Iceland: Day 3

This was my last full day in Iceland, and it was blessed with beautiful sunshine! The other two days were cloudy on-and-off, but this day was gorgeous throughout.

After breakfast at the hostel (this time with the addition of danishes), we took a shuttle to go horseback riding with ís Hestar. I was so excited for this outing: I've never grown out of my pony phase, and I love horses. The ride wasn't long, but when we arrived it felt like we were very far away from any cities. We were surrounded by more lava fields, lots of flowers, and real trees (in Reykjavik, the trees were all short and stumpy).

We were part of a big group, so there were probably about thirty of us getting paired with our own Icelandic horses (they are their own breed, and are smaller and furrier than "regular" horses). The farm we went to rescues horses who are on average 10-15 years old in order to give them a second chance. There were so many horses there, and I was impressed that many of the staff members knew all the horses by name (of course I can’t remember the name of my horse because he had an Icelandic name). As they paired us with our rides, Hannah gave me the good advice to claim I had never ridden a horse before; that way we would get the calm horses. This totally worked, and my horse just followed the drill the whole time. Once we all were on our horses, it was time to go!

Here's Hannah on her horse.

Our ride was absolutely amazing. I will let the photos speak for themselves:

And here’s a fun fact: Iceland has no equine diseases, so none of their horses are vaccinated. Who knew?

I was having so much time!

This is an inactive volcano in the distance.

This was my horse!

After the ride, we sat outside on the terrace to enjoy a cup a hot chocolate. It was the perfect ending to the perfect excursion!

The horseback riding was just in the morning, so we spent the rest of the day in downtown Reykjavik. We did some more shopping, and though I had planned to buy gifts for my family, I ended up buying more things for myself. But it was my vacation, right?

We passed this sign every time we walked toward the downtown area. The smiley sperm in the condom hat cracked me up.

This is Hallgrimskirkja, a famous old church.

We saw (but did not visit) the Icelandic Punk Museum.

This pig statue was celebrating the World Cup; it was the first time in 47 years that the Icelandic team made it to the competition.

This is the seafood stew and mystery fish dish at Icelandic Street Food.

We had a late lunch at Icelandic Street Food. I am SO glad Hannah suggested this place. The business model of this restaurant was pretty neat. They only offered three entrées: a seafood stew, a lamb stew, or a fish dish that looked like mashed potatoes. But as long as you ordered one entrée, you could get free refills on any of the entrées, plus free bread, carrot cake, and coconut macaroons. What a deal! The seafood stew was good (although I’m not sure all the seafood was actually local), and the fish dish tasted just like gefilte fish!

Afterward we headed back to the hostel for a yoga class (compliments of our stay). There were only five of us who partook in the class, but that’s probably a good thing: the room let in a lot of sunlight, and the small space became quite hot very quickly (the yoga was not promoted as hot yoga, mind you). But the class had great energy; the two men in class had powerful “ohms” that added an intense vibe to the class. Hannah and I were pretty sweaty after class, so we cleaned ourselves up before heading out again.

A beer flight at Icelandic Craft Bar. Image found here.

Because we had had a late lunch, we weren’t really hungry for dinner. But we had received coupons for the other restaurant earlier for free beers at their sister bar, Icelandic Craft Bar. I don’t drink beer, but I figured Hannah could get two beers, and I would get something else. It was definitely a beer place, but I tried what they called “cider” (it wasn’t like hard apple cider at all, but more like some sort of clear spirit mixed with some rhubarb mix). It was very good! I also tried Brennivín, which is Iceland’s home spirit. Our bartender (who from Los Angeles of all places) described the taste as “the life of a sailor.” So I assumed it would be salty, harsh, and have a sad ending. But it wasn’t like that at all! The flavor is citrusy and floral, and it is so smooth. It was so good that I had two shots of it, and I bought a bottle to take home with me.

Since this was my last night in Iceland, it was fun just hanging out at the bar and chatting. We met another American, a young woman who was traveling on her own. It sounded like she was making adventures for herself: she got a rune tattoo, and she joined Tinder so she could meet men in Iceland. I don’t know if I’m jealous of her wild spirit or scared for her own life…

Then we got ice cream one more time before going home. The place didn’t have sprinkles (I’m not even sure if the girl knew that word), but there were miniature M&M's, so that more than sufficed my need to have extra sugar with my dessert.

