22
Jul 15

Reykjavik

A nice leisurely day in Reykjavik. Beautiful sunny warm weather, we started in Iest’s pick of Reykjavik’s hipster coffee place (Reykjavik Roasters), onto the most famous Reykjavik church Hallgrímskirkja (which is actually quite ugly and in your face), 3D topo map of Iceland in the rathaus (great), and anything in between.

Hallgrimskirkja

Hallgrimskirkja

Hallgrimskirkja

Hallgrimskirkja

Gina sketching away

Gina sketching away

3d map of Iceland

3d map of Iceland

Loads of sketching too. Lunch at Kafi Brennslan, dinner at our fave 2for1 Bergsson Mathús in the sun by the pond.

Gina at Tjörnin

Gina at Tjörnin

Icelandic parliament building

The Prime Minister’s house

Relaxing, beating Gina at cards

Relaxing, beating Gina at cards

Awesome food @ Bergsson

Awesome food @ Bregsson

Afterwards we met with Iest’s animator friend (thanks Bjarki!) at the local local for locals – Bar 7 – gritty and fun. Awesome final day of our trip!

Fríkirkjan í Reykjavík

Fríkirkjan í Reykjavík


21
Jul 15

Stykkishólmur – Reykjavik

We checked out Stykkishólmur in the morning, probably the first town we see in Iceland with nice ‘scandi-style’ architecture. If Stykkishólmur can, why can’t the others? Nevertheless, not much to do, so we set out on our journey back to Reykjavik.

'Scandi-style’ architecture

‘Scandi-style’ architecture

Þingvellir

Þingvellir

As we had some time, we decided to take in Þingvellir on the way, the only point of the ‘golden circle’, which we hadn’t seen yet. Þingvellir is a site of immense historical importance to Iceland, as well as geographical, it being the meeting place of the Northamerican and Eurasian tectonic plates. Despite that, it is kinda boring on the face of it, and most of the time I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to be looking at. Nevertheless, check!

"The Sun Voyager"

“The Sun Voyager”

Glass wall at Harpa

Glass wall at Harpa

From there we went straight to Reykjavik to return our car, and back to our campsite. We then walked to town to check out the main sights, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the wind finally quieted down. Delish lunch by the Tjörnin, but not quite sure there is much left for us to do in town tomorrow…

Gina's silhouette at Harpa

Gina’s silhouette at Harpa

Photoshoot at Sæbraut

Photoshoot at Sæbraut


20
Jul 15

Reykjavik – Stykkishólmur

Sleep in we did, which was nice, and then we rolled in to the camp reception to get ourselves a car for a day. It more or less worked out (they were a bit late on the delivery but also gave us a much bigger car than we paid for), and soon we were zooming up north from Reykjavik onto the Snæfellsnes peninsula.

A stupid stop in Borgarnes, of which our guide says it has a nice small-town vibe (it had nothing of that sort), and then a beautiful drive along the southern coast of the peninsula.

Rainbow!

Rainbow!

Our Icelandic wheels!

Our Icelandic wheels!

Southern landscape of Snæfellsnes peninsula

Southern landscape of Snæfellsnes peninsula

We did a nice coastal walk between Hellnar and Arnarstapi (and back, that’s what happens when you need to get back to a car). Which was really scenic, plus we saw some new birds too.

Coastal walk

Coastal walk

Nesting sea birds

Nesting sea birds

Iest and the sea

Iest and the sea

Gina and the rugged view

Gina and the rugged view

Incredible Raven

Incredible Raven

Beautiful Raven

Beautiful Raven

Hellnar and Arnarstapi peninsula

Hellnar and Arnarstapi peninsula

Then we continued around the peninsula, taking in nice views in the strong winds. Stopped by the famous Kirkjufell mountain and its waterfalls, although in quite uninspiring light conditions.

Coastline looking West

Coastline looking West

Snæfellsjökull

Snæfellsjökull

We checked out camping spots in Hellissandur and Grundarfjöður on the way but didn’t really like them, so we ended up driving all the way to Stykkishólmur. Where we got at about midnight.

Kirkjufell mountain

Kirkjufell mountain


19
Jul 15

Heimaey – Reykjavik

We woke up into a super strong wind, shaking up the tent. Despite that the weather was still plenty nice and sunny, if a bit hazy.

