7/31/15: Let the adventure and exploration begin!

Day 2 - Friday, July 31

It's Friday morning and we wake up feeling rested. We shower and feel amazingly refreshed. We are ready to start the day!!  

The day starts with a quick breakfast at our B&B.  Then we head out to explore the Snaefellsness (which we call Snuffleupagus because we cannot pernounce anything here!)

Entering Borgarnes on our way... We see this cute little fall and bridge. Of course we had to stop! The first of many, we are certain!  This country is beautiful so far and we are just getting started. 

Our next stop... A Lava field on one side and beautiful mountains on the other:

A pano view. It's so hard to capture the vastness of the beauty in a photograph. 

Our first selfie...  To say it was windy was an understatement. It blew the sun in so no complaints! 

Next stop... Eldborg.  

Just because it's beautiful. 

Ytri-tunga: what an amazing beach.  Not what we typically find in the states.  This one was peppered with Lava that was anywhere from pebble size to boulders. 

Continuing our drive on the southern side of the peninsula, we were completely in awe by this mountain range. I just can't even put into words how amazing some of these views are. 

A quick stop at the visitor center also brings out some amazing views....

After leaving the visitor center, we ran into our first traffic jam in Iceland.  And... it was all due to a horse that wanted to stand in the middle of the street.  A couple of the cars in front of us got out to try to get the horse to clear the roadway...

The thing I find most amazing about the amazing beauty we have seen so far... Is that it changes so quickly.  From the visitor center to Djùpalonssandur, it was less than a 10 minute drive and the view completely changed, but was equally magnificent.

We were back in another Lava field.  They are everywhere. As we drove into this lookout, we felt like we were stuck in a movie about the end of the world.  And yes, if I was a movie buff... I'm sure I would have some good references. Guess I need to watch more! 

Our walk at Djùpalonssandur...

A short walk and we find an all black beach.  We were trying to decide if it was black sand with lava mixed in or just all lava.  It was stunning.  It's hard to tell from this picture, but scattered throughout this beach was scrap metal pieces... We need to do a little more research, but it appears as if there was some sort of wreck at one time. 

From the beach we took a bit of a hike toward Dritvik.  We hiked for about 45 minutes and took in the amazing view from a different angle...

This is Saxhólar crater.  We hiked about a 45 degree incline to the top.  It actually looked more intimidating than it actually was.

Skardsvik: This was white sand beach with lava rocks. We spent a little time here having fun with our cameras. The lighting was amazing.

   This pic is when we were leaving. Everything is stunning. 

Continuing on our drive.... 

There are sheep everywhere here  But... We noticed that there are mostly white sheep, but when we see black, there is always just one with a family of white sheep. Why is that?? The phrase "the black sheep of the family" now makes so much more sense! Connie got such a kick out of this that it became our mission to get a pic of 3 or 4 white sheep with 1 black so she could send to her siblings and ask who is who?! 

We also stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things and I found these... they were like a sports energy type drink...

One of our last stops was Kirkjufellfoss. (Foss means waterfall).

And of course... We had to do a mini photoshoot and have some silly time!  

 

Back on the road... But I can easily say, it's hard to stay in the car for too long as the scenery changes every 100 meters (of course I have to speak in Icelands measurement system).  It really is incredible. As we were driving today, we were talking about how the terrain changes so much and so quickly.  We felt  as if we were driving through California, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada and a million other places all within moments, sometimes even at the same time.  

At one point, we were on a long open road in which caused me to have an artistic thought.... This was what happened next:

 

  

Only in Iceland!  And funny thing... We've been hearing this is a weekend of celebrations and is the busiest travel weekend. Is quite often we are on the road and don't see another car for miles and miles at a time! We had to laugh.... Especially Connie who experiences LA traffic everyday. 

Another thing we noticed is there are small churches everywhere!  It seems as if they are out in the middle of no where with very few houses around.  We are wondering if everyone has their own church!

This pic is for our friend Victoria that we met on the plane. She asked us to send her back a horse. We thought we'd give her the option...

After over 12 hours of exploring the peninsula, we finally are heading back to our B&B.  Just one last picture to wrap up our evening. FYI... This pictures were taken around 11:30 pm. It would have even been brighter if it wasn't for the cloud cover!  Love the midnight sun! 

Day 2 in the books.  I'm afraid this adventure will not be long enough....

7/30/15: Iceland welcomes us...

Day 1 - Thursday, July 30

Our flight got in about 8am, Iceland time.

Although, our internal clocks thought it was 3am. We had this hopeful plan of sleeping the whole plane ride so we would be raring to go when our feet hit the ground.  Well... Raring to go might not be an accurate statement when reality actually hit us.  I think the hour or two of restless and interrupted sleep I got on the plane didn't rejuvenate me like I had hoped. But... 

It still didn't stop us!  We stopped at the duty free shop to grab some wine to accompany our adventures. Then waited for our car rental company to pick us up to get our Mitshubishi Outlander. We are ready to hit the road!  Our journey started out by driving through Pingvellir National Park. We are already impressed with the beauty we see.

We had a couple stops on our agenda before heading to our B&B...

Our first point of interest... Geysir.

Here, there was one big geysir and a couple smaller ones.  Most of my photos from here are on my regular camera which I have yet to download.  

This picture is not great... It's where the geysir erupts and all those people are waiting for it... The closer we got, the more sulphur we smelled.  

