Our Road Trip Day: Iceland

[as we write this, it is 22:30 on Friday, perfectly bright outside and far too early to consider going out.  Per our sources Icelanders do not go out early because drinks at bars are far too expensive.  So, they pre-party at home.  You can only buy alcohol at special stores, one of which we visited today (next blog) at the Kringlan Mall.  If you think Beth hates paying $4 for a light coke, wait till you see the rage at paying 6 times Charles Shaw pricing for crappy wine!!)

Today (actually a few days ago now) we took a road trip along Iceland's STUNNING (all caps intentional) southern coast.  Neither of us have driven a car in a foreign country before (unless you count driving in Berkeley for the last 2 years of school) so driving through a country known for weather hazards and difficult terrain was certainly exciting.

Richard arrived at the car rental place early in the morning to pick up the fanciest car they had (fancy = cheapest) a Hyundai Micra, which was only "Micra" in terms of its size, interior space, trunk space and engine size.  Beth would like to point out we could have saved $9 by going with a manual car, but since I hate everything un-American, I drove automatic.

We set off at 8:40am along route 1 (routes #2 - route # infinity are unused at this point in Iceland) south and west towards Selfoss.  Selfoss's primary attraction is a traffic circle and a Toyota dealership, followed by a second traffic circle.  Through Selfoss, we arrived at something awesome.

Something Awesome:

Seljalandfoss is one of Iceland's numerous awesome waterfalls (not to be confused with their ample supply of average and below average waterfalls.  It's in their top 5 and definitely a must see.

Richard:  How do I get to se-he-je-landa-foss?
Viking Car Rental Guy:  Seljalandfoss?
Richard:  Yes.  Dude...you know I can't pronounce it, just tell me how to get there.
Viking:  You can't miss it.
Richard:  Thanks, can you be more specific.
Viking:  You'll know.
Richard:  Thanks.  Enjoy December here!

And actually, he was right.  It is clearly visible from the highway for many kilometers (kilometres) away.  It comes right off the side of a mountain/volcano.  It is  pretty awesome.  You can go right up to it, and actually can walk behind the waterfall.  In the Icelandic tradition, there are no guard rails, and the trail involves sliding down moving, slick rocks.  So that was fun.  Naturally, Beth wore heels.  (side story:  Beth's dad one time practically carried her on a hiking trip because she couldn't walk due to her heels).  (Beth: these were totally functional boots with treading.. and waterproof, which came in handy when everyone else's shoes got wet on the boat later!)

Seljalandfoss Waterfall

Behind Seljalandfoss Waterfall 

After that we zoomed for Jokulsarlon, which means "Glacier Lagoon."  It's a newer lagoon that has glaciers in it from the glacier that takes up 11% of Iceland, and is the largest in Europe.  The 4 hour drive there is relatively uneventful (though beautiful scenery), as you see maybe 5 cars an hour and literally drive by no more than 1000 residents the entire way, most of them in the seaside town of Vik.

The landscape is incredible and new to us.  Lava fields, black sand, glaciers, mountains, etc.  Beautiful drive.

Seen along our drive

We took the glacier lagoon tour.  We will allow the photos to describe it:

Arriving at Jokulsarlon - Glacier Lagoon

The special boat we took - drives on land and water

On the boat

Icebergs throughout lagoon, broken off from enormous glacier covering the mountains behind

3pm.  We are 5 hours from home and have 8 hours of daylight.  What do we do?  We didn't plan this trip at all (unlike other trips which were meticulously planned) due to the amazing real estate market which is keeping me busy.  If you'd like more information about buying a home or an investment:  http://www.richardschulman.com/.

We decided to head back, instead of heading further to Hofn, mainly beause Hofn doesn't have the cachet that a Skaftafell or Hekla does.  Obviously.  We headed back to Skaftafell park, only because the hotel there actually responds to emails.

Side note: many tour companies here do not respond to emails in less than 24 hours.  It is maddening.

They said we could hike from their hotel, so, not having anything better to do, we drove to the Fosshotel Skaftafell.  (Foss = waterfall in Icelandic).  Knowing we weren't going to book a room ($317 per night last minute, I would rather go swimming in the Atlantic off the coast) they cheerfully guided us to a hiking trail.  We walked until the trail ended.  Richard, the explorer, strong and brave, said, let's keep going.  Beth, the girl who just jumped out of a plane and thought it was really cool, said that we shouldn't walk off the trail.

Long story short, we wandered for about 2 hours in the foothills off the glacier and had an amazing time.  We were totally alone and experienced some stunning views.

Near the foot of the glacier

                     
After a couple hours we wandered back to the car, and then we drove on.

We stopped in the recommended seaside town of Vik, which has beautfiul black sand beaches and a gas station.  *Beauty not applicable when winds are 40 km/h and it's really freaking cold.





We saw another waterfall, that the Viking had recommended and we stopped.

Skogafoss is a waterfall visible from the highway, but even better as you get closer.  We parked our Micra in the dorky car lot, where the cool kids get to park further along in the all gravel road parking lot.  Damn Subarus!

The spray was so intense off Skogafoss that we couldn't get closer than 20 metres.  WE MISS YOU IMPERIAL SYSTEM!!  We took some cool photos:

Skogafoss Waterfall

And then we saw it... innocuous at first.  A stair case up the mountain?!?  Cannot resist a staircase.  So we climbed.  We ran up, and then down the stairs, something like ~350 stairs in all. See photos:

[part of] the windy staircase up

And going down

After running down the stairs and back into our cozy Micra we gunned it back to Reykjavik.  Totals for the trip:

700 kilometers of driving
3 gas stops
$150 in gas (like 7 million krona)
2 waterfalls
0 people of any ethnic background other than white, really white, and white/likely albino.

That's our Micra