Taking you to Iceland on a week-long trip exploring Southern Iceland. This was an absolutely amazing trip venturing through the natural landscapes, waterfalls, animals and hikes that were all so incredible.

Download the Southern Coast Iceland Itinerary to take this exact same trip!

Iceland – Episode Itinerary

0:35

And get ready to embark on a new adventure with us around the globe.

Hello fellow travelers.

Hey, squaddies.

Hey, squaddies.

Welcome to this weeks episode of the Travel Squad podcast.

Today we’re taking you to Iceland.

0:51

Jamal and I spent six days exploring southern Iceland, and this trip was absolutely amazing.

The natural landscapes, the waterfalls, the animals, and of course the hikes were so incredible.

And I know this is going to sound like a bold statement, but this trip has actually made it into my top five trips I’ve ever taken.

1:11

I agree with Brittany.

Iceland is a top travel destination for all the reasons that she just mentioned.

I always find it hard to rank my favorite places outside of my top 2.

Funny enough, Brittany’s dad always gives me crap about it.

He’s like, where’s your top three?

Top four?

Because you know, sometimes I’ll change it up.

1:28

My top two is consistent, and I won’t say that Iceland made my top two, but it’s definitely top five.

If I’m ranking my top five strictly off of nature and scenic beauty, Iceland was just absolutely gorgeous.

We were originally wanting to do the Ring Rd. around the entire island, but stuck to the southern portion of Iceland, which has a lot of the main highlights that you would want to see.

1:52

We ultimately decided to stay in the South on this trip because the things that we wanted to see in the north were spread out really far and we didn’t really have a lot of time, whereas in the South things are a lot closer together.

But we loved it so much that we’re definitely going to be heading back to Iceland in the future and taking on that northern portion of the island.

2:10

I’m so excited to hear that you had a good time.

I haven’t talked to you about this trip yet.

So I’m hearing everything for the first time.

And that’s what I wanted to start with was what did you think of it?

And it sounds like you had a really, really good time.

I’m so happy that this is the route that you took because I started looking into Iceland as well for later in the year so that I could see the Northern Lights.

2:30

And I didn’t even know your exact route, but I was also kind of looking at the southern road trip route that people take.

So I’m definitely taking notes on this episode here and I want to hear what you who did, that you loved, what you did that you think you could skip, how much every single thing costs, and of course, tips.

2:49

So let’s start with the tips.

Well, the first tip is to download a parking app called Parka.

That’s PARKA.

And we didn’t know about this until we arrived in Iceland.

And when we actually picked up our rental car, the person at the rental car company told us, hey, we should just download this.

3:08

This app, Parka, is pretty much used everywhere throughout Iceland, in downtown Reykjavik to pay for parking as well as at a lot of the national parks and parking lots.

There’s not really entrance fees into the national parks, but they do require you to pay for parking.

3:24

Some of them, of course, have the stands where you can pay if you don’t want to have to download the app.

But you may be facing a line during crowded times because everybody’s in these main spots so have to park a app and it makes it a lot easier for you and you can just pay for parking that way.

3:40

So another tip we have for you is to rent car or pocket Wi-Fi.

And I actually rented it from our rental car company.

We used Lotus Car Rental and it actually came with the premium and insurance.

And the premium insurance covers F roads.

And if you’re not familiar with what F roads are, F roads are the 4×4 roads that you have to travel on if you’re going up into the Highlands and the mountains.

4:02

And I wasn’t quite sure if we were going to go on any or if we were going to want to do a spur of the moment decision to take an F road or if we were just going to end up on one somehow.

So I was like, you know what, I’m just going to buy the premium insurance and it comes with the pocket Wi-Fi or the car Wi-Fi.

4:18

But there was an option if you don’t want the premium insurance to just add it on for a price per day.

And it just plugs into the car charger.

You get Wi-Fi for up till I think 16 devices and you can literally take it with you everywhere.

We took it on hikes, we took it in the car, we took it in our hotel room.

4:36

The connection was fabulous.

We never lost service and we when you’re on your carrier service, sometimes that service can low depending on where you are.

We always had really great connectivity the entire time, even when we were up in the mountains.

Two questions for you.

How were the roads and if you didn’t have the pocket Wi-Fi, would your cell phone carrier T mobiles provided phone service have been okay?

5:00

So the roads were actually really, really good and we didn’t come across any roads that were really rocky or mountainous.

And again, we just didn’t know what route we were going to be taking if we were.

Going to be There was some Canyon roads that we took to get to hiking points that you said you didn’t like the roads.

5:17

Well yes, but those Canyon roads were maybe dirt roads off of the main road that were gravel and rocks that you’re going 1015 miles an hour down that.

I just hate those roads anyway, especially when you’re not in a big, big SUV with heavy duty tires.

5:33

Yes, we had a 4 by 4 vehicle and of course the insurance allowed us to go onto the F roads and you could really only go on F roads if you have a 4 by 4.

Not even just an all-wheel drive.

But I mean in terms of like the main highways and everywhere we went, I thought they were good.

You may be referring to the paths off to some parking lots where yeah, they were the gravel roads.

5:53

I just hate those in general.

But in general, to get from A to BI didn’t find it to be a problem.

And then your other question, Kim, was if we just had T-Mobile, would we have been OK?

I think we would have been OK in terms of being able to get from A to B, but there are some remote places where you need to get onto the Parka app to pay because there’s no stand to pay for it.

6:13

And if you didn’t have pocket Wi-Fi, you may not be able to connect to pay or your connection might have been like lacking and really slow.

So I think it was helpful in that sense that we didn’t have to wait around to see if we had connectivity or not.

We just were always connected.

OK, good to know.

And let’s talk about money.

6:31

Is it a credit card country or would you recommend bringing cash?

Really great question.

You know, we always like to have cash just in case.

But throughout all of Iceland, honestly, you will be fine with credit card.

You do not need cash whatsoever except for maybe one reason.

6:50

And I’ll tell you what that is in a second.

But speaking about credit cards, they really only take Visa or MasterCard.

American Express is not taken.

The only place that took American Express in Iceland was Costco and they accepted all three major vendors.

But that was like literally the only place that we saw taking Amex.

7:07

So just Visa, MasterCard, the only place where I would say you would potentially need cash is if you’re doing any guided tours and you want to leave money as a tip to your tour guide.

But even then, I don’t think you need to really change it to the local currency, which is called the krona.

7:26

Honestly, if you have some U.S. dollars or even EUR, I think you will be fine.

Because what was really, really shocking to me, and then when I looked at the population of Iceland, it made a lot of sense.

There’s so many tourists that come to Iceland and the Icelandic population is really small.

7:42

What was it like 350,000 some odd people?

Most of the workers that are in the touristy areas and giving tours are foreign workers either from Europe or the US.

So honestly if you give them dollars or euro they can just trade it easily to whatever they need if they need krona or to their local home currency which would either be the euro or dollar.

8:03

So I honestly think you’re completely fine without cash.

How much cash did we pull from the ATM?

We only pulled I think 60 or 80 bucks to be safe.

Yeah, we knew we were going to serve remote places and we wanted to have just some cash on hand in case we came across anything.

8:19

And then we wanted to pull cash for our local guides as well for the tours that we were doing.

And the reason why we used the ATM to pull was we have a Charles Schwab debit card and if there’s an ATM fee, it reimburses us at the end of the month.

So we’re really not losing anything.

8:35

So we’re like, we might as well just pull a few bucks and see what happens.

And it worked out perfect.

And Speaking of cash and credit card, I just want to mention one thing.

You know, Brittany reiterated.

We wanted it for the tips and just we were going to be in remote areas just in case for whatever reason.

We did come across a couple gas stations where they required debit only.

8:55

We tried to fill out another location one time at a completely different spot and they were telling me debit only put in a PIN.

So in a situation like that, you may want to have cash, but there was another gas station, right, that we had gone to and they accepted credit card.

So it’s just err on caution.

9:12

But you could honestly get away without cash except for just those tips for tours.

