis like “th” in “feather”, “father” and “that”, but as the first letter of a word it represents Þ/þ.
• Þ like English “th” in “thunder”, “theatre” and “thong”
• Рand Þ are pronounced similarly. Also, Icelandic words never begin with Ð, and no words end with Þ.
• I and Y share the same pronunciation, as do Í and Ý also.
• HV is pronounced as KV.
• Double LL is pronounced something like tl, with a flattened tongue and a click.
• In Icelandic, the R is trilled, though not as much as Spanish or Italian. It is never pronounced like a French r or a Scottish loch.
• U is said like the English u except with rounded lips
• There are no guttural sounds in Icelandic
• There are no silent letters in Icelandic. There are a few exceptions in spoken language where a letter might produce a different sound than usual. Otherwise, Icelandic is a very phonetic language
• When there are double letters in a sentence, there is a slight glottal stop with a breath of air. It’s a slight pause, such as the “k” sound in the phrase “sick cat”, or the “p” sound in “top pot”.
• If a K is followed by a t, then the sound changes and becomes a soft k, virtually the same as a spanish j/g, gente (e.g. lukt – lantern)
• Likewise, a P followed by a t changes into an f sound (e.g. Að skipta – to shift)
• F in the middle of a word is often pronounced as a v (e.g. Að skafa – to shave)
• F followed by an l will change to a b-sound (afl is pronounced as abl)

Easy, right? Oy…

We flew into Keflavik international airport, which was clearly running above capacity due to this decade long tourism boom because the actual airport was pretty modest. Most gates were busing the passengers to and from the planes, which was effective! We stepped off the plane, onto the exposed staircase, right into sideways rain. Welcome to Iceland! Hahah 

We all met up in the airport (thanks iMessage while abroad and airport wi-fi!), went through customs, got our bags, picked up our mini-bus, and got on our way! We read that because booze is so pricey on the island, it was best to get what you would like in bottles at Duty Free before leaving the airport. We decided to heed that advice. Then we were on our way! Because we all caught our flight at 5 p.m. and were landing at 6 a.m. (I got the impression this is typical for flights from the U.S.), we had heard that the Blue Lagoon was a good place to go first. Not only was it near the airport, but it provided a calm place to just hang out, get our bearings, and catch up.

The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa, famous for its beautiful ice blue water. The water temperature in the bathing and swimming area of the lagoon averages 37–39 °C (99–102 °F). The Blue Lagoon also operates a research and development facility to help find cures for other skin ailments using the mineral-rich water. The lagoon is a man-made lagoon which is fed by the water output of the nearby geothermal power plant, Svartsengi, and is renewed every two days. Superheated water is vented from the ground near a lava flow and used to run turbines that generate electricity. After going through the turbines, the steam and hot water passes through a heat exchanger to provide heat for a municipal water heating system. Then the water is fed into the lagoon for recreational and medicinal users to bathe in.

After officially becoming prunes, and beautifying ourselves with the silica and algae masks, we slowly headed out. Reykjavík was about a 45 minute drive from the lagoon, which is where our Airbnb for the night was—but first, food. Reykjavík’s city center had a renowned vegan restaurant, so that was what we had our eyes set on but, unfortunately, on the way, we didn’t realize how close that van on the right of us was  And thus, the smashin’ vagon was born! Making the call to the rental company that we rented a van hours earlier and had already wrecked it was not ideal, but a learning experience in this new country! Luckily, we had beefed up with the maximum insurance coverage, a guy came out to assess the damage (because we were missing a form in the glovebox, otherwise we would have done this ourselves), apologized for the trouble (seriously?!? We just damaged your property!), and we all went on our merry ways (the car was still drivable and all doors opened–thank goodness)! The vegan meal at a highly reviewed restaurant, Gló, was very much needed and enjoyed.

The town of Reykjavík itself was rather colorful. A pleasant surprise during a rainy day, though I don’t think I really had any expectations in mind. After exploring a bit, we stopped by the most common grocery store on the island, Bónus, and checked out the views from the top of the church, Hallgrímskirkja, before heading to the Airbnb on the north side of town. Fun fact: The church was designed based on the appearance of the basalt formations that have naturally occurred all over the island due to lava flow.

We had decided before the trip to try our best to stay in places that had 3 bedrooms, so everyone had their own space, if needed–we are talking about traveling with six introverts here! Our first place was great and, actually, the biggest of all the places we stayed. This concluded our first 42 hour travel day to Iceland!

Matt and I woke up right as rain the next morning and, after some assistance from coffee, everyone else powered through to get to that point as well. Apparently we were the only ones who slept like babies. Once we all got packed up, we were off to check out Iceland! On today’s itinerary was mainly to explore part of what is called the Golden Circle on our way to our night’s stay in Bláskógabyggð.

First up, we stopped in Hveragerði to hike to Reykjadalur Hot Springs in the misty rain. It was 7km, round trip, and a little longer than we had planned on going, but with our overwhelming feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out), we just kept trekking on. At the end, there was an intersection of very hot geothermal waters and a cooler creek, creating a perfect temperature to lounge in. We were ill prepared, so we only put our feet in, but in the misty weather, I’m not so sure I would have wanted to get neck deep anyhow. Post hike, we discovered Ölverk Pizza & Brewery. We also discovered how expensive Iceland is… Like $30 for an interesting personal pizza and $10 for a pale lager ($15 for a more exciting beer). Yikes. Go big or go home. And we were too far from home now!

While in the Golden Circle, we stopped by Kerið, a volcano crater, Gullfoss, a large and popular waterfall, and Geysir, the birthplace of the word geyser, a.k.a. the OG (original geyser).