Bye2 Iceland

After a week in Iceland, we are ready to go home. We were disapointed for visiting the Viking Village as we were a bit too early. Even thought the event is suppose to start today and run for a week but they din’t mention it will only start at 5pm on the 1st day! And we were there at 11am. So, we end up walking around the lave field village but nothing could WOW us anymore as we have seen the best nature of Iceland during the past 4 days.

We continue to the Blue Lagoon which is located in the middle of nowhere between Keflavik Airport and Reykjavik. Perfect trap for tourist. We heard from Jane our Go Travel Iceland tour guide that the Blue Lagoon was actually a fail project. They tried to build a Geothermal Station but in the middle of the project they discover something in the ground that make the entire project to stop. Something like that. Don’t really remember but the interesting part is some genius has turn the fail project into a perfect trap for tourist and has now became one of the must visit attraction in Iceland. 28EUR per entry. Imagine how much they earn. Soon, the Iceland crisis will resolve Well, even is a tourist trap but is a perfect closure. Perfect to end the trip before heading to the airport.

This place use quite a technology. You were given a chip to secure on your hand like a waist band. You can use it to lock your locker and remember the price of your drinks (you need to pay when you leave) where there is a bar in the middle of the lagoon where beers and other drinks are sold. Smart chip. In the lagoon, free silica mud mask is provided in boxes and it has benefits to the skin. Of course we don’t miss it. We got it all over our face Not sure about the effect Still look the same

Funny thing happened. We realized there is a huge group of people is given some blue liquid drinks and so we thought it was free drinks or complimentary drinks. So, I went up there and try to grab one. And the guy who is distributing the drinks to the rest of the group looked at me weirdly. I soon understood and said ” Is this a group thing?”. He said ” Of course is a group thing”… ha… I was embarrassed. Soon, we realized they are a group of Surgeon which happened to have a conference in the Blue Lagoon (nice pick!). We happened to knew it because there is a label on the bus that drove them there when we walk around the parking lot waiting for our flybus. Haha…no wonder he knew I am not in the group. I look to young to be a surgeon well actually too asian to be one of them.

We spent the last night at B&B Guesthouse which is located 5mins drive from/to the Keflavik Airport. Btw, Keflavik Airport was nominated as The Best Europe Airport 2009. Amazing. It is small airport but easy to navigate around the airport. B&B Guesthouse is furnised like a mini hotel. There is lots of beautiful scenery pic hang on the wall. It feels like walking in a gallery. Spacious modern bathrooms at common area. And free pick up/drop to the airport at any time! Small modern room with 2 single bed but is ok because is clean.

Early flight at 7.55am. Take off was delayed because the pilot’s seat belt doesn’t work and there is a possibility of changing plane (said the flight announcement)… so funny. After 30mins finally the problem solved. Pleasant journey. Was a bit bumpy landing – probably too windy. Seems like the wind had followed us back from Iceland to Helsinki. During the flight, lot’s of nice scenery outside the window. As if we were flying to Venus. So pale blue. Love it! Iceland we will be back for sure Iceland a country you never want to miss

South Iceland – Finalli

We are determine to get to Jokulsarlon today. Because lack of planning, we need to get back and forth from Reykjavik to South Iceland. So, we end up driving along the same route that we have been yesterday but in full speed and non-stop, moving forward to our final destination. Why Jokulsarlon? Is the most amazing glacier lake that we always wanted to see – the mother nature that we have not experience before. And no where else than Iceland &  a few other places. Driving was long, we arrive there at 8.30pm and we started at 12noon. But it should be only 350km from Reykjavik. Guess we have too much stop in between attractions.

First, we get to the next waterfall – Skógafoss (width: 25m and height: 60m. People can go as close as they dare to. Due to the amount of spray the waterfall consistently produces, a single or double rainbow is normally visible on sunny days. According to legend, the first Viking settler in the area, Þrasi Þórólfsson, buried a treasure in a cave behind the waterfall. A local boy found the chest years later, but was only able to grasp the ring on the side of the chest before it disappeared again.

And we arrived at Skatefell National Park at 7pm – too late for some easy hiking to get a close look of the glacier & it was windy. Sad. but we will be back hopefully. And with better planning next time  It was a windy day. As we travel closer to the volcano, there is lots of volcano ash around. We drove to a point where the ash was squiring up dancing in the air and traveling on the surface of the road. Like going from left corner to right corner of the road. Unbelievable. We were stunned.