But if you’re not taking any tours, probably don’t even need it.

Another tip for you is about the water.

So the cold water from the tap is completely drinkable.

It’s actually really good, refreshing, way better than the tap from the US.

9:30

But if you’re in a town like Reykjavik, the hot water that comes from the tap is actually thermal water.

So you don’t want to drink that because it does smell like sulfur.

So when you’re showering in like Reykjavik, it will smell like sulfur, hot juice or water.

So you’re smelling like eggs after your shower.

9:48

Well, you’re not smelling like the eggs.

The bathroom, as it’s steaming up from all that hot water is smelling a little bit like eggs.

And I won’t lie, it’s not really something that is pleasant.

But of course, you know, if you get into thermal waters, it’s good for your skin.

You come out, you feel really refreshed on it.

10:04

But in other areas throughout Iceland where they don’t have the infrastructure to heat all their water that way, like in the major city of Reykjavik, it is regular heated water that’s not from the thermals.

So outside of Reykjavik, you don’t need to expect to smell the sulfuric smell with the hot water.

10:23

But basically, point in a nutshell is don’t use the hot water to actually like make tea or coffee.

In a lot of the rooms, they’ll give you the little kettle pots.

So you’ll want to heat up the cold water that way.

But the cold water, absolutely delicious to drink.

It’s all like glacial melt water.

10:39

It’s fantastic.

And our last tip for you is a packing warm, even in the summer months, you want to pack layers.

There were so many days where while we were there, it was ranging from like 50s to 60s.

And when you’re in the direct sunlight, you’re warm And we’re hiking.

10:54

I was wearing just a tank top and some leggings.

But then when you’re near the glaciers, I was bundled up in 2-3 layers.

So just make sure you’re packing accordingly and having enough layers to take on and off.

I mean, every day where we were, it was a constant, I don’t want to say struggle, like, Oh my God, we were so hot.

11:10

I mean, like honestly, the average high was 56°.

But if you’re doing movement and again, in that direct sunlight, we were like, oh, we need the AC, We need the heater, AC, heater, AC, heater.

And that was like literally every other time we got back in the car, depending on our location, it was back and forth that way.

11:26

So have those layers.

You all went in July.

How was the sunlight?

Oh yes.

Part of the reason I wanted to go in July was because we wanted to chase the midnight sun.

So sunset didn’t set until about 11:50 on the first day, and it would rise again at around 3:15.

11:44

But in that time, where the sun was supposed to be set, it wasn’t really fully pitch black.

It just looked like a dusk, like a dusky hour.

Yeah, I would say when it says sunset, you actually can’t see the sun in the sky.

But those few hours, this light is still out there.

12:01

It’s maybe those first 10 to 15 minutes after a traditional sunset where you just see the colored layers in the clouds and it’s still bright and light.

That’s exactly how it is so that we didn’t see darkness for a week.

So every single hotel had blackout curtains.

12:18

Well, that’s good that they had that at least.

So if you’re thinking about going for the Northern Lights, though, Kim, it’s going to be dark constantly for you when you’re there.

Maybe there might be a little bit of daylight here and there, but it’s going to be dark.

So the scenic spots that you’re going to want to go to the waterfalls will be frozen over.

12:35

Probably can’t do too much hiking, but you will have a great time with the Northern Lights if you go during winter.

All right, before we get into what you did every day, I just wanted to quickly mention to our squaddies and remind you all that we have a ton of resources on our website for you.

We have itineraries, including one for Iceland.

12:52

We have an episode page for every single episode that we have out.

We have a bimonthly newsletter that you should sign up for because it has a ton of good deals and updates that come out from the squad.

So head over to travelsquadpodcast.com and check that out.

And now let’s get into what you did day one.

13:10

Well, day one was our travel day.

We actually left on the 4th of July and our flight was from San Diego to Seattle and then from Seattle to Rakyo.

And with the time change and by the time we left midday, because we left San Diego around 2:00 PM, we really landed July 5th in the morning in Iceland.

13:31

Yeah.

So we landed on day two.

We landed around 10:30 because our flight coming over was like about an hour behind.

We took a shuttle to pick up our rental car.

Well, there was, actually.

What did you fly?

Did you fly?

Iceland Air, yes, economy.

13:47

So it was all booked under Iceland Air.

From San Diego to Seattle, it was Alaska, your favorite Kim.

And then from Seattle we flew Icelandic Air all the way through.

And yes, it was just economy.

But we got really lucky on the flight going over from Seattle to Reykjavik.

14:04

No one sat in the middle between US.

The flight wasn’t actually very full.

I mean, there were several open seats.

I don’t want to say there was nobody on the plane, but we got really, really lucky.

So we enjoyed that 7 hours with nobody between US and it was quite comfortable.

Iceland Air, they have a lot of leg room and economy and I really, really appreciated that.

14:22

OK, that’s good to know.

But they don’t serve meals.

So just keep that in mind.

You can buy a meal and you could book one to have on hand.

Like there was people saying like oh, I already we ordered a meal but we just opted to get food in Seattle and then just eat before our flight and then we plan to sleep on our flight because we were going to land at 10:30 in the morning.

14:42

Did they do snacks and water or no?

They did water of course and complimentary like soft drinks but no complimentary alcohol like you find on a lot of international.

And in terms of snacks, no snacks were 100% you had to buy and pay for.

14:58

OK, good to know.

Iceland Air.

Yeah, so pros and cons, you know, comfortable seats, a lot of leg room, but no food unless you purchase.

So we landed in the airport around 10:30.

There was someone in the airport waiting for us.

Who who was loading up a shuttle car to take to our rental car location, which was Lotus rental car.

15:17

We had opted for the full insurance in advance so when we went up to pick it up, we got the full insurance.

She gave us some information about the Parka app about the speed limit.

This is a great tip.

They actually have in the remote areas speed cameras.

So they really stress driving the speed limit because a speed camera can catch you if you’re speeding and it’ll just send the ticket directly to the rental car company.

15:40

Oh wow, I really hope that does not come to the USI.

Well, I hope so too.

And as a matter of fact, they gave us a nice little pamphlet that told us, hey, if you’re on this type of Rd. this is the speed limit.

If you’re this is the fastest you can go, which is like 90 kilometers per hour, which honestly is not a lot when you can convert it to mph, it’s actually quite slow.

15:59

So that’s the fastest you can actually go.

I was going faster, I won’t lie.

I mean, I was going on average anywhere between like 110 to 120 kilometers an hour and I didn’t see any cops.

And I was thinking to myself, man, like there’s absolutely no cops out here.

16:15

When we returned the rental car on our last day, he’s like, OK, let me check and see if you have any tickets.

And then he’s like, oh, you’re good to go.

And I was thinking like, oh, maybe like parking tickets.

But then I thought, oh, well, maybe they did have like, camera for like, speeding.

16:30

And then we got home and Brittany saw a reel or a story that an influencer posted on Iceland, and she was talking about how she got several tickets from those speed cams, and I was so lucky to avoid them.

So when you think you’re OK, you’re not OK because you can’t get caught.

16:45

I just probably got really lucky.

Big Brother is watching out there in Iceland.

They are.

So yeah, we got our car and they actually gave us a little USB thing that had like 3 slots because you plug your Wi-Fi into one of them.

17:00

So then there was like two other USB ports for our phones, which was really nice.

And then once we got the rental car, we knew Iceland is going to be an expensive country in terms of food.

We were like, all right, let’s go to Costco, pick up a few supplies, of course, things that are non perishable because we just want to have snacks.

17:18

So we went to Costco, got apples, bananas, peanut butter.

That way we could have peanut butter with our apples.

A lot of peanut butter.

It was, but you know what, Costco and Reykjavik, it’s not like here in the US where they sell the two peanut butters together.

17:36

They only sell 1.

So it’s not like we got it in two too big a bulk.

Yes, we did have to leave the peanut butter behind, but we may do and went through a good portion of that.

And also with us, we did bring some trail mix nuts.

