Iceland

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.......

My life just hit fast forward.  In a very stressful way.  In the last couple of weeks, we bought a car, found our place to live, moved into it, I got a teaching job (what?!), orientations, benefit meetings, oh, and didimentionit'samiddleschoolandthatisnotmynorm?!?!

Yeah, so I'm stressed.  On top of that I've been feverishly finishing up my last graduate class so I can focus my energy on work.  BUT THAT'S ALMOST DONE!  WAHOO!

So, since I have a little down time at 10:40 at night, why not try to catch up the blog a little with a little jaunt to Iceland?  Lets go!

Day 1: Golden Circle

The first day, Paul and I woke up in Reykjavik and drove the Golden Circle.  What's the Golden Circle?  It is a circuit drive that all the tourists do because it has spectacular stuff on it.  Let me show you some spectacular stuff.

Rekjavik dock with duckies

A lookout with lots of tall prayer rocks

Thingvellir-First Parliament site in Iceland...and, more importantly, GAME OF THRONES FILMED HERE!

Then we went to Geysir (our word comes from Nordic folks).  It was as epic as it looks.

The bubble before the geyser explodes

At one point, the geyser blew up...and got us wet.  I smelled rotten the rest of the day.

Next, came Gulfoss, or one of the largest sets of waterfalls in Europe

We then went to an extinct volcano.  Iceland was created by volcanos, so there are tons of them everywhere.  We couldn't go near really active ones, but it's the idea I guess.

We then went back to Reykjavik and relaxed.  

Day 2: Driving out to Hofn

The next day, we started our drive out to the east coast of Iceland, to the city of Hofn.  We stopped and stayed at a village in between Reykjavik and Hofn.  There were some fantastic views out here.

We took a drive out to Hekla, because I wanted to see a volcano.  Unfortunately, the road was rocky, the landscape was flat and kinda boring, and there wasn't even any lava.  Lame.  But, the rocks were cool.

Lava rock.

Iceland is home to the beautiful, gorgeous, adorable Icelandic horse.  They are so protective of this breed that you cannot bring foreign breeds into Iceland and once a horse leaves, it can never return to Iceland.  

They are short and furry.  I.LOVE.THEM

OBVIOUSLY.

There were also loads of sheep.  Not nearly as exciting as the ponies.

And then we saw a waterfall!  Iceland has tons of varying landscapes and they are all equally lovely to behold.

Walking behind the waterfall

Lupine was everywhere!  It's a type of flower that is gorgeous and I wish they could bloom in Georgia...but they don't...and I have to accept that.  Not that I could actually grow it.  They would just die.  It's for the best.

Day 3: Going to Hofn

This was the second day to get to Hofn and it was even more beautiful than the last day.

More waterfalls

Hiked up to the top of the waterfalls to find....

More waterfalls!

Lovely beach

Then we hiked some more in new places.  That's a glacier in the back

Aren't those things cool?!

We went past an ice lake...which you will see later.  Take this as the teaser.

We finally made it to Hofn that night.  We went out to a restaurant, Pakhaus, which was delicious.  

                                  We ate their specialty, langoustines (lil lobastahs) and 

 the dessert was phenomenal.  It was made of a yogurt like substance called Skyr...with...

Pop rocks!!!  It was called Skyr Volcano and I could've cried it was so good.  Maybe not cry.  But I was emotionally invested in that experience.

 Day 4:
It was time to drive back to Reykjavik, so we took our time and went to the things we couldn't get to the day before.

That is one large glacier in the back

Here's the ice lake.  It's pretty cool (tee hee).

Paul was lacking ideas for posing.

I know.  You're speechless.  I know I was.

We went to a beach to find puffins, which we did not succeed in getting.  

But look at these guys!!

Horses.  'Cause why not.

We made it back to Reykjavik for what we thought was our last day in Iceland.  Turns out, the airport was having a strike the next day, so our flight was cancelled...so, we had a full extra day.  Sad that it took away from Germany, but either way, it was fine.  We then explored Reykjavik.

Art

We then went to the church.  What does it look similar to?

If you answered "those rock tower things", you are absolutely correct.  This church was fashioned after those rock tower things.

Day 6: 

This was supposed to be our last day where we just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves at the famous Blue Lagoon Spa.  Iceland has natural hot springs all over the place.  Their energy is primarily geothermal and whenever you turn on the water, it smells like sulfur a little before it fizzles out.  

But here's to the Blue Lagoon!  It was lovely and relaxing.  We even got facials.

Day 7:  Puffin Hunt

Yes, we took our extra day to hunt for puffins.  And we found a few!  On an island called Westman Island, we found our cute puffins.

The island itself is wonderful

'Cause I can't get enough.

We left Reykjavik the next day for Germany.  Although I loved how beautiful and rare Iceland was, I was ready for Germany.  Iceland was lovely, but very expensive, which is why we ate a lot of salami and cheese out of a bag.  We're pretty shifty travelers.   

It may be some time before I update on Germany, but just think of me and remember, Rachel is treading water right now.  Send the love, good wishes, and lots of gift certificates to massage parlors (a lady can dream).  

Hope you enjoyed!

Because I have an obsession.

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