I love the blackness of the basalt sand. Above you can see a couple of basalt rock fingers/stacks in the distance, which are leftovers from a sea-battered cliffline that was once there.

The sea was rough and the waves were strong. We all stood watching it for a long time.. sort of absorbing its energy and marvelling its power. I imagined what it would be like swimming there. Or surfing there. I couldn’t decide what would kill me first – drowning or hypothermia.

^Here’s a video I took so you can get more of a feel!

The waves would bash the shore so hard that there would be such a huuuuge area of foam each time.

Sometimes, we would be so engrossed in our awe that we don’t realise the foam creeping up to TOUCH us. We’d suddenly realise and run away screaming.. it was so much FUN! It’s like playing catch with the sea. It’s a game I regularly enjoy at the beach, but I have to say, this one in Vík was my fastest and most exciting opponent yet.

DINNER AT HOTEL PUFFIN/HOTEL LUNDI

Following tips on TripAdvisor, we went to Hotel Puffin to eat. There wasn’t much choice in Vík really, especially since it was winter/off-peak season as well.

There are two main meats in Iceland – fish and lamb. By this time we were accustomed to most restaurant menus offering either one of these as a main. I think the menu is also more limited during winter season.

NOT that it bothered me – because Icelandic lamb is HEAVENLY. So soft, so tender, so juicy, so effing delicious!

^Dessert was apple crumble (pretty good). I also tried Lava Beer, a strong, pitch black beer with an alcohol content of over 9.4% (yesss). It had a rather chocolatey aroma. I liked it!

DAY 4 – DRIVING EAST

The next morning, we checked out of Volcano Hotel – which we LOVED – and started our journey to Jökulsárlón (the famous iceberg lagoon!) early. As we were passing Vík again, we stopped by to pick up supplies, like food… and an amazing wolf tail that I found at a souvenir shop, of course.

SOOOO this is what the place looks like in the daylight..

^This reminded me of Table Mountain in South Africa!

^Do you love the bits of ice on the ground? I did!

^Getting out photos.

The landscape was so vast and so empty. So strange and so overwhelming. So open and so exciting!

^Me with Zorro

^Iceland’s everchanging, ever-so-beautiful landscape.

^Jayna, the camera and photography enthusiast in our group.

She brought some fancy schmancy analog camera that opened up like a lunchbox. Or a jack-in-a-box. My eyes nearly popped out when she said it cost her £1000.

^Birds.. I thought this shot was rather National Georgraphic-esque? Don’t you think? Except that I took it with my iPhone and there probably needs to be more birds present..

^I LOVE THESE TWO PICS ABOVE

What kind of ALIEN landscape is that, right??  I was in a car on a road that was pretty much mine, staring at this STRANGE scene with the icy cold wind in my face. For a few short moments, I had left the planet and found another.

Laufskálavarða

One of Iceland’s oldest farms used to be here.. until it got disintegrated by the eruption of Katla (nearby volcano) in 894. That is, by the way, 1119 years ago..

*bimbo moment – sometimes I can’t quite grasp the fact that there were PEOPLE on this planet THAT long ago.. what more doing activities like FARMING. Didn’t they just live in caves and doodle on the walls?*

Laufskálavarða, the lava mound, was named after the farm. The tradition is that if you’re passing through for the first time, you add a stone to one of the bazillion stone cairns for good luck on your journey.

Honestly, they looked like piles of poo.

^I tried to ‘be one’ with Laufskálavarða.

^Erm..

^Here’s a video of us goofing around on an ice puddle 🙂

ICELANDIC HORSES

We passed by some of these curious horses loitering around the fence and stopped to say hello.

I patted a couple of them. But I don’t really understand Horse.. what more Icelandic Horse, so I wasn’t sure what they tried to say to me. We left them a bite of an apple. I’m not sure if they ate it in the end.

^Remnants/steel beams of a bridge that was DESTROYED by glacial floods caused by a volcanic eruption in 1996. Can you believe the bridge was demolished by a bunch of GIANT ICE BLOCKS?

Next up: Jökulsárlón Iceberg Lagoon.

Want more tips on how to make your trip to Iceland AWESOME? Check out TinyIceland! It’s one of my favourites.

The post Iceland Day 4 – Vík Black Sand Beach / Laufskálavarða / Driving East appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Also, the weather made a complete turnaround. Woke up to monotone grey out the window and lots of rain!

Our plan for the day was to drive the Golden Circle. The Golden Circle is one of Iceland’s most popular things to do – It’s basically a driving route that takes you through to three main attractions in southwest Iceland, namely Þingvellir National Park (pronounced ‘thing-vetlir’ – ll is said as tl), Geysir, and Gullfoss Waterfall.

Just LOOK at the landscape! Like big pillows of moss that you can bounce on.

This is me hard at play.

It was extremely overcast that day and so the photos turned out a little dull.. even though it was FAR from a dull day! I had so much fun it didn’t matter if it rained all day.