So that was kind of like our snacks and lunch while we were on the road to sustain us like.

17:56

And did you pick Costco over a local grocery store because of pricing?

Did you compare that ahead of time?

Everything we had read online in advance said that Costco’s prices are substantially cheaper than the local grocery store, so we just went straight to Costco.

It’s also about an hour drive from the airport to downtown Reykjavik.

18:16

And so we knew we were going to lose some gas and we wanted to be prepared for the next day.

And Costco had a gas station, which is going to be a lot cheaper than the local gas stations.

So it was kind of like A2 Fer right there.

Do they pump your gas for you or you have to do it yourself?

You have to pump it yourself.

18:32

Bummer.

I know it’s all right.

It’s not like Oregon or other foreign countries where sometimes they pump your gas.

You had to pump it on your own, but no biggie.

Yeah, so after we were done at Costco and getting our snacks, we went to check out downtown Reykjavik.

It’s a cute, small, walkable town with, you know, shops and restaurants.

18:49

So I would just recommend parking on the street, paying through the parka app, and then just wandering around the area by foot.

There are a few highlights that you should definitely do.

There is, and I just want to say this in advance, we are going to butcher the pronunciation.

19:04

The Icelandic language is so so tough, so I apologize in advance.

And I just want to say we went through every place that we’re going to talk about here, and I Googled how to say it phonetically and sometimes I came across two or three different ways to say it.

19:20

So we’re trying our very, very best.

It’s very hard.

So forgive us on that, but you guys will make do nonetheless.

You’ll know what we’re talking about, I hope here.

How do you pronounce that church that we went to?

It’s going to be Haltzgrim Skurkia.

Holtzgrim Skurkia.

Yeah, I know, I know.

19:36

And it’s.

It sounds nowhere like it’s spelt.

OK, so.

But it’s the big famous church in Reykjavik.

You’re not going to miss it if you just ask somebody.

Oh, where’s the famous church?

They’ll know exactly what you’re talking about.

It’s Holtzgrim Skurkia.

It’s a Lutheran Church located in Reykjavik.

19:54

It stands about 74 meters tall.

It’s Iceland’s tallest church, and it’s the country’s sixth tallest building overall.

There are towers that you can pay to get up to and get like a panoramic overview, which will also look out to the ocean.

And the actual church itself is free to enter.

20:10

So it’s definitely just nice to go in.

You know, in Europe, you go in, you see a whole bunch of churches that have paintings everywhere, the frescoes.

And there is no wall that’s like untouched.

And here it’s very bare.

It looks more modern, more like.

20:26

I don’t want to say the word sterile, but it’s just like.

Very clean and modern and there are like no paintings anywhere.

Ironically enough, there were a lot of cruise ship tours that were here.

I mean, you could see the people being LED around and they had that.

So I mean, this is a popular spot to go and explore and there’s several things here in Reykjavik close by that we went to.

20:48

So I mean, you’re going to hit all this kind of within the same proximity.

We also went to check out Rainbow Street.

So in Reykjavik, this is just a street that’s painted down the middle with a rainbow.

It’s a walking street only, no cars, and it just helps support diversity.

21:03

It’s been there for years and years.

So we went and checked it out.

It actually leads up to this church so you can get a good shot of like the rainbow in the forefront yourself and then the church in the backdrop.

And then we also went and checked out the waterfront.

We walked to see the waterfront.

And that gives you your first real glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean and some of the landscape in the distance.

21:24

And I remember taking pictures while we were at the waterfront because it was just so beautiful.

And you look at your phone and you’re like, the pictures don’t do it justice.

Like you would look at these pictures and be like, what did I, what picture did I take?

Like I don’t even need this picture.

I know no justice whatsoever because the waterfront is really nice and in the distance you’re looking off at some mountains in the really beautiful.

21:45

And I don’t want to say they’re really far, but it’s really far when it translates to that image.

And then, yeah, it’s just like, Oh my gosh.

So when you’re there, yeah, take the photo, you’ll figure it out yourself.

But when you’re at the waterfront, just really look out and appreciate where you are and the scenic beauty that like, wow, this major city with a like literally half the population of Iceland there has this beautiful view out to this amazing mountain backdrop.

22:08

Was there anything you could do on the waterfront, like go out on a yacht or anything fuller?

Don’t really have like yacht yachts but they have lots of they think about.

That part but.

They have lots of tours to go whale watching.

They have puffin tours out of Reykjavik to go to some areas where a lot of the puffins actually nest.

22:27

So there is stuff to do there, but it’s not going to be like your Grease, Santorini sunset dinner cruise or anything like that.

But you can get out on the water, absolutely.

Kim, have you heard?

Iceland’s famous for their hot dogs.

I’ve definitely heard about the hot dogs.

22:43

Yeah.

What do you think?

While we were Reykjavik, we definitely had to try one.

We tried the lamb hot dog.

It was good, definitely.

You could tell it’s fresh, you could tell it’s lamb.

It was good.

But people hype it up so much and they’re like, Oh my God, they’re the best things ever.

23:00

I didn’t think it was the best thing ever, but probably one of the best hot dogs I’ve had.

And.

Again, lamb would not be my choice for a hot dog.

Did they have like beef or pork hot dogs?

I mean, they do have beef, but lamb is such a major staple out there.

23:15

I mean, when you’re driving on the country roads, everybody, you’re going to see lamb all over the place and sheep.

So that’s why you’re you’re seeing lamb a lot.

And right by the church that we were at, there’s this famous hot dog stand again, forgive the pronunciation.

It’s called Vikinga pillsur.

23:32

And if you Google, this is really where you’re going to see everybody say, oh, try this hot dog stand.

And that’s where we had the lamb.

And what’s funny is it’s not even like a hot dog in the sense that it was a a dog or a stuffed Wiener.

It was just literally shaped lamb on top of a bun with some sauce, crispy it up onions.

23:51

It was good, don’t get me wrong, but completely different than what I anticipated.

A hot dog.

Whereas if you got the traditional, then it was actually like a dog.

And that was also lamb too, but just a little bit different because it wasn’t the shaved lamb.

Yeah.

I’ve also heard that the gas stations have really good hot dogs.

24:08

Did you get any of those?

We were actually wanting to get one from a gas station we had read about, but when we got there it was too early in the morning and their grill wasn’t on yet.

So we missed that opportunity.

But I have heard the same thing, that it’s like Japan in a sense where the gas stations have like pretty good food and you can get gas station hot dogs and they’re pretty.

24:28

Or like New Orleans gas station fried chicken.

I know, right?

And just to give you an idea of the cost, that lamb hot dog was what, around 11 or 12 bucks?

I mean, that’s just the prices that you can expect to see.

Also, we just split the hot dog.

24:44

So Brittany and I tried some fishing trips from the Reykjavik Fish restaurant, which was not too far off because of course, you know, you’re on the water.

Seafood is a popular staple too.

We had to try that and just get that little fixing out of our way because I love me some fish and chips.

25:01

And then we went to our hotel and we we called it an early night.

I think I got 9 hours of sleep, which is unheard of on vacation.

But we were tired.

But before we went to bed, our hotel included a hot tub, which is also like a natural spring.

And then it also had a sauna.

25:17

So we got into both.

Was it in your room or just on the property?

Just on the property.

Oh, OK.

What was your hotel called?

Hotel Viking And let me tell you, the breakfast buffet was absolutely amazing and delicious, but the bathroom was probably the one of the worst bathrooms we had.

25:35

Uh oh.

Tell me all about it.

It’s just so small.

It smells like the sulfur and like literally the sink is so small that like if you’re brushing your teeth and you put the water pressure on too much, the water is coming out of the sink and onto the floor.

So it’s just like.

It’s like a cruise bathroom.

25:52

Yes, you felt like you were in a cruise bathroom.

And you know that I feel like that’s pretty up to par for a lot of places in Europe or other countries.

And I know ICE isn’t on the actual European continent, it’s an island, but it’s still technically Europe.

