MOST OF IT, ICELAND
2015-11-06, 09:32, JASON
STAY: SUZUKI JIMNY
Just as a pre-disclaimer. I know, all links in the cities lead to here. There's just too much to write about. So, this post will have a brief summary, links to our videos, and a few select pictures.
We looked on SkyScanner: It was leaving from Luton, flying into Bristol, round flights for 98 pounds. So, we had to do it.
You know us by now, we do it on the cheap. Iceland, in general, is quite expensive. If you go to small towns along the Golden Mile, you will be paying a lot of money, for accommodation and food. Ironically, heading into Reykjavik, there's more competition in the city and so things tend to be more reasonably priced. If there are two things that sum up our time Iceland, it's this: One. sleeping in the car. Two. eating Rúgbrauð (Icelandic Rye Bread) with cheese and rocket (arrugula), finished off with a bit of Iceland Skyr yogurt. Dat shits da BAWWWWMB.
This is how we did it. We printed off the Wikitravel map of Iceland. Used a bit of google, and started driving counter-clockwise around the country. Every night, we slept in the car. It took a bit of perfecting. The first night, we were pulled over the side of the road, and did not realize the glare was so bad in the night. So, we drive a bit more in a half-asleep state and pull into a national sightseeing area. Bingo. For all my basic folks out there, pull off the road and sleep. Less likely you'll be woken up. We woke up the first night to this legit waterfall.
The second rule we learned is, dress warm. At night, it gets cold. I mean, COLD. And, we only went in September. So, what that meant for us was about 4 layers of clothes, which was still barely enough.
The last rule is: face the direction of the wind. That stuff is strong in Iceland, where there's not much vegetation to block the wind power. The anemometer was probably off the chain. We learned this on night 3. Since it's hard to get the timeline of it into the grander story, let me detail out the days, and where we slept. This is purely for personal reasons, some of them were hilarious:
1. Worst night. This one was mentioned above. Slept on side of road, thought it too bright, then pulled into national parks. First figured out that this is how we should do it: sleep in a closed-off spot. Still froze to death. Woke up to a nice waterfall.
2. Pulled over a side ditch and slept in there. All I remember is that it was super grassy, but off the beaten path.
3. After passing Akureyri, we drove about 2 minutes out of the city and, once again pulled into the side of the road, some road that a tractor had been on of sorts. Little did we know, in the morning, we woke up to little gnattish bugs crawling around the car since we had parked next to a small lake. Never sleep next to the bodies of water, guys, chances are the insects are doing the same. We had thought about staying in Akureyri, but we got some sense into ourselves.
4. Because the following day, we wanted to go check out the hot springs nearby, we pulled into some guest house to ask them for information about that. They gave us the nastiest look: Are you not staying here with us? Why are you knocking on our door and asking for directions? Whatever, you get some haters along the way. Their hosue was about a 3 minutes drive in from the main road, so all we did was drove about 2 minutes out, and 1 minute before the main road, we pulled over the field and just parked our car, and slept. The next morning, we heard noises outside our car, as if someone was rubbing the window. So, we shot up as if the people on the farm were knocking on our door to kick us out. Turns out, some icelandic horses were just scratching themselves on the car! We woke up to some big horse face looking in the main window haha. To get them out the way, we just honked a bit and they just scattered. Cool.
5. Slept in a hostel. We were in Reykjavik this day, and it's weird to sleep in the car in the city. We got free parking at the famous church in Reykjavik, and walked to the hostel. The warmest day, for sure. Since they would never know if we had taken the sheets or not, I admit, I took a sheet cover for the road. I sleeping bagged myself the next two nights in a sheet, that I stole, from a hostel. Sorry, Jesus. I know you gave us favors for that free parking spot.
6. Since we had doubled back around on ourselves, we pulled over somewhere near the town called "Hella" and slept. Slept alright this night, was good to have been refreshed the night before.
7. Slept right near the airport, there was a small duckin spot that was lofted up. This was cuz we had to return the car the next day, early. Our flight was early, too. Slept the best this night. We had it down to a tee. Well, 4 tees.
Now, the secret formula for food: how did we do it? Don't eat in the fancy restaurants. Actually, I take that back. Bring enough money to shell out for 2 or so nice meals, there is some unique food there that comes at a price. We went to one fancy seafood restaurant where we bought some shark meat to eat, and some puffin, among various other fishes. It was this small, one-off cute place in Stykkisholmur. Otherwise, go to the grocery store and buy your own stuff. The bread is cheap, and so are the fresh veggies. And, it's very Nordic-style breakfast: light, but with a lot of good, fresh flavor. Don't feel like you need to throw your food out if you don't finish the bag: this is Iceland! The air in your car will work as a perfect refrigerator.
And, yes, the hygiene questions: how did we shower? How did we brush our teeth? Iceland is essentially one big glacier. There are fresh streams of water running everwhere. How did we shower? Used the waterbottles that we bought in the beginning, filled them with water from a local river, brought some shampoo, and just doused our hair with water from the river. It's quite refreshing. You can also use that water to brush your teeth. I'm not sure if that's sustainable.. but we did save a lot of water doing that. Plus, you're so cold and hardly sweat. Just don't poo on the side of the road, it's not really, well, respectable . To the earth nor to the Icelanders.
Another thing I need to mention about Iceland is the hot springs. The idea is that, there is some natural heating of the water from the Earth, and Icelanders have figured out since their country is so cold, it's perfect to go into hot water butt-naked. We support this philosophy in its entirety. Do some research online and look for some cool hot springs to go to. Inevitably, the "Blue Lagoon" will show up, which is the main tourist attraction for people who want to dip in those methane filled pools. If you're a little bit more budgeted, we encourage you do the same and take a car around, and find off-the-road ones. Thorin and I went to one where we had to park in a farmer's backyard, and climb all the way through the grass, hopped a gate, and found one that was just bordered along the waterfall. Another one was near Hveragerdi, which, if you complete the hike (about 40 minutes, there's sheep and a bunch of mud along the way so just suck it up and do it barefoot), you can actually sit in a river that's a hot spring. It was legit. Also, do it naked. For once, embrace that freeball feeling. If you prefer to shell out a bit, Blue Lagoon is good. If that's too a la mode tourist, in the north, there's also a couple that are similar to Blue Lagoon but cheaper.
OK, perhaps onto the more interesting stuff: what did we do each day? There's really a lot. Thorin, the lovely boyfriend that he is, has put up all our videos on Youtube. It mostly follows in order. It's an 8-video series, with each one about 8 minutes long. This is the real deal folks, no editing, just bad commentary. Watch us also (mostly me) butcher all the Icelandic names. I'll leave it at that:
And here are some select photos from the trip. There are really too many to post, so I'll pick the ones where I look the best, in true vanity fashion.