Iceland Adventures - Week 1

This trip, I did something different. Instead of starting another ill-fated travel journal, I posted photos on Instagram. Definitely doing this style of photojournalism again. Take a scroll (get it?) through and re-live our trip.

DAY 1

Hello, #BlueLagoon. What a refreshing introduction to this beautiful country. #MyStopover @icelandair #iceland

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 17, 2015 at 4:26am PDT

Getting my mud on. They say this stuff cures... Jet lag. #BlueLagoon #iceland

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 17, 2015 at 6:31am PDT

Got a SIM card. Ate our first pylsur, an Icelandic hotdog. Then the jet lag set in. Took a nap. Now walking downtown Reykjavik towards Hallgrimmskirkja. #iceland #MyStopover

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 17, 2015 at 10:58am PDT

Lamb soup and grilled cheese for dinner, wool shops, aimless walking, and lots of yawning. Good bye, #Reykjavik. We will have to try your night life another time. Off to Stokkseyri, our first campsite! #MyStopover #Iceland @iheartreykjavik

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 17, 2015 at 12:56pm PDT

DAY 2

It's the road between the North American and the European continental plates, and it grows 1 inch per year. Iceland is literally tearing apart! #iceland #MyStopover #thingvellir

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 18, 2015 at 7:06am PDT

This rainbow actually has a pot of gold at the end. Gullfoss, named "Golden Falls" is after the legend of a farmer who couldn't bear the thought of another man enjoying his fortune after his death. So, he put it in a box and threw it over the falls.

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 18, 2015 at 7:29am PDT

Wow. Local secret, gravel road and no signs for a reason. #nofilter #iceland

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 18, 2015 at 10:08am PDT

DAY 3

Well, it's 4:00am. The wind woke us, and even with earplugs it's pretty hard to sleep when the tent walls are bashing you in the head. So, we decided to pack up and just drive to our first stop of Day 3. Have you ever tried to dismantle a tent in 35km winds? It tries to run away from you, and nearly succeeds. Nevertheless, we leave Stokkseyri with our bellies full of last night's langoustine (prawn/lobster hybrid) dinner at award-winning Fjörubordid, some pics of the windswept landscape and knitted chairs (they get cold, too), not to mention the free bottles of stove fuel left by another camper. We left not a moment too soon: as soon as we drove away, it started raining. Thank goodness we avoided a wet tent. This is where many of you start thinking, "That's what you get for camping in Iceland." Too right. An adventure.

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 18, 2015 at 9:13pm PDT

Behind Seljalandsfoss (if you haven't yet realized, "foss" means "waterfall"). I went to the bottom to fill my water bottle, just for kicks. Battling the spray was hurricane-like. #iceland #nature #waterfall

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 19, 2015 at 8:57am PDT

It's a 20 minute walk to Seljavallalaug ("laug" means "pool"). It was gusty, with driving rain. I learned that my raincoat was not entirely rainproof. C'mon, #HellyHansen! However. When Iceland's oldest manmade pool (est. 1923) beckons at the back of a verdant valley, its lush landscape a fluorescent chartreuse against the soot-black basalt formations, rain matters little. Did I mention the pool was 40 degrees Celsius? Delightful. #iceland #hotspring #MyStopover #travel

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 19, 2015 at 9:10am PDT

I admit, the main attraction in Skogar is the waterfall, but I found the full pasture chorus of sheep bleating their praises of the fine fescues equally charming. In addition, Hotel Skogar has an Artic charr dish that hit the spot. Half a fish and a pile of garlic mashed potatoes. In light of the weather, we opted for a hostel in Vik tonight--from which I am now writing this. There are shared cooking facilities, and just as I was about to bust out our freeze-dried 5 minute wonders, a French tour guide offered us his group's leftover rice and fresh fish. We said yes, and added a package of instant palak paneer. Side note: our voltage converter doesn't seem to work, so we've only been able to charge our phone, used constantly for Instagram and GPS, in the brief increments we drive via dashboard USB port. Having found a communal plug here, this may be the first night we get a full charge. Would be nice to relax battery-monitoring duties. #iceland #travel #waterfall

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 19, 2015 at 2:58pm PDT

DAY 4

Here's the picture I've been looking forward to recreating. Lava cools and cracks into hexagonal basalt columns. @robtbo wouldn't it be awesome to build with this stuff? #iceland #geology #potd

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 20, 2015 at 3:56am PDT

This was an Instagram find, not originally on our itinerary. Fjardrarglijufur. Try and say that 3 times fast. #iceland #gorge #nature

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 20, 2015 at 6:22am PDT

Svartifoss! Short hike to this towering basalt gem-- and we also ran into Barabash and Nora from Hungary, whom we met in Gjain! #iceland #waterfall #nature

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 20, 2015 at 9:18am PDT

Y'know those restored historical buildings that look neat on the inside, but they don't let anyone in? Sel was different. We peeked in the windows, saw it was originally furnished, and walked around to the front--to my astonishment, the door was latched but not locked. Amazing! To walk through doorways my size, to find the secret passageway under the stairs that links the barn (with stalls and built-in mangers still standing) to the house, to find a soup pot large enough for two turkeys on the stove-- all in a house that was built in 1902 from driftwood, carried far from shore, across a lava desert and up a mountainside. My highlight of the day. #vatnajokull #iceland #farming

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 20, 2015 at 1:14pm PDT

Each day keeps beating the one before! Today, blue was our favourite colour. Jökulsárlón Lagoon is only 80 years old and grows 500 metres every year, but its glacial ice is thousands of years old. The black streaks are ash layers from eons-old volcanic eruptions. #iceland #glacier #picoftheday

