Iceland – Land of LIES (Day 1)

D.Rough and I got super cheap tickets to Iceland. I won’t got into the details of this, since this is already going to be a long post, but suffice it to say, we got a great deal on flights. We took a 6-hour overnight flight from Chicago, and arrived at 6am Iceland time. We had done a ton of research before this trip, so we really felt prepared for anything. We got great advice from Jennie at Life with a View, as well as ExpertVagabond and TheBlondeAbroad.

The customs agent asked where we were staying and looked concerned when we told him our first night’s lodging plan, east of Vik. The agent told us to leave immediately for Vik and don’t delay if we wanted to make it at all. We told him, “We’re from Minnesota, we’ll be fine. It’s like Southern Canada.” That being said, the entirety of our time spent in the customs area was less than 2 minutes.

We popped into the Duty Free store, at the suggestion of everyone we talked to that had been to Iceland. Iceland is terribly expensive, especially when it comes to alcohol, so you’re encouraged to buy all your booze for your trip at the Duty Free shop, where it’s a pretty “normal” cost. Once you are outside of the airport, expect to pay up to three times as much for the same items – literally.

We shuttle-bussed over to the rental car place to pick up our car. A 4-wheel drive car, again at the suggestion of everyone who’s ever been to Iceland in the winter. It turned out to be a great idea. The rental car agent went through a long list of rules and suggestions for driving in Iceland. We kept telling her, “These are rules for people from Florida. We’re from Minnesota. We’re used to this weather.” She kept on with the rules which included holding the door securely when you get out of the car, since door dings are not covered by insurance. Nor is it covered when the wind rips the door off its hinges or flattens it the wrong way against the front of the car. Hmmmm. If you park near a beach, the wind has the potential to sandblast the paint off your car – also not covered by insurance. Hmmmmm.  Most of the mountain roads are closed from October through April, but there are dangerous mountain passes between cities. Hmmmmmm. Again, “We’re from Minnesota. We’ll be fine.”  She asked where we were driving to and we told her East of Vik. She told us to leave immediately and not to stop before we egt there. She strongly encouraged us to check two websites before we drive anywhere, both of which are updated regularly: The road conditions map and the weather/wind map. Got it, lady.

We hopped in our Fiat Panda (the most aggressive of the bears) 4x4, with metal studded tires for traction. GPS was working on my phone, so we were good. We headed east!

Here was our plan: drive to the famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa and take some outside photos (our booking later that week was in the evening, so we wanted to see it in the day light and get some photos). Then we’d head south and drive along the southern coast, stopping at a few waterfalls, grabbing lunch, then find our hotel near Kalfafell and grab dinner somewhere. It was supposed to be about a four hour drive.

We drove to Blue Lagoon and got some great photos. It’s close to the airport, so it was an easy drive, although a bit windy. When we first got there, D.Rough said “Hodor” when I turned the car off. If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, you’ll know that this roughly translates to “hold the door”. From that point forward, whenever we’d stop the car, one of us would say “Hodor” to remind us to hold the doors against the wind. It was actually great advice and saved us a few times.  We slid all over the ice-covered path on the walking path around the lagoon, since we didn’t put on our crampons (ice spikes for your shoes) – apparently, we were going to need them. 

We ran inside to use the restroom and I snapped a photo of the actual Lagoon from the snack shop window. It looked pretty amazing. We took some photos in the brutal wind near the Lagoon and hurriedly got back in the car to warm up. 

We left and headed towards Grindavik, the next closest town to the Blue Lagoon, where we were going to make the turn east along the coast.

I made it about 2 miles down the road when we drove into a blizzard. One second it’s windy and sunny out and the next second, I can barely see the front of the car and the road has 8 inches of snow on it and the wind was trying to blow us off the road. I was literally keeping the car between the yellow posts on either side of the road and having trouble doing that. I started to freak out. If the rest of the southern drive was like this, we weren’t going to make it. I turned around the first driveway I saw and headed back. I figured we’d stay on the main highway – Highway 1, also known as the Ring Road that goes all the way around the island – where it was more busy and well-traveled. I was glad I did.