And this marked the end of my driving journey. Roughly around 1000km in 3 days! Unbelievable. More km than in total since I get to Finland. And finally we arrived safely back to guesthouse at 2.30am. Almost fall asleep driving but it was a bit rough as it started to rain 1hr before we reach. But everytime I go out of the car I felt so refresh – is super windy.

South Iceland

Yup… South Iceland… where the recent Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted … we nicknamed it the “angry volcano”, since it was hard to pronounce the name, in fact most of the Icelandic name is so long that we have difficulty remembering any or saying it right. As we guess there is no way we can spot the volcano from the Ring One Road as we drive along the coast but as we are getting closer we notice that the surrounding is full of black ash/sand. And we knew… we are there. So close yet far.

The South Coast is mostly flat and the driving scenery is not as beautiful as in Snaefellsnes Peninsular. Lots of lava field. Guess this is “one upon a time” the most active volcano area. There is a lot of attractions along the coast, so we decided to spent 2 days driving around. 1st day we take it easy just driving to the Geothermal village – Hverageroi and did 2hrs hiking & soak in the hot spring surrounded by beautiful nature. It was amazing and feels so close to the mother nature. BOND. Is easy hike but I got a bit off track on the way back & got all miserable when my shoe got wet in the mud. I was a bit annoyed for having to take off and on several time my stocking and shoe to cross the little river. Not liking the feel of dry and wet repetitively. But overall, is a good experience even for us amateur hikers. Matias with his sneakers

More “foss” means waterfall in Icelandic along the coast. Our last stop for the day is ” Seljalandsfoss which is one of Icelands most beautiful waterfalls. It´s not the highest or mightiest but the fact that you can walk behind it makes it special. It is clearly visible from Icelands main ring road, first as a distant small white streak but grows ever larger as you approach the beautiful Eyjafjallajökull glacier, from which the river flows from.”, quote from Orvaratli. And I am totally agree with him. In fact, we were welcome by 2 helicopter when we just arrived. Our guess is they came from the nearby tour around the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, maybe peeking if it is still erupting

Snaefellsness Peninsula, West Iceland

Once drive out of Reykjavik and enter the road to Snaefellsness Peninsula we were amaze by the beautiful sceneries along the Ring One Road. It is so unreal as if someone has painted it. Lovely color palette. During the driving trip we have stop at numerous places – sometimes just sudden pull over at the side of the road to take pictures. Good that there is not many driver along the road. At first I was a bit nervous with the idea of driving in Iceland especially after I read lots of articles about how dangerous it is to drive in the wild nature Iceland. But I was wrong. Driving along the Ring One road was indeed very comfortable as the road are in good conditions. Although it might be a bit tricky sometime to change speed from 90km/hr to 50km/hr in a short distance when entering the city. Got flash several times by the speed monitor – hopefully is not a penalty ticket And there is this narrow bridge (often at the river) that allows only one car to go at a time. So, have to be really careful & alert.

It took us almost a full day to drive around. We got a bit frustrated because we could not get closer to the Snæfellsjökul glaicer which was made famous by Jules Verne in the book, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” as the point of entry to the Earth’s core. Well, we just rent a mini red Toyota for 3 days and since all the highlands in Iceland requires 4×4 wheels, is almost impossible/ against the law for us to drive up there. And since the sky was still hazed from the volcano, we can only manage to catch a glimpse of it from far. Anyway, the entire journey was eyes opening. Saw more waterfalls which have vibrating blue color, interesting rocks cut in sharp edges during the Ice Age, lots of horse & sheeps, lava field village, awesome cave full of birds – it actually feels like the Dinosaur Age when we are standing in front and heal our head up with all the birds flying on top of us & the cave right in front of us. Thank God the birds din’t poop on us

The Golden Circle, Iceland

The “must-see” attraction of Iceland where tourist are able to experience the power of nature – waterfall, geysir, green national park. We decide to get a tour instead of driving for this one as it was almost the same price besides we get more tour info. We picked Go travel Iceland as it was kinda of the cheapest 8900ISK and it has really good rating from TripAdvisor. Thanks to Evelyn that helped us to arranged everything from tour booking to car renting and even help us to wash our dirty laundry. Good day out of the misty city and enter to the nature. Weather was perfect for the outing.

Gulfoss, the largest waterfall in Iceland was amazing. It feels almost like Victoria fall (I think as I haven’t been there). When you stand on top of the cliff overseeing the entire waterfall below your feet, it feels like you are on top of the world. Shame there is no rainbow cast. Watch the video to see how magnification the waterfall was.

Geysir geothermal area, the place was like in Mars. Pools of mud bubble, geysers explode and weird looking rocks and the mixture of the hot water and rock makes it looks almost looks like an ugly marble. This is our favourite spot of the there. The Strokkur which erupts every 5-15 mins is a little brother to Geysir – which has stopped erupting, which is kind of sad as its eruptions where much more spectacular than of Strokkur.