Coastal Path

Coastal Path

Gina marching ahead

Gina marching ahead

We set out on our puffin-hunting, along the western shore of the island to the south. Even after walking the five or so kms along the coast we still didn’t see any (although we saw a number of other birds), and the wind was really pretty gusty. (We later learned that this is, indeed, the windiest spot in Europe.)

Looking out towards Suðurey

Looking out towards Suðurey

The beach at Vikin

The beach at Vikin

When we reached the southernmost peninsula, we were almost losing hope for puffins. We climbed up the hill to the bird-watching hut – and there they were! In their hundreds along the cliffs and on the sea, some bravely trying to fly in the strong wind, their little orange beaks and feets flapping along. It was really pretty awesome.

Puffin

Puffin

When we had enough, we went back to the road and decided to try to thumb to town to spare us another hour in the gusts despite the fact that there was very little traffic at this place. We were super lucky though and got a ride immediately with a nice French couple before we even really started hitching.

A sunburned and windswept Iest

A sunburned and windswept Iest

Gina and Toti

Gina and Toti

Back in town we got ourselves a Panini lunch and headed to the last unexplored spot on the island – the aquarium. The place was fairly small but full of wonders – huge amounts of stuffed birds and animals and fishes, and also tanks with live fishes and other water creatures. It also had boxes with little gull chicks, nursing them after they’ve fallen out from nests, until they’re strong enough to survive. On top of all that, there was one guillemot walking casually around; aaand and one local puffin who’s just living there since four years, and I got to hold him! Excellent visit.

Local Puffin - Toti!

Local Puffin – Toti!

A very curious Guillemot!

A very curious Guillemot!

Afterwards we bought some skyrs and went to pack up before heading out for the boat.
We said a sad goodbye to the island, and zoomed over to the mainland seamlessly connected with a bus to Reykjavik. We arrived at the campsite at about half ten, pitched the tent in the strong wind (still here as well!), and went to make a dinner in the nice warm common kitchen. Decided we wanted to sleep in a little bit tomorrow, so no getting up crazy hours to catch a bus to Borgarnes, we’ll see about renting a car for the trip.


04
Jul 15

Reykjavik – Kerlingarfjöll

We got up before six, and started packing to catch a bus to the bus station, which was supposed to leave at 7:15. The bus driver said we would not be leaving before 7:30 though, which should still be fine for our 8am bus from BSI. We used the little time to buy breakfast at the adjacent hostel, which was a great idea – we did not have enough time to take full advantage of the fresh buffet selection but we tried our best to stuff ourselves and still took some sandwiches and coffee for the road. At the bus station we found our bus immediately, as it was the one with the rough terrain wheels – monster bus!
With us the bus was full of French tourists going to the same place as us, as an organised group. They were super annoying, and we thought it was very inconsiderate of the company to use public bus as their personal transport for their groups. On the couple of stops along the way where people wanted to get in, they had problems accommodating them.

Strokkur

Strokkur

Geysir

Geysir

The bus stopped at the sights of Geysir and Gulfoss – the most famous (and touristy) geyser and waterfall near Reykjavik. We were happy to see them just on our way somewhere else, so we didn’t have to spend much time and still check them out. At Geysir, there was actually a whole field of geysers and spouts, and despite all the people it was pretty nice. Gulfoss was indeed pretty mighty and roaring, and there was a nice viewing point up above it all.

Gullfoss

Gullfoss

Gullfoss

Gullfoss

Afterwards, the bus got on the (only very recently opened) highland route 35 to Kerlingarfjöll. The weather was amazing and sunny and we had beautiful views of the landscape and mountains on the horizon, including Hekla, and glaciers, while around us there was some surreal moon-like terrain with snowfield still aplenty. We were getting terribly excited. The bus was doing great on the dirt road, with occasional river crossings and all.

