Iceland | Days 1 & 2
Spring Break 2018 was spent in Iceland and oh. my. gosh. I still don't have the words to describe the beauty of it all. I am having serious withdrawals of the land of fire and ice.
I tried really hard to put it all into one post, but we did SO MUCH and apparently there's a photo limit in each blog post. Therefore, I had to split our trip into 3 posts! Bear with me...
//Day 1: The Snæfellsnes Peninsula & Akranes
We hit the ground running after landing at 7:00am Iceland time. A slight issue with renting the car, but it was sorted out quickly and we were on the road by 9am! In our planning, we had learned that the West Fjords are visited by only 10% of tourists, so we knew that since we desperately wanted to avoid as many tourist buses as possible, we would spend a day west of Reykjavik.
First stop: the cafe that was in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as a Papa John's! We love that movie, and wanted to stop at this iconic little building for some breakfast and coffee, and some killer views.
On our drive, we needed to get out and stretch, so I found some basalt cliffs for us to check out. They are called the Gerðuberg Cliffs, and it was definitely a nice little stop after being on a plane for so long, and then in the car for close to 2 hours total at this point.
Soon, it was the main attraction of the day: Kirkjufell Mountain. The most photographed mountain in Iceland apparently, even though a very small percentage of tourists get to it. It was so beautiful, and even though we are visiting in between peak seasons (meaning, dead grass everywhere...) there was still a beauty to it that was difficult to put into words.
After a little walk around the waterfalls and soaking in the views, we started to make our way over to the tiny fishing town of Stykkishólmur. On the way from Kirkjufell, was lava fields as far as the eye could see...
The church in Stykkishólmur is this adorable little structure up on a high hill overlooking the town, and then not too far away is a cute little red harbor marker that you can hike up to and take in the views of the Bierdha Fjord.
But most importantly of day 1, we had our first hot dog from an Iceland gas station!! We know, it sounds weird. But everyone said to try it. And it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. So amazing, in fact, that we will continue to eat hot dogs at gas stations every single day of our trip. :)
We finished our day off with checking into our little AirBnb in the tiny fishing town of Akranes. We had a backyard cottage all to ourselves, got settled in from our long first day of travel, and then walked to dinner to the most amazing little restaurant that our host recommended to us, Gamla Kaupfélagið, where we ate the most amazing meal: lobster bisque, shredded duck, and pulled lamb shoulder. I was pretty good about taking pictures of our food (so basic) this entire trip, but completely spaced with this first delicious dinner. Probably because I was working on 4 hours of airplane sleep in the past 36 hours, and devoured it as soon as the waitress set it in front of me.
//Day 2: The Golden Circle and Selfoss
Our wakeup call was a bit early, because we were hoping to beat some forecasted rain for a hike. But before leaving Akranes, we drove out to their lighthouse to see it with that gorgeous early morning glow.
The waves were perfect, and it was the best way to peacefully start our trek around the super touristy Golden Circle. (Our hike we had hoped to do in the morning got pushed until later in the day, due to constant rain as soon as we started driving...)
The Golden Circle is filled with gorgeous little mini-stops, so we picked a few things at the top of our list and spent the day in-and-out of the car hopping from stop to stop. And we quickly gave today a theme: WATER.
Kerið Volcanic Crater:
Bruarfoss Waterfall:
...which included horses on the hike out to it, and also the bluest water I've ever seen in my life
The Geysir:
Gullfoss Falls:
Faxi Waterfall
Ice Cream and free livestock pets at Efsti-dalur
p.s. the blueberry ice cream was RIDICULOUS. I don't know if I'll ever taste that deliciousness again in my life, and that really depresses me.
Reykjadalur Hike to the hot springs
Dinner in Selfoss at Kaffi Krus, in which we ate the most scrumptious pizza that had FRENCH FRIES on it (!!!)
Our first 48 hours in Iceland were absolutely incredible. We had quickly fallen in love with this gorgeous country, its incredible food, and the genuinely kind people we met.
Click here for days 3 & 4.
Click here for days 5 & 6.
xo,
Jaclyn
