Iceland || Day 3 - Pt. 1

Our 3rd day in Iceland, we enjoyed breakfast at our hotel and then walked out to explore beautiful Skogafoss.

^ The view from the cafe in the hotel. We could see part of the waterfall as we were eating.

Then we walked outside to explore the waterfall. It still shocks me that these magnificent sites had so few tourists. We were the only people at the waterfall for the first part of the morning.

There are stairs that you can climb to the top of the waterfall. The view was incredible!

Skogafoss definitely makes the list for one of the best waterfalls in Iceland. It's so powerful and the pictures don't do it any justice.

^ This photographer had his camera set up on a tripod and then walked a few feet away right when a big wind gust came. His camera went falling down on the rocks and my photographer heart wanted to cry for him. I'm not sure how his lens was but I don't see how it could have gone undamaged. Yikes.

^The view from our room window.

After exploring around we went back to our room to pack up our stuff and check out. Then we hit the road again to head to Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach. This beach is famous for the beautiful basalt columns. We had some fun climbing along them. 

And of course Kenneth had to one up me and climb up way higher haha.

^ When I was researching about this beach, I read tons of warnings about how dangerous this beach is. Many people have died here because of the dangerous waves that crash on shore. It was extremely calm when we were here, but you never know about those "deadly sneaker waves". This warning sign made me laugh haha.

^Legend has it that these large columns in the ocean were once trolls trying to pull ships from the ocean. But when dawn arose, the trolls turned into solid stone. 

^ Halsanefshellir Cave

After we explored around, we hit the road again to head to our next stop. We drove through these cool lava fields on the way so we pulled over. They're covered with moss and it goes on for miles. It's considered really disrespectful to step on the moss because it kills it. From what I remember, it takes years for the moss to grow back, so don't step on it.  Apparently Justin Beiber got in some trouble for stepping on the moss while filming a music video. 

Everything in Iceland was more brown because it was winter time. If you go in the summer, it'll be way more lush and green. 

The wind was so strong when we were here! I thought the car door was going to fly off haha (but seriously).

We continued on to Fjadrargljufur (try pronouncing that lol) but I'll continue this day in another post because there are so many pictures!

Day 3 - Part 2

xo, Lo

Iceland || Day 2 - Pt. 2

After the hot spring, we headed out to explore the Solheimasandur Plane Wreck. Kenneth & I laugh thinking about this hike because it was the hardest hike of our entire trip (and also the easiest). 

I thought it would be difficult to find and managed to find some random directions from pinterest. But it's become so popular, now they have a huge parking area off the side of the road, you can't miss it. Plus I think all the tour buses would be a giveaway. 

We joke about how tough this hike was because it's completely flat. But you're walking in sand/gravel the entire time and I think most of you can agree that walking in sand, with shoes, is the worst. It's along the beach so the wind is blowing constantly and it was cold. And to top it off, you're staring at nothing for an hour. It's just black sand and you keep thinking that you are close and yet it just continues forever. Writing it down, I know it sounds pathetic, but this was definitely our least favorite hike and it felt like it took forever. 

But arriving at the plane wreck made it worth it. It was definitely cool to see! But next time we visit Iceland, we'll skip this one haha. 

There were a good amount of tourists here, but it wasn't unmanageable. But compared to everything else we did, it felt pretty crowded (which isn't our thing). 

Kenneth decided he wanted to climb on top, which wasn't very easy to do. But he ignited a light to the other tourists and before we knew it, tons of people were trying to climb up... and failing haha. It was pretty funny to watch. 

Apparently this plane crash happened in 1973. It was a United States Navy DC plane that ran out of fuel and crashed on the beach. Luckily, everyone survived! 

After the plane wreck, we headed to Dyrholaey Arch. I loved the beautiful views from the cliffs where you can see the black sand beaches. 

^ I love these pictures of Kenneth. There's a few more of him laughing and they give me the biggest smile. I have no clue what he was laughing about but I love it. 

You know we wanted to climb on top of the arch but you're not allowed.

^ Is that not the cutest little light house ever?

^ Every view in Iceland is breathtaking! Those little cliffs in the ocean are part of the famous Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach which we visited the next day.

Next we headed to my favorite waterfall from the trip! Kvernufoss is incredible! In all my research, this waterfall never came up! I did some digging to find it and I'm so glad I did. I think it's on private property because we had to cross over a fence to get here. That's probably why it's less known and I hope it stays that way because that's what made it so magical. When we parked our car, there was another car leaving, which meant we had the entire place to ourselves. 

Hiking back in the canyon was so beautiful. There's a special feeling of peace as you hike in this country. It's something I really miss about Iceland. 

I'll never forget the moment when we walked around the corner to see this breathtaking view. 

Words really can't describe this waterfall. Simply amazing!!

I also loved that you can walk behind the waterfall.

It was hard to leave this spot. We both loved it so much. 

^ As we were hiking back, we saw these cave looking things that we decided to explore. We were about halfway up the mountain when we saw these bones?! What the heck? We both started questioning what animals/predators lived in Iceland because we really had no clue haha! We got creeped out that some animal was living in those caves and decided to head back down the mountain haha. We laugh about it because when we got back to our hotel, we asked the receptionist and she said that Iceland has zero predators haha. She said every 10 years a polar bear will swim over from Greenland but that it get's shot immediately (sad). So we have no clue what those bones were from. 

We drove back to our hotel, which is right next to Skogafoss and decided to take a few pictures by the waterfall before we headed in for dinner and bed. 

Staying in that hotel, right next to the waterfall, was one of our best decisions. It was incredible to be next to this majestic waterfall!

We crashed pretty quickly after arriving in our room. We were exhausted but in the best way possible! I still think day 2 was my favorite day from the trip!

Day 3 - Part 1

xo, Lo