We drove into the area late Friday night and prepared to spend Saturday and Sunday exploring the valley. We did luck out and stayed at a local friend’s cabin, so I can’t provide lodging recommendations. Also, our friend was happy to be our tour guide so we had some nice connections during the trip. Since we were there off-season, we had to get reservations to access the park. I highly recommend visiting in February because it was perfect weather and less crowds. Unfortunately, some of the sites on my wish list were closed for renovations or winter weather. Another perk of going in February is the Firefall which I’ll go into later. We did both days with an ADA pass and most of the sites were easily accessible for people with disabilities. 

Saturday – 

Because of our cabin’s location, we drove into the valley through El Portal Road. We pulled off the road for our first vista – Valley View. It was a nice overlook, but I was insistent on seeing Tunnel View as well so we had to cross the Pohono bridge and U-turn for that vista. On the way, we ended up pulling over in a field with snow and a nice view of Bridalveil. We had a quick snowball fight before continuing to the second overlook. After several pictures at Tunnel View, we continued down Wawona Road to Bridalveil Falls. The trail to the Falls was closed due to the Rehabilitation Project, but the view is still nice from the road. We continued down Southside Drive towards the Chapel. Since we got a later start, it was past lunch time and the Chapel made a nice picnic spot with a view of Yosemite Falls. After lunch, we crossed Sentinel Bridge to get a closer look at the Lower Yosemite Falls. We parked at the Yosemite Lodge, but I don’t think that’s usually allowed. The trail was flat and paved which allows everyone to get a close view of the falls. If you get it at the right angle, you can get a great view Upper and Lower Falls. 

Now I really wanted to do Glacier Point, Sentinel Done, and Taft Point for golden hour pictures, but the road is closed from November to May. Instead, I settled for Columbia Rock on the Yosemite Falls Trail. This hike is moderate to strenuous with rewarding views of Half Dome. Columbia Rock is 2 miles round trip with a 1,000 ft elevation gain. If you continue another 0.5 miles, you get a beautiful view of Upper Yosemite Falls. We were short on time and I regret not hiking that extra mile for the waterfall. The hike goes on a few miles more if you’re really ambitious and want to get to the top of the Falls. The trail itself was so well maintained. As I was gasping for air, I couldn’t help but be impressed with the design and upkeep. This hike is steep, but honestly doable if you take it slow. Again, we were rushed and had to push ourselves. 

After our hike, we literally ran to Horse Tail Falls for sunset. On rare occasions in mid to late February, the waterfall glows orange during sunset which makes it look like lava. The reservations to enter the park were due to the popularity of the event. Most people reserve spots hours ahead of time. We ran on the road and snapped pictures at each angle which honestly worked. 

Sunday – 

We drove in through El Portal Road and but continued straight through the valley towards Half Dome. The Half Dome cables were down for the season, but this hike is on my bucket list to circle back to eventually. Instead we did the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls. The hike is moderate to strenuous with views of two waterfalls. The Vernal Falls Footbridge is 1.6 miles round trip with a 400 foot elevation gain. Honestly, this was as far as we made it. We tried to go to the top of Vernal Falls, but that section of the Mist Trail was closed for Winter. You can still get to the top using the John Muir trail, but we didn’t have time for that detour. If you keep hiking, you get a view of Nevada Falls. Most of the websites I checked recommended combining the Mist and John Muir trail into a 7 mile loop for both waterfalls. Like I said, we kept it at 1.6 miles. This trail was also paved and doable if you take it slow. We even saw someone pushing a stroller up the slope!

Next stop was Mirror Lake. It’s 2 mile round trip on a paved road to the lake and back. There is an additional 5 mile loop around the lake. Since we were taking advantage of our ADA pass, we drove up to the lake for parking and saved so much time. The lake is best in the spring and early summer when it’s full from melted snow. There’s a beach that offers the best pictures, but we walked a bit further down the lake to find the reflection of the mountains (hence the name Mirror Lake). 

One of the big things on my Must-Do list was climbing El Capitan. It took awhile to find the trail to the base, but we rushed to find it before the sunset. We found a spot to climb and went about 10 ft up for pictures. Not quite as impressive as the full 3,000 ft, but I can officially say that I have climbed El Cap. I just didn’t make it to the summit. 

Again, we literally ran to make sunset. We picked the parking lot across Sentinel Bridge ahead of time. The bridge offered beautiful views of Half Dome glowing from the sun. The parking lot also has a view of Yosemite Falls (Upper and Lower). 