So I mean, that’s it’s shooting for par for what restrooms are really like, but minus the restroom.

26:12

Honestly, the breakfast alone was worth staying here at Hotel Viking.

And what I mean by that is, like we said, everything in Iceland is pretty much expensive.

So if you’re going to get a free meal in the morning and a good one like take up on it ’cause this hotel wasn’t very expensive.

26:28

It had a nice theme.

It’s called hotel Viking.

The outside of the building was really nice.

There’s Viking statues and wood carvings.

I really did like the theme.

But the breakfast spread was like meats, cheeses, eggs, had really good oatmeal.

They had a waffle machine, but it was a thin waffle and then they had like some peanut butter or Nutella and all sorts of stuff.

26:48

It was delicious.

And so I mean, just staying here just to get a free meal and a place that’s actually really expensive, let alone a good meal, I think is a win win.

And the hot tub and sauna situation was really nice to enjoy on day one too.

27:04

How hot was it in the Saunage Mall?

Gosh, I don’t really don’t remember.

How hot was it in?

The 105°C.

Oh, that’s hot.

And was this the video I saw on Instagram stories of Jamal sleeping in the hot tub and.

No, that was at a different location.

27:20

That was at a different location.

Jamal, this is becoming a pattern for you.

I know I’m falling asleep these days.

I’m tired, you know?

I’m.

I’m tired.

Brittany.

Brittany really works out.

I know, I know.

So we got like 9 hours of sleep that night and we woke up on day three and this is where all of the action starts to happen and we really get into our Iceland trip.

27:41

So we were headed to a National Park in the morning.

Bear with me with the pronunciation.

It’s called Think What layer National Park.

That’s crazy because it’s spelled like Thing Valier.

I know, I know, I don’t even know if I’m pronouncing it correctly, but that’s how it says phonetically how to pronounce it.

27:58

But this National Park is very important to the Icelandic people.

It has geological importance and it has historical importance as well.

It’s one.

Of how far of a drive was it from Reykjavik?

About an hour.

OK, so this National Park has something special where only a few places on Earth has it.

28:19

It’s where the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates meet above the sea level and they create a rift or a divide.

And then in that divide it has filled with glacial water, so bright, clear glacial water.

28:36

So it has a really beautiful landscape of rift valleys, cliffs, and then the fissure as well.

But I also mentioned that it was historically important, which I’ll let Jamal tell you about.

Historically, think what Lear is, where the world’s first parliament took place and it was established in 930 AD.

28:55

So this was an open air assembly and it shaped Iceland’s national identity and legal system, continuing to meet annually for over 800 years until they move the capital actually an hour away to Reykjavik.

So this was where Iceland really formed as a country with all their tribes coming together, and it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

29:19

Yeah, so we got there, we didn’t see anywhere where you could pick up a map.

There’s like 5 different parking lots.

And and I don’t know if you went to the main parking lot if they give you like a map.

Because in the US, when you enter their National Park, you have the option to get a map while you’re there.

But luckily I had APDF map that was on my phone.

29:36

So we just took our little car Wi-Fi device, put it in our pocket, and I was just able to look at the map whenever I wanted to just by pulling it up on my phone.

And the trail is about 3 to 4 kilometers, goes in a circle.

So you can just hit all of the different viewpoints and historical significant points as well.

29:56

But my favorite parts were going to the waterfall.

It was called Oxorophos.

And I did learn one like Icelandic word I know that Foss means waterfall and.

You didn’t learn.

Cheers.

No, I don’t think.

I no, we didn’t learn.

30:11

Cheers.

Everything was so expensive.

Honestly, Kim, I didn’t even want to buy alcohol when I was there.

It was crazy.

I know, I know.

Doing.

Cheap on vacation, Jamal.

I wasn’t going cheap on vacation.

I was just, you know, like I just didn’t have the desire when I was there.

I was in such natural beauty and on a, on a real natural mental high that I was like, I don’t even need the alcohol.

30:29

Yeah, so we went and saw the waterfall.

Definitely worth doing that part of the loop.

And then we also stopped into the church, which dates back to the 1850s, and so we went there as well.

But it’s just a nice loop to go around.

It’s a nice loop, you can walk it very easily, nice natural overlooks like Brittany had mentioned.

30:49

But one of the main reasons we were also at this National Park is this was our first guided tour and adventure that we were going to do.

We were going to do the Silfra Fisher adventure.

Now, Silfra is the name of the Fisher of the tectonic plate that Brittany had mentioned of the North American and EUR Asian plate actually split splitting.

31:09

So there’s a glacier maybe of 60 kilometers away that actually, of course, as all glaciers pretty much are, is melting.

That glacial runoff actually goes underground.

And this is actually the first spot 60 kilometers away where it finally comes out of the ground and into an open little fissure and pond.

31:31

And this is where you can actually get into a dry suit and do a snorkel between the North American and EUR Asian tectonic plates.

So we ended up doing that and this was actually a really, really fun experience.

The glacier 60 kilometers away, but it takes 20 years for that water to melt and make it all the way to this spot.

31:51

So that entire time it’s being completely filtered.

So when it gets to that spot, it’s ice cold, filtered and so delicious.

Like she was like, yeah, when you get in the water, take a few sips.

It’s going to be the best water you’ve had.

But what was really cool was, again, just how clear the water is.

32:10

And then you’re looking at these tectonic plates.

And if you’re not very big in geography and understanding how that works, there’s two types of tectonic plates, divergent plates and convergent plates, right?

The divergent plates, which is where this is, is literally where the Earth’s crust is actually splitting apart.

32:28

So you are in an active split, a part of a tectonic plate.

Just swimming through here, seeing the natural beauty, it was an experience unlike any other that we’ve actually done.

Year round, the water stays about two to 4°C, which is about 35 to 39°F.

32:47

So very, very cold.

And we were kind of nervous beforehand because we were reading the instructions and it was like, make sure you’re wearing thermal layers beforehand.

And Jamal and I are like, we didn’t bring long Johns, like Oh my God, are we going to freeze?

But no, you’re completely fine.

I wore leggings and a long sleeve shirt and Jamal wore long sleeve pant and shirt.

33:07

Then they give you a like a fleece almost onesie to put on.

And then on top of that you get inside a dry suit, which is a very large buoyant suit to help keep you afloat.

So you like literally don’t even have to try to swim.

You can’t even go underwater because you just are so like buoyant and you just float at the top.

33:27

And then they put a cap on you, they give you gloves.

So the only thing that’s getting like direct contact with the water is just a part of your face and you have the snorkel on on that as well.

It takes like an hour to get dressed.

I swear.

For all the parts you have to like, go into this little truck area, you have to take off your outer layers, Keep your under layers on, put the onesie on, put the dry suit on, put the gloves on, put the cap on.

33:54

Get your fins, get your snorkel.

Walk over to the fissure, which is maybe about like a 5 minute walk, but then once you’re there, there’s a little bit of a line of people trying to get in.

So you also got to wait your turn.

But again, it was a great experience.

And if anybody is an Amazing Race fan, when they were in Iceland, they actually went here on The Amazing Race and had a challenge in this fissure.

34:15

So just a little bit of a trivia for you on that.

They keep it to a maximum of six people per guide.

So it’s always going to be a small intimate tour.

And then our tour that we actually used, they took GoPro pictures for free and sent it to us on a Google Drive.

34:32

So yeah, that’s something to to look into and we actually book this tour through get Your Guide.

So I would highly recommend doing that.

We’ll link it in the show notes and it’s also available on our itinerary for a direct click so you can just book as you go.

They gave you a dry bag to put your stuff in while you were here.

34:49

Like I said, the Tri suit makes you feel so buoyant.

Can you literally feel like you’re a floating bag of potatoes in there?

Like you just.

Kind of like feel like that.

It’s, it’s such a fun feeling.

And then you just put your head down, look in the water.

We probably snorkeled for about 30 minutes with the guide and then probably 15 minutes without the guide at the end because she was, we got to this end point where she was like, you could go down this little sulfra by yourself or you could go to the other side of the pond to see if there were fish, which someone did go to that side and said there was none at that time.

