So, going to Iceland has been something I’ve been planning to do for a really long time. So when Philip told me he was going in February 2019, I couldn’t help but invite myself.
I’ll start with the beginning, because, well…that’s when things started to go wrong.
Day 1:
We arrived in Keflavik Airport at 2:30pm. We’d been awake since about 4am because we had to drive 4 hours to the airport that morning and were really tired at this point, just ready to pick up the car and drive all the way to Hellissandur to The Freezer Hostel, which we had booked for our first night.
Let’s just say things did not go as planned and instead of picking up our car at 3pm, like we had planned, we ended up leaving the car rental pick up point at 5:30pm, half an hour before the sun sets in Iceland at this time of the year.
First it was all good, the roads were clear, the weather was fine… until it just wasn’t anymore. At some point on our way to the West of the island, the winds became increasingly stronger, the roads icier and the visibility non-existing.
What happened is, that we ended up getting stuck in the snow, in the middle of the night, during a storm, somewhere in Iceland. I’ll let you know now that this was my biggest fear for this whole trip and it was everything but reassuring that this happened on our first night there.
While my boyfriend was off somewhere to get help, I tried to get out of the car (the wind was so strong, I almost wasn’t able to open the door) and stayed on the road to see if a car passed by that could help us.
We agreed afterwards that within this very much shitty situation we had a lot of luck, because:
- A snow-clearing vehicle with a lovely man passed by and he said he wouldn’t leave until we were safe.
- There was a hotel close to where we got stuck and they had a free room for the night.
- There was a towing car nearby that got our car out of the snow for 300€ (Disclaimer: we later discovered that in these conditions we shouldn’t have paid anything for the service, so yes, we got ripped off big time. But hey, at least we got the car out of the snow).
We ended up staying at that hotel, not able to drive the 1.5 hours left to the Freezer Hostel.
So yeah…That was day one.
Day 2:
Ok, shit happened that day too, but at least we saw some things.
After our first night of horror (yes, I am dramatic and that is how I shall refer to this night forever), we drove further into the West to see some beautiful landscapes and to visit a black beach.
If was definitely beautiful and I can recommend that corner of Iceland, however not in the winter.
After we had seen what we wanted to see, we had to make our way up to Svinavatn in the North, where our next Guesthouse was booked (Svinavatn Guesthouse).
On our way, there were, once again, very strong winds and very icy roads, which led to us losing control of the car a few times and thinking we were gonna drift off the road and get stuck again.
We did, however, arrive safely in Svinavatn to find that we had an entire Guesthouse to ourselves (there are no humans in Iceland) and a nearby lake that was so frozen, that we could walk on it. This would’ve been the perfect spot to do some Northern Lights watching, but we didn’t have any luck, nor the patience to sit outside and wait.
Day 3:
This day started with us thinking we would never be able to leave Svinavatn. Not because it was beautiful, but because we had to drive up an icy road to get to the main ring road and we didn’t manage to get enough of a grip on the ground to drive up. Eventually the father-in-law of the lady who owned the guesthouse had to drive over from his farm and drive our car up the road.
Once on the road again, things weren’t as bad as they had been the two previous days and we managed to drive safely up to Akureyri, the capital of the North – where we spent one expensive lunch and a few hours – and then further to Myvatn.
We also had a coffee at Bláa Kannan, which was advertised as being great in terms of gluten-free options. It was a nice coffee shop, but the only gluten free thing they sold was a brownie, so maybe they need to rethink their advertising.
Day 4:
We stayed at the Myvatn Elda Guesthouse for two nights. During this time we finally managed to do some more relaxed driving and explore the things we wanted to see: waterfalls, geysirs, lakes, caves, etc.
There was one cave up there – Grjótagjá Cave- known from a scene from Game of Thrones, were John Snow and that ginger girl… get it on. It is advertised on Google as a really beautiful cave with thermal water, but the reality is, that you can’t even go in there at all. It was absolutely dark (and we went on a sunny day), so I suppose you can only go in there if you’re happy with crawling into a dark hole in the snow (whatever rocks your boat).
