11 - Two day Roadtrip (day 2)

Dear readers,

As the first stop of our trip was only 200 meters from our hostel, we decided to wake up a bit later, as the sun comes up pretty late and if we would wake up early we would hardly see anything anyway. We set our alarm clocks to wake up around 9 o'clock so we would leave the house at around sunrise (which was at 10:24). It does get a little bit lighter before the sun actually rises of course. After having our breakfast (instant coffee and cake), we left the hostel and went to the town's church, which is called 'Vik i Myrdal'. It was a pretty little church, with unusual painting. The church itself is white and the roof is red. Also, it is on top of a hill which gives you a great view of the town. As the sun was just starting to rise, the sky was turning a beautiful pinkish colour, which made it all a lot more magical.

After looking at the church (sadly, we couldn't check it out from the

inside as it was closed), we drove to Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach in Vík. I had already been here before but the weather was much better this time so we got to walk all the way along the beach. This revealed some amazing basalt rock formations which are very typical here in Iceland. After checking out the beach we drove a bit further to Dyrhólaey. Dyrhólaey’s most instantly recognisable attraction is the promenade’s massive rock arch, a result of centuries of erosion. In fact, this natural feature is so large and dramatic that one daredevil pilot even flew through it, back in 1993. Boats can also easily cruise through its opening. At this time the sun was still shining very brightly,

making the view even better. We took some great pics and then decided to walk to the lighthouse (1.5 km).

The walk was nice, icy and windy. We really enjoyed it! It's nice to get some movement instead of just driving to places and stopping to have a look. We got a great view from the black sand beach coastline at the lighthouse.

We were all starting to get hungry for some lunch so we walked back to the car to get our pack lunches. It was too cold to eat outside so we had a cozy lunch inside of the car. After finishing our lunches the boys dropped us (Emilie and me) of at a natural pool called 'Seljavallalaug'. We didn't want to join them for the walk to the DC3 Plane Wreck, as we had already done that and it takes about 2 hours in total to get there and back.

There wasn't really a path to the pool, so we figured to just follow the footsteps in the snow. The path we were following didn't have that many footsteps, so we where already wondering if we where walking the right way but anyway, we carried on walking. Soon we realised that this was indeed not the main route. We ended up having to jump across an Ice cold river and I threw my backpack in the water by accident (oops).
Finally, we arrived at the pool. We really enjoyed ourselves there although it wasn't as hot as the usual pools in Iceland. Interesting fact: this pool is the oldest pool in Iceland. I could tell that it need some renovation and painting but besides that it was a great place to take a dip. Emilie quit swimming pretty quick as she thought it was way too cold...
After a while one of my couchsurfing friends named Matt joined us. We chilled together in the pool for a while, and after that we walked back to the car to meet the boys. They also wanted to go swimming

so we had to walk back to it again haha. (This time we took the right route ;)). It was already starting to get dark so we decided to drive back to Reykjavík. We made one stop at the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, which is one of the main waterfalls which you can see from the road. It is kind of touristy, as it even has a gift shop. I prefer the more abandoned waterfalls, but still, it was gorgeous. During the summer times you can walk behind this waterfall. But, as it was freezing while we were there, the path to the back of the waterfall was closed for our safety. Good reason to come back! ;).

We still had a 2 hour drive ahead of us back to Reykjavík. Of course, I fell asleep in the back of the car (as usual).

I am very grateful for meeting these amazing people (Parker, Guillaume, Antoine and Emilie) and the weekend was just truly amazing. I am hoping we will get to explore some more of Iceland

together!

Love, Camille