I went with my friends Cian and Katharine over there after seeing that this new budget airlines, WOW (seriously that's their name), was offering round-trip tickets for less than $400. This is less than flying back home sometimes, so we had to do it! We get to the airport and first off see a MASSIVE line to check-in because they do not have online check-in. Whatever, the plane is about 2 hours late anyway because we find out that THIS IS THE FIRST FLIGHT FROM THE US FOR WOW--EVER. Yeah, I felt a little bit nervous finding out that tidbit. But alas, everything went okay. Besides standing in line forever, which I'll forgive them for since it was their first time and all, I very triumphantly saw that my bag (one carry-on) weighed 3.8 kg, much less than the free 5kg we were allowed (I'm cheap!). So hooray for me :) The flight itself was only 4 1/2 hours, less than flying across the US to California-crazyness!
Day 1:
We arrived at Keflavik Airport just outside of Reykjavik at 5:45 am only about an hour and a half later than we were scheduled to-not terrible. But then we had a big fiasco in waiting for our budget rental car company, SADcars to take us with their shuttle bus to their lot of (very old) cars. In all honesty, one of the times we had walked away to grab coffee and were gone about 5 minutes and so we missed him, but really though, it was absurd that we didn't get to the office and talking to the guy about our rental, until 2 hours later. Finally, we reached an agreement (or at least we thought) to upgrade from a 2-wheel drive to an all-wheel drive (much better for the winter weather) with no additional cost. Turns out that's not what happened, and there was some heated words exchanged, and more finagling-but finally we ended up cutting down the upgrade price from 90 euros to 50 euros-not ideal, but at that point I just wanted to get out of there and on our way. Plus, I really wanted the all-wheel drive to appease my mind about all of this winter driving we would be doing. Did we get screwed over? Probably, but we were on our way-and that's what was important to me.
Next we drove to Reykjavik to grab something quick to eat. It was a Saturday morning, and we found out that on the weekends, nothing in this country opens up before 10am-I swear. It was only about 20 minutes to 10 so we just waited a little bit more and finally I grabbed an egg sandwich-type thing that could have almost been a lunch item-because it had this mayonnaise-type stuff. I found out later that I am pretty sure it was Bearnaise sauce, which Wikipedia says is egg yolk, white wine vinegar, and clarified butter. It was pretty good and much needed because although it was only 6am back in Boston (they are 4 hours ahead), my stomach was adjusted and I was starving. After refueling, we moved onward to our first real stop of exploring the countryside of Iceland: The Golden Circle.
Day 2:
Sunday we woke up after a great night of sleep (seriously comfortable beds) and headed into town to find breakfast-alas, it was before 10 again and no place was open, so we grabbed some gas and by the time we got back it was 10 (this seemed to be a trend). I had a quiche (yum) and then grabbed a crispie-chocolate thing for the road (which I proceeded to forget :( )-blunder number 1 of today for Laura. Here's a note quickly, if you find yourself in Akureyri- stay at Guesthouse Brekussel-it was clean, comfortable and very cheap! Anyway, then we hit the road and drove to Godafoss-waterfall number 2! This one you could get closer to and really see the the ice and the source of it. Pretty neat, but it was freezing this day, so we didn't stay long! Next, we drove around Mvatn Lake, which I bet is much prettier in summer (because I had been told by a few people that this was a really gorgeous area), and saw as we were driving the many lava rocks and weird formations they made. It reminded me in a way of the termite (sculptures) I saw while in the Outback in Australia. Just very weird, but interesting. Man-made looking, but not.
Next up, just passed Myvatn Lake was my favorite part of the trip thus far-a soak in the Myvatn Nature Baths-similar to the popular Blue Lagoon near the Capital, but very few people were at this one-I'd say 15-20 the whole 1.5 hours we were there. I liked it that way :) The baths were SO blue and very pretty, and HOT! I love my showers really hot, so it was perfect for me, but a little too warm for Cian. It was also so cool because were were literally IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE at these nature baths. It was below freezing, and it was just such a sharp contrast and very rewarding to dip into the hot bath. Blunder #2 of the day for Laura, was dropping my sunglasses into the bath. They were immediately gone-seriously don't know how they floated away from me so fast. Afterwards, I finger-combed my hair (I forgot my brush in the car), and headed to the little cafe within there. We needed some food and so just decided to eat here (because who knew what was on the way?) I had been told to try the smoked salmon in these parts and so I looked for it and read a bit up on local cuisine and I determined it must be the famous smoked trout. Also popular in the region was this Geysir bread that is baked under lava (or the really hot ground) for 24 hours. It's dark in color like rye bread. They had a combination platter of the two together and it was delightful! I also had a much better local craft beer called Einstock Porter-not bad! Then we were off!
Day 3:
Monday we woke up a bit later again (which serves us well when no place opens before 10 am), then headed into the town for some breakfast which I was beginning to think doesn't exist here. Instead we had toasted ham and cheese sandwiches with that Bearnaise sauce. Then it was off to Jokuslaron to see the icebergs. The roads again, weren't great. Surprise! But what was a welcome surprise was the beautiful sunny weather-which persisted all day :) Jokuslaron looked better in pictures, unfortunately, I hate to say it. Maybe other times of the year it's better? We weren't even sure that was it when we came upon it. I just expected the icebergs to be bigger, but it was still interesting and unlike something I've ever seen. Across the street was the ocean with icebergs kind-of in there too, very pretty! The waves were crashing like crazy and we saw a seal!! The sand of the beach (which was partially covered by snow haha) was very black and cool looking. I bet not so "cool" in summer though, heh heh.
Day 4:
We woke up, checked out and went to explore downtown Reykjavik for a bit. We didn't end up with much time though, because we still wanted to do the Blue Lagoon before heading to the airport and we still needed to drop off the rental. So, we saw the large, very modern, Lutheran church in Reykjavik--which was...imposing. And then we walked around whilst I tried to find some gloves made of Icelandic wool. I found some grey ones, and we were on our way to the Lagoon! So long, Reykjavik.