Alright! We’ve made it to Part 3! If you haven’t read all about the beginning of our trip you can find part 1 Here and part 2 Here. We ended our last blog on our drive through the fjords and chilling weather. Well the weather got much colder throughout the night and as we started our morning we were met with snow. We had a long drive ahead of us through the snow to visit the most powerful waterfall in Europe, Dettifoss.
Dettifoss
The falls are 100 metres (330 ft) wide and have a drop of 44 metres (144 ft) down to the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon. It is the largest waterfall in Icelandin terms of volume discharge, having an average water flow of 193 m³/s
I tried to get a better vantage point from climbing rocks because this waterfall was so massive. You can see the image of the other woman standing way to close for comfort on just how large the falls are. I kept my distance since it was windy, freezing cold and very easy to fall! We got stuck in this spot for a little while due to the lack of snow chains and tourists who kept getting stuck. We eventually got out and were on our way to our next location, the Hverir Geothermal area, which was incredibly smelly due to the sulfur! We didn’t stay there very long and were off to our next spot.
Our goal was to hit as many Game Of Thrones locations as possible during this trip, in case you weren’t aware, I am a HUGE Game of Thrones nerd! Follow me on Instagram and i’m sure you’ll be amused over my nerdy tendencies. Anywho while in this are on our way to Akureyri, we found Jon Snow and Ygritte’s cave!
Stunning, yet deadly. The caution signs to not touch or get in the water were everywhere BUT we still climbed in for this shot! Next we went to Godafoss before settling in for the night on the northside of the island. We were really hoping to be able to see the Northern Lights as the north side is typically the darkest but it was a cloudy evening and we didn’t luck out.
After our night in Akureyri we began our decent back to Reykjavik and stopped at the Black Church, Kirkjufell mountain and some black sand beaches.
We found the same waterfall the Arya was training at with the Hound before Brienne and Podgrick found them. It was probably my favorite waterfall we discovered!
After this we drove for quite sometime before heading back in to Reykjavik. Our next day we explored the city, discovered a viking ship (architecturally speaking), fell in love with their concert hall! I mean, it’s stunning! We had lunch and then discovered some amazing street art.
The next day we got our photo’s taken by a local Photographer Kaja! We spent the majority of the day with her and had the most amazing time! Despite it being incredibly cold and really windy we were able to get some really great photos from our session! Visit my Instagram to see some of those images! The next day we were back to adventure time! As an Anniversary gift I bought tickets for us to go inside of a volcano, yes you read that right! He really wanted to see the inside of this volcano and me being the adventurer I thought why not?? This volcano was taller than the statue of liberty and was originally discovered by brothers who went all the way down below on a rope! An added bonus for me was to see a Red Arctic Fox near the volcano site!
Our next day would be spent driving the golden circle and somewhat relaxing.
This last image is also from Game Of Thrones! It’s the same road the Wildlings were walking on with Jon after they had breached the climb over the wall.
On our last day we drove fairly early in the morning to Vík to see the plane crash. Ryan was obsessed with visiting the plane wreck.
On our way back we found the strangest and funniest thing in Iceland! A Fence of women’s underwear and bras! We searched the story behind it and it turns out that the land owner hung her own bra from the fence and then shortly after more and more women started hanging their bras so it just became it’s own tradition.
Our last night on the Island we had reservations to go to the Blue Lagoon. Originally I had wanted to go during the day to see it in the sunlight but they were booked, and I am so thankful they were! While eating out one night we met fellow travelers who were simply the best humans to meet during our travels! It turns out that they had the same reservation time as us for the Blue Lagoon! We didn’t take any photos at the lagoon as this was meant to be a relaxing time so hopefully I can help paint a picture for you.
The lagoon is comprised of a natural geothermal hot spring and the water is in fact blue. There are tons of people in the pools and although you are able to drink in the pool and wear mud masks there is still a clean feeling to the warm water. The location itself is huge and offers a ton of other amenities. Thankfully on the night that we went and met up with our friends the night sky was clear and we could easily see the stars. While chatting in the water we met two of the employees who worked for the blue lagoon (Both were gorgeous) and throughout our talks we were asking about the northern lights. I had already determined in my head that we wouldn’t be seeing them this trip and would have to make another trip (darn lol). Somehow in the midst of warm water, crisp cold air, great people the lights at the blue lagoon went black. The locals yelled Icelandic to each other and our Blue Lagoon friend pointed to the sky and like magic, Green appeared from thin air and started dancing in the sky. This was probably one of the most incredible moments I have ever experienced and I will never forget the feeling of staring up at the sky and watching the northern lights from the Blue Lagoon.
