Walking the Planet: A Land of Fire and Ice

As narcisisstic as it might sound, I decide to start travel-blogging in English because I think the stories are so engaging and informative that whoever couldn’t read it misses out a lot😂 Also it’d be a great chance to improve my English writing skills. I have never really given up on my childhood dream of becoming a writer, and who knows… maybe this is a start.

Anyways, first things first… Independence day 2019. Iceland.

The idea of spending this Independence Day struck me at the end of May, when I started planning for the next long weekend and realized that omigod I could get out of the States for this one!!! Iceland was clearly the best choice – it was actually closer to NYC than the West Coast. Within a week, I paid for a flight and submitted my visa application.

I started getting anxious two weeks before the trip, which honestly had seldom happened to me. The main reason was that I would be driving alone for the entire trip (I had never done so before, let alone in a foreign country…) I learned online that the road would be hard to drive when it got windy, and was terrified that I might be trapped in the wind and would never go back.

Regardless, July 4 approached, and off I went.

Simply put, Iceland gave me the impression of “European version of Japan.” When I think of Japan, I would think about hot springs, volcanoes, all sorts of geolocical activities, being an island between two continents, tidiness and people’s obsession with it. And you got them all in Iceland. (Well, maybe minus the anime.)

My Itinerary:

• July 4: Arrived at Keflavik Airport and went through the customs before 9am. Got my car at 10:20, parked at Þingvellir National Park at 12 to join the Silfra snorkeling tour. After the 2-hour tour I wandered around at the National Park for an hour, and spent the evening at The Great Geysir, Gulfoss and the Secret Lagoon.
• July 5: Noon at Geothermal Park in Hveragerði, and afternoon and evening with the “Inside the Volcano” tour. After the tour I drove to Reykjavik and spent the night there, completing Golden Circle.
• July 6: One day trip to and from Snæfellsnes Peninsula, and went directly to the airport from there to catch my 1am flight on 7th.

Basically, an in-depth Golden Circle tour and the peninsula. Looking back, I think the only flaw in this itinerary is that I should move “Inside the Volcano” to the morning of July 5, and head off to Snæfellsnes right after that. Maybe I originally planned to go further east on the morning of July 5 and decided against it when I woke up at 9am that day… As a result, I was out of ideas of where to kill time before “Inside the Volcano,” and on the 6th I had to drive for 7 hours, with a flight to catch at the end of the day…

My mate David recommended me Jökulsárlón at the south of Vatnajökull National Park. Being on a tight schedule, however, I saved that for some future winter so I could see the blue ice cave as well.

I highly recommend the site Guide to Iceland, which helped me a lot when I was prepping my trip. It has tips and advices written in different languages. I read the same article in Chinese and in English, and was surprised that they were not translations of one another. It was clear from the content that the Chinese version were specifically targeted towards Chinese travelers, and the English version would address more habits and interests of European/American readers.

Getting Around

It was astoundingly quick to get through the customs in Keflavik Airport in the morning. My flight arrived at 8:20am, and within 20 minutes I was admitted by the customs. I had to find a cafe in the airport to kill time…

I rented my car from a rental company named “Blue Car Rental,” and was offered a white Hyundai from 2015… there really wasn’t newer car models than that. Not sure whether it was about just that rental car company or about whole Iceland, but they were quite strict on the exact time you rent and return the car. I arrived at their service counter at 9:30 and was asked to wait until 10am… just because I said I’d come at around 10 when I reserve. The same happened when I returned the car – I got there a few hours early and was asked “do you really want to return it now?”

To my immense relief, it wasn’t windy at all where I was going. The highways were not built as well as those in North America, but still easily drivable. Sometimes the road surface could be uneven which made the car rocking left and right which made me a bit nervous. Nothing more than that.

Icelandic drivers were generally quite nice. On average they drive 100~110kmph on highways but usually no more than 120. Nothing like those crazy New Jersey drivers.

A rule of thumb of driving in Iceland was that you couldn’t just pull off wherever you want. I knew you were not really supposed to do that in other countries as well, but in Iceland, people seriously make a point of reminding you in everything you could read about driving there. I remember the rental company telling me that I would be fined for pulling off at random places, so I had to forgo many photo opportunities…

Driving alone was not as unnerving as I expected, and the satisfaction of the control freak inside me did give me glowing pleasure. Still, it started getting boring after an hour or so. I was so bored that I tried chatting with Siri on my iPhone, only to realize she was as uninteresting as my roadtrip back to the airport…Also, driving alone meant that you could not afford being sleepy. You might say that I could just go get some sleep at some gas station but… what if I needed to catch a flight?

Eating & Sleeping

Before the trip, one my colleagues reminded me to bring some instant noodles, because their food tasted really bad for Asians’ flavor preferences, and so I did.

