The Start (and Stop and Start...) of the Trip

Here we are 10 days in and already procrastinating our blog updates :). We first want to thank everyone for the great send off, including the friends, family, and coworkers that took extra time out of their busy schedules to come see us. We also want to thank those of you who are still helping us with last minute things as we are gone (thanks Teri for help prepping the house, and Matt for taking care of our tree issues, and all of you for countless other things)!

It just wouldn't be a normal Kyle and Nicole trip if we decided to show up to the airport prepared and organized so, instead of doing all of that nonsense, we decided to spend our last weekend back home celebrating Nicole's 30th birthday in style with the Beer Olympics (sorry Tokyo, this one will be tough to beat, despite the power outages, torn down trees, etc that also happened that day). That left us with a morning/afternoon/oh-my-god-its-4pm-we-have-to-leave Sunday of cleaning, packing, dropping off the dog (we already miss Conan a lot, thank you Dani, Matt, and Kourtney for the help watching him) and driving as far west as we could to stay on schedule for our flight. While Nicole was able to enjoy the sheer chaotic bliss of the moment, Kyle's stress meter was on red. Still, we wouldn't change a thing, stay tuned for Beer Olympics 2022!

On to the actual trip now! No trip is really a trip until the first thing goes wrong and you have to adapt. Luckily for us, it happened right away as a "new flight path" caused our departing flight from Las Vegas (thanks for the place to stay and stash the truck Lydia and Victor!) miss our connection in Newark. So instead of our first day in Iceland, we got a surprise day in NYC as we waited for our new flight the following evening. We spent the day wandering the city, exploring Central Park, getting Kyle his coveted slice of NY-style pizza. And hey, nothing wrong with a comfortable hotel room when you're going to spend the next 16 days sleeping in a tent, right?

Actually, make that two days in a hotel. Of course, when we arrived in Iceland our bags did not come with us - including all of our hiking and camping gear. Fortunately, we were able to pick up our vehicle (a Dacia Dokker camper van for all of you motorheads out there) and spent our first day exploring Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík. We bought some cold weather attire as it was 45 degrees and all we had was the clothes we were wearing for the last 2 days, and hit the town. After a big bowl of bread soup and a good nights sleep, we awoke to a notice that our bags would be there shortly!

From there, we hit the road. Our first stop was the Maríuhellar Lava caves near Reykjavík and then off to our first hike - Glymur Waterfall in the Hvalfjörður fjord. You'll notice that lava, waterfalls, and glaciers are somewhat of a theme here. The Glymur waterfall hike has been our favorite so far. This 4.2 mile trek goes mostly upward to the waterfall (which is the highest or second highest in Iceland, depending on who you ask), and let's you decide if you're ballsy enough to cross the river - guess what we did :)? After all of the travel delays, we were both anxious to get out and start hiking, and Glymur was a perfect, breathtaking way to scratch that itch. After our hike - we had worked up an appetite so we decided to head to Háafell goat farm to eat some goat cheese (and goat syrup? we decided not to ask too many questions). We were able to stick around and meet the goats, learn their history in Iceland, and play around with them for awhile.

Afterwards, we continued inward driving Borgarfjörður to see Hraunfossar & Barnafossar waterfalls, which have some incredible local legends behind them. We set up camp in Snæfellsnes peninsula. The following morning, we got a late start due to some late arrivals who decided to stay up until 4 am and keep the campground awake all night (we chalked this up to karma from our younger days, so we'd like to apologize to past hostel-goers, campers, and our neighbors from last weekend for the late noise!). We headed to a nearby waterfall/mountain Kirkjufell and then headed to the cost to view the shipwreck and historical fishing sites at Dritvik Cove. After a failed attempt on a four wheel drive road, we headed up to the Snæfellsjökull glacier from the opposite side with a more manageable road. We had a nice lunch up in the cloudy solitude at the glacier, then headed to the Westfjords where we set up camp our 2nd night.

We were only a couple of nights into the trip, but as we set up our campsite in Dragsnes we discussed how it would be nice to get to know some locals. We headed down to the "hot pots" - basically tubs of water with hot springs continuously running into them - and sat to enjoy the sunset over the coast (the sun doesn't actually set this time of year in Iceland, but the different angles can make for some amazing views). As we continued our discussion, almost as if fate intervened, our solitude in the hot pots was broken by nearly 1/4 of the entire town showing up and piling in next to us. What was supposed to be a quick, relaxing dip and splitting of one beer, turned into several more beers and amazing stories from the locals. Naturally we learned all about their family (most of the people in the town were related: they all move there from various locations each summer) and the drinking led us to a discussion of the “fountain of hangover cures” - an obscure, out of the way natural spring in the opposite direction of where we were going the next day. Never ones to turn down advice from a local - we re-routed to find the spring first thing the next morning...not because we were hungover, of course!

From there, we continued on through Skagafjörður - a valley known for their Icelandic horses - and continued to Hofsós where we would spend our 4th night. In Hofsós, there is a town thermal pool (FUN FACT - Iceland has more pools per capita than anywhere else in the world, and they are very proud of these "schwimming pools") - which is an infinity pool on a cliff overlooking the fjord with a hot tub. Another theme you'll note is the number of these naturally heated pools that we decided we needed to check out! We swam a few laps, relaxed and enjoyed the views before retiring to the tent for the night. A night full of rain led to yet another beautiful weather day. With 23 hours of daylight each day and fantastic weather thus far, it’s hard to ever want to sleep or go to bed here!

After packing up camp that morning, we drove through Tröllaskagi (peninsula of the trolls) and stopped in the old herring-fishing village Siglufjörður to see the museum, explore the town, and, of course, eat some fish and chips (Kyle is having a hard time not making this the highlight of the trip). We then drove to Akureyri which is a charming town with unparalleled views and beautiful botanical gardens. We continued to Goðafoss (waterfall of the gods) before reaching Húsavík at 7:30 pm for a Whale Watching tour from 8-11 pm. We saw multiple humpback whales and groups of white nosed dolphins along the tour. As a bonus, Nicole got some hot chocolate to warm her soul, and Kyle partially overcame his fear of open water. At the conclusion of the tour, and after yet another bathroom search (have we included too many themes of the trip yet?), we drove to our campsite at lake Mývatn.

Thus far we have had a great time tent camping, seeing anything and everything suggested by travel websites, friends, and locals, and simply enjoying the views! More to come in upcoming posts!