Overall, we saw everything we could and had so much fun! Now I have to go back to see everything that was closed for Winter. 

Remember when travelling internationally was a thing before COVID?

This trip was a check off of my bucket list and a birthday trip for my mom. Let’s just say it was rough from start to finish, but we loved our adventure. Also, this trip was the first I didn’t journal at the time, so this is based on year-old memories and Facebook.

We got a redeye from Newark to Rome. We even managed to get fancy first class sits! When the flight attendant offers free mimosas, you say yes. We took off and I settled in for the next hour and a half until the Pilot announced we had to go back to Newark for an emergency landing. I heard it was maintenance issues with the bathroom? Seriously, this would only happen to us. I was super tired and cranky as we waited to re-board the plane. Thankfully, 5 hours later, we were on our way again. Side note: Being standby, we have to dress up. But being a long redeye flight, I wore a nice maxi dress with comfy leggings underneath which worked perfectly!

Day 1 in Rome: I found us an apartment through Airbnb right by the Trevi Fountain which ended up being a good location. We took the shuttle from the airport to the city to check in and change. We spent the day exploring the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo. I architecture geeked out at the Pantheon. At the Spanish steps, we stopped at a café for tea and cookies. It was relaxing to sit and enjoy the air conditioning and wi-fi. From there, we continued to the Piazza for a view of the city at sunset. On the way back to our apartment, we went through the shopping section and got some fancy dresses.

Day 2 in Rome: I didn’t sleep at all during the night (thanks jetlag) so I was incredibly cranky for the day. We woke up at dawn for pictures at the Trevi fountain and Colosseum with no crowds (except influencers and models lol). I actually highly recommend this. Since your body is adjusting to the time change take advantage to see the sites before everyone else. We were able to get amazing pictures with no one in the background.

I didn’t know ahead of time, but the Pope speaks every Wednesday at the Vatican. This coincidentally worked with our schedule. From our apartment, we took the metro to Vatican City for the 9:30 message. I was tired, hungry, and overheated, but I found a spot in the shade where I could lean against a column and still listen. We also had a tour group scheduled after the service to see the museums and Sistine Chapel. It’s important to note that several of the church’s have a required dress code for modesty, so pack accordingly.

Happened to find the link to the message from the day we were there! http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2019/documents/papa-francesco_20190828_udienza-generale.html

After the Vatican, we took the metro back to the Colosseum for the second time of the day. This time for a tour with all the other tourists. We did the basic walkthrough, but it would have been cool to explore the tunnels underneath. We called it a day after that because of heat and exhaustion. We ended up having dinner at a Italian restaurant walking distance from my apartment which had a live harpist, classy Italian food, and limoncello – which became a favorite of mine.

Day 3: We packed up our luggage and took the metro down to Pompeii. We left our bags at a locker while we explored the area. The city was so cool and I was definitely nerding out. We spent most of the day there before continuing down to Sorrento where we caught a ferry to Capri for the night. Capri is a gorgeous island, but I didn’t plan this as well as I should have. Our hotel was on the other side of the island in Anacapri, because I was trying to avoid overpaying at hotels, but we wasted so much time and energy going back a forth on the crazy roads that we should have just paid for the convenience. Anyway, when we arrived late that night, a taxi driver took pity on us and helped get us as close as he could then the hotel driver picked us up from there. Turns out there was a festival of some sort that closed the roads and made it harder on everyone.

Day 4: In the morning, I scheduled a private boat tour so we had to take the public bus back to where the ferry dropped us off. The tour was great and honestly the highlight of the trip. We showed up late so we missed Blue Grotto, but we got to spend the day on a private beach after the boat ride around the island. The beach had a restaurant so I enjoyed fresh seafood (it still had it’s head…ew) and more limoncello. I even took a nap on the beach chairs and got sunburned. There is a chairlift in Anacapri that offers amazing views, but we were stressed and spent the day enjoying our beach time. I think the water was technically the Gulf of Naples, but it’s close enough that I can claim it was the Mediterranean, right?

Day 5: We didn’t want to deal with the bus again so we paid for a taxi to drive us and our luggage down the hill. We took the ferry to Naples and immediately hopped on a train to Florence. Didn’t even stop for pizza! Also I love the European train system. It’s so easy. I found another apartment in the city through Airbnb to stay at. We freshened up before checking out Brunelleschi’s dome, Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and the other amazing architecture. We were short on time so we did not see Michelangelo’s David, but we saw the postcards. That night was probably the best meal we had – and probably most embarrassing. I happened to find Buca Lapi on the map with no context, but it was so cool. The atmosphere and food was amazing. We drank too much and talked too loud.