I ate two meals at restaurants. The first one contained a lamb soup and the “skyr” cheese. Basically “skyr” is some sort of Icelandic cheese that looks and tastes exactly like yogurt, and so makes good desserts. The second meal was in an Italian restaurant on Snæfellsnes Peninsula named “Sker.” The seafood pasta tasted superb, even by New York standard.

I hadn’t have a chance to eat puffin or hakarl (colleague said I made a good choice,) but I had lamb soup. Twice. I didn’t know what was with Iceland and lamb, but… they offered lamb soup to tourists at the end of adventure tours which looked and tasted exactly the same as what I had in the restaurant. Moreover, I strongly suspect they used lamb infusion in their handsoaps - everytime after I wash my hands, they smell like those lamb soup I had. It had been three weeks since I came back from Iceland, and I was still staying far away from lamb when I eat…

I spent two nights in different hostels with shared bathrooms. I will go above and beyond to recommend the first one, Geysir Hestar. It was a few minutes drive to the Great Geysir, and offered me the best hostel experience I could remember. I paid for a single, and out of my bedroom window were horses and mountains (the hostel did horseriding trips on the side.) The sheets were clean, beds were comfy, hosts were nice, and the interior felt sort of vintage - I was given a big silver vintage key to lock and unlock my bedroom door. They also put tons of towels in the bathrooms, which was a bonus for me who never felt like having enough towels to use.

During the second night in Reykjavik, I had my first ever “pod” experience. For some reason I felt an odd sense of security when trapped inside a small but comfy space, like I hadn’t really felt safe before. I also didn’t expect my own TV inside this tiny pod. However, the shared bathroom was no comparison to Geysir Hestar. It was small and wet and… smelled like effing lamb!

Places to Go

Silfra Snorkeling ★★★★

“Silfra is a rift formed in the divergent tectonic boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates and is located in the Þingvallavatn Lake in the Þingvellir National Park in Iceland.” –Wikipedia

I picked this tour for my general interst in geological landmarks, but really didn’t expect to experience anything else other than seeing a big boring crack underwater. It turned out quite the otherwise - even dressing and undressing the drysuit was some refreshing experience, not to say that the big crack was blue, beautiful and mysterious.

The tour was operated by Adventure Vikings and started at 12pm. They provided drysuits that could be worn outside of your jeans and shirts to keep you and your own clothes warm and dry, but it took about half an hour and the help of the two guides to fully dress them. Look at me in my drysuit and you’ll get the picture…

After the whole team got dressed, we walked to the starting point of the snorkel. The whole tour was divided into groups of 5, and being in the last group, I had to wait for another more than half an hour to actually start snorkeling.

Not sure whether it was about the gears or about the water or just about myself… but the snorkeling gears was not working well for me, because water kept running into my mouth. Changing into another set of gears didn’t work. I could have sworn I snorkelled countless times in Australia and Ecuador and never had this problem. The guide of my team was super nice, though - grabbed my wrist and took me places during the entire snorkel.

The actual time that each person on the tour spent underwater was less than 30 minutes😂 Given that, along with that I was fighting with my gears, I didn’t enjoy the experience as people probably should. Still, I would say the tour was entirely worth the money… Everything underwater seemed glowing in the diamond blue, and I was almost convinced that if I had dived deeper, I would see the palace the Little Mermaid lived in, or at least a box of treasure. It was just stunning.

Þingvellir National Park ★★★

So this is where you see the boundary of the two tectonic plates. The hikes were easy and the paved trails were filled with tourists, including a bunch of Chinese aunties who took pictures with colorful scarves…

For me, the most I could say about this journey was “well… ok” probably because it was foggy and rainy. I was surprised, afterwards, that I had taken my best shot here…

The Great Geysir ★★★☆

This is where a picture worths a thousand words. I can’t really say much about the experience, since it’s just walking around the geysirs and the steam from geothermal heat. Nevertheless, this is exactly the kind of place where I want photos to be taken, especially when in dusk. For some reasons, the rich and creamy colors reminded me of “Alice in Wonderland”…

I would say that this place, actually the whole golden circle, quite resembled Yellow Stone National Park. Anyone loves geology and geothermal phenomenon may enjoy it.

Gulfoss ★★★

Gulfoss was only ten minutes away from the Great Geysir, but the sign at the intersection was ambiguous so I took another ten minute detour. To whoever going there - when there’s an intersection, turn right.

The waterfall itself was quite impressive. It was almost like a minified version of the Niagara Falls, but with much more layers and structure. Like the Niagara, there’s a high chance that you would see a huuuuuuge rainbow there…

Secret Lagoon ★★☆

Expecting the “Blue Lagoon” to be a pricey tourist trap but wanting something similar anyways, I checked out the Secret Lagoon. The prospect of experiencing geothermal heat first hand was definitely inviting; The thing was that I was looking for more like a spa than a swimming pool, and unfortunately this secret lagoon was just a heated swimming pool. I was hoping to just find somewhere to sit down for an hour with my body soaked in hot running water, and instead I had to move around and around. As someone who never enjoyed swimming, I started feeling tired and bored after about 15 minutes. The scenery was quite nice though, the same color and texture and creaminess of the Geysir.

