On the Road

Well, we don´t have much time on the computer but I have a ton to share! First off, we left Reykjavik on Wednesday, and had a wonderful day travelling around and seeing some of the sites. We visited all of Southern Iceland, seeing some beautiful landmarks like þingvellir (our new favourite word), the place where tectonic plates meet on land and the earth is being ripped apart. We also saw the original Geiser, Gullfoss (an amazing waterfall) and saw another waterfall that we were able to walk all the way around and go behind. After that, we drove past the volcano that had recently erupted this spring/summer in Iceland. I can´t wait to post the photos. That night I began to feel stomach pains, and unfortunately I was hit with the same food poisoning that had attacked Adam. It was not pretty, and we were stuck in a small hotel room in a town called Vik.

In the morning I was still feeling awful, but at least I had stopped needing to be in a bathroom (tmi, sorry). We walked down to this really cool beach with black volcanic sand. It was amazing! We also saw these rock formations that are supposedly trolls that were coming out of the water and were caught in daylight and turned into stone. We kept going and stopped at Jokur... (sp?) and saw Icebergs! Volcanic sand and Icebergs in one day! Then we kept driving and saw more waterfalls, stopped at a place for a quick hike (I was still sick) and kept driving to Hofn. We pulled into the hotel very early because I was feeling queasy again, and I went to bed at about 6 pm. Adam decided to go for a walk, and he had a really nice time walking around the small fishing community. He found a really neat hill with a cliff to sit on.

This morning when I woke up I was feeling much, much better. We set out early, at about 8 am, and drove to make up time as we had already lost one day in Reykjavik because of Adam being sick, and 1 morning and 1 evening from me being sick. We drove through some mountains, and it was absolutely beautiful. Everything was so green and mossy and little fluffy sheep peppered the countryside. We drove for awhile, stopping a couple of times, and we stopped in this beautiful little town for lunch. There were a whole bunch of kids wearing garbage bags and face paint, and I asked a guy at the gas station what was going on. Apparently they were celebrating freshie week! We kept driving and drove about an hour through a dessert in mid-northern Iceland. We arrived at Myatvn this afternoon and saw giant geothermal vents where the hot gases from the earth burst out. It was really cool looking, very prehistoric, and there was bubbling hot mud and red sand and gas shooting out everywhere! We also went into the so-called Green Lagoon--a geothermal hot spring that is similar to the Blue Lagoon but smaller and less touristy. It was so relaxing and we had a wonderful time. We just went for fish and chips at a little bistro in the town, and we´ve decided we´re going to sleep in our car tonight to save some cash. That extra night in Reykjavik didn´t come cheap as the hotel we were staying in was all out of the 'budget' rooms and we had to go first class. So, tonight we have a tiny orange car, a bunch of clothing (no blankets), a bottle of wine and a jug of vodka and we´re going to cozy up and sleep like hobos in Northern Iceland. Wish us luck!