Iceland 2017

Wednesday March 15

We started the trip off at 6:30am. We went and picked Aniko and Ted up and were on the road a little before 7am. The drive went pretty quickly for being 8 hours long ha we played 20 questions, we talked, we sang, we slept. Jeff cut the trip down to 7 hours! We only had to stop a couple of times for the bathroom and once for gas. The weather was perfect too! We ended up getting to Denver by about 2pm and since we made such good time, we went downtown and ate at Racca's Pizzeria Napolatena. It was pretty good! Jeff and I shared a margarita pizza. We accidentally paid for parking when there was a free parking lot literally 2 feet away ha After we ate, we headed to the airport. Longest process ever. We parked in Economy parking and the shuttle took forever to get there. Once it got there, we had to walk forever still through the airport to find the Icelandair desk. We got through security quickly but I was so turned around ha Denver has a pretty big airport. Once we got through security, we went to the Sky Club and chilled for a while. Then we headed to the gate. Our flight left a little later than it was supposed to so we finally took off around 5:40pm instead of 5:15pm. On the flight, I slept for like 3.5 hours but Jeff woke me up because we could see the NORTHERN LIGHTS from the plane!!! I was FREAKING OUT!!! I was very much awake all of the sudden. They were incredible!!!! Seriously. I was dying. They were on the other side of the plane though so we had to lean over some strangers to see but AHHHHHH!!!!! They were green and curvy and wonderful. After that excitement, I watched Up. Such a great movie. 

Thursday March 16

We arrived in Keflavik late at 6:45am so we RAN through everything. We made it through everything (customs, getting our bags, bathroom, getting on the flybus) in 30 minutes. It was amazing! So fast. We had to hurry because our tour for snorkeling starts at 8:30am and the drive there is 50 minutes. We ended up calling the tour company and they came and met us at the BSI Bus Terminal, which was a stop for our Flybus. We stored our luggage there and boarded the van! It worked out very well and we were really lucky! So we drove about 45 minutes to Silfra and it took a long time for us to get all of our gear on. First we had to put a onesie jumpsuit on for warmth. Then we had to put our airtight suit on and they had to do each suit themselves to make sure it was airtight. I felt like I was choking it was so tight haha then came the head mask and the crab-claw gloves and the snorkels. It was a long process ha and it was absolutely freezing. I regret not grabbing thicker socks but we were in such a hurry!! Once we had everything on, we walked over to the crack entrance. We had to spit in our masks and they put them in the water to clean them. Then we got in the water one by one. Our land guide, Antz, was awesome! He put our flippers on for us. Our water guide, Chris, was super cool too! Once we got in the water, we had to lay on our stomachs and make sure the masks were tight and then flip over to our backs. We were in a small group which was awesome. There was just another couple besides the 4 of us. After we had all flipped to our backs we had to flip again to our stomachs and start the swim. The water was -2 degrees Celsius. It was SO COLD. The second my face hit the water it was numb. There was a current so we barely had to do anything and we would move. Chris just wandered between us taking pictures. Our crab gloves weren't waterproof so if you barely moved your arms you would stay warm. My feet and face were definitely the coldest ha but snorkeling between the tectonic plates was UNREAL. The water was so blue and clear! It was Glacier runoff so you could drink it. We obviously drank it because you have to! We tried to swim down but our suits had air in them so we just looked like corks bobbing in the water with our butts in the air hahaha it was hilarious to watch. Ted was the only one who succeeded at doing it! He said he thinks his suit didn't have as much air because he was a lot colder than the rest of us. So we swam through the crack and eventually ended up in a lagoon. The algae was incredibly green too! It was gorgeous down there. You couldn't turn your head to the side without getting water in your ears but I couldn't help it! There was so much to take it!! The swim was only about 30 minutes which was perfect. Any longer and I would have froze. Once we got out, we took our flippers and masks off and made the trek back to the parking lot. Taking the gear off was extra hard because of how frozen we were ha the guides had to help us haha but eventually we were able to get out and they gave us hot chocolate and digestives (a chocolate covered cookie) to eat. After everyone was undressed and warming up, we made the drive back to Reykjavik. Chris was nice enough to take us back to the bus terminal, grab our bags, and take us to the Cabin Hotel. He was awesome. Reykjavik is the cutest little city! It has tons of cool graffiti and cute little shops. After we checked in to the hotel and chilled for a minute, we went walking downtown. First, we walked along the water and saw the Viking ship. Then we cut into town and walked through all of the shops. Stuff is EXPENSIVE. We didn't buy anything at this point because we couldn't believe how expensive everything was. So it is 100 ISK for $1 USD so everything was at least 1000 ISK I swear ha little ceramic cups were 5000 ISK. I was blown away ha everything in Iceland is tax free though so if you keep your receipts, you'll get money back at the airport. Once we were done walking downtown, we headed back to the Cabin Hotel and got ready for our Icelandic horse ride. The guy picked us up at 17:30 and we drove about ten minutes out of town. It was a private tour, which was so nice! He took us to their ranch and we were able to walk through all of the stalls and pet the horses. Their manes are UNREAL ha long luscious locks! Some horses had fros, others had long hair covering their eyes haha they were so cute!!! Verena and Iris were our guides for the night. They took us to this side room so we could get ready. They gave us pants, helmets, and gloves to wear which were very handy because of how cold it was. Once we were ready, we went outside and met our horses. Jeff was on Clacki, I was on Clodis, Aniko was on Treva, and Ted was on Blacy. Clodis was so great. We bonded immediately. Once we were all on our horses, we had to do a couple laps around the corral to prove we could ride horses and then we set off. At first they took it slow but once we had gone a little ways we were able to do the Icelandic version of a trot/gallop (I can't remember the word). It's a smoother version of trotting. It was super fun!! We rode through the hills and trees and then made our way to the lava fields. They were beautiful! There had been flooding recently but it only made it more beautiful because of the random ponds we would happen upon. We were able to watch the sunset from the lava fields and then we headed back to the ranch. It was pretty cold. I couldn't feel my hands or face ha it's the dumb wind!! Once we got back to the ranch, they took us into their house and they had PUPPIES for us to play with while they made dinner. They were Dutch Welch farm dogs and they were 8 weeks old. There were 5 of them! They were so cute; we were all dying! I couldn't get enough of them. Once dinner was ready we sat down and they fed us lamp soup with bread rolls. Super good! I snuck some lamb to the puppies.... I couldn't help myself haha after a couple servings of soup, they fed us this Icelandic yogurt. I have no idea what it was made of or anything but it was divine. There was this Greek yogurt type stuff surrounded by a milky liquid with chocolate sprinkled on top. SO GOOD. After we ate, we played with the puppies for a bit and then they took us back to our hotel at 10pm. We passed out the second our heads hit the pillow. 

