Living Vik-cariously: Iceland Part 1
These are all just going to be family photos, if you want the pretty ones, go to the Iceland page under Travel.
Day .5
Ryan was worried he would have trouble finding me, especially considering most of the people coming out of the gate at Keflavik Airport were tall blondes. However, those fears were unfounded since my plastic Viking helmet, that I’d been wearing since Heathrow, made it easy to spot me in the crowd. He led me back to the car where Mom and Dad were waiting, Steve would be coming in on a later flight so we had a short time to look around Reykjavik. We saw the church and looked through dozens of gift shops. I acquired so many postcards within the first hour of being in Iceland, and they became the checklist of places I wanted to see. Within the first hours of our trip Ryan almost KO’ed himself trying to jump up a post that wasn’t actually in the ground.
Dad and Ryan had already been hiking for a few days, so we went back to the room and tried to organize the utter chaos that was all of our clothes, tech, and camping equipment for the coming week.
Day 1
Our first day driving we did the Golden Circle, a loop of waterfalls and fissures near Reykjavik, and then would continue around the southern coast, doing a counter-clockwise tour of the island.
An amazing portion of my trip was trying to explain the ‘eth’ and the ‘thorn’ characters to mom. In Icelandic they have some extra letters, these letters also used to be in English but died out. The ‘eth’ (ð) looks like a ‘d’ and the ‘thorn’ looks like þ a combined ‘p’ and ‘b.’ Despite explaining that both of these make a ‘th’ sound, she insisted that we were starting our tour of Iceland by visiting Kerid Crater and Pingvellir National Park.
The Þingveller was where the original Viking parliament, the Athling, would meet every year since 930AD to pass laws and settle disputes. It’s also where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet and some people go diving between the two. I figured this was the perfect place to change into my Viking Hangeroc. Because of course I brought it. Dad was quickly farther down the path. We walked around the site, saw the waterfalls and church on the site.
Iceland is giving me a whole new appreciation for the colour blue. All the water here, the geysers and craters all have such magical shades that they seem to glitter. Our next stop was at Geysir. It’s funny to watch everyone poses with their cameras around the bubbling pit. It feels like everyone want to poke it with a stick to make it work. And of course, vindictive nature, as soon as you look away, that’s when it would erupt.
Our first proper Icelandic waterfall was Gullfoss. I was trying to take a nice long exposure photo of them, but the wind whipped up such a spray that even from a long way off, my lens would not stay clear so I gave up. Tripod still came in handy for taking family pictures, especially when boys are prats. I guess tradition is tradition.
Day 2
Seljalandsfoss was our next waterfall. You were supposedly able to walk behind it without getting wet - yeah right. Again, the wind was a factor and with every gust you felt like you had just gone down Splash Mountain. There were a few moments of me huddled over my camera to protect it from the incoming sheets of water. Farther along the walk, Dad found a mini waterfall, Gljufrabui, that’s hidden away in a cave that looked like it came out of Jurassic Park.
Our next stop was Skogafoss. There was a trail that went up the river above the falls which led us from one amazing waterfall to another, every one more impressive than the last. Mom was a tad leery about us being near any of the edges but we still got some cool photos. Dad’s back was hurting him a lot so he stayed at the first one while we wandered around.
I had brought my drone, hoping to get some beautiful shots of the amazing scenery, but I was foiled by the legions of “Drone Forbidden” signs around every waterfall and cliffside. This didn’t stop other pilots but they often got told off rather quickly. Even without the human deterrents, Icelandic nature itself seemed irritated by the flying technology; strong, gusting wind and sheets of heavy spray would probably mean death to my little flying friend so I didn’t bother.
The one thing we did bring and use was GÜNTER!! Our favourite T-rex was very excited to join in the fun. Mom was trying to get a photo of her, Günter, and me. We kept fooling around until she yelled, “Can I just get a normal photo!” We had to point out to her that she was standing between her adult children dressed as a Viking and a dinosaur- a normal photo wasn’t exactly an option.
Günter’s such a drama queen.
We went to the black beaches at Vik, standing on the cliffside and looking down at the ocean far beneath our feet. We could see the Dyrholaey, the stone arch and in the distance a few little Puffins, rising and falling with the waves. Mom figured her water bottle would make the ideal puffin caller, but surprisingly it did not lure any puffins closer to the shore.
Most of the trip we were camping. I’d come fully loaded with hot chocolate, chocolate bars, and custard cremes, the rest of the family had brought some more meal-dish food too. Can’t beat the view.