35:21

But you know, normally when you snorkel, you can kick with your fins.

You’re so on top of the water that you can’t even really kick with your fins.

You have to do the frog kick the entire way to like keep you propelled and moving.

So it’s it was actually a workout that I didn’t even know I was going to get.

Nice little bonus there.

35:38

Yeah, O when we were done with this tour, we ended U changing, getting off of our dry suit, getting back into our regular clothes, which were still on under us.

And we had a drive because we were heading on to city or town called Victoria that day.

35:54

But there was a few stops along the way that we wanted to do.

And this actually wasn’t on our itinerary.

But as we were driving to a specific waterfall, which we’ll get to in just a second, we came across this.

This was called geyser stroke or, and apparently this is Iceland’s or one of Iceland’s most active geysers.

36:15

And it erupts every four to 10 minutes.

So as we were going through this one little area along the way, we’ve noticed like, hey, there’s a restaurant, gift shop, gas in this area.

Other than that, why is everyone stopping?

And we saw that there’s geyser.

So we got out, checked it out and just watched this erupt a couple times, three or four times, I believe.

36:37

Luckily for us, I caught it at its highest eruption on the video because we were, when we first arrived, it was, it was like, yeah, it was like a little weak one.

And then I had it ready and I was like, oh, I got like a really good one.

We were like, let’s watch it again.

And then it was like a little baby one.

So we caught a good one here, but every four to 10 minutes.

36:55

So just take your time, enjoy it, it’s cool, natural landscape.

And of course, check out the geothermal activity that’s happening right under the ground, because that’s what literally created this entire island.

Yeah, this inner part of Iceland, in this area with the National Park, this geyser and the waterfall we’re going to talk about next.

37:12

They’re all along a route called the Golden Circle.

So these are the most popular stops along it.

So after we left the geyser, we did go to Golfos, which is the waterfall, and it actually translates to Golden waterfall.

So it’s on the Golden Circle.

And this is one of Iceland’s most iconic and beloved waterfalls.

37:32

It cascades about 105 feet, and it’s also from the same run off as the glacier that creates the fissure.

But so beautiful, so big.

You can either go to an overlook and get a bird’s eye view or you can go down the steps and get pretty close to it.

37:48

We saw it from a good distance.

We got pretty close, but there were people who were going like really close and you could see how what they were getting from all of the mist.

They were like, soaked.

Yeah, and we did not go because we didn’t want to get wet.

Honestly, I feel like where we stopped, we got the best view because as you get closer, like this was almost like we were at a double falls.

38:08

And if you get any closer, you’re going to lose the double fall aspect and it’s just going to be like, yeah, you’re up close, but you’re not going to really get to see it in all of its glory and its beauty.

So we opted to stay there.

But if you have more time, go close.

Check it out.

No big deal.

But this was a really, really beautiful waterfall Goldfoss.

38:26

And from there, we drove to Victoria from the waterfall.

It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive to Victoria.

The only stop we made was I saw some Icelandic horses pretty close to the side of the road and I had to get some pictures of them because they’re so beautiful.

But yeah, we went and checked into our hotel.

38:42

We were staying in a little cottage called the Victoria Cottage.

And Victoria actually translates to the word Bay.

So a lot of areas from this town, you can get ocean views.

We could actually see the ocean and some sea stacks from our little cottage area.

38:59

And then even though it was kind of late, like it was like 7 or 8 at this point, we weren’t tired because we had slept well the night before and.

And it’s not getting dark.

It’s not dark.

So we’re like, whoa, what?

What else can we do?

And I was convinced initially that we weren’t going to see puffins on this trip because I had read puffins are more prevalent in other areas.

39:20

And I was really, really bummed out about it.

But I did some last minute research on like, where you could see puffins in the South, and we were only about 20 minutes away.

So I decided, yes, we’re going to go try our luck and see some puffins.

And I had heard that they nest on a seaside Cliff.

39:36

So we drove to that.

It was called Deerholay, and it would say cliffside.

We were able to get so close to the puffins.

And Oh my gosh, I could watch puffins for hours.

They are so cute.

They are so entertaining.

They go into these little Burrows that they make, they fly out.

39:54

They love on each other and like get close to each other and interact with each other so.

Exciting.

I mean, these are obviously seabirds.

They fly out and they, I mean they fly out incredible speed and they dive into the water to catch the fish.

But then you look at them and of course you can tell based off of how webbed their feet are that they are actually seabirds.

40:14

But then you look at their beaks and they’re so multi colored, they almost look like they should be in the tropics or in the jungle also.

I mean, they are like literally these really cool looking birds.

And we, we’ve talked about this before on the podcast.

As I’m getting older, I’m really having an appreciation for birds.

40:30

I’m starting to love them as I get older.

And I really love the the puffins.

But Deer Hollay is really the only place kind of in the South region, or I shouldn’t say the only place, one of the only places in the South where you will actually see the puffins because I believe they’ve more really nest along the the north side of the island.

40:48

But beyond just seeing the puffins here, there is a lighthouse.

The lighthouse, OK, a lighthouse is a lighthouse, right?

But here from Deerhoole, you get an amazing overlook at the sea stacks and all the rock formations that they have out there.

A beautiful overlook of a black sand beach, which we’re also going to talk about that we went to and actually get on the sand.

41:08

But you have a beautiful overlook of it and this is just an amazing spot.

And like we were really appreciating almost the midnight sun when we were out here because, you know, I always wondered, do the animals, do they have a sense of time since it doesn’t really get dark during that?

Do they know of when it’s night or day?

41:23

I don’t know.

They’re all like always so active whenever you see them, but really cool.

So come out to Deer Holiday and check out the puffins.

So from here we went to that black sand beach Jamal was just talking about that we saw from the overlook.

It was called Rainus Dranker Beach and this is a famous beach in Victoria.

41:41

It has the black sand with the basalt sea stacks on the sea cliffs.

In 20/21 it was actually ranked the 6th best beach in the world.

But the reason why you want to go is to mostly see the basalt columns and to best see them and get up close to them you want to go at low tide.

41:59

And so when I was doing research, low tide was going to be at like 1:00 AM and we’re like, we’re not going to go out 1:00 AM, but I think we went close to 11.

And so it was pretty low tide.

So we were able to go and sit on the basalt columns.

It’s really photogenic, really pretty to go to this beach, have a great view of the cliffs that the puffins are flying out of, of the ocean, the sea sacks.

42:22

There’s even like a little cave in this area.

So definitely worth checking out.

And even though it was ranked the 6th best beach in the world, I just want to say this is not a beach for swimming.

It’s probably ranked that high just to give you like a beautiful scenery that you will be seeing the uniqueness of the geological formations that are around.

42:39

But if you are a Game of Thrones fan, they also did film some scenes of Game of Thrones at this beach.

So it kind of has that type of like vibe and look.

And so you’ll really appreciate it when you’re out here.

This is a really cool little spot, so go check it out.

So we had a pretty late night and then we were going to have a pretty early morning because day four, this was a day I was really looking forward to.

43:02

We were going to hike the Skogafoss Waterfall hike.

It’s also called the Skoga Trail or the Waterfall Way, but it goes past about 25 different waterfalls.

It starts at Skogafoss, and Skogafoss is one of Iceland’s largest and most iconic waterfalls.

43:18

It plunges almost 200 feet, about 80 feet wide.

So it’s a really stunning curtain of water that’s plunging down.

It has a good mist and rainbow when it’s in the sunlight.

Waterfall’s super accessible.

You can actually camp here if you’re doing a campervan situation, and you can get really up close.

43:37

Just the mist is going to get you wet.

And then on the side of the waterfall there is a bunch of stairs.

You look at it and you’re like, oh, it’s going to be an easy day.

So you climb on up, you get to the platform at the top of the waterfall, and then from there there’s a little gate area and you can continue the hike that will go along a river that creates so many more waterfalls.