Connie and I decided to walk to the other side to experience it from a different viewpoint. And boy did we experience it! 

(I do have a video I wish I couple post on here.  For anyone reading, it would possibly  make you pee your pants or spit milk out of your nose from laughing so hard!)

One would think common sense was something both Connie and I possess.  Apparently with sleep deprivation, it is the first thing to go.... Along with our powers of simple observation.  

Needless to say, we took a shower we weren't expecting.  Good news is, the water temp was 80-100 degrees.  The best part was we were both beyond shocked as to how that could've happened.  How did we miss the fact that would have happened? We actually did see people scattering away when we were watching from the other side. I honestly thought... Why are they running from a little mist?  Apparently when something goes up, it must come down and not always straight down. Maybe the intense wind had something to do with it?  

We definatly gave new meaning to the walk of shame.  Getting rained on by a geyser unexpectedly and being the only 2 people walking back to the car wet and smelling like sulphur.  Maybe it's better explained as a walk of stupidity. 

But boy did we have fun with it.  I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard!    After we regained our composure (it took a long time)... We just looked at each other and said... Yep, that happened.  Here is our picture to remember our shower by... We were drenched!

After a quick change of clothes and a few more laughs.... It was on to our second point of interest...  Gullfoss waterfall.

It was magnificent. Enough said. 

So... As you can imagine, we are both running on fumes and decide to go find our B&B as we know it will still take a couple hours. Looking on the map, we find the shortest route which is an F road, meaning you can only take it if you have 4x4.  We do, so excited as it will cut time off our drive.  Then we see this sign...

and we're even more excited that we had to cross some hazards.  (Hey, girls like to have fun too!)  Sadly, I didn't get a photo of the river we were supposed to cross.  It was too hard to tell how deep it was.  We contemplated it and waited while in hopes we would see another vehicle try it so we could see how deep it was and have the confidence that we would make it through. We decided it was smarter to turn around and take the long way...

One thing we have already noticed is there are abandon and run down farms that are scattered about. For some reason... I find beauty in it though.  I think this would make an awesome back drop for a photoshoot!

But we did see our first rainbow!  

We also joked and called these marshmallow fields.  They were hay bales and were everywhere!  Our goal before heading home... To frolick through a marshmallow field!

About 3 hours later.... We made it to our B&B.  We met our host and settled in to our cute farm house. The only pic I took was this one out our bedroom window to show how light it is at 10:30pm 

We reminisced about our day, and called it a night!  These sleep deprived girls need some sleep... Good night! 

Quote of the day:  That just happened!!  

Explanation of quote of the day: Geyser 

7/29/15 - 7/30/15 Getting to Iceland...

You never know what your flights will be like, right??   As we got to the airport to leave Minneapolis, we had a long wait to check in but didn't really mind because it gave us time to catch up!  As we get through security, Connie asks me to check our gates as she already tucked her ticket safely away.  We head to gate F19... Only to find that F only goes to 16? What??  How can that be?!  After further review, F19 was my seat number!  Oops. Would this set the precidence to how the rest of trip would go? Stay tuned to find out, but if you are wondering.... We made our gate in time. 

We find our seats on the plane and start having more catch up conversation. I had to interrupt Connie as I hear the woman next to me telling someone on the phone our flight was delayed. What?! Well... We got the full story from our flight attendant. Yep, we had to be reverted due to weather so our flight will get in 30 min late. We only had an hour between flights anyway so as you can imagine, concern starts setting in, but we try to remain hopeful. As a distraction, we start talking to the woman next to me... Victoria.  

She was fun!  We were all instant friends!  As the three of us were chatting and laughing, our flight attendant, Antoinette, kept giving us updates AND brought the 3 of us, not 1 drink, but 2 drinks through the course of the flight.

Not sure if it was because she  was nervous for us about our connecting flight or that she was just that awesome. I think it was the second with a sprinkling of the first!  😊. We couldn't say goodbye without a pic. I also asked her if she can promise to be my flight attendant on every flight!  

So... The plane lands at 10:10 and our flight from NYC to Iceland was taking off at 10:30.  Originally, our flight was supposed to go out of the same gate as our incoming flight. Now it's changed.  We have 20 minutes to get off the plane (we were in the back), take a shuttle to another gate and get in the plane. Yeah right. Even Antoinette figured it was unlikely we would make it.  We told Victoria we would be calling her to hang out if we didn't.  Silver lining to the chaos?!  

Anyway... The race is on...

Because I have my Fitbit on... I realize we ran, with carry on luggage, for about a mile. I heard an announcement for final boarding and I wasn't sure we would make it. We literally found the gate, got on and they closed the doors!  That was the hardest most intense run I've ever done, but we were determined.  It's not like there is a flight to Iceland every hour!

We made it... And so did our luggage!  Iceland... Here we come!

7/29/15: Next destination.... Iceland!

Heading to the airport thinking about what an amazing adventure awaits me....  

I can't wait!  

I found this bracelet this morning and felt compelled to wear it on this trip....

Looking forward to what lies ahead and pushing my limits!

I feel so blessed to have an amazing travel companion in Connie!  She went from a stranger about 18 years ago to almost a sister to an amazing friend and travel partner.  

Let the adventure begin!! First stop... JFK. Will be in Iceland by morning.