Kerlingarfjöll Camp

Kerlingarfjöll Camp

Hiking towards Hveradalir

Hiking towards Hveradalir

We arrived in Kerlingarfjöll at about 1pm, and the place was awesome. It was beautifully set in a valley of a glacier river, surrounded by mountains with still a lot of snow. There were a few huts (those apparently need to be booked long time ahead for the short summer season they get), and a great selection of spots to pitch. When we checked-in for our tent, we also got a small map with the local hikes, but were also informed that there is more snow than usual for the time of the year, and some of the trails might not be clear. We didn’t care because we’re awesome, slapped a lot of sunscreen on, and set out through the first snowfield towards the Hveradalir geothermal area located in a glacier river canyon.

12_Iest
13_Gina_NoShades

The trail was as scenic as it gets and in about 75 minutes we saw a first spot of spouting sulphuric steam. Once we got to it a whole canyon opened beneath us and it was truly epic – yellowy-orange rock with snowfields, spouts of steam and hot water at various place forming colourful patters on the rocks. We followed the trail on the south side of the river for about half hour until we reached a spot where we saw directly down, and realised that the bridge from our side was gone (with some remains still around) and since the river was quite wide and we didn’t know how deep it would be, we decided to backtrack to the spot of the first steam spout and took the trail on the north side of the river instead. We didn’t regret this detour on bit because it took us through a different branch of the canyon still, may be even wilder than the first one. And with unlimited daylight and stable sunny weather, there was no better place to be.

Hveradalir

Hveradalir

Hveradalir - Gina & halo

Hveradalir – Gina & halo

Gina at Hveradalir

Gina at Hveradalir

Hveradalir

Hveradalir

Once we got back to the same spot we were before, just on the other side of the river, we met again the couple we briefly spoke with before, who did manage to get across the river – turns out that despite being wide it was only about mid-thigh deep (and pretty cold of course). We had some last fun at the bubbling sulphurous mud, and then hiked up the canyon on the other side than we came down and took a nice trail down to our campsite again.

23_Gina_Kerlingarfjoll
24_Kerlingarfjoll

26_Gina_Kerlingarfjoll

Altogether a nice leisurely 5-hour hike in the sun with some surreal sights. What a way to start our trip! Is it going all downhill from here? Because this will be hard to top.
We took a shower (finally!), made a nice pot of hot ramen noodles, split a beer, and crawled into our sleeping bags at around 8pm already, completely exhausted given our lack of sleep the night before, and also it was getting cold very fast.

30_Kerlingarfjoll
31_Kerlingarfjoll
32_Kerlingarfjoll
34_Kerlingarfjoll

03
Jul 15

London – Reykjavik

Glorious heat wave in London but we decided to forgo our only chance at British summer this year and packed for Iceland. Since we got our tickets in January we didn’t have much choice anyway. On Friday, I snuck out of work a bit early, picked up my gigantic backpack and braved my way to Heathrow, on the tube in the rush hour and in the heat. Iest went straight from work and we met up at the terminal. We weighed our bags and were happy our limit was 23kgs as both of them were over twenty. We had them nicely (and expensively!) wrapped, checked in, and went through security – which, for one, I totally failed this time, having forgotten my mobile in the side pocket of my cargos, which earned me a spot in the full body scanner.

Finally through, we still had plenty of time so we had a bit of dinner, while waiting for our gate to be announced. Unfortunately, instead a delay of the flight was announced, and we were a bit worried about our timing for the rest of the night.

Eventually we were taking off about an hour late. Our great window position, so carefully selected at online check-in, turned out to be over the wing, which was a rookie mistake, cruelly held against me by Iest for the duration of the flight. On top of that, we didn’t take our headphones for the trip, so we could not watch the entertainment, which included Fortitude! I was gutted. I went to sleep instead but Iest woke me up for some stupid question, and I couldn’t sleep afterwards and was super tired and cranky.

We arrived at Keflavik airport shortly before midnight, went quickly through passport control (even though the guy was not particularly friendly), grabbed our bags without waiting and out we were.
Despite the late hour it was not dark and it felt very strange, may be like a belated dusk. It was also very fresh and smelled like spring. We got on the bus connection to Reykjavik, which takes a bit less than an hour, and enjoyed our first views of Iceland.

The bus dropped us off at the campsite where we checked in and also bought fuel. Despite everything working our pretty much seamlessly since the airport, by the time we were ready to sleep, it was half past two. The sun was shining and birds were screaming their little lungs out but we had no problems falling asleep.

Icelandair

Icelandair

Icelandair

Icelandair