Since starting my new corporate job, I was unable to take a vacation until I saved up enough days. Ten months later, I saw my chance with Memorial Day weekend. I could take a 10 day vacation while only using 4 actual vacation days. I invited my family, seriously procrastinated on planning, and failed trying to save up some extra money. Hey, I’m 23. I’m not perfect. 

Day 1

Our trip began Saturday, May 26. I drove up to my parents the night before so we could fly out of Newark together. It was a red-eye flight that got into Iceland 9:00 am on Sunday. There’s always the stress of getting to the gate on time and dealing with security. Luckily, the line was fairly average and we got through it fast. There’s two other thing everyone dreads in security: the pat down and the bag check. This time, the agent had a sense of humor and announced to the line, “Empty out pockets and take off your belts. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t want to pat you down.” My brother and I got through the line fine and were putting on our shoes when we realized Mom got selected for a bag check. She began thinking of all the things in her purse that set off the alarm. Was it her eye drops? Did she forget to take out her knife? You know, normal mom-purse stuff. Turns out she had too much change and the coins set the machine off. Who knew that was a thing? 

The gate itself was getting some work done. A little plastic surgery. There was no pre-boarding waiting area since all the chairs were gone and everything was walled off except of the gate itself. We were early, and hungry, enough that we went to the closest restaurant for burgers while we waited. We were tired because it was late and we had that post dinner food coma. We were getting anxious to settle in on the plane and leave. We got our seat assignments and actually got to sit together in the exit row. Sitting together is rare as a standby group. We usually get placed in the leftover middle seats that no one wanted to pay for. Naturally for this flight, I claimed middle because I’m a good person or something. We got settled and I started The Greatest Showman. An hour later the plane left the gate. You heard me an hour. Why, you may ask? Well, because it was May and a chilly 90 degrees Fahrenheit causing the wing iced over. Frozen. Trust me, exit row provided a good view. They had to dig the de-icing equipment out of storage before we could fly. My dad provided the scientific reason. 

An aircraft equipped with wing fuel tanks may have fuel that is at a sufficiently low temperature such that it lowers the wing skin temperature to below the freezing point. This phenomenon is known as cold-soaking. Liquid water coming in contact with a wing, which is at a below freezing temperature, will freeze to the wing surfaces.
Cold-soaking can be caused by fueling an aircraft with cold fuel. Where fuel tanks are located in the wings of aircraft, the temperature of the fuel greatly affects the temperature of the wing surface above and below these tanks. If there is rain or high humidity, ice can form on the cold-soaked wing and accumulate over time. This ice can be invisible to the eye and is often referred to as clear ice. Cold soaking can cause frost to form on the upper and lower wing under conditions of high relative humidity. This is one type of contamination that can occur in above freezing weather at airports where there is normally no need for deicing equipment, or where the equipment is deactivated for the summer. This contamination typically occurs where the fuel in the wing tanks becomes cold-soaked to below freezing temperatures because of low temperature fuel uplifted during the previous stop or cruise at altitude where low temperatures are encountered, or both, and a normal descent is made into a region of high humidity. In such instances, frost will form on the under and upper sides of the fuel tank region during the ground turn-around time and tends to reform quickly even when removed.

After finally taking off and soon after finishing The Greatest Showman, I put on Lilo and Stitch and fell asleep. It was a restless sleep as most plane naps are. At one point, I half woke up and Mom asked if I wanted some of her Cabernet. I want to do more research on this, but it’s said that your taste changes when you’re in the air. That’s one reason why airplane food is nasty. My little sip of red wine while I was basically still asleep was very unpleasant, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. 

Day 2

Sunday morning after we landed was pretty uneventful, and by uneventful I mean this was the worst day of the whole trip. It wasn’t Iceland’s fault. It was our first day in a new country and we were seriously sleep deprived and it was raining. The plan was to pick up the rental car, drive into the city, take a nap, then check into our room for the night. 