In fact, at one point as we were driving towards Þingvellir and wanted to stop to take photos/sightsee.. we had to turn the car JUST to accommodate the wind direction. Or we could only wind down the windows on one side of the car, because the wind was so SUPER STRONG that the rain was whizzing by completely sideways. Like tiny water bullets! I was pelted like mad (so fun!).

There was a lot of ice on the way.

Go figure! (crappy pic taken from moving car using iPhone)

Þingvellir National Park

OK – this section will no doubt be the lamest section of my Iceland posts because.. here’s what happened:

We arrived at the car park of the Þingvellir tourist information centre, picked up maps and everything. I don’t know what – maybe SHEER DETERMINATION – made us think that we could beat the rain + wind and take a walk around the park to see sightsee. EVEN THOUGH the visibility was so low!

Spent ages layering and gearing up. I put my phone in my nifty Aquapac case. Fleece on. Beanie on. Hood on, tightened, and zipped up fully. Laces re-tied. Waterproof gloves on.

Went out.. and got BLASTED by the freezing wind and rain! We lasted about 5 minutes before realising that our ‘nice walk to explore the national park’ was.. RATHER POINTLESS. So we ran back into the car and left.

This was one of the only pics taken during the ‘walk’ (via iPhone in Aquapac case) – the shittiness of the weather was not captured..

Oh and there was this too – from the shop in the info centre. Imagine! Doing yoga in a glacier lagoon. Is that really relaxing?? HMMM I’m uncertain.

Anyhow, I’m not too bummed that I ‘missed out’ on this part of the trip. I think this national park is probably best seen in the summer anyway. 😉

Geysir

Ok, first of all, Geysir is a geyser which forms part of the Haukadalur geothermal area. It’s not the only geyser present in this area, and it’s also known as ‘The Great Geysir’ or Stori-Geysir. However, Geysir eruptions are very infrequent and sometimes you may even wait YEARS for the next one. In Haukadalur there are also the Litli Geysir and Strokkur geysers.

Strokkur is located just 50m south of Geysir.

I MUST take a moment to mention the amazingly delectable LAMB SOUP that was served in the tourist centre across the road! I’ve never had such tasty lamb soup in my life… I think I might have gone to heaven as I ate.

We were in the cafeteria to wait out the rain before going out to explore. The great thing about winter season is that there weren’t many people around and the atmosphere was rather relaxing. Can you imagine if the whole place was inundated with tour buses and a bazillion people, and you had to queue up to buy food, pay for souvenirs, use the toilet, etc?? Hehe

This is Strokkur geyser.

The ground was just steaming everywhere.. I call them Earth farts. Yeah they smell too (sulphur).

Me with my trusty Aquapac. Half of the photos in this post were taken using it.

Some people had their tripods set up around the geyser. Everyone stood in a circle around it, watching and waiting.

This was a RELIABLE geyser! We saw it spurt out hot water like a water volcano a number of times.

Unfortunately, I underestimated the size of the eruptions and stood too near the hole each time to get a better photo..  (also, I was maybe a bit over-excited and wanted to go as close as possible).

The novelty of an erupting geyser wears off pretty quick. For me, anyway, especially since I’d seen them in New Zealand before (last year).

Then the most happy thing happened – there was a break in the clouds, the sun shone through, and a huge RAINBOW appeared!

As the sun began to go down, the ice on the ground began glistening brightly. It was so beautiful!

Super-charged with new sunshine + rainbow ENERGY, we took jumped around and took some fun photos (it’s become a recurring theme on all my holidays now).

Gullfoss

Gullfoss waterfall is arguably Iceland’s most popular waterfalls. It’s located in the canyon of Hvítá river and it is.. rather huge and incredible-looking.

We didn’t stop for too long here.. I mean. You see the waterfall, you take some pics.. what.. else.. right? Plus it was freeezing :p

Stay tuned for the nextttt post.. where we meet some Greenlandic sled dogs!

The post Iceland Day 2 – The Golden Circle appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Our first task was to pick up our car. I booked us a Mitsubishi Pajero 4×4 – the only way to go in Iceland!

After doing some research on car rental companies, I decided to go with SADcars. The off-peak rate for our car was €666 (after a 15% discount if you pre-pay online) for the week, but this was before taking into account insurance, GPS, extra driver etc. It sounds expensive, but in fact this was the cheapest/best rate I found 😉

SADcars were super helpful! I’m SO glad I went with them. Signy, one of the founders (the ‘S’ in SAD) gave me lots of advice on driving in Iceland and tips on planning the itinerary. I looked forward to her emails each time, which always came with a smiley face 🙂 She helped us book one of our activities too (dog karting – next post). They also have a blog with lots of informative posts. – I loved this one about hunting the northern lights.

We were met by one of the SADcars staff – Oscar.. I think! – at Keflavik airport, who drove us to some remote place where all the vehicles were kept. The pics above were taken there.

As you can see, our first day in Iceland was BRIGHT and SUNNY (but bear in mind the temperature was about 3 – 5 degrees centigrade).

Next task – load up the diesel!

