Iceland, Round 2

 For the first round of Iceland from 2016, see here.

When Covid shutdowns were about a year in, I was struck with the adventure and remoteness that might be achieved with a trip to Greenland. I looked up some tours, but none were running - Greenland was particularly strict with its lockdown. By 2022, though, BF and I were hankering for a trip and Greenland was open again, so we set things up. 

There are two airports with flights to Greenland: Reykjavik, Iceland and Copenhagen, Denmark. Since I had visited both cities before, this choice was up to BF, and he chose Iceland. Taking advantage of the necessity of being there anyway, we decided to arrive 4 days before the flight to Greenland and get some adventuring in. Boy, did we accomplish that!

Our priorities were waterfalls, the big lagoon, and puffins. But imagine my surprise when we picked up the rental car from Keflavik, started the 45 minute drive to Reykjavik, and saw this out the window:

Volcano alert!!!

So of course, "seeing an active volcano" was quickly added to the to-do list. I quickly googled "how to hike to the volcano" and was pleasantly surprised to see that despite the Fagradalsfjall eruption beginning only 10 days prior, the country's government had set up a website, parking lot, and well-marked (but not easy!) trail to visit the volcano. Of course, some of this preparation can be attributed to an eruption in the same valley in 2021.  In the picture below, the 2021 eruption is in orange, and the one we saw, which lasted from August 3 to approximately August 20, is in red.

The hike was over 4 hours round trip, not including the time we spent hypnotized by the eruption. It was a moderate hike, meaning for most people it is quite a challenge. I was surprised to see people attempting it in flimsy shoes and zero hiking gear, but everyone seemed to make it somehow (narrator: "not everyone"). As we approached the first part of the trail at 8am, we saw people walking back. We were nervous because we figured they must be walking back so early because the eruption had ended. When we got close enough we asked them why they had turned back: It turns out that they had started their hike around midnight the night before and stayed at the eruption site until 6 am, completely mesmerized. BF and I agreed that seeing it in the dark would be epic, but that hike was plenty difficult in the daylight and I doubt I could have made it in one piece with a flashlight. 

So after about 2 hours of rough terrain, we crested a ridge, and there it was! Still very far away and perched on the delicate dried lava from the 2021 eruption, the volcano was bubbling up a storm. I didn't know much about volcanoes (and still don't really), but I can report that it involves constant churning and sputtering at the center. It's not like, calm and then a big explosion, like a geyser. It's more like a cauldron. 

Finally made it...

It was so hard to leave! Every time we stood up to confront the long hike back, we kept lingering to see just one more slosh or explosion... It was like being hypnotized by a campfire but much more rare :)

For the other attractions, we got on the Ring Road (the road that rings the entire island) and went as far as time would allow. There are tons of things to see, and almost all of them are a quick, convenient turnoff from the main road, which makes it easy to get back on your way to the next site (but also ups the odds that you will see the same groups of tourists all day long). This blog post was very helpful in navigating the directions and sites, and we followed it almost 100%. 

While exploring the entire ring road would take at least a few weeks, we did the "mini" version and stayed only one night away from our city hotel. Our stay in Vik (Icelandic for "bay,") made for a very happy, yet cloudy and melancholic beach day. The sand on Vik's beaches is pitch black since it is composed of volcanic ash. On this beach, BF and I found the most perfect, smooth, circular rocks we had ever seen.

Guess what! We also saw puffins!

This landscape was epic on its own... then came the puffins!

P.s. this is probably the only puffin footage you will see without them having their beaks stuffed with fish. The world seems to have a strict law that all puffin photos must include a beakful of slimy fish.

Jesus Christ!

And of course, we got our waterfall and lagoon fix as well. Have a peak at my Instagram for pics of those!

After so much adventure in Iceland, we weren't sure how Greenland could even compare... but the biggest island in the world has its own marvels in store that would absolutely blow us away. I'll try to write about it soon!