I was in charge of basically everything except the rental car (still under age) and lodgings. Mom handled those so I can’t provide detailed recommendations. We took the airport shuttle to the rental car, got our manual sedan, GPS, and the extra insurance (recommended for gravel roads and suicidal sheep). Another side tangent: while Iceland in a European country, driving is very American. The driving wheel is on the left and you drive on the right side of the road. We took route 1 around the outside of the island, but in the summer the F-roads are open for exploring the center. These roads are poorly maintained and require 4-wheel drive, but offer views not seen by most tourists. While I’m already on a tangent, I’ll use this to talk about money. It’s super easy to convert! 1 Icelandic Krona is worth 0.01 USD. If you’re buying something worth 10,000 ISK, you just move the decimal place over to get about a $100. In reality, it’s more like $80, but the trick is easy to remember. We did a rental car and hotels. We were willing to pay a little extra for comfort and sanity. However, there are cheaper options to look into. Get a camper van and travel around hippie style. 

After picking up the car, we drive into the city. Our base for the next two nights was in the capital, Reykjavik. As I mentioned, we were all tired from the flight and had some time to kill before we could check into our room, so we parked the car near the check in office and took a nap. The check in office was on one street and the room was in a different location. With some difficulty we found the office and eventually found the key to the room in a lock box that opened with a password from the confirmation email. We then spent too long walking up and down the same road trying to find the entrance. We stopped at a random café for lunch since we were cold, wet, tired, and lost. We found the street we were looking for which did not have a road sign but had the name of the road written on the side of a building. Also, happened to be the same road we parked on car on before walking all over. It took several more minutes to figure out how to work the locks and get into the room. It was a little more like an apartment above a shop than the hotel room I was expecting, but it had a kitchen which is great because food in Iceland is expensive. We took more time to rest up and warm up before getting ready to actually explore the city. 

We went down to the waterfront first to check out the Harpa Concert Hall and the Solfar (Sun Voyager) sculpture, both very cool works of architecture. Then hiked up the hill to see the Hallgimskirkja church. The church is great for pictures outside, inside, and at the top. I want to say it was around $10 to take the elevator up but I could be wrong. Even though the city has so much to see, we were pretty exhausted from the whole trip so far and just grabbed gas station sandwiches as well as morning breakfast and went to bed. There is a restaurant by the church called Café Loki. We didn’t try it but I’ve heard good things. 

Day 3

The Golden Circle. This is one of the most popular tourist attractions since it’s close to the city and still offers impressive sights. Think of Yosemite to San Francisco or Niagara Falls to Toronto. The park starts less than an hour drive from the city and offers waterfalls, geysers, and craters. I am very poor with the Icelandic language so I don’t know whether to call the park Þingvellir or Thingvellir. It was anglicized as Thingvellir and I don’t want to keep attempting to type it correctly as Þingvellir, so forgive me.

Thingvellir National Park. We started at the south of the circle traveling east and worked our way around. First stop was the Kerio Crater which had beautifully blue water and red volcanic rock. There are paths to walk along the rim and to go down to the water. Gullfoss and Geysir were next and conveniently 5 minutes away from each other. Gullfoss is a Niagara Falls level, huge waterfall. There is a path from the parking lot to walk next to the top of the falls, but it’s hard to get a good view of the full drop. Next are the geysers Geysir and Strokkur. Geysir is known for launching water 230 feet into the air but it’s eruption times are infrequently. Strokkur is a few feet from Geysir and it known as a more reliable geyser. It erupts one every 5-10 minutes with heights averaging 55 feet. This was my first geyser and did not disappoint. 