Pingvellir National Park the evergreen & lots of water filled rifts with crystal clear water perfect for scuba diving. Funny fact is people actually throw lots of coins in those rifts and it form a rather interesting and shining effect to the rifts. Pretty awesome actually.

The entire trip was fun overall. Rate 8 out of 10. Probably I was expecting more tour guide on the location spot rather then the tour guide disappearing all the time once she drop us there. But she does provide random general info about Iceland during the road trip and stop at some interesting attraction along the way like the canyon volcano & blue waterfall & the Geothermal station.

Reykjavik, Iceland

Finally, Iceland here we come! But the beginning didn’t go smoothly. The always punctual Finnish transportation let us down on our most crucial moment. Thinking that we were early waiting at the bus stop (15 mins earlier) but the bus never came… 5 min pass by… 10 mins… OMG… it will never come and finally we made decision to take another bus (required 1 transfer & it took 1hr) and rush to the bus stop, just in time. Thinking that things will not go wrong… but yet we were again wrong… the 2^nd airport bus was late too – for 10 mins… thinking that we are screwed and will never make it to the flight – the bus 615 appears packed with passengers. We barely fits in. This reminded us of our Rome trip. One 1^st May, we were transport in Sardine condition. We finally made it to the airport safe & sound, 40 mins before the flight departure. Again, the security line was super long… took us 15 mins in queue. Good that we always online check in – it at least save us some time with all the rush. We have to literally run to the boarding gate 12 which located far behind the hall. 15 mins before flight departure… long line for boarding. Yes, we made it… we are not the last one to boarding nor does our name appear in the boarding announcement.

The journey took 3hr 20mins, and there is on board entertainment in front of each seats. Brilliant idea with the Icelandair is the airplane acts like a big canvas to educate passengers about the Icelandic language. Pleasant ride. A bit of bumpy ride when arriving near to the coast – guess it too windy. From above, Iceland actually looks like some planet from Mars. The ground texture is too rocky and sandy.

The plan was followed. We get to the BSI terminal by flybus and Evelyn picked us up to the Baldursbra Guesthouse. The room Lyng looks exactly like the photos I saw in the TripAdvisor – the only few pictures available online. Basic room with basin. Very Icelandic feel with old wooden furnitures. Comfy bed. A bit noisy as the road is right beside the window.

1^st impression of Reykjavik. Small town – smaller then Jyväskylä. And the downtown is easy accessible by foot. Not much modern buildings. Quite old town. And who said is the most beautiful capital in the world? Haha… probably only one – the lady we meet at the Leppävaara dog park. But we are waiting for the true Iceland trip. The geysir, volcano, hot spring that sets it apart from other countries and make it so unique.

Went to Fish and Chip for our first meal. A self service bistro – tiny but with good music. It was good. Probably because we are super hungry. For 14e, I was full. The fish basically tasted almost the same although they have 3 varieties – Cod, Haddock fish, Wolf fish. Maybe because of the cooking method. All are fried. And we can pick our own dipping sauce, potatoes, salad.

Walked around the town. End up at the Hallgrimskirkja church. It looks really cool in the pics but in reality it was not as great. Very minimalistic from inside out. Matias hates the texture – “it looks cheap with the uneven surface but they have a cool gate – Gate to hell”. And I was wondering why there is no black glossy church. It would be so cool althought black is often related with funeral and devil.

Slept around 11pm local time. Was exhausted. Dozed…zzz

Day 2, woke up feeling fresh. Breakfast was great & fulfilling. Breads with selection of 3 kinds of cold meat – ham(s), salami. Today was sunny so we decided to be a local and visited the Nautholsvik Geothermal Beach. It has 2 hot pot – one rectangle and another one circular located near the sea. So, one can easily & fast switch between the hot pot and the cold swim in the sea. It has a similar concept as sauna. I chicken out and darn not to swim in the cold sea water while Matias bravely swim – a prove that he is a finn.

Before that we walk to The Pearl (Perlan) – the water tank of the Reykjavik city. The building looks quite modern compared to the old historical looking city. Dinner at Vegamot (sort of our favourite place as the food portion was large and good for the value). Short walk to Solfar Sun Voyager Sculpture – a whale looking metalic installment near the habour. It was believe that the ash from the volcano has cause Reykjavik to look very misty since the day we arrived. And it has continued till the 2^nd day as well. And because of that it is impossible to see the mountains surrounding the city clearly.