44:01

Like I said, up to 25 that you’ll see this trail actually can go all the way to the next town over.

So that path is like 25 kilometers long.

So we didn’t do that.

We went about 3 miles in and then turn around.

So we did 6 miles round trip.

I was following an all trails map that had like a 10 mile one on there.

44:20

So you can go as far in as you want.

It’s going to be so beautiful no matter how far in you go.

Yeah, I mean, the hardest part is hiking up all those stairs because you’re literally at the base of the falls, which is Skogafoss.

Then you take all the steps up and not to say as you continue on the trail, there’s not going to be an incline because there absolutely is, but it’s really mellow.

44:40

And again, you are following that same trail and stream of water that’s creating Skogafoss.

And then of course you have all those other 25 other waterfalls that you can see.

It’s just so beautiful, minus the waterfall aspect.

I don’t think if people have been to Iceland or experienced this type of grass color that you will actually see, but it was just so vibrant green with the rocks and then the water.

45:05

Just absolutely stunning and beautiful.

And you might think like waterfalls, how many can you see?

You can see a ton of different ones.

They’re all super beautiful.

They were all really impressive waterfalls too.

Not just like little streams going down the side, you’ll see some of those too, but there were a good amount of like really impressive waterfalls.

45:22

This was my favorite thing that we did.

And from the top, you can even look out and see the ocean in the distance.

So I thought overall I gave this hike a 10 out of 10 for scenic.

Beauty when we were hiking it, Brittany was probably saying, this is probably my favorite hike that I’ve actually been on as as a one day or I mean, she was going back and forth between Machu Picchu and the Inca trail, which I understand, but she’s like as a one as a as a one day hike.

45:46

She was like this, this is it.

So I think when Brittany said this is like her top five destinations, This is why.

This is one of the the reasons here at Skogafoss.

Question on this one, do you think it’d be accessible in the winter?

I think the base of the falls is accessible in winter.

46:02

I don’t know the rest of the trail at the top, like what that would look like.

If it’s too icy up there, you could probably still get up the steps as well because there is railing to hold onto.

You just might want to wear maybe shoes with crampons or something to get up there.

But yeah, the base of the fall is absolutely still accessible in winter.

46:20

And if you’re lucky, maybe it’s frozen over.

I’m sure maybe it can possibly freeze over too.

So you would see it in that way potentially.

But when we were done here with Suskoga Foss, we ended up, guess what, go into some more waterfalls.

I mean, you’re going to see tons of them here because as you’re driving along the South, there are the cliffs and mountains that has all the runoff from the snow and the glaciers and everything from the winter.

46:45

So this is waterfalls galore.

We went to another one called Cellulense Foss and it’s kind of, I don’t want to say it’s a double waterfall.

There’s about 3 in the the area on this one little path and the other main waterfall that you would see here is the Euphra Boy waterfall.

47:02

And again they are in close proximity to each other, just on a walking path.

But the first waterfall that I had mentioned, the Cellulans Foss, it’s a lot larger and it actually has an area where you can go behind the waterfall.

So if you want to see it from behind, it’s actually really cool.

47:20

This is an area where it’s going to get really misty on you also.

And where we were talking earlier, we went from hot, cold, hot, cold.

I mean, we were really cold when we were behind the waterfalls.

Then we get on the main trail and it’s quite warm.

But tell them about the UFR boy Brittany, because that’s the area where you go into that tucked in spot where they have the waterfall.

47:39

It’s not like visible from like the path.

You have to actually go inside the Canyon to see it.

Yeah, so while we were on this trail, we saw a lot of people wearing ponchos.

And we’re like, why is everyone wearing a poncho?

But it’s because you can get behind the first waterfall Jamal was talking about.

47:57

And then this waterfall that was called you for boy, Jamal didn’t actually go and see it.

He kind of stayed behind.

You actually had to wade through a little bit of water and then climb over some rocks.

And it was like in this cave.

And it was so missing in there as well, but it was really beautiful.

48:15

It’s kind of enclosed.

You can see it cascading in from the top and then it kind of flows out.

So definitely worth it in winter.

I read that it looks like a scene in Frozen because everything just kind of like frozen over with icicles.

So it’d be one that’s really cool to see in winter, I think.

48:30

Kim, if you have the opportunity, but this took us about an hour to see all three waterfalls upon this section.

And then we weren’t sure what we were going to do next.

And we kind of went back and forth because I had originally on the itinerary put a crater, but it was a little bit out of the way.

48:49

So we decided to do something from the next day that we’re going to do.

And So what I really love about the itinerary we’ve made is now that we’ve done everything we’ve made changes on like, OK, this is exactly what we would do and how we would do it if we were going to do it next time if we’re going to recommend it to someone.

49:06

So I’m excited for you guys to see all of that.

But we went and did a Canyon hike.

The Canyon was called the Flora Glover Canyon.

Yeah, again, forget the pronunciation.

So hard.

If you really see how this stuff is spelled and how they say you say it phonetically, it’s really, really hard.

49:25

But yes, the Fiora Glover.

Yeah, it’s a very beautiful Canyon.

It’s about a two mile hiking trail, natural wonder, has beautiful dramatic cliffs, a winding river, and it’s a really picturesque location.

There is also a waterfall in that area as well.

49:42

So it’s a great leisure trail to do and to get some really good pictures.

I really like the overlooks because once you get up, I mean we say it’s 2 miles, mile in, mile out.

There’s a little bit of a a hike to get to the top, but once you’re at the top, it’s not too big of an elevation gain.

And I want to say it’s like mostly flat following along the Canyon.

50:01

But then you will get to this overlook where they actually have steel grates, railings, etcetera, that kind of like hang you overlook you over, you see the waterfall sea into the Canyon.

It’s actually really beautiful, really pretty.

You mentioned Kim earlier, things that we would do or maybe not do.

50:18

I’m not saying to not do this one, but if you are really in a tight packed situation and of the three things that we mentioned that we’ve done today, I would say maybe this would be the one that could potentially be like, oh, OK, do without because I would say it’s the least impressive of all of them.

50:34

But if you have the time and want to do it, I would say like absolutely for sure.

I I didn’t dislike this, but just for you squaddies, this is one of this day that I would say this would be the one if you were to skip to maybe pass.

That’s a personal opinion.

And then we ended our day at the evict church.

50:50

It’s actually situated on top of a hill and it has ocean views.

If you’re at the the top, it’s also in July Lupin season.

And Lupin is this very beautiful purple flower.

They bloom in hundreds, thousands.

You’re going to see them all over Iceland.

51:06

Very beautiful.

And so in the front of the church there is a whole bunch of lupins growing.

So you can get a good picture with the lupins in the forefront and the church in the background with the cliffs and mountains in the background.

Really pretty.

And then when you’re up there, you can look out to the ocean as well.

51:22

So we just did a quick stop up there before ending our day there.

So on day five, we were actually going to be leaving the town of Victoria and we were going to continue as far as we were going to go for the entire trip.

So by this point, we’re going to be making it almost to what’s considered in like southeastern Iceland.

51:39

That’s as far as we were going to go before turning back around.

So we got up pretty early in the morning and we had a whole bunch of stops along the way to drive to our endpoint, which is where our hotel was.

So our endpoint of where we were going was going to be Yokelsarland, which in this region, there’s a lot of glaciers that actually come really close to the ocean.

52:02

So I mean, we’re talking about glaciers already, the glacial melt.

These ones are closer to the ocean, the mountain region there, and they really come, again, a lot closer.

So this is a lot of the iconic spots within Iceland for people to go and see.

So this is where we were heading for the day.

52:17

So about 15 minutes outside of Victoria, we went to this cave called Yoda Cave.

When you’re inside The Cave, it actually looks like Yoda, of course.

And then there were actually scenes of Rogue One filmed here.

So just a quick little stop to break up your drive.

And I think this is part of the area too, where Brittany was saying, oh, well, that’s not entirely true about all the roads.

52:37

Again, the main roads are fine.

You had to get off on a dirt Rd. gravel Rd. here.