Day 6: We took the another train to Pisa for Mom’s birthday! We put our luggage in a locker again since this was a quick day trip. We had a lot of fun taking photos with the tower. We even got to climb the tower and took pictures from the top. The steps were definitely hard to climb with the whole leaning thing. We toured Piazza dei Miracoli and the on site Cathedral. We didn’t fit dress code for this church so we had to wear provided ponchos. We took the train from Pisa to Rome, but we got stopped for 3 hours with no Wi-Fi. The employees didn’t speak English, so most of the passengers we just confused and angry with the delay.

Overall, I planned too much in a short time and there was a lot of travel time that could have been simplified. Instead of doing Rome, down to Naples, back up to Florence, then back down to Rome, I should have focused on one region. Rome and Amalfi Coast or Rome, Florence, and Tuscany. Eventually, I want to go back for Venice and Verona. There’s just too much to see! I’m glad we did what we did since that was our last big trip with international travel being shut down.

Memorial Day 2019 – Scotland Road Trip

Before I even go into the trip itinerary, there were a few speed bumps that I hit before the trip. I left for my parents house on a Sunday. I drove the 4 hours and made it home for dinner. Maybe an hour later, I realized I left my passport in my apartment. We looked into all the options – expediting, getting a new passport…There was no other choice than for me to drive back and get it. Thankfully, my super caring roommate agreed to meet me halfway so I only did 4 hours of extra driving. Yay. My brother and I had plans to watch the Game of Thrones series finale that night, but I had to make my drive instead. We stayed up and watched a later showing when I got back which meant a 1-2 am bedtime. Not to mention I had to wake up for work at 6 am Monday morning. I worked for a full day then left for the airport around 4 pm for our redeye flight. Being standby, it’s hard to plan vacations, but thankfully all four of us made the flight and were content with our middle seats. In flight entertainment featured: Bohemian Rhapsody, Mary Poppins, and Into the Spiderverse. 

Day 1: Edinburgh 

We arrived early Tuesday, May 21 in Edinburgh. After many arguments with the parents, I was wrong and the city name is not pronounced like it’s spelled. Onto the logistics! We rented a sedan and booked hotels as we went. Mom prefers Budget and I tend to lean towards AirBnb. Since Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, it’s important to remember the driver sits on the right side and the cars drive on the left side. It was still too early to check into the hotel so we parked the car below Edinburgh Castle and jumped into tourist mode. 

First stop was a little cafe for breakfast. The family chose more American options, but I went full “When in Scotland”. Turns out I’m a fan of haggis, beans, mushrooms, and eggs for breakfast. For those wondering, haggis sounds gross (trust me and don’t google it), but it tastes very savory with all the spices and flavors. We were all tired from jet lag, but getting food in our stomach gave us the necessary energy to explore the Royal Mile. We started with Victoria Street which was the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. We stopped by the Elephant Cafe where Rowling actually wrote the books! To continue the Harry Potter tour we went to Greyfriars Kirk (church) and Greyfriars Bobby (dog statue). The Greyfriars Kirkyard was where Rowling found the names for her characters and made a fun cemetery scavenger hunt for us. We continued walking the Royal Mile, toured St. Giles Cathedral, and watched a street performer. We ended the afternoon with a tour of Edinburgh Castle which overlooks the city. 

I do want to point out there are multiple castle tour packages offered to save you money. I’ll try to dig up old receipts (I save everything), but I can’t remember the name at the moment. I know there was one for the lowlands with Edinburgh, Stirling, and a few others. We had another option for the highlands. 

After a long, exhausting day exploring Edinburgh, we went back to the car and got checked into the hotel which really had more bed and breakfast vibes. We took a long afternoon nap. Mom stayed in to rest while the rest of us went out for some nightlife. We Ubered to George IV Bar, a traditional pub, for fish and chips with a pint. We even got live music. We stopped by Royal Mile Tavern for real Scottish whiskey and more live music, but it was crowded so we didn’t stay long. Final stop of the night was Banshee Labyrinth which was a modern theme bar with multiple rooms and even a movie theater. Eventually we turned in to sleep before a long day of castles.