The best part of this experience was drinking MountainDew inside the pool. (I was more in the mood for a beer, but I had to drive afterwards…) “The hot and the cold are both so intense, put them together it just makes sense!”

Geothermal Park ★

Half an hour drive from the Geysirs and was said to take only an hour, I went here to kill some time before “Inside the Volcano.” Highlights of this place were making your own egg in the hot springs, and eating cakes baked using geothermal heat…

And that’s really about it. The whole park was smaller than my office, and the guy at the front desk was not helpful at all. I did get the feeling when I ask him questions that he believed I was an idiot for having to ask him. It was true that everything was in the brochure he gave me, but seriously, who would understand the ambiguous wording?

Inside the Volcano ★★★

In June, I booked this hell expensive Inside the Volcano experience because, well, I just liked Volcano. I immensely enjoyed the experience - The drive there was spectacular, getting onto that small cable car and going through the hole in the volcano was exciting, and I hadn’t hiked for a long time. Whether it was worth $350, though, was another question.

We met up at the meeting point, attended the safety lecture and walked about half an hour to the base camp. There we were divided into four groups, and each group would take turns to spend 30 minutes down in the volcano, while the others waited at the base camp. After your turn, you would return to the base camp to wait for groups going after you and… have lamp soup. Ugh.

So the inside of a volcano looks something like… this.

(The rectangular light was a cable car; I came in using that.)

It was said that this crater was big enough to hold the Statue of Liberty, and once I got to the bottom and looked up, I was slightly struck by how deep in the hole I was. However, same as touring the Statue of Liberty, there really wasn’t that much to see other than acknowledging to myself that “ok I’ve been here.” Now what? The volcanic rocks didn’t really look different from the inside than from the outside.

The best part of this experience was talking to our tour guide and learning all about volcanoes in Iceland. So I learnt that there are two types of volcanoes, one formed by explicit eruptions and the other formed by eruptions underneath a glacier (so it never explicitly erupted.) The volcanoes that explicitly erupted may have a big crater inside it, given that the lava is thrown out by the eruption. The other kind of volcanos does not have a crater, since during its eruption, the lava would cool down immediately upon meeting the thick ice above. Only after eras would the glacier melt, revealing the volcano underneath. I had never really imagined that volcanoes and glaciers could co-exist; the nature is so miraculous that I am always caught in suprises like this, and this definitely won’t be the last one.

Snæfellsnes Peninsula ★★★★☆

The primary reason why I chose to go here was only because I could do a one-day trip to and from Reykjavik, and that I had seen wonderful pictures of this place. Now I’m actually regretting making it a one-day trip. I should have spent the whole day there, not just half a day and spent the other half on the road, so I could have gone on some actual hikes.

The volcano of Snæfellsjökull could be seen from a great distance. One hour drive from Reykjavik and I already got a full blast of it, and it took another two hours driving towards it for me to get to the visitor center. It took me quite a while to find the visitor center because the cellular network reception was awful on the peninsula. I had to drive out of the National Park to a nearby village, search for “Gestastofa Visitor Center,” and go back in again.

Given the time constraint, the best I could do was to drive to one place, get out of the car, walk a few minutes to take pictures, and get back into the car for the next. Still, the view took me by surprise. I knew it would be breathtaking anyways, but I was expecting some red and black rock underneath the snowy top, and it turned out colorful, rich and creamy. Pink and yellow flowers and bright green grass expanded beneath the mountain, livestocks wandered lazily on the grass, and occasionally flocks of puffins flew past me. It was incredible that this looked exactly the same as Tibet in my imagination. I felt totally in heaven.

At 7:30pm, I arrived at “Kirkjufell” where a scene from Game of Thrones had taken place, and made the iconic photo of Snæfellsnes Peninsula for its perfect composition. I was hoping to have my tripod with me - capturing the waterfall with slow shutter speed was so hard without it.

Budget

I exchanged $50 cash for about 7,000 Icelandic Kronas at the bank at the airport, and probably spent around 1,000 at the end of the trip, mainly for postcards. I actually got the feeling that credit cards were more widely accepted in Iceland than in the States…

Regardless of cash usage, this was no doubt the most expensive trip I had ever taken in terms of cost per day. Rough estimate in US dollars,

• Flight $930
• Accomodation $150
• Dining $60
• Car rental $230
• Gas $90
• Silfra Snorkeling $135
• Inside the Volcano: $350
• Secret Lagoon: $25

At this stage of my life, spending $2,000 in three days is kinda scary. I know it’s worth it, but I hope it doesn’t loosen my budget control for future trips😂