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 20, 2015 at 11:42am PDT

DAY 5

Driving towards the Eastfjords today. Capturing the sights on camera was a lot harder, with the sun overexposing much of the vistas we were pointing at. However, this picture is just one of the many fjords along the coastline, with impossibly high peaks--some stacked with sedimentary layers like a haphazardly terraced Jenga tower--some with alarmingly-pitched scree and gravel slopes that ended right at the side of the road--still others that careened around sudden gulches and fissures with blasting waterfalls draining the glaciers above. This is the idyllic countryside, with farms that have waterfalls literally in their backyards, sheep on the front porch and expansive fishing waters across the road. #iceland #nature

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 21, 2015 at 8:48am PDT

My most instant #Instagram -- on the road from Egilsstadir to Seydisfjordur. Any #WalterMitty fans recognize this stretch from his #longboarding stunt? #Iceland

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 21, 2015 at 9:01am PDT

Seydisfjordur: a Mecca for artists. A lagoon sheltered by 1,000+ft hills from the wind. An 1848 herring village and WWII base (an oil tanker sunken by German bombers is a popular dive spot). Lighting was perfect as we explored the little alleys peppered with bright, historic little homes with lace curtains, original hardware and artistic crafts. #Iceland #picoftheday #nofilter

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 21, 2015 at 10:44am PDT

DAY 6

It was lovely meeting you, Seydisfjordur's elementary school and village square. Thanks for the Jerusalem artichoke soup (amazing), the salmon roe & arugula pizza, public pool with the best panoramic view, and Kyle's new wool toque. I'm only sad we couldn't stay longer, at least to have the local beer and a reindeer steak. Will definitely come back someday. #Iceland #MyStopover #eastfjords

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 22, 2015 at 9:12am PDT

Álfaborg, palace of Iceland's elf queen Borgahildur. Iceland has a healthy reverence for the huldufólk (hidden people), with many beautiful stories. I chatted with the owner of the local cafe in Borgarfjordur Eystri, and she pointed out this large hill across the road and shared some stories. On the right side lives the kind elves, and on the left the tricksy elves. Makes sense, since I lost the path on that side. Saw 3 elves, too. They had 2 more legs than I was expecting, and their manes were twice as long as mine. 😉 Seriously though, it was a beautiful place. I felt like a child in a dream, crunching through flower meadows with tall swaying grass flowers, thick moss carpets and flat, clattering rocks patterned with a dozen different shades of lichen. You could easily imagine the rock shelves as balconies, towers, halls... #Iceland #MyStopover #magical #picoftheday

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 22, 2015 at 9:30am PDT

The fish drying racks on the hills of Borgarfjordur. Population 110. 1 of everything. 1 hotel, 1 café, 1 church, 1 fish factory. Walking around is oddly quiet. There's no Main Street, so there are no pedestrians. Everyone is either farming or in the fish factory. The puffins have left town, so no more tourists for the rest of the year. It's quiet enough that you can hear the bleating sheep across town, the trucks loading fish on the other side of town, the slow inexorable surf, and the wind whistling past the elf palace, Alfáborg (see previous photo). #Iceland #MyStopover #fishing #picoftheday

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 22, 2015 at 11:53am PDT

We ate in a cowshed. Borgafjor Cowshed Cafe, the #1 restaurant at Lake Myvatn. You walk past the open door of cows eating their dinner on your way in (had we been earlier, we could have watched the milking). You get a table, order your dinner (lamb shank with rhubarb jam and gravy with dark rye garlic bread + beef burger with homemade mozzarella), then go back around to pet the cows. The calves are adorable! Once you've scratched all their ears, you go back inside the restaurant. But look at the bottom photo: there's a window. You can see them, they can see you. The only tension is that you might be eating one of their relatives. #Iceland #yum #foodie #localproduce #slowfood #MyStopover #instafood

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 23, 2015 at 1:13am PDT

DAY 7

Dummuborgir ("dark castles") is a lava field near Lake Myvatn. The colours look impossible, but this was just as I saw it: azure skies, gold birches, scarlet heath, emerald moss and craggy, pockmarked black basalt. There were secret caves, and lost sheep. A large caldera loomed nearby (my pictures were into the sun and don't do it justice). Stay tuned for the hot spring we found around the corner... #Iceland #geology #MyStopover #nature

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 23, 2015 at 11:19am PDT

Kyle's got a new motivation plan for my workout: planking over chasms. You fail, you die. #nbd #Iceland #workout #fitness #geothermal #gotphysio #physioftw

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 23, 2015 at 11:34am PDT

Wow. Grótagjá hot spring lava cave! Too bad underground magma flows in the '80s made it too hot and unstable to swim. Frankly, I think they just don't want the skinny dippers... You can see the scale if you can spy the fellow on the far end, standing up and blending into the edge of a boulder. #Iceland #hotspring #nofilter #beautiful #nature

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 23, 2015 at 3:07pm PDT

How do you portray serenity, on top of a mountain, in a steaming hot spring infinity pool, watching the sun set in a fading periwinkle sky? I thought a yoga pose was, in this extraordinary instance, appropriate. @nourishhotyoga @saztbo #hotspring #sunset #yoga #nature #picoftheday Now off to watch for the Northern Lights--wish us luck!

A photo posted by Ashley Reiter (@reiterwriter) on Sep 23, 2015 at 3:19pm PDT

stay tuned for a photo journal summary of week 2!