Friday March 17

Our Golden Circle tour didn't start until 10:30 so we were able to sleep in a bit. I'm pretty sure I slept for over 11 hours that night. It was awesome. When we woke up, we went and ate continental breakfast (corn flakes, fruit, and porridge) and then got ready for the tour. They picked us up and we went to the bus terminal again where we boarded a big bus. On our way to the bus terminal, Jeff and I were at the back of the van and the driver took speed bumps very quickly so it started making my stomach uneasy so on the bus ride I was not feeling too hot. Our first stop was where we had snorkeled except it was the land version. Being outside definitely helped me feel better. We walked the crack for a little bit, they only gave us 30 minutes at this stop. Then we boarded the bus and went to the second stop, the Geysir. We had an hour here. The bathroom cost money at the first stop so there was a very long line for the bathroom here! This place was a lot like Yellowstone! The Geysir went off much more frequently than Old Faithful but didn't go as high. It actually scared us because we were walking past as it went off ha we didn't last long outside at this stop because of the wind and since it was a lot like Yellowstone, we were okay going back inside. We went and looked at the gift shop and ate some chicken nuggets and wings. We actually bought some souvenirs here. We got a picture of the Northern Lights, a bell ornament, and a horse patch. After our time was up, we went to the bus and went to the third and final stop which was Gullfoss (a waterfall). We went down to the bottom viewing point first and it was beautiful! A waterfall running through glacier. So pretty! We took some pictures and then went to the top viewing point. We had 45 minutes here and the gift shop had everything that was at the last stop so we boarded a little early. The drive back was a little over an hour. Our guide talked the entire drive throughout the entire tour. She had way too much to say ha some stuff honestly sounded so far fetched that I think she was just making stuff up. She talked about giants and "hidden people" who help get stuff done around the island. Strange. We got back to the hotel around 4:30. Our Northern Lights tour was going to be that night but we got an email saying it was canceled due to weather conditions (super cloudy). Aniko and Ted went and picked up the rental car and we decided we would talk about what to do when they got back but while they were gone, I passed out. I was so tired this day! I accidentally slept for a couple of hours ha when I woke up, we met up with them and we decided we would just chill that night and get a good head start in the morning. So we played Phase 10 on the top floor! It was pretty fun! We got yelled at for being too loud once. Whoops ha I lost. Bad. I'm terrible at that game. Then we went to bed at like 11:30 ha way later than we planned ha

