Before we get tired: Ísland

More Iceland!!! Yay!! Hopefully this is just as exciting for you to read as it is for me to write. I am going to split up the rest of the Iceland blog post into two from our journey with Matt and Mel. So now, in lieu of the second Iceland post, I want you to go turn on that Of Monsters & Men album, and then you can proceed.

Day 1

Welcome back! So Dave and I got to the airport well in advance of Matt and Mel's arrival, and I just got unbelievably antsy, so when they finally got off their plan I bombarded them with screaming and jumping and hugs and god their jet lag must have just disappeared immediately with all of the emotions I was throwing at them ;-) But anyways, Mel and Matt graciously rented a car, that we then proceeded to take clockwise around the ring road. We decided to make the Snæfellsnes Penninsula our first destination, with a planned hike at the filming of journey to the center of the earth in Snæfellsjökull. http://goo.gl/maps/hdd3R

Basically this turned into a sight seeing day by car, with a nice 2 hourish hike near the mountain. It was a beautiful day, but one of some leisure since everyone was quite tired. And we ended the day with the tents in perfect view of some fjords. It was an excellent way to end our first day in Iceland with our amigos!!! And no rain on day one, with even bouts of sunshine, it was just great! The following are all going to be stolen photos from Matt and Mel because I was pretty lazy about taking pictures once they arrived; in my unfortunate typical fashion I always rely on other people documenting my life for me. But anyways, you should also go creep on their amazing blog as well if you're interested afedbearisadeadbear.blogspot.com

Not to shabby of a spot to stop and have lunch.

Taking in the views from the car.

Absolutely perfect spot for a hike.

It was still so surreal to be with these people in this beautiful place, day 1 was an emotional overload, for sure.

Not a big deal, the water is just so clean that you can drink straight from the streams.

REAL LIFE FRIENDS!!

Walking to our homes after a perfect day.

I could wake up here every day and never feel a worry again.

Day 2

We all awoke on day 2 ready to rock! We were in Iceland and we were hell bent on completing the entire ring road in 7 days! So off we went. Our first destination was Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland http://goo.gl/maps/crw9U, and as Mel and Matt perfectly say in their blog, it's shocking once you realize how small it is. Anyways, the drive there was stunning, and largely filled with miles and miles of gravel road, but if you just turn up the music I've noticed that you can barely tell how loudly the rocks are pounding against the car ;-) But once we got to Akureyri, we stopped in the bank, so that money could change hands, and to our amazement the banks just give away coffee and ice cream, just for being a loyal patron, so naturally we were all thrilled, and Akureyri is going down as one for the books for no other reason then the ice cream scene.

After Akureyri was seen, we decided to press onward towards Lake Mývatn

http://goo.gl/maps/Nxydw. Between Akureyri and Mývatn, however, lies Godafoss, a massive and stunning waterfall, so naturally we detoured to this destination for a bit of a look around.

Godafoss being impressive.

All smiles for waterfalls!

After Godafoss, we made it to Mývatn, and decided to go on a nice long hike on the east side of the lake! The hike passed through some crazy looking lava fields, and ultimately ended at a steep climb up to the dormant Hverfell volcano. The hike was beautiful, and worth the view at the top for sure.

Our destination was the top of that crater!

Friends in a lava hole!

Forward march!

Stunning views.

It was insane to be next to mother nature in this way.

Supposedly the Yule Lads live around here, and Mel and I were trying to fit in with them.

After the hike, we decided that this was going to be the day that we went in search of a hot pot. We asked a local for some advice, and she guided us straight to a hot pot. The hot pot seemed quite perfect, and we were all excited about getting in (despite the signs warning you of the possibility of falling rocks ;-) ). So we decided to set up camp, and cook, but not before another local came up to us straight away and asked if we were intending to camp. After telling him, well yeah, he said that another local dude comes trolling around the area at approximately 3am waking up campers, yelling at them to go to the pay camp sites. Needless to say, the guy discouraged us from camping in this area, but directed us to a more private, off-road location, where we could safely camp for the night.

