Ísland Diaries, Part 4

Note: Cat's text is in the normal color, Gregg's is in light blue.

Day 4: 29th July

As we went to bed, we decided to get up early and hike the glacier. So we set our "alarms", which were our useless-in-Iceland cel phones, to 4:30 a.m. local time hoping to get up early. Why such a crazy plan? Food prices were a constant issue for us in Iceland. We never seemed to make it to grocers when they were open, so we were running a little low on food not requiring a stove. How is this relevant? Well, Brekkubær has the free continental breakfast, but it doesn't start until 8am. We wanted to be on the road as early as possible, so that we could travel the 5 or so hours (so we thought) to Skogafoss, the coolest waterfall in south Iceland. Our original intentions were to go to Vik if we could! So, this meant, that if we wanted to do any hiking in Snæfellsnes, it would have to be then. Besides the drive there was boring, and would go faster if we slept in the car (one at a time, of course).

So we got up at 4:30 (into near full daylight, btw), and what is the weather? Overcast, and pouring. The roof quails under Thor's mightly downpour. We quail under not enough sleep. The alarms are reset. Our cel batteries are nearly dead. We hope and pray that we have done the time zone conversion correctly. We awaken at 6 with a new plan... We'd drive to the trailhead to Snæfellsjökull, look around, and drive down into nearby Arnarstapi before eating our brekkies. Luckily, we were forewarned about the rain, having hear about the forecast from the owners the night before at dinner, so our mood wasn't too spoiled.

But the mountain defied us. O Yaris, hooray for your first gear! Up we went, from the plain to 1000 meters in at little over 5 miles of road. Almost immediately after beginning our ascent, we were in cloud, and the rain blocked the view on all sides. Ten meters from our car was a mystery. What glimpes we got were not encouraging... sheer gorges and slopes just off the road on all sides. Giants were throwing rocks in the distance... O cruel Caradhras, where is your Redhorn Gate? We stopped at a cave where a figure of legend heard trolls singing. Soon, we came to a point where our visibility was exactly the width of the road. At a few spots, the road widened, and we were at a loss about where exactly it went, so we were rebuffed.

Thus defeated from even reaching the trailhead (though not by much I suspect, now), by heavy rain and high wind (40+ mph), we retreated to Arnarstapi. There, we were confronted by more stupid Icelandic animals. The birds refused to leave the roads. It's not like we were the first car they'd ever seen either, as the avain corpses littering the motorpath attested. There, we saw this cool monument/lighthouse/pagan idol.

Breakfast as Brekkubær exceeded my expectations. All the food we had in Iceland was great! On that note, everything in Iceland is nice. There's no generic anything. Everything is designed, everyone does art, and it shows. As for the food... typical European breakfast... bread and cheese and meats (which I ate, gladly, as it was free and/or cheap). Tomatos, cucumbers, yoghurt, granola, milk, and ORANGE JUICE. No salmon, lox, or gravlox, though there was picked herring. It is an aquired taste, I would say. It got better by the 3rd piece, but I have better things to do in Iceland than learn to appreciate cold pickled herring.

After breakfasting at Brekkubaer we got on the road again, that day our goal was to get to some of the sights on the south coast, back south past Reykjavik. It rained and rained during the drive. We paid our only toll on this drive for a really long tunnel that I think went under the fjord we'd taken the scenic route around on the way up. We checked in early (around noon) at our hotel - Frost and Fire, tired from the drive and the rain and wanting a rest. Frost and Fire is in Hvergerði, (Ísl.: "town of hot springs"), and historically home of many of Iceland's poets and authors. Frost and Fire lies on a bluff above a river, from our balcony we could see steam rising from the banks of the river - water boiling out of hot springs right into the river. We had a "hot pot", a natural hot tub, right on the river bank and a small (also hot, of course) pool up on the bluff. It was nice to sit in the hot pot in the rain.

Pictures of Frost and Fire (some taken the following morning):

The next morning

After a refreshing dip in the hot pot, we drove off again for the south coast sights. The best of these was Skogafoss, this fantastic waterfall:

Skogafoss ("Skoga Falls") is representative of the Libertarian Icelandic Way™. There were many things we didn't understand about Iceland while we were there, and we developed theories to explain some of them. One of these theories is that there is no concept of personal liability. The evidence for this is rampant:

On the way back through Hvergerdi, we stopped at the Eden greenhouse, the most touristy of the geothermally heated greenhouses Hvergerði is known for. Eden is kind of a tourist place, which is lame, and almost, dare I say American, but most of the greenhouses in Hvergerði are working, producing food and flowering plants for Iceland.

Our adventures for that night included more hot tubbing, an attempt to go to a local bar (way too smokey... most Icelanders smoke, yecch!), and rescuing/babysitting a group of German backpackers while we waited for the proprietors to return from an unplanned trip to Reykjavik. We also bought Icelandic ice cream, which turned out to be Kemps-like in quality. Their cream and cheeses were outstanding, so why is their ice cream so plain? Everyone seems to like soft serve. Yecch. That, and Ben and Jerry's is $12 per pint, so maybe nobody knows what it can taste like.

    Table of Contents
  1. Days 0-1: The flight, and our first full day in Iceland.
  2. Day 2: Reykarnes Peninsula, the Blue Lagoon and pin-up pics.
  3. Day 3: Snæfellsnes, Brekkubær, Hellnar
  4. Day 4: Snæfellsjökull, Hvergerði, Skogafoss
  5. Day 5: The Golden Circle – Þhingvellir, Gulfoss, and Geysír
  6. Day 6: Reykjavik, Caving, Falafel, and Our Attempts to Party
  7. Day 7: More Reykjavik, The Harbor, Swimming, and the Return + Helpful links for travellers.

Last Updated: February 07, 2005 -- 17:19:01.
Time since the wedding: 2197 days 23 hours