The Ring Road doesn’t quite go all the way to Reykjavik before you turn east. The wind was pretty brutal and blowing us a little in our lane. Once you make the turn East, you head through a mountain pass to get to the next city – Hveragerdi. This road was insane. The minute we started to gain elevation, the wind picked up and so did the snow. The road was completely covered and all you could see were the cars in front of you and the yellow posts on the edge of the road. There were cars spinning off the road and driving over the guardrail posts in the median of the highway because they’re out of control. We never saw cars hit each other, thankfully, but you could see them sliding off the road, or over the center line all over the place. Not once or twice, but maybe 20 times on that 20 mile stretch to Hveragerdi. I was driving about 20 mph on the highway during this whole stretch. White knuckle the whole time. Remember this mountain pass for future posts...

We continued on without stopping towards Vik (one of Iceland’s bigger and well known cities. The driving conditions were not great. In fact, they were awful. Wind, snow, sleet, and icy roads – mainly driving between 25 and 50 kph (15-30 mph). Thankfully, most of that wasn’t through the mountains. Before we got anywhere near Vik, we drove by Seljalandsfoss – one of the iconic 200-foot high waterfalls you see in all the Icelandic tourism photos. You could see it from the road, and I knew I needed to stop so I could take a break from white-knuckle driving and snap some photos of the waterfall. It’s absolutely beautiful. 

It’s also super slippery ice all around the falls, though, since the waterfall mist turns to ice. Those crampons I mentioned earlier are totally recommended. The additional walkways up to and behind the waterfall are closed in the winter due to insane amounts of ice and snow covering them and making them deadly. 

I was able to calm down a bit and get my head in a good place, but I wasn’t looking forward to getting back behind the wheel.

We went to try to find the geothermal pool at Seljavallalaug, 12 miles up the road. This is another one that shows up in a lot of Iceland photos. When you  get to the parking lot, you have to hike a ways to get there (like a LONG way into the foothills – especially in the 30-40 mph wind and snow), but the conditions were so bad, we turned around before we even got to the actual pool. It’s a good thing we did. Time was running out, and we were talking WAY too long. We were in danger of not making it to our hotel before dark – if at all. The road coming into Vik was incredibly slippery and dangerous, so we drove right through Vik and didn’t stop – we could hit it tomorrow. It was a challenge to keep the car on the road.

The next part of the drive was on a sheet of ice. Miles and miles of ice. I didn’t see pavement for what seemed like hours. I drove more than two hours under 50 kph, just to keep the car on the road. Metal studded tires only do so much for traction when there’s ice and slush and the wind is trying to blow you off the road.

We made it to our hotel just outside of Kalfafell, thankfully. I was in tears from the drive. I wanted to throw up. Our 4 hour drive had turned into ten hours. I was a wreck. We got checked into our room – the people at the Fosshotel Nupar were so incredibly nice and helpful.

We snapped a few photos in the dying light – everything was covered in six inches of beautiful snow. But, I was ready to call a helicopter to fly us out of there – I’m not kidding. I wasn’t driving any more that day. However, a helicopter in those winds would have been even more deadly, if that’s even possible. I was NOT going to drive to a restaurant for dinner since the nearest restaurant was at least 30 minutes back the way we came – on a sheet of ice. At that point, I was willing to pay whatever the price was for dinner at the hotel. In fact, it was time to open the bottles we had brought from the airport – my nerves were shot.

The food at the Kvika Restaurant in the hotel was fantastic, though, and not just because we had survived the drive. It was actually very delicious. I got the Thai Tagliatelle, and D.Rough got the Pan Fried Arctic Char. The menu is extremely limited, but the foods that are on the menu are awesome. We drank a few more drinks and cashed out early. I had terrible driving dreams that night but appeared to sleep through the night. My apologies to my wife for all the snoring and sleep-screaming I did that night. She was an absolute trooper and tried super hard to break me out of my sour mood. 

I was beginning to realize that the Icelandic tourism Bureau only shows the beautiful parts of Iceland. Not the you're-going-to-die parts of Iceland. 

Go to Day 2