This afternoon was our first excursion I booked. Snorkeling at Silfra Fissure, a rift between the North American and Eurasion tectonic plates. There’s no fish and you have to wear dry suits because it’s so cold, but the water is the clearest I’ve ever seen and the rock formation are super cool. I booked all our excursions through guidetoiceland.is and the company we used for the snorkeling was dive.is. I picked it because it offered hot chocolate and cookies. Our guides were cool and helpful. They take tons of pictures and share them with you to purchase. After snorkeling, we walked around the park exploring. There is a cute little park church near the water. Oxararfoss is another waterfall that drops between the boundary of the tectonic plates. The waterfall is famous for many cultural and environmental reasons, but it was also a filming location for Game of Thrones. It was used as the passage to the Bloody Gate of the Eyrie in Season 4 by both Stark sisters. It was also used for a scene South of the Wall with Ygritte and Tormund. Ok, I’m done nerding out – for now. We finished the day with traditional Icelandic Domino’s pizza and another night in Reykjavik.

Day 4 

First day of the roadtrip and enjoying the southern coast. Taking Route 1 from Reykjavik to Vik, we stopped at 2 waterfalls, 2 beaches, and one out of the way plane crash. For the record, day 4 and 5 were my favorites. First waterfall was Seljalandfoss which has a path to walk around the back of the waterfall. Warning: you will get wet and wear good shoes. We were lucky enough to get a rainbow when we were there. Next waterfall was Skogafoss. You can walk right up to the base of this huge waterfall or take stairs up the side to see the top. At the top the walking path continued, following the river and some mini waterfall drops. 

Ok so the next stop was a must for me. I said I wanted to see it whatever it took, and did I regret jinxing myself. The Solheimasandur plane crash is very popular on travel blogs and videos. In 1973, a United States Navy DC plane ran out of fuel and crashed on this beach. The plane is still there and not too hard to find. There is a parking lot built for it off of Route 1 with a LONG walking trail leading to the plane – an hour for most people. (hint we were not most people). Researching for this document, I found some helpful advice. “Don’t go there in bad weather or strong wind either because the wind will be even stronger there with a massive sandstorm as well.” Guess what happened to us? I wished I timed how long it actually took us, but we walked there, took our pictures, and left all while dealing with incredible wind. Pretty sure we got sand everywhere just from it getting blown at us. We had to walk funny to keep from blowing over. It was pretty miserable, but weirdly also fun. What can I say? I like adventures and this was once in a lifetime. Although it was so windy my hair looks bad in all the pictures.  

We ended the day with some more windy beaches. Dyrholaey was a stop mostly for their public bathroom. Rebel me didn’t pay the fee and jumped the turnstile. I’m sure when it’s not cold and windy, it’s more enjoyable. We took a picture with the popular arch and continued with our drive. Next beach was one of my favorites because it has cool rock formations and I’m weird. Reyisfjara is a black sand beach like most of Iceland, but this one has stacked rock columns on the side of the cliff. I don’t know how else to describe it. Also seen in Season 7 of Games of Thrones in scenes North of the Wall. After the beaches, we pulled into the village of Vik for the night. 

Day 5

Poor planning on my part. I would have timed this better if I knew, but we had to wake up early and drive 2 hours to make our 10:00am glacier hike. Another fun excursion that was an incredible experience. Skaftafell glacier was the location for many movie scenes including Batman Begins, Interstellar, and Game of Thrones. We got geared up with crampons, ice picks, and helmets before walking out on the glacier! It was beautiful and truly like being on another planet. We even got to eat some glacier ice because it is considered so clean. Tourists are actually encouraged to drink tap water over buying water bottles. The rivers and streams are considered to be safe as well. 

After the hike, we did another waterfall (I think we saw one every day) and some amazing beaches. Svartifoss waterfall was right next to the glacier and we did another quick hike despite being exhausted. The beaches were the highlight after the glacier. Jokulsarlon, or Diamond Beach, is aptly named for the broken off bits of ice that float in the lagoon and occasionally wash ashore. From there, we had a long 4 hour drive to our lodgings in Egilsstadir. It was a beautiful drive that I wish we enjoyed more if we weren’t all cranky. We managed to get our car stuck in sand when we pulled over for a photo shoot and had to get a local to help us dig the car out. We continued driving until we found a safer spot to take photos and stopped in Hofn for dinner. We arrived late in Egilsstadir, but we had an adorable cabin on the lake that I could stay at forever. I regret not splitting this day into 2. 