Day 2: Castles on way to Loch Lomond

Starting off with my personal favorite, Midhope Castle. AKA LALLYBROCH. Day 1 was a lot of Harry Potter, but beware the rest is a lot of Outlander. Check the Midhope website. The Castle is privately owned and is only available for certain days. You also have to purchase a parking pass. You can’t go inside, but pictures of the front are the best view anyway. We chatted with the parking attendant while buying souvenirs and he recommended we add Blackness and Linlithgow Castles to our list. Blackness was a super cool design for a castle and was nicknamed “The ship that never sailed”. For Outlander fans, this was the location where Captain Randall nearly whipped Jaime to death. Linlithgow Palace was used for a jail scene in Outlander, but it is more famously known as the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots. If you’re not a history nerd, she was super cool. The palace had a beautiful cathedral out front and took the opportunity to rest our legs and listen to a 10 minute reading and prayer. We were running out of time in our schedule, but we rushed through Stirling Castle and the gardens. Mary Queen of Scots was crowned at this castle and Bonnie Prince Charles tried to take control of the castle during his rebellion. Another worthy wikipedia study is Prince Charles.

We arrived at Doune Castle 30 minutes before they were closing. This was a family favorite. It’s really out in the middle of nowhere but I highly recommend this one if you’re a fan of Monty Python especially. The castle is also used as Winterfell in Game of Thrones and as Castle Leoch in Outlander. We rushed through the castle, but spent most of our time galloping around clicking our souvenir coconuts together and quoting The Holy Grail. We buckled in to drive to our room in a house off of Loch Lomond. I will say I initially scoped in a half day at Glasgow, but I don’t think we missed anything. Glasgow is a modern city with a lot of museums and galleries. We prefered the castles in the middle of nowhere.  

Day 3: Loch Lomond and Loch Ness

This day was a lot of driving to get to Inverness. We started off with Balloch Castle which was at a local park down the road from the house we were staying at. From there, we began our scenic drive along Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. There is a famous scenic outlook in Glen Coe that I was trying to find, but it was a time consuming trip for hikers and not for quick road trips. We did a quick walk around the National Park Visitor Center to stretch our legs. After getting a little lost, we finally made it to the Glen Nevis gondola just before they closed. While there was no visibility at the peak, we did enjoy a quick snack and watching the extreme bike trails going down the mountain.

We continued our drive along Loch Ness and stopped at Urquhart Castle. We missed the opportunity to tour the inside since it closed by the time we got there, but we got pictures from the overlook. Finally, we arrived at the AirBnb house I booked in Inverness. We walked from the house to the city for dinner at a fancy place by the river. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to tour Inverness Castle with our schedule, but it’s worth checking out if you can.

Day 4: Culloden and Cawdor

We talked about circling back to see more of Loch Ness and Urquhart. We probably could have, but today wasn’t one of my better planned out itineraries. Instead, we continued on east to Culloden Battlefield which I definitely geeked over. Culloden had a museum, cafeteria, and gift shop all set up indoor, as well as walking trails in the battlefield. Free audio tours provided for the museum and outside. Dad and Bradlee appreciated this more than my other stops because it’s a historical battle. Mom was less interested.

After exploring, we stayed for lunch at the cafeteria and drove on to Cawdor Castle and gardens. A nice change to the castles we were seeing because this one was furnished and lived in. Think Downton Abbey or the Biltmore in North Carolina. It was really beautiful. The gardens included plants and trees from around the world. We were especially surprised to spot Redwoods in Scotland! We grabbed a snack in the cafe before leaving. Sueno’s Stone was an optional item for me and I wished we skipped it. We continued west and found Sueno’s Stone tucked behind a residential neighborhood. It was definitely impressive, but not cool enough to justify the extra drive time. We went back to Inverness for pizza and whiskey. 

Day 5: South to Edinburgh

If you have more time, you can add Aberdeen and see the eastern coast of the country, but we were out of time and quickly running out of energy. We drove around Cairngorms National Park to find Dunsinane Hill. We got lost and gave up, but I wasn’t too disappointed. I also planned on touring Falkland Palace, but we stopped at Perth for lunch and ended up staying. We toured Blackwatch castle and crashed a wedding. There was also some sort of festival downtown, but we didn’t stick around for that. We continued to our hotel outside of Edinburgh airport and took a nap before finding dinner. We ended up at a fish and chips place down the street. We turned in early since we had a morning flight home. We also did a lot of airport souvenir shopping, but I had to buy all the tartan. 

Overall, it was the first vacation with all four of us in a long time and I’m honestly just impressed we didn’t kill each other. I think the trip provided something for everyone – movie locations for me, historical locations for the boys, and castles for Mom. Maybe next time I’ll talk them into doing a backpacking trip around Skye. 

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.