Never Go to Iceland!
Wow. What a place! My advice: Never go to Iceland. Why? If you go there then at some point you’ll have to leave again, and man oh man, you won’t want to! Every nook and cranny of this country probably could kill you with fire, ice, water, wind, hail, snow, hot water, gravel, or some other natural hazard, but if you have a sense of adventure you will LOVE every second of staying alive there! It’s an amazing, truly astoundingly beautiful place overflowing with adventure.
Our little Airbnb was nestled in Akranes - a sleepy fishing town just north of Reykjavik. The view from the kitchen window was of the most beautiful bay backed by mountains. It was so fun drinking coffee in the morning as we watched a whale swim around in the gorgeous blue water. As treacherous as some of our adventures felt this peaceful Airbnb felt like a quiet place of rest on our wild adventure!
Akranes, Iceland.
We could not have asked for better weather on our first day in Iceland.
The next morning after lots of coffee, and a bit of whale watching we headed towards Vik, Iceland. We stopped to make friends with some horses on the way. I may or may not have ripped my pants trying to climb over a barbwire fence… Don’t worry, the fence was there to keep the horses in… not me out. LOL
Typical tourist pic.
In 1973 this United States Navy aircraft made an emergency landing on Sólheimasandur black sand beach in southern Iceland. I did a little research but it’s very unclear why it went down. Everyone on board survived the crash, and the plane was just abandoned there on the beach! I did learn though that the tail of the plane was intact until a local farmer stole it and sold it!
It’s a 2.4 mile hike from where you pull off the road to where the aircraft rests in the sand. The entire walk there we fought the icy wind blowing off the ocean and felt the lite snow. I will tell you in those conditions a cute Target “winter” hat won’t cut it. Your ears will pretty much freeze off your head!
My cute lil momma.
It started really raining just as we arrived in Vik so we slipped into a store, got some coffee and decided where to go to dinner. We went to Smiðjan Brugghús. It was a little spendy, but the burgers were incredible!
On the way back to our haven of an Airbnb we made a little stop to hike to a Sólheimajokull Glacier.
Our last stop of the day.
Our last full day in Iceland was my favorite! We drove north to Snæfellsjökull National Park. The weather was truly terrible, but we didn’t let it stop us. I had frozen fingers, my camera bag got very wet with sea water (not great… not great at all) and it was kind of misting/raining, but it was worth it!
“All drains lead to the ocean”
As we drove south the weather began to smile again!
The sunrise on the day we left was astounding just like all of Iceland. I awoke to my alarm, rolled over in a bad mood because I knew I had to get back on an airplane again headed for home, but the pink sky greeted me warmly and reminded me the world is not so large that I can’t come back.
It is true what they say about traveling others. You can go so, so much faster alone… you can stop where you want, do what you want, go where you want, and never ask for permission, but when you take your tribe with you your smiles are wider, your road a little safer and your heart grows a little bigger.
All for now…