What is definitely worth visiting in the North, is the Godafoss waterfall (pictured below), which replaced the Dettifoss waterfall we wanted to visit, but couldn’t, because the roads that lead to it are closed all winter long.
After having discovered many more lovely places in the North, we decided we still had some time and drove an hour towards the East of Iceland to see another waterfall that google maps suggested.
Long story short: This waterfall was not worth seeing and we got stuck in the snow…again. Luckily, 4 Mexicans and 2 Austrians stopped to help us and towed us out of the snow. One of the Austrians found the whole situation so hilarious, that he took pictures of my boyfriend in the car while it was getting towed out of the snow. I can imagine their jokes going all night, about how Germans can’t drive…
Day 5:
After our two eventful nights in Myvatn, we drove across the whole country, into the South, to the Golden Circle. Although we had been told that there was going to be a storm that day, we had beautiful weather throughout the day and were able to stop a few times on the way to take pictures of the scenery.
After what was probably our only stress free day, we arrived at the beautiful Héraðsskólinn Guesthouse, a really big boutique hostel with a yoga room, kitchen, pool table and piano. Basically everything a hipster heart could wish for.
At the reception we were given some advice on seeing Northern Lights and were told to go to Grótta in Reykjavik, on the West side of the city, near a light house. This was, according to the receptionist, a very popular place for tourists to go see the lights. He also told us not to pay for a Northern Lights Tour, as we would be paying for something we could do ourselves.
Day 6:
This was our Golden Circle day. We chose a few spots along the road that had attractions we wanted to see (Thingvellir National Park, Gulfoss waterfall, the Geysirs, etc.) and made our way onto our next adventure.
By the end of the day we drove 45 minutes into Reykjavik to an Airbnb we had booked for our last two days in Iceland.
The first thing we noticed was that our host was absolutely crazy. 30 seconds into our arrival she had told us all kinds of stories (funny and deeply personal), including that she is a professional Northern Lights photographer. However crazy she was, she gave us some very useful tips to seeing the Northern Lights:
- Be patient. Sometimes it takes hours for you to see anything at all.
- The Northern Lights need to be active for you to see them. On vedur.is you can see the Aurora forecast. There is a scale from 1 to 9 that indicates how active they are. Anything from 3 upwards already means you have a chance.
- The sky needs to be free of clouds. The less clouds there are, the better you can see the Northern Lights. The cloud activity is also shown in the Aurora forecast.
- You need darkness. That means no industrial lights and no car lights, which is something some tourists at Grótta don’t seem to understand. The car needs to be turned off!
Following her advice, we went up to Grótta and waited in the car, fully dressed in thermal clothes and ski wear, between 9pm and 2:30am to see some Northern Lights.
Once again, odds were in our favour…
We saw the lights at around 10:30pm and they lasted for about 45 minutes. We, however, only realised 30 minutes into their appearance, that we could even capture them on camera (after the strongest lights had already finished). The ones pictured above were really light ones that came after the “main attraction”.
As you can see, the light house also tried getting in the way of our picture, but the lights are still visible and that’s what matters here.
Day 7:
Happy we had seen the Northern Lights the evening before, we decided to do some city exploring on our last day in Iceland.
From our Airbnb, which was situated at the South of Reykjavik, we walked up to the North of the city, where all the tourist attractions are.
The city was pretty, however I can’t recommend a trip to Iceland jus to see Reykjavik. There just isn’t that much to see.
We finished our day with a visit to the Blue Lagoon, which is as beautiful as they say, except when the winds are really strong and water is constantly splashing into your face (that’s just my luck).
Day 8:
Day 8 was our departure day. Our flight was at 6am, so we woke up at about 2am, as we still had to drive an hour to the airport, drop off the car, etc.
Funnily enough, we almost got stuck again just hours before our flight. This time in the mud, nearby the gas station were we had refueled the car. Luckily, however, we managed to make it out and catch our flight.
Never had we been so happy to come back home after a trip abroad.
A foreigner abroad 