Once we got to our new spot, we finally got out our stuff, and made dinner (around 11pm), and while doing so, we watched a car of 3 local girls park, get out of their car carrying towels, and walk into what appeared to us to be an abyss of lava fields. After watching this curious occurrence, we also then noticed another couple of locals coming back towards us, and were also carrying towels. Needless to say, our curiosity got the better end of us, and we put two and two together and concluded that they just had to have all been going/coming to/from a hidden hot pot. So off we went in search of this secret hot pot that these random people were going to. After searching to no avail, Matt wandered off a tad further in search of anything, and to everyone's amazement, he was able to hear the sounds of girls laughing down in the canyon ridge below, meters away in the distance. We proceeded to walk closer to the voices, to ultimately find a make-shift ladder going down at least 30 ft into a hot pot. We were all completely in awe at this discovery, and beyond giddy to be finding such a secret hot pot. Iceland is renowned for its hot pots, due to all of its geothermal energy, and they are all over the country, but virtually all of them are known about by tourists nowadays, and therefore inundated with people making them lose some of their allure.

Rightfully so, as soon as we started to go down the ladder, the girls yelled up at us asking who we are. We said that we had managed to gather that there must be a hot pot out this way because we saw people walking etc., but yet they were really skeptical about us. They insisted on knowing who told us about this secret location, but we swore that no one gave up their secret, and that we rather found it on our own. Once they reluctantly let us join them, we were all friends. And damn, was this one of the most perfect experiences of my entire life. I have never been to such a magical spot. The water was perfect bath water temperature, and it was clear as day; you could see down for at least 20 ft straight to the bottom. And then conversely, when you looked straight up you could see the 'night' sky and it was just perfect. We stayed down there for over an hour just relaxing and enjoying life. When we came out around 1:30am, the sun was still on the horizon, wowing all of us, especially Matt and Mel who had never come close to being this far north on the globe before, it was a perfect night, and everyone's favorite looking back at the trip.

Looking down into the first hot pot.

The ridge where the second hot pot was located

The second make-shift ladder going down to the hot pot.

The view as we came out at 1:30 am.

Stoked about Iceland and hot pots and geothermal energy, damn!

Home for the night.

Day 3

We woke up on day 3 in truly the best of spirits after having had one of those perfect days/nights, and decided not to let the rain get us down! So on we went, and our first destination was a hike around some geothermal energy fields, Námaskarð, and a dormant volcano filled with electric blue water. They were next to each other, and also close by where we camped, and though the rain/fog hadn't really lifted when we started our journey, we still trudged on!

Hiking through the boiling mudpools

The smell was pretty intense at times.

More bubbling.

And so much steam!

Psyched on geothermal energy!

Craters filled with water this blue, whoa!

It's just a little rain :)

After our hike around the bubbling mud pots, we pressed onwards! Despite our pit stop for lunch, our next main stop was at Detifoss, Europe's most powerful waterfall. But we were already wet when we arrived, and the rain seemed relentless in this moment, so we did a quick once over of the epic waterfall before rushing back to the car :-/ it was damn impressive though, just so much water rushing and gushing full steam ahead.

Detifoss

Dave venturing out

They're pretty cute.

After grinning our way through the rain, we coincidentally set our sights on Seyðisfjörður http://goo.gl/maps/QtF4N. We decided that it would be amazing to go back here and hike around the fjords all over the east coast. Along the way we made a beautiful pit stop, and then immediately upon arriving in Seyðisfjörður, we found a perfect spot for the tents up on the side of a mountain. And the sky had managed to clear, and you could get an amazing view of the harbor, the quaint town, and the fjords! We also connected the dots that a show was going on that night, for which we had noticed posters for a couple of times prior, and the gig was free, so we figured this was a perfect opportunity to go out for the night! Turns out the band was an amazing folk band from Poland, you should go creep on Domowe Melodie here..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjpdgvPnOEQ they had such amazing energy and presence, and it was a perfect ending to what was prior a soggy, rainy day.