Saturday March 18

We were up at 6am, ate continental breakfast, and were out the door by 6:30. We started the drive by hitting up a couple of waterfalls! Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss. I fell asleep on the way to the first one ha but woke with a start when we got there! We were soaked with mist at both of them ha Seljalandsfoss was cool because you could go behind it and it was super green back there! It had snowed a lot the day before here and it was snowing while we were there so the green stuck out beautifully. Skogafoss was only like 20 minutes away from Seljalandsfoss. After we saw both of the waterfalls, we stopped at this parking lot where you could walk to see an abandoned US military plane. I didn't really care to go but the others wanted to so we started the 4K trek. But the weather picked up and we were drenched about 2k in. We decided to turn around and head back because it was so bad. Luckily I had leggings on underneath my overalls so I had stayed pretty warm besides my face but Jeff and Ted had just worn jeans so they were freezing. They both ended up taking their pants off for the drive to Vik and laying them on the dashboard to try and dry them ha on the way to Vik, we saw tons of cars that had slid off the road. One had even landed sideways in a stream that ran along the road. We (and by we I mean me because Jeff and Ted were pantsless and Aniko was putting her thermals on haha) stopped and helped them get out of the car (we had only barely missed seeing it). I held the door open and the girl held my hand as she jumped out. They weren't hurt but were pretty badly shaken up. The first thing she said was "our luggage is in there...." ha I was like are you okay?!? To heck with your luggage!! Aniko called the emergency line and told them where we were and I gave them some coats to warm up with. Another car had stopped and so the couple got in their car to warm up. Once Aniko was done on the phone we grabbed our jackets and headed out since we weren't doing much good anymore and there was nowhere to pull off so we were partially blocking the road. We got to Vik safely and stopped for petrol. We still had over 2 hours left on the drive and the weather was awful so we considered turning around a few times but decided to power through. The roads weren't bad enough that if you were driving smart you would be fine. We stopped and got food at a petrol station about an hour outside Vik and ate on the drive because we were close on time. We finally made it to Jokulsarlon at 3pm, right on time for our ice cave tour. There was a lagoon by our check in point that was full of icebergs! But we didn't have time to check it out at that point. We checked in and got in a van with HUGE tires. The drive to the ice cave was about 40 minutes of off roading. We were driving on pure ice! It was super cool.  I learned from Beitney (our guide) that the lagoon is 300 meters deep and that the icebergs are created from an underground river. Once we got to the ice cave, we put helmets on and spikes on our boots. The cave was SO COOL!! Super blue and just amazing. We were able to wander freely for 50 minutes throughout the cave. We walked to the very back where the ice stopped and it was just a snow cave and there was a river. The snow is in the process of turning into the ice and that river floods occasionally and it floods the entire ice cave so it can't be reached. Beitney said that happens frequently so we were lucky that our tour didn't get cancelled! Apparently they were shutting the tour down 2 days after because the weather was starting to get warmer so we barely made the cut! The ice cave was so blue because of the sunlight shining through the top. When the snow freezes, it has pockets of oxygen in it so once it turns into ice, the pockets of oxygen freeze into what looks like silver! It was so cool to see. Once our time was up, we went back to the van and headed back to the lagoon. I bought a shirt and hat at the gift shop. They were sick. Then we explored the lagoon. The icebergs were beautiful!! We saw tons of seals swimming around them. We took loads of pictures. I couldn't stop taking pictures!! We decided to head back at like 6:30pm because we didn't know how the road conditions would be. We tried to stop at another waterfall called Skaftafoss but it was a 1.4km hike and we were losing daylight. So we stopped and ate at a restaurant along the way because the roads didn't seem too bad. It was good! We just got pizza. Then we drove to Vik and stopped at the Black Sand Beach. Even though it was dark, it was super cool to see!! We collected rocks and looked at the hexagon shaped rock towers. There were signs everywhere telling us to look out for the sneaker waves. Apparently people have died from these waves sneaking up on them and taking them out to sea. Super sketchy. And we were there in the dark so even more sketchy ha we played 20 questions for most of the drive and kept an eye out for the Northern Lights (we didn't see them). We finally got back to the hotel a little before 1am. Aniko and Ted went and dropped off the rental car and Jeff and I grabbed pictures from their camera. Then we went to bed at 1:30am. 