We saw the prettiest sunset as we were walking back. It was like Iceland's way of giving me a nice send-off.

Once we got back to the hostel, Hannah and I stayed up late having “girl talk” in classic sleepover style. This was such a fun evening to end this trip!

Iceland: Day 2

On our second day in Iceland, a false fire alarm woke us up at 5:30. It felt like college all over again, like someone had burnt popcorn in the microwave. One of my biggest fears is getting caught in a fire, so with my heart pounding, even for a false alarm, I could not go back to sleep. So our second day got a bit of an earlier start than we had planned!

We had breakfast in the hostel, which was a nice option (although they were late in setting it up, which was annoying since we had been up for about two hours already!). For ~$15 each we could partake in a buffet which included bread (for toast or sandwiches [there were also cheese/meat/tomato/cucumber slices), skyr (Iceland's version of yogurt), cereal, and hard-boiled eggs. So we filled ourselves up since we weren't sure when we would eat next.

We rented a car that day to explore the southern coast of the country. Hannah already had a plan for where we would stop along the way, so I just enjoyed the ride (and also napped...).

Our first stop was Seljalandsfoss, a big waterfall that is quite the tourist attraction (I even found a postcard featuring it). Iceland had a very rainy spring and early summer, so the water was rushing; it was quite the sight!

We walked behind the waterfall, so we got a little wet from the mist.

When we had talked to someone at the tourist office downtown the previous day, we told him we were going to see the falls. He told us about a smaller, less-known waterfall (called Gljúfrabúl) that was just a short walk from the bigger one. So we took his advice to check it out. 

Notice the little sheep at the bottom of the photo!

We walked past some small waterfalls before reaching the one we wanted to get to. This one was inside of a cavern, so we had to use stepping stones in the water to get inside of the cave to see the falls. That was quite the balancing act, especially since people were trying to get out while we were trying to get in, but there's only one path!

Picture by Hannah Churn

After that we drove a little while longer to get to Skógafoss, a waterfall that Hannah visited the last time she was in Iceland. There is a tall set of stairs to get to the top, and all of my gym classes definitely prepared me for that climb!

This was a mountain near the falls. We saw a lot of these mossy mountains.

There are the falls, and you can see the winding staircase to the right in the photo.

Picture by Hannah Churn

This is what the falls looked like at the top.

There was a long trail that we could hike at the top of the falls, but we didn't have time to linger. We were off to our next stop, Dyrhólaey, to see the black sand beaches. They weren't beaches where people lay out or play in the surf; it can actually be dangerous to swim there. So we just took some photos before moving on to our next adventure.

We made a quick stop to see Sólheimajökull, a glacier that, like all other glaciers, is melting and shrinking in size due to climate change.

First we saw this big pond of water, and soon realized this was water that used to be part of the glacier.

You can see how enormous the glacier is: those tiny dots by the water at the bottom of the picture are people!

Then we were back on the road. We saw more misty mountains, and lots of happy cows, sheep and horses.

Our last stop was to check out a pool that Hannah wanted to visit. This wasn't a hot spring, but the pool was heated by geothermal energy. We had to hike in the rain to get there, but Hannah did get her quick dip in!

We saw these pretty purple flowers EVERYWHERE!

We were walking along this valley to get to the pool.

Hannah enjoyed her brief swim, even if it was raining a bit!

We finally saw a bit of blue sky as we were heading home. Such amazing landscapes!

We wanted to make sure we returned the rental car on time, so we were bookin' it back; it was fun reading 110 on the speedometer, even though that was in kilometers. As we drove back we saw a fence with bras all over it, an Arion bank, valleys of steam, and little hobbit houses nestled at the base of some of the mountains. But it was mostly lava fields (i.e. the usual).

Image found here

We got the car back just in time so that we could head to the Harpa for a showing of "Icelandic Sagas," a funny performance that summarized many of the viking stories. The room was much smaller than I expected for such a well-known performance hall, and for the ~$40 I paid for each ticket, I was surprised by the minimal set and the fact that the show only had two actors in it. I was amused and entertained, but the experience was like expecting to go to the Kennedy Center and ending up at Atlas Theater: still good, but not what you thought you had paid for. But we then went out for Indian food at a place called Gandhi, and that made it all better. The atmosphere was quiet and romantic actually, and the food was delicious. Then we had some ice cream as we walked back to the hostel.