And it’s not very far to The Cave.

But of course the speed and what you have to drive being on those type of roads roads makes a little bit longer.

So if you are a Star Wars fan want to see unique cave formations, this is a cool little spot to check out along the way not too far outside of Victoria.

52:58

Question for this stop, as well as some of the other roadside stops you’ve been doing, do you have to pay for parking at each one of these?

A lot of them know, but this one, yes.

So I mean, I would say the National Park we had to pay for, but most of the waterfalls we did not like.

53:14

Skogafoss we didn’t have to pay for, but the other for waterfalls we did.

So it’s like 5050 on whether you have to pay.

I know.

I would think some spots would be like, oh, yeah, you’d for sure have to pay here.

And then not like Skogafoss, right?

But then some of the places here like Yoda Cave, I mean, you’re not going to spend too much time here.

53:32

And they wanted you to pay.

And I won’t lie, like, only one other car was there.

We were the first one to pull up.

They pulled up behind us.

I knew I was going to be no more than 5 minutes.

So I did not pay.

But parking is required.

I know, I know, parking is required in this section.

I think it’s on private land and so the land owners want you to pay more than it being like a National Park or something like that.

53:53

We then continued on to the mossy lava fields.

Iceland’s famous for their woolly fringe Moss and it can grow like really deep, like 60cm deep even, and it’s very, very fragile.

So we went and stopped at this lava field that’s covered with this beautiful Moss.

54:11

I know you see all these lava rocks and then you don’t really realize that it’s a bunch of lava rocks because it looks like it’s green and grass, but it’s just this really thick layer of Moss.

So they have a cut out area where you can park, walk a tiny little trail, get the overlooks and views of it, which again, it’s on the way.

54:28

You’re not driving too far off the path because I mean, the parking is literally right there off the road.

Go check it out the the mossy lava fields, really beautiful.

They do have areas along the path where of course, because they made the path, the mosses actually died.

54:44

I mean, they knew that going into it.

I don’t advocate touching and things that you shouldn’t touch because as Brittany mentioned, it’s very sensitive.

It could take even hundreds of years for it to recover.

But the Moss that you find that is on the path that is already kind of dying, touch it, feel it.

54:59

It’s so interesting, soft and smooth.

But any of the other Moss that is untouched, please don’t do it and don’t ruin it.

I mean, it’s literally taken hundreds of years to start looking like this, but just absolutely breathtaking and beautiful.

We also went and stopped at a waterfall called St.

Jordan Foss.

55:15

This is just a really quick stopover at a waterfall.

It’s a wide waterfall.

It flows into this blue tranquil field.

Good pictures.

There was only like one other couple there while we were there.

So a lot of these stops like you get to yourself, which is really awesome.

It just helps break up the drive.

55:32

And then also near this waterfall is a gas station.

And you want to specifically fill at one of these gas stations in the small town before continuing on because you’re going to more remote areas and gas is going to be very limited.

And this is the town where I told you and mentioned earlier that one of them was saying debit only.

55:51

And then we went to the gas station right across the street and then it would allow us to do credit.

So this was in this region right here.

So just do keep that in mind.

We then continued on for another waterfall called Sevartifos.

This is a 2 mile hike to a waterfall.

56:06

It’s famous for the basalt columns that it flows over.

Really beautiful.

You can get great views from the overlook or you can hike down right in front of the waterfall as well to like a platform that they have.

Of course we did that.

Jamal was like, I bet we’re going down there.

Brittany and I was like, we sure are.

56:23

He knows too well.

It was up and then you get the overlook and then she wants to go down and get close and then it’s up and down again.

And I knew that we had a lot harder hike coming.

But before we got to Spartafos here, you know, we did all the other stuff that we had mentioned.

But once you leave Stjornifos and the gas station area that Brittany had mentioned, and you’re working your way here to Sparta Foss, you start really seeing a lot of the glaciers for the first time, really along your drive.

56:53

And there’s spots where you can get out, take photos, But not that it wasn’t scenically beautiful before, because it was.

But now you’re really actually starting to see the glaciers.

And there’s so many concentrated in this area.

It’s all coming from one off the top of the mountain, but there’s so many slopes on the side of the mountain that they form their own little individual glaciers.

57:13

And that’s where you really start seeing it right here and really cool.

Yeah, and this waterfall is actually what served as inspiration for that famous church we talked about in Reykjavik.

So just think about that, that this waterfall helped inspire the design of the main church in Reykjavik, the tallest church on in Iceland.

57:30

Really cool.

So then when we were done with this waterfall here and this two mile hike, this was the big hike coming up and that I was really, really excited about.

It’s called the Mulaglia for if I’m saying it correctly.

Again, forgive the pronunciation on this, but this is really awesome because where you start and the parking lot, again, you are a lot closer to the glaciers than when I said you started to see them.

57:56

Like you’re literally up at a glacier and you can see it melting into its own little lagoon.

And then you start hiking up and there’s this beautiful mountain formations, the rugged rocks, the green landscape of all the Moss that’s growing.

58:11

This one is a burner.

I mean, I like to say I am a good hiker.

I really do believe it.

It’s 3.6 miles round trip, so 1.8 up, 1.8 down.

But in that 1.8 up you are gaining 1200 feet in elevation gain.

58:27

So really fast incline and that last third of the way on this hike really, really gets you a lot more to get those overlooks and views.

But you get to the top, you can see the glacier at the top of the mountain.

You see the waterfall run off from it.

58:43

This was just absolutely beautiful.

And you know, of terms of hikes, you know, Brittany likes that big waterfall hike at Skogafoss that we saw the mini.

This one right here at Moolagliafur was my favorite hike that we did.

This hike made us work.

58:58

I was reading the all trail reviews as we were coming up to it and it was like super challenging, extra hard.

Not sure if the view is worth how hard this hike is.

Jeez.

And then Brittany was like, that’s the one I want to do.

Of course, of course that’s the one Brittany wants to do, but I’m glad she chose it because this was my favorite hike.

59:17

I really love this.

I felt the reward after the burn.

And you know, when you do a hard hike, you really feel like you’ve earned it.

But I don’t know what people were talking about about like, is the view really worth it?

It is when you get up there, I mean, the top, top view, like, OK, I can see what they’re saying because you get to a spot maybe 2/3 of the way up where you’re really close to the waterfall.

59:39

And I would say maybe that’s a little bit better.

But even the view from the top is still really nice because then you could start seeing a little bit of the glacier at the top of the mountain as it’s melting.

But yeah, absolutely stunning this hike.

Yeah, it was a really great hike.

And you know, it’s a heart hike when Jamal asks for a break or two and Jamal just like, powers up with his long legs.

1:00:01

I’m always so jealous.

He’s just like powering up.

Yeah.

Question for you.

What percentage of this hike did you spend together versus hiking apart?

That’s a really good question.

I would say what, maybe 75% not together?

1:00:17

Yeah, yeah.

This is insane to squaties.

On our recent trip to West Virginia, I found out for the very first time that Brittany and Jamal do not hike together on all these trips.

They’re separate.

Well, I don’t want to say separate.

1:00:33

We’re on the same trail and work together.

I would say maybe I get myself sometimes, you know, 25 to 50 feet in front of Brittany, then I’ll slow down, wait for her, catch up, We’ll walk together.

I try to keep pace with Brittany and it’s not that she’s not a good hiker because she obviously.

1:00:50

Is.

No, I know, but she’s 5 feet tall and I’m six feet tall, so I have extra legs and if I, and if I’m walking at her full speed of what she could do with her five feet, I’m walking slower.

And to walk slow like on as incline versus just kind of like powering through with what my normal speed would be, it’s harder for me.

1:01:10

So I don’t like to be slow on my hikes.

I’m not like trying to run it, you know, but I’m just going at my normal pace.

But my normal pace is faster than Brittany’s.

And so we just get that spread between us.

But we’ll catch up on the way down, though I always try to make a point on the way down to stay closer to Brittany so that we’re talking together.

