Kudos to these ladies, they handled all of the reservations. I was completely tapped out of trip-planning energy by May. We stayed in two different AirBNB cabins, one on the south coast and one outside of Reykjavik. We rented a car and explored the south coast and the Golden Circle for five days at the end of July.
Iceland is expensive- $18 for soup lunch expensive- but having a cabin with a kitchen made it a little easier on the wallet. I fell in love with skyr for breakfast (it's basically yogurt). We also cooked pasta and tacos for dinner. The last night we made "Icelandic nachos" with leftovers. It was great. Our lunches out were simple but hearty.
The first day we picked up the car and drove down along the South Coast road. We stopped at the Lava Center and Skogafoss, a huge waterfall. We walked to the base, and then climbed the stairs up to the top and walked along the river a bit. Since everyone was jetlagged, we made it an early night with just a trip to the grocery store and checking in to the cabin.
The next day, we set out south for the Sólheimajökull, a glacier where we could hike right to the edge and touch the ice. It was pretty dark and dirty, but still massively impressive. I can't believe how much it had shrunk back from the parking lot. Gah, global warming is so real and painful!
Next, we went to the blank sand beaches. We ate lunch in Vik, then drove further west to the Fjadrargljufur canyon. The drive went through lava fields covered in moss. It looked the the trolls scene from Frozen, honestly. We got out for photos a few times, then once we got to the gorge we walked up to a few viewpoints. After dinner, since the sun was still brightly shining, we went to the Seljalandsfoss, a huge waterfall with so many rainbows. We walked behind the falls, climbing all over the rocks and getting very wet and dirty. Yay, raincoat! Yay, rainbow! Yay, sun at 9:30 pm.
On our third day, we took the ferry to the Westman Islands. We did a walking tour of the town, had lunch, and then went to the Volcano museum. The island had a huge eruption in 1973, which buried houses and dramatically enlarged the island. The museum showed the impact of the eruption on life, and had excavated some of the buried houses. It was pretty cool. We switched cabins that night, and enjoyed the hot tub at the new location.
Day 4 was the Golden Circle. We drove north to Thingvellir, where the North American and European continental plates collide. We could walk through the rift created by shifting plates. It's also the site of the early settlers (Vikings?) Althing, or democratic-style community meeting that governed the island for thousands of years. There weren't any real remains, but lots of information about the history of the site. Further along we stopped at Geysir, where we stood in the rain for 30 minutes looking at the wrong thing (grr) before eventually seeing the geyser, and Gullfoss, where we walked down in the rain to see a big waterfall. As the rain let up, we arrived at Secret Lagoon for a soak in the hot spring for a few hours. That, that was heavenly. The last stop of the day was a Kerid, a crater formed from a collapsed volcano. We walked around the rim.
Our last day we went in to Reykjavik. We did a walking tour that went through the old port, the traditional homes, the seat of government, and up to the big church. We ate hot dogs on the street corner, and took photos of Leif Erikson's statue at the top of the hill. We shopped and had soup in breadbowls for lunch. It was a perfect last day in Iceland.
I can't believe that this was the end of my sabbatical. I'm not ready for it to be over. I'm not ready to go back to being in one place for week after week. I'm not ready to hear only English. I've loved my year on the road. It's been the experience of a lifetime.
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