Yet another busy day!

Iceland: Day 1

My friend Hannah was already planning to go to Iceland for a professional artist retreat, and she was going a few days early just for fun. I have been wanting to go to Iceland for some time (so many of my friends have been), so I asked her, "Not to invite myself on your vacation, but...can I invite myself on your vacation?" And she said yes!

Since it really was her trip, I let her do the planning. I told her, "You put the trip together, and afterward I'll write you a big check." So she decided where we would stay, when we would get the rental car and where we would go, etc. And she did a great job! She was so organized, which I appreciated. I felt safe and secure; I was in good hands.

Our WOW Airlines flight attendants looked just like this. I felt like it was Pan Am in the 1960's! Everything else was pink/purple, too: the lights on the plane, the WOW planes themselves, etc. Image found here.

Our trip began at BWI Airport around 10pm. Our flight wasn't until midnight, but we wanted to make sure we gave ourselves enough time to get through security, find our gate, etc. Well, the airport was dead, and we made it to our gate in less than 30 minutes. Then it was just a waiting game. I was so exhausted, and luckily once I was on the plane, I nearly slept through the whole flight.

We arrived at 7am, but because of the four hour difference, it was already 11am when we touched down. Getting through security wasn't too bad, and we made it easily to our bus to take us to BSI, the main bus terminal in Reykjavik (the international airport is about an hour from the capital city). I slept on that bus ride, too; I swear that the best way to prevent jet lag is to take naps whenever possible and get as much sleep when you can.

From BSI we walked about 25 minutes to our hostel. After sitting on an airplane for seven hours and then being on the bus, it felt good to stretch our legs. I noticed lots of purple and yellow flowers as we walked, as well as some starlings and what looked like a robin.

We saw many of these yellow flowers as we were walking around. 

Since we hadn't had breakfast, I was afraid I would get hangry on the long walk to the hostel. So I bought this HUGE pastry to hold me over on the walk. It's nearly the size of my face! Picture by Hannah Churn.

The Oddsson Hostel is so colorful! It was right on the ocean, so we couldn't get lost: just follow the water!

Then we made it to the Oddsson Hostel. It was really great! There was some issue with our online booking (which we didn't know about), so we got a free upgrade to a private room. Score! The hostel also offered free yoga classes to guests, had a bar downstairs, and you could eat a breakfast buffet there each morning for an extra cost (if you chose to do that; we did two mornings). There was also a kitchen and a hot tub; we used neither, but it was nice to know they offered those things.

This was our room. It was small but served its purpose. We were just ecstatic that we didn't have to share a room!

This was the view from our tiny room. The smaller islands in the water would completely disappear at high tide.

We spent the first day exploring Reykjavik, and we could easily walk downtown from the hostel. Since we were right next to the ocean, there was a sea or marsh smell in the air. While walking around, we saw lots of murals, or street art if you will. That was pretty neat! Here are several we saw:

The little orange thing at the top is a tiny My Little Pony!

This one was my favorite, obviously.

We spent most of the day walking around downtown, window shopping along all the little shops. I had read (and Hannah confirmed) that souvenirs would be cheaper at the duty-free store in the airport, so I did not buy too much stuff while shopping. It was fun just checking things out. There were many restaurants, and several specifically targeted tourists: there was a Hard Rock Cafe, a Chuck Norris restaurant, and on one block all next to each other were an American bar, a British pub, and a Parisian bistro. I was actually surprised how quiet the city was for a Saturday afternoon; not many people were out and about, but in the main square area there was a crowd gathered to watch soccer on an outdoor screen. It was fun to spend the day wandering the streets and exploring the city.

Our pastries held us over through lunch, but for dinner we wanted to check out a restaurant for true Icelandic food. So we went to the Reykjavik Fish Restaurant, where I had fish and chips along with their daily vegetables (beets and carrots). The food was very good, and it was a filling dinner that was quite satisfying after a long travel day.

We walked back to our hostel along the coast so we could see what "sunset" there would be, since there are only a few hours of darkness during the summer in Iceland. We had a few drinks at the bar at the hostel, then showered and cleaned ourselves up, which was very refreshing after our long day. We went to bed pretty early so we could get a good night's sleep for Day 2!