Sunday March 19 

Jeff and I decided to sleep in rather than go buy souvenirs with Aniko and Ted so we woke up around 9:45am. After eating breakfast, we packed our bags up and just chilled in our room. We were planning on heading downstairs at 10:45 for our 11am Flybus but they were early so the front desk called our room and told us they were at our hotel. Luckily we were already ready so we headed down. I couldn't get a hold of Aniko and Ted though. We called them and knocked on their door. So we went downstairs and loaded our stuff up in the van. While we were loading our stuff up, we saw Aniko and Ted running towards the hotel. They had been shopping still ha so they ran upstairs and threw all of their stuff together and came back down. Our driver was a little frustrated with us. He told us why we had to be on time and that it says on the ticket to be ready 30 minutes prior to your listed time. He was frustrated with us and his company because they don't make it very clear that we needed to be ready 30 minutes prior. We only had to pick up one more group and we still made it to the bus terminal by 11am. Ha we got onto a bigger bus and headed to the Blue Lagoon. Once we got there, we checked our luggage at the baggage counter and then went inside. The Blue Lagoon was legit! We got these bracelets that controlled our lockers and you could charge money on your bracelet and pay at the end! Super high tech ha so we had to go in the locker room and shower and put conditioner in our hair because the water is hard on hair. Then we went out to the lagoon. The first thing we did was get our mud masks on! We put it on our faces and backs. We left it on for 10 minutes and it was so cold ha the wind had picked up and we couldn't go underwater with the mud on ha once we washed it off, we went and explored. It was about the temperature of a warm bath for the most part. You would hit random hot spots which was nice but for the most part, it was just warm. It was nice though because then you wouldn't get super hot so we were able to stay in longer! Jeff and I headed to the water snack bar and got blue raspberry slushes (which were WAY good) and drank those while chilling in the water. It was super relaxing! We were in the water for only like an hour before we had to go but it was perfect. We headed in at 1:30pm, showered and cleaned up, and made it on the 2pm bus to the airport. Fun quick facts about the Blue Lagoon. It renews itself every 40 hours, it is seawater, the coloring is from the sunlight, the mud masks we used was actual mud from the pool. The Keflavik Airport is a very technologically advanced airport. We checked ourselves in on a screen, it printed our baggage tags and boarding passes, we stood in a line and actually checked our luggage ourselves by placing them on the scale and a computer weighed it and if it was good, the belt took the bag away. In security, we just scanned our boarding passes and if they were good, the gate opened and let us through. The crates that you put your stuff in through security came out of a machine that recycled through the crates itself (so at the end it took the crates down a chute and they came out at the front of security). So cool! The not so great part of this airport was they "randomly select" people for screening when you go through passport control and it was majorly unorganized. I was chosen (like always) and they gave us numbers that would be called and then put us in a line. But the line was useless if you had a number right? No, WRONG. If you were in line, then you were taken back. So a lot of numbers got skipped. They were holding planes waiting for people to get through the screening. It was ridiculous. I was in line for about an hour before I was taken back. They search your body and then take everything out of your carry on and do the bomb test. Then you have to repack your bag once they clear you ha it was a quick process once you got in there! So finally I made it out and we headed to the gate. Jeff accidentally left the camera bag at the screening so we ran back and luckily they had taken it to the service desk. Then I went and got us some hot dogs and a panini and we boarded. The boarding process took forever as well!! They make you stand in a line and board a bus that will take you to your plane but the bus drivers were just having a nice little pow-wow so the bus would be full and the drivers would still just stand there! So frustrating. Finally we made it on the plane and Jeff passed out immediately. I looked through pictures and once we took off, I reclined Jeff's seat back and he woke up and started watching Toy Story and then I passed out ha I slept for like 3.5 hours! Jeff thought he had slept for like an hour but it had only been like 15 minutes haha When I woke up, we talked to the lady next to us. She was great! She is originally from Iceland and she has lived in Denver for about 40 years now. She told us all about growing up in Iceland and it seemed crazy! As kids, they would play on icebergs and fall off sometimes, which is super scary. A whale was beached in her town and they took pictures standing on the whale! Crazy ha she showed us pictures of Greenland and the fiords and sounds there. Super cool. The flight went fairly quickly though which was nice! We landed a little later than we were supposed to but luckily customs went pretty quickly. After we got our bags, we drove to Panda Express and ate and then started our 8 hour journey back to Logan. Jeff drove for the first 5 hours. I was his copilot and I was doing great and staying awake until the last hour. I couldn't keep my dang eyes open! We had to stop and get gas so I jogged in place and ran around for a bit and became wide awake but then I got back to the car and Ted was driving with Aniko in the front seat! Ha so we were in the back. We talked for a little bit but then I was able to fall asleep for the next two hours and then we talked the last hour of the ride. We got to our house at 4:30am. I HAD to shower. I felt so disgusting. So after showering I finally fell asleep at 5:30am. I woke up at 8:30am wide awake unfortunately though. Jeff made me breakfast in bed for my birthday! And that was the end of Iceland! So much fun :)