Orkan was supposedly the cheapest you could get (thanks again SADcars). We were told to avoid N1 too :p. We stopped by the supermarket attached to it – called BONÚS and has a pink cartoon pig as their logo – to stock up on food. Bought lots of WATER, chocolate milk (or kókó mjólk), bread, crisps, ham, fruit, etc to be kept in the trunk.

The Blue Lagoon

As The Blue Lagoon (Iceland’s most popular attraction/geothermal spa) is closer to Keflavik Airport than Reykjavik city, many people choose to make their visit as soon as they arrive or on the last day of their trip. We chose the former.

It was such a beautiful day and compared to what was in store the following week, I really only saw very little of it but I was already in AWE of the landscape! It was love at first sight as we drove to The Blue Lagoon. Did you know that the lagoon is clearly visible in any satellite imagery?

You could smell the delightful scent of sulphur AKA ROTTEN EGGS even at the parking lot.

Entry to the lagoon was €35 per person and includes use of a towel and locker. This rate is for October to December inclusive only – it gets more expensive during peak period/summer.

They’ve got a high tech system where the lockers are digitally operated using a plastic wristband, which you also use to purchase food and drink during your time there. You pay the bill on your wristband when you exit the spa 🙂

And OH it was soooo good peeling off all those layers. I already had my bathers on under my clothes from London – I was READY. The most challenging part was walking those few steps OUT of the changing area/locker rooms TO the water. I imagined running for it and doing a cannonball but thought against it for fear of slipping, breaking something and then RUINING the rest of my trip! OR.. I might have got kicked out of the place..

All pics from the lagoon were taken using my iPhone 5 plus waterproof/submersible case by Aquapac. They have the best cases – I’ve bought them for my parents and I also have one for my camera (Olympus PEN).

Linda being happy.

In this pic I was doing some sort of ‘happy spin’.

In certain areas they have buckets of silica mud that you can slap on. It’s supposed to deep cleanse and exfoliate your skin.

I saw it as an opportunity for some funny photos!

With Linda and Jason, who smacked on SO MUCH on his nose that it looked like an ugly, globbedy extension of his face. I copied him, hehe.

I laughed so much at the pic on the right because of how Jason’s serious face got caught in the nook of my elbow.. haha

Linda saw me standing there and wanted to join in. She’s looking for a place on the rocks where she can plant her feet and stand up too..

We then had the GREAT idea of playing this rather stupid game – of seeing WHO could stand with their body OUT of the water for the longest time. There were five of us.. and surprisingly.. I won -_-

And somehow, even though it was …. cold (refraining from swearing).. I was just so determined to prove to myself that I COULD, and once all the water had dried off my skin it actually felt kinda good! I felt energised! I felt… like.. a WINNER. HA haha!

The down side? Because of the drastic change in temperature, it felt like I dunked myself in scalding hot water when I went back in later.. owww.

Yes! You can buy Magnum ice cream from the lagoon bar! (sorry for the bad pic)

We found that certain areas were warmer than others and we would swim around looking for the ‘hot spots’, then stay there forever.

When it was time to exit the warrrmmm water (hours later), we all braced ourselves for the stinging cold air. After psyching myself up for a few minutes, I finally clambered up the steps, ran to the towel hooks (they’re all numbered so you know which one is yours).. only to find that some COW had taken MY towel. So I ran straight back into the pool and had to wait for someone to bring me a replacement towel.. *sheesh some people..*

After getting showered and dressed, we walked up to the roof through the dining hall to get a more aerial view of the lagoon.

You can buy silica mud, and all sorts of other skincare products from the blue lagoon shop.

One of the beauties of winter is that there are lonnnnggg sunsets.

I’m wearing a boys’ size 12 Billabong ski jacket. Glam, right?

My flutterpony came along, too! She’s tiny – not even as tall as my pinky.

Sægreiffin / Sea Baron Restaurant

With the help of TripAdvisor and a friend of mine who had been to Reykjavik recently, we drove down to the old harbour to try out the ever so popular and ‘world famous’ lobster bisque/lobster soup at Sæegreiffin Restaurant. It’s conveniently located just 5 minutes away from our accommodation for the night.

The question is – was it really THAT good?
The answer is YES. It was DEEEELISH.

I can’t remember the price of the soup in ISK, but I remember it being about the equivalent of £6-7. The soup’s apparently spiced with cloves and cinnamon, and made with a red peppery broth. If you’re Malaysian/asian.. it somehow kind of tastes like a mild/dilute curry laksa soup! But lobstery.

The menu at Sægreiffin is simple. Actually there’s no real menu. There’s a fridge – you simply pick the meat (seafood) you want, pay at the counter, and it gets grilled and served to you. From what I recall, each stick was between £5-10.

I had the halibut. The portions were pretty big and it went very well with the lobster soup.

The first night was spent in Reykjavik at a two-bedroom loft apartment I booked via Airbnb. The next morning, we set off on our big adventure.

The post Iceland Day 1 – The Blue Lagoon & Sægreiffin appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.