Iceland According to Rachel

Iceland According to Rachel

As you have probably read in other blogs, we were in Iceland from July 24th to August 4th. For this part of our trip, we were joined by our cousin Ella. It was really fun to be around her and enjoy all the expiriences we had with another person. 

Reykjavik

We started our trip in Reykjavik, which is the capital of Iceland. A lot of our first day was spent trying to stay awake, but we met up with Ella here, which was awesome. For me, everything is more fun when I do it with other people, so her being here was a highlight in itself. 

Beautiful Reykjavik church

Rainbow road decorated for pride

Ella, Rachel and Ava in a park

My favorite part of Reykjavik was wondering around the streets of the city and looking at all the different sights, including the harbour, restraunts, and a rainbow street. 

Backpacking

After we left Reykavik, we took seperate buses to start our backpacking trips. For more information on Meggan and Ella's hike, you can see some of our other blogs, but Jason, Ava and I took a bus to Skogar, the start of the Fimmvorduhals trek. 

The first day, we didn't do any hiking, but we set up our tent and admired Skogafoss, the beautiful 60 meter waterfall that we could see and hear from outside the tent. We also camped right next to a field of cows, so we were entertained by other tourist's excitement, and the cows' unexcitement. 

The next day, we hiked about 15km to our hut for the night. It was beautiful pretty much the whole way. Ava counted 31 waterfalls, but I think whether or not some were waterfalls is debatable. We got to our hut just before the bone-chilling rain-and-wind combo started, so lucky us. 

Getting started with beautiful waterfalls

A see-through sign

Lunch break

We made it!

Unfortunately, when we got up in the morning, we found ourselves faced with the problem of weather, as the freezing coldness had continued through the night. Unlike many other hikers, we decided to go for it, and we hiked for hours while the wind forze us and the rain drenched everything in our packs. I think it took about five minutes for my hands to go numb.  In Porsmark, our packs completely soaked, we met up with Meggan and Ella again. 

We are only smiling for the pictures- we're soaked and freezing

Made it to Porsmark!

Trying to try our stuff

Playing cards with friends in Porsmark

We spent the next day and a half in Porsmark, trying to dry off our stuff and going on day hikes, until we left and headed back to Reykavik on a bus. 

My favorite part was meeting everyone in our hut on our first night. It was amazing to meet so many different people from different cultures and countries. 

Campervanning (Is that a word?)

As you may know (or not, that's fine), we rented a camper van and drove around the WestFjords, the northwestern part of Iceland. Reykavik wasn't a big city, but it felt like seemed like New York City compared to the WestFjords. Some of my favorite things included: 

-Icelandic ice cream, which is way creamier then ice cream at home

-Sitting in the front seat, which was both satisfying and provided much better views of the road

-Puffins. They are SO CUTE. I now have a new favorite bird.

-Nutella. Our van came with nutella, and I have now discovered its awesomeness!

-The Arctic Fox museum, where we learned about Arctic Foxes and SAW ONE IN THE BACK. Like puffins, Arctic Foxes are very cute. 

-Calling out "Foss!" Whenever we saw a waterfall. Foss is Icelandic for waterfall.

-Sheep were a regular road block. There were many sheep that wouldn't move until we were two meters away, then would tear away (as fast as a sheep can, anyway) off the road, terrified.

-The way that the landscape in Iceland can be rocky cliffs and mountains, stretching grass fields, and oceans, all within 100 square metters

-Hot pots, which are like hot tubs, but naturally formed

-Air trampolines, which are rainbow-colored trampolines in the ground

Pre-Blue Lagoon

On the evening of August 3rd, we went to an amazing hot spring called the Blue Lagoon (more on that in a second). But before that, we parked our campervan at a hotel we were staying at and spent the afternoon there. Here comes the exciting part: There was a pool table! And a ping pong table! For those of you who are unaware, I love pool. SO. MUCH. Ping pong is also really fun, but pool is better than pretty much every other game put together. So yeah, we played pool. Yay!

Blue Lagoon

This is a VERY famous Icelandic expierience, so if you have ever looked into coming to Iceland (or have), then you are probably thinking, The Blue Lagoon? No way! If you haven't, let me tell you: It was amazing. Probably my favorite part of Iceland, and that's not only because of the smoothies. There was a cave with a fire blazing, a drink bar, and a place to get masks (not face masks). I went to all these things without leaving the beautiful, milky-blue, relaxing, hot water. We swam/walked up to the bar, got a smoothie, and kept walking. It was amazing.

Recap

Iceland? Five stars.