another cliché
travel blog

Got up around 11:30 (after initially waking up at 6:30 to talk with Amy for an hour or so), then spent the day exploring the city.

We bummed around for a while, saw some pretty great graffiti, then went grocery shopping to prep for the hike the next day.

We then had a great roughly traditional dinner at Pingvenen, all locally sources food and many local beers (plus Sierra Nevada, because why not).

Post dinner, we got a bit more food for tomorrow, then headed back home for the night.

Got into Bergen around 5pm, checked into our Airbnb, then walked along the water. Got a great salad, burger and beers at Una, then walked around a bit more. Called it a night somewhat early.

This city feels awesome! Kinda like fisherman’s Wharf crossed with the mission, but not grungy and with a bit of 500 year old character. The streets are paved in cobblestones and narrow down to footpaths between houses. There’s green spaces and trees everywhere. Bright colors on houses. It’s fantastic.

Bummed around all day. I didn’t get up till almost noon, so by two I made it out of the house. Walked around, got coffee, caught up on this, did some shopping.

For dinner, we went to Public House, which I highly recommend. It was a nice mix of British, Japanese, Chinese, and Icelandic, and included things like pork belly steam buns, chicken kara’age, and smoked puffin. Pretty great. Post dinner we took a long walk home and packed.

Woke up to a roasting room, eastern exposure, large windows, and a nice sunny day combined to make for a warm room. We bummed around the hostel for a bit, packed up, had coffee at an interesting little coffee shop, then hit the road.

We got in to Reykjavik around noon, checked out the church, then met up with Brandon, John, and Dylan.

Drove along fjords all day. We got to Stykkishólmur, decided that yep, it was definitely a coastal town, and then decided to head somewhere with a bit more character.

So, after dinner, we headed south, maybe to reach Reykjavik by sundown, maybe not.

We ended up in Borgarnes, a small town, and watched the sunset. We talked with Al, a nice guy who ran the desk at the hostel, and found out he was from Palestine.

Lots of driving today. Got DRENCHED by Dynjandi, a massive waterfall that we got closer than is probably safe to get into.

Camped in a podunk little town with one restaurant that closes at 8. We had PB&J for dinner. Not a highlight of the trip, but a very pretty fjord.

Drove through Akureryi, stopped in at Saudarkroksbakari in Sauðárkrókur for a cup of cofffee and a pastry, and then ended up in Hvammstangi. Just spent the day driving, mostly.

Had dinner at a pretty trendy place with only five tables filled. Small town on a wednesday night.

Stayed at an unremarkable hotel.

Got up around 7 hiked a little bit, then got on the road to Egilsstadur. Swung south west to go to some falls, then booked it to Lake Myvatn in Reykjahlid.

Stopped at the Myvatn mud pots before we got to Myvatn (Or even knew we were close). As could be predicted, looked kinda like hell on earth.

Got dinner at Vogafjost, met a group of seven canadians, had some laughs. After dinner we went out to Krafla to check out a crater lake. We weren’t sure if it was just a lake or hot spring fed, but we had our suits just in case.

Got back to the tent, stayed up for a bit reading and talking with Amy, took a picture of the land (super bright out), then passed out.

At 4am, we woke up, shaved and showered, and hit the road.

The drive was beautiful!

Around 5:30, we pulled over to check this out:

We ended up climbing as far up the slope as possible, about here:

Maybe 1000 feet up? 500? hell, I don’t know

Unexpectedly, we came upon the Glacier Lagoon. The loader was working to restrict the opening to the lagoon.

After, we finished the drive to Hofn, got lunch at Kaffi Hornid, I got the burger (eh), Ash got the Red Fish (looked good), had a coffee, and got back on the ring road. Pretty soon after, we both started to flag, so we started looking for a likely camp spots for the night. Maybe 15 minutes later we came upon this place:

Not bad, eh?

We set up the tent and started exploring.

After landing, I spent a couple minutes getting my bearings at the airport. Honestly, it feels a lot like any other American airport, just with better signage.

I tried to get a snack, but the shop required a boarding pass and was for departing passengers only. Tax reasons?

I met up with Ash in baggage claim and we picked up our car. We stopped in town and got coffee while we waited for the breakfast place to open up. I was almost passing out after having been awake for basically 48 hours straight. At ten, we headed over to The Laundromat Cafe and had an fantastic breakfast! We split the basic veggie (two eggs OE, toast, and roasted tomatoes) and blue berry and caramelized banana pancakes. The bananas and tomatoes were so flavorful that I overcame my aversion to both and scarfed them down. They were that amazing!

Sated, we picked up road trip supplies from the grocery store across the street and got outta town. Almost immediately, I passed out cold. Getting in the car and closing my eyes felt glorious. Sometime later I woke up to this:

We spent the afternoon playing on them.

After, we drove another two hours to Vík and got the last available room in the entire town. Both Ash and I were passed out by 6pm.