Iceland - the first of many

Whirlwind tour | 29 Jun 2005

We had a great time in Iceland but boy it's expensive. We went as cheap as possible and yet it cost us a bucket load.

We arrived in Reykjavik at some awful hour of the night (plane running a bit late) to find that our rental car company was not actually based at the airport. Finally found them, got the car and arrived at the hostel at 1am - hostel manager not too impressed at being dragged out of bed to let us in. Get up in the morning to find that the other hundred cars parked around ours had all moved - lesson number 1 never assume it's safe to park - big fat parking ticket all in Icelandic.

We did lots of driving while there - about 1400 kms in 4 days. We saw heaps but the weather was a bit hit and miss. First two days were a bit dull and wet which meant we couldn't see the glaciers and icecaps etc. It cleared for the last two days though which meant we could see way more.

The only incident on that trip was really funny for me and really unfunny for Si - poor Si. Si had spent half the week after Glastonbury scrubbing and rescrubbing his shoes (and his body for that matter) to get all the mud off them. We went to this huge glacier which the Lonely Planet warned had quick sand. As we walked down to the glacier I said to Si "can you remember where that quick sand was?" - he couldn't, but said "I'm sure it was down by the stream". Anyway, we went along the hills beside the glacier and then dropped down to it on the way back. Si happened to stand in a very soft patch, which he immediately lept from as the memories of quick sand came flooding back. He was very annoyed as his clean shoes were muddy again. I said "go rinse them in the stream" and then wandered off to climb up onto the glacier. By the time I turned to come back Si had sunk calf depth into the bottom of the stream, had managed to get out and now had mud to nearly his knees. Needless to say he was very unimpressed and I had to try and control my laughs.

Anyway, saw lots of lovely scenery in Iceland, puffins, a very huge raven and lots of volcanic stuff. Although we really enjoyed it I'm not sure we'd go back because of the cost.

Locations Visited: Reykjavik, Thingvellir, Geysir, Selfoss, Hveragerdi, Reykjavik, Borgarnes, Olafsvik, Borgarnes, Reykjavik, Hveragerdi, Eyrarbakki, Stokkseyri, Hella, Hvolsvollur, Reykjavik, Grindavik

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