Iceland Day 4

We took off and the weather was so temperate today! I can't believe I'm calling 40 degrees (Fahrenheit of course) temperate but I even took off a layer of jacket! The mountains keep switching back and forth between being covered in pure snow with pure brown and green grass fields. The best way I can describe Iceland in March in this stretch of East Iceland is that it's almost like a Zebra. Stripes of snow running alongside stripes of grass. We got to experience bits of winter and bits of spring at the same time. On our way to the Lækjavík, we pulled over randomly and explore this gorgeous field with the striped mountains behind us. One of my favorite random middle of nowhere pitstops. We had the mountains on one side and the sea on the other. Janae and I sat down on the field with our backs against the rocks, soaking in the warmth of the sun and taking in the fresh coastal air. The boys ventured down rocky slopes where they found smaller black sand beaches  to skip rocks and frolick.

Our second middle of nowhere pitstop was to explore the area around this bright yellow lighthouse. It was bright yellow so of course it caught our eye. We peeked in and it looked pretty clean so not sure if its still functional and in use, but a really cool area to explore nonetheless! Wei even taught us a really good stretch for our hamstrings, but it looked really funny when we all decided to do it together. Gave us a great stretch and a really good laugh.

Pc: Wei's Psick Pics

So lucky us, the next Airbnb we stayed at in Egilsstaðir was actually right next to a horse ranch! We got to spend some quality time with these cuties. They sometimes came up to us to allow us to pet their noses. We also watched a couple of them running their teeth through each other's manes.. I think they're grooming each other? One minute their snapping at each other over whose food is whose, then the next they are grooming each other. Haha so cute!! The Airbnb we stayed at (so sad I didn't take a picture) had the most unique version of a guestbook ever. The walls in the kitchen / living room were filled from floor to ceiling with small square paintings. There were paintings representing travelers from Korea, Canada, Germany, and more from all over the world. When we walked into one of the bedrooms, we squealed with delight to find an entire table full of paint supplies and blank canvases as an invitation for our contribution to be added to the guest book wall. One of the most creative Airbnb ideas ever.

So basically, other than the Laekjavik coast, we had no itinerary for the day except to stop at random places alongside the road and explore. After all the rushing around in the south coast, we felt like we really needed a day to take it slow, be spontaneous, and travel without a plan. It was basically like a feel good kinda day. Loved it.

Iceland Day 3

Weather was so clear today! We started our travels along the south coast and stopped at the infamous black sanded beach, Vik beach! It was apparently staked with a sign that said "sneaky waves" and posted pictures of tourists running away from waves. It was kind of funny, but also a good reminder to be safe. Felt kind of bad for laughing haha! Just a funny way to do a sign I guess! The rocks and caves along the beach are quite magnificent. I have no idea how rocks naturally form in such a jagged square pattern, but I guess God's an artist!

We drove to the Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyons and walked around real quick. It literally looks like it's straight out of a Game of Thrones scene! It's gorgeous. When we went it was covered in snow, but in the summer it's green beyond belief! We didn't get to spend too much time before realizing that our Ice Cave location was going to take longer than we expected. We emailed the customer service dudes and they basically told us that if we were late, the bus would leave without us. No chill. This was the moment we  then realized there are very little policeman in the area, because we sped like crazy madmen (please don't do this) to get to our tour on time. We actually didn't get a ticket, then (thank goodness), but we did get one sent to us later on so please drive carefully!!! We didn't think we would make it, but holy moly we did, and holy moly it was ALL WORTH IT. The ice caves were gorgeous, and nothing like I had ever seen before. Layers of snow compressed together over time, with streaks of ash decorating the roof and the walls. When the sun shined through the top, the glowing blue that illuminated the cave was breathtaking.

Fun fact: we pretty much almost lost Tony in the tour. Not because the cave was big, actually the cave was very small. How did we lost Tony then you ask? He got swamped by a bunch of tourists who wanted to use his flashlight to see into the deeper "forbidden" area of the cave. Everyone on our bus knew his name, because both me and the guide walked up and down the entire cave shouting "TONY", no response. But don't worry, the tourist swamp eventually let him free. Now he owes us all drinks. 

After all the stress of rushing to make our Ice Cave tour on time, we decided to take it kind of chill and eat our sandwich lunches (at 4pm lol) by the gorgeous Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon. We walked around, licked some glaciers (nbd), and marveled at the natural beauty of the moving floating blocks of ash streaked icebergs. The lake continues to expand in size as the glaciers melt, but the coolest part is that the lagoon will look different every time you come to see it since the glacier pieces are constantly moving and each one is uniquely patterned and shaped.

Meet the buds! Tony (left), Janae (middle), and me.

Above is one of those little off the road, middle of nowhere spots. The buildings were abandoned and everyone walked around and explored for a good while. We actually ended up taking a mental note of this spot, because there were no city lights anywhere nearby and we thought it might be a perfect spot to go catch the aurora borealis. And by golly, we were right. 

PC: Wei's Psick Pics

PC: Wei's Psick Pics

I did not expect the northern lights to shine as bright or as green as it did that night. We kept an eye on this online Aurora Tracker that we used. Make sure to look for two things: clear skies (no clouds) and the aurora activity level. The tracker will show you where heavy cloud coverage is (green areas, the darker the green the heavier the cloud coverage), so look for the white spots on the map! Then to the top right under "Aurora forecast" you'll see the northern light's activity from a range of zero (no activity) to nine (absolute highest activity). The night we went there was zero cloud coverage and it was at a high seven for activity level!!! We were literally bouncing off the walls excited (okay mostly Janae was bouncing off the walls but we were all pretty stoked).

I realized that when people say the Aurora Borealis is "dancing", they really mean that it is dancing. The lights are moving almost every second, constantly changing shape, stretching into different areas of the sky. It's one of those things where you just sit down and stare and have an out of body moment where you can't believe what you're seeing is real. In that moment, I totally forgot about how cold it was, I didn't think about planning the itinerary for the next day, I forgot to stress out about life's uncertainty and our world's troubles (dude if you know me you know I stress easy), but for a split second, it just felt like time stood still. A momentous experience to check off my lifelong bucket list. It was also one of those moments where you look up and realize that God is a freaking creative artist. I had a lot of those moments this trip. Please. Go see these lights. Do it.