Exploring Iceland
We have seen so much of this beautiful country in the past few weeks. Since we were on the road for the first week and a half we have traveled from the south west corner of the country all of the way around to the Westfjords. There are so many different landscapes in this country and it can go from sunny and warm to raining to cloudy and chilly all within the span of a day.
It is hard to pick a favorite town or experience during my time here because everything is breath taking and different than anything I’ve ever seen before. However, a small town in the Eastfjords named Seyoisfjorour, stole my heart. We stayed in this town on night three of the trip and I loved it. This town is nestled in between the mountains with a harbor right into the ocean. I saw my first “sunset” here and it was so peaceful. This town was peaceful, quiet and beautiful. It was small, but still had everything you needed. This town is where I fell in love with Iceland and I know I must come back.
While traveling on the bus we have been on so many little adventures and excursions. I have seen countless waterfalls and lava rock all within the same field. We have seen glaciers and black sanded beaches. We have soaked in warm geothermal baths, hiked up mountains and explored volcanoes. We have experienced “cities” and farm villages with more sheep than people. I have seen puffins and watched whales.
Some of the excursions that have stood out include a glacier hike, the glacier lagoon, geothermal baths, whale watching, exploring a volcano and hiking a bird cliff. We hiked a glacier in the southeast. It was about a three hour journey and it was a lot of fun. It’s sad though because in about 5 years the glacier will be completely gone due to global warming. After the glacier hike we went to Jökulsárlón which is a glacier lagoon. This is a lake that is part of the Vatnajökull National Park and is at the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. Here parts of the glacier that have broken off are travelling into the ocean. It makes for a very scenic landscape and many tourists come here to take pictures.
Most people have heard of the Blue Lagoon but it is not the only warm geothermal bath in the country. Iceland has multiple geothermal hot spots and we went to one in a small town called Myvatn. These reminded me of the sulfur hot springs we have in Colorado, but much clearer. The baths were very warm and smelled like sulfur, however the water was a beautiful bright blue color.
We also got to hike around an old volcano in Krafla. I was expecting an empty crater filled with rocks, but this one was filled with beautiful blue water. We walked around the perimeter of the volcano and got to explore it from above.
We also got to go whale watching in Husavik which is a town in northern Iceland. We saw so many whales (around 4-5, multiple times each, which is a very good whale watching day). We were out on the boat for about three hours and got to wear these hilarious looking red suits to protect us from the cold and the water. It was awesome to see so many whales but we also saw dolphins as well. Unfortunately we had a few members of our group get sea sick while on the boat, but even they were happy to see the whales.
Whales and dolphins aren’t the only animals that we have met during our time here. We had the opportunity to take a short boat ride out to an island named Drangey, which is inhabited only by birds. Sea Gulls and Puffins were the most common. They were everywhere!! Once off the boat we climbed up a slippery and muddy trail to the top of the bird cliff. It was breaktaking.