Day 6

This begins the day and a half at Lake Myvatn. It was nice but I probably would have used the half day for the Eastfjords. One the drive from Egilsstadir to Myvatn, we stopped at Krafla’s Viti crater. I still prefer Kerio on the Golden Circle, but this one was pretty cool too. Close by was Dettifoss, which was THE BEST waterfall of the trip. Closer to the Lake was the Namafjall Hverir geothermal area. This was like a cool boiling bog. Across the street was the real attraction – Grjotagja Cave. For Game of Thrones fans, this is the cave Jon and Ygritte visited North of the Wall (where they had sex). It’s like a hot spring hidden in a cave, but for safety reasons, you’re not allowed to swim. 

Dimmuborgir lava formations provided multiple walking paths to explore, but we took the shortest one to get to the Myvatn Nature Baths. The Nature Baths are similar to Blue Lagoon but less touristy and cheaper since its on the opposite side of the country. FYI they also accept student discounts. They didn’t provide towels, drinks, or mud facials like Blue Lagoon but it was a nice soak with gorgeous views of the lake at sunset. I have a note to check out Husavik if you have time, but we weren’t able to.  

Day 7

Road trip day! That’s a whole 6 hour drive across northern Iceland. First stop outside of Myvatn was Godafoss. Another beautiful waterfall, but a bit of a let down after Dettifoss the day before. Then we charged on to the Snaefellsjokull Pennisula. To break up the drive, enjoy the towns of Akureyri and Blondos. 

Since this day was ALL driving, I’ll use this time to explain my planning process. I knew we would be tried at this point so I figured the peninsula would be a could place to spend time not driving and relax. Again, I wish I used the time at the Eastfjords. After the excitement of the trip and the sites we saw, Snaefellsjokull was a bit of a letdown.  

Day 8

The final excursion I scheduled was whale watching out of Olafsvik. This however was cancelled due to weather, but I was able to reschedule for the next day. I wish I just took the refund and you will soon see why. Instead we drove to Stykkishdmur, a cute little fishing village, with a cool shark museum and little lighthouse. At the shark museum, we explored a showroom and sat through an informational video. At the end, we tasted dried shark meat. I remember it tasting like really salty fish jerky. Out back, we saw the hanging shark meat and cute ponies. 

We had to drive across a bridge to Sugandisey where the lighthouse was located. There was a local tourist shop we found to ask directions and shop for souvenirs. Another popular tourist stop is Kirkjufell hill and the waterfall below it. We drove past this multiple times before realizing it was what we were looking for. Personally, I don’t understand why this is a highlight out of all the other wonderful attractions. 

We still have time to kill and I wanted to see Snaefellsjokull, the entrance to the center of the Earth according to Jules Verne. We spent 2 hours driving around the mountain driving to get closer, but all the roads were closed. The clouds were covering the mountain so even though we knew it was right there, we never saw it.  After that frustrating waste of time, we turned in for the night. 

Day 9

Whale watching take 2. I wrote in my notes it was a 3 hour tour. I don’t know if that was literal or a Gilligan’s Island joke. So the tour was cancelled the day before because it was too windy and the waves were rough. The next day wasn’t much better. Did I mention I get super motion sick? While Bradlee and I were feeding the fishing, Mom was able to see the 1 whale spotted on the trip. Apparently it was a big deal to see a sperm whale at that time of year, but I couldn’t care less. We had some soup at a café to settle our stomachs before driving south to Reykjavik. We drove 3 hours to our hotel near the airport. I know a lot of people get reservations for Blue Lagoon on their first day, but I strongly recommend doing it on the last day. Having a spa day after a busy vacation and before a long plane ride was perfect. I enjoyed it more than the Nature Bath at Myvatn, but the one con was it was crowded. Expected for a tourist spot but still a little annoying. 

Day 10

We had to say goodbye to Iceland and took a morning flight back to Newark.