1:01:31

That’s where our togetherness was.

His mind blown over there.

I like to hike right next to my hiking partner.

I don’t want them even a foot in front of me.

As we found out as we were hiking Havasu 5 Pauls.

1:01:48

But as we’re talking about this hike, Jamal mentioned there’s a waterfall.

It’s one of Iceland’s tallest waterfalls.

It’s called Hanging de FOS Falls, has really beautiful blue water at the bottom.

And then Jamal mentioned you can see to the side the glacier that is melting into a glacier lagoon.

1:02:05

We’re going to actually visit this glacier lagoon later, so stay tuned for that.

But really beautiful, really worth the views.

So we actually went to two glacier lagoons next.

We skipped the one right next to this hike because we were kind of on a time crunch.

1:02:22

We wanted to get food and food was ending.

I want to stay at like 5 or 6 at these food trucks at the Yokler Salon, Glacier Lagoon.

So we booked it on over to that lagoon, grabbed some food from the food truck which had lingostein.

1:02:37

I know you’re not a seafood fan, Kim, but they had like lingostein soup and like a lingostein type lobster roll.

So we went and ate there.

Did they have non seafood options?

There were two other food trucks that had non seafood options.

One of them was a burger truck that it looked actually really, really good too, but we wanted to try the seafood.

1:02:58

So we ended up doing that.

But yeah, this is the area, this is the main glacier lagoon where most of the people are at to go see the views where those food trucks are.

So we checked this out.

We were actually going to be here the next morning to do our other tour, which was taking the Zodiac bow out on it.

1:03:15

But we still wanted to get there, one, for the food, and two, just to really enjoy the views.

So you’re up close to the glacier you see here in the lagoon.

And when we’re talking about this, up until like the 1960s and 70s, this was like pretty much on the ocean.

1:03:31

Unfortunately, there’s been so much retreat and glacial loss that it has now formed this lagoon.

So all this is melted glacial water.

And of course, as the glacier melts, the ice caves off of the glacier, which creates the iceberg.

1:03:47

So this lagoon is filled with the icebergs.

You see seals swimming through here on the icebergs.

You see just all these beautiful colors from the icebergs.

So we really enjoyed the scenery that we had right here.

And then when we were done in this area, just across the way is what’s called Diamond Beach.

1:04:05

And it’s called Diamond Beach because as the icebergs get smaller, wash out actually to the ocean when the waves crash them back up on shore, you have small pieces of the icebergs that are on shore that look like diamonds because they’re so bright from the colors, they’re clear.

1:04:22

It’s just absolutely beautiful.

The Diamond Beach is pretty hit or miss because you never know what you’re going to get.

There was melted icebergs on there and we saw it.

But then you see photos of times where it’s absolutely filled, filled a lot more.

But we got our satisfaction seeing it.

1:04:37

But I wish there was more, but you just never know what you’re going to get.

So this is just right across the way from Yokelsarland.

Diamond Beach right here.

And then we went back to the smaller glacier lagoon, the Felix or a Lone Lagoon.

This is a smaller glacier lake, less popular than the Joe Claire Salon Glacier Lagoon.

1:04:56

And this is the one that you could see from the Canon hike that we previously did.

We actually liked the scenery of this one more because the icebergs were closer to the shore and it’s smaller.

So you get like a really good feel of what this really looks like where the other one is very large.

1:05:13

And so to really experience that when you want to actually get on the water.

So if you’re going for view, I would say this one’s a great one for like views and pictures and then go do the Zodiac tour on the other one, which is what we did later, but don’t miss it.

Don’t miss it, but this one actually has one spot, two in the parking lot where they do the boat tours on this lagoon right here at the Fiash, our lone one.

1:05:37

But the majority of the other glacier lagoons are on Yokelsarland, so they do have guided boat tours here.

But I would recommend doing it on Yokelsarland because the glacier is a a lot bigger, The lagoon’s a lot bigger.

You’re going to see a lot more doing it on that one than on this one right here.

1:05:54

But definitely stop in the parking lot to get those views.

Then we stayed at the Foss Hotel, Glacier Lagoon.

This was our favorite hotel of the trip.

Very beautiful, very nice bathroom, heated tile floors kind of thing.

You know they had tub, hot tub.

This.

Is the hot tub that I fell asleep at.

1:06:10

Oh, nice, yeah.

And it also had a sauna here as well, so very nice hotel.

What about the hotel in Victoria?

Did it also have the hot tub?

No, we stayed in a little cottage that didn’t have a hot tub in that bathroom room was cute, but the bathroom was like a cruise bathroom.

1:06:27

But a lot nicer than the one at Hotel Viking.

You know what made it feel like a cruise bathroom is it had those the shower doors that kind of like pull in to be kind of like rounded and expand out and and yeah, I know, but it was a lot nicer of a bathroom.

But the one right here at the Foss Hotel, Glacier Lagoon, this was maybe the best hotel that we stayed at in terms of just ambiance, bathroom, regular room, everything.

1:06:54

We really did enjoy this hotel a lot.

I feel like the sauna and hot tub experience after being out in the cold and snow and everything all day long must be so nice to come back to.

It is.

It’s so nice.

This is a like, who knew that I was going to pack like three different bathing suits to Iceland?

1:07:11

And This is why.

And it’s called Fossotel Glacier Lagoon.

Do you have a view of the glacier lagoon at all?

No, we didn’t have a view of the glacier lagoon.

I don’t know if any of the rooms did.

We had a Mountain View, but from the hot tub you have like views of the ocean.

1:07:27

I think I’ll.

Take that.

I have views of the ocean.

I think it’s called Foss Hotel Glacier Legume because it’s in close proximity.

But I don’t even think you’re in close proximity enough to actually see any of the glaciers in this area.

So do keep that in mind.

But it is a nice hotel, close enough by 20 minutes close to these ones that you’re in a good spot.

1:07:47

So we rested up, got in the hot tub, the sauna, went to sleep.

The next day is day six and this was Jamal’s favorite activity is what we started the morning with Awe.

Yeah.

So like I had mentioned earlier, the next day, which now happens to be today, we were going to do the Zodiac boat tour on the Yokelsarland Glacier Lagoon.

1:08:07

So the Zodiac boat could fit about 8 to 10 people.

We arrived.

We’re pretty much the first tour of the morning.

We’re dressed up in, you know, layers and by that, of course, we have our normal pants on.

But Brittany and I both have our heaviest jackets on, long sleeves under it.

1:08:25

We’re even wearing scarves because when we were there the day before, the wind that just came off the glacier in that cold air, am I like, Oh my God.

And we’re going to be on the water.

We’re going to be on a boat.

We’re going.

So we dressed rather warm.

It was a little bit less windy this day than it was the day before.

1:08:41

But when you get there, they still give you a onesie kind of like Arctic suit to pull up over it.

So you have an additional layer on top of that.

We were thinking to ourselves, are we going to be really warm with those layers that we’re wearing?

But it was absolutely perfect, especially kind of being the first boat of the morning.

1:08:58

It’s still kind of that crisp air.

So we didn’t feel excessively hot with that.

But they do give you an extra layer to pull on top.

The tour’s supposed to last an hour.

Our tour guide went over an hour, which I’m actually kind of like happy about, you know, two hours, not to two hours, I would say maybe about an hour and a half.

1:09:17

But you can tell he really liked what he was doing 2 because he brings his own camera out there and of course he’s doing the tour for us.

But if he sees something that he likes, he’s taking his time, really appreciating it.

They’re telling us what’s going on.

So it went longer than the hour that it’s supposed to go.

1:09:33

So normally an hour.

But we literally got up close to the glacier, right?

You have a lagoon as huge as its retreating.

So we’re sailing through all the icebergs, speeding through it.

Then he gets as close as he can for safety reasons, not getting any closer to the actual glacier, but you’re still are really close and he’s like, you know, earlier this morning when we were out on here when I was doing my initial run, I heard some cracking.

1:10:00

We may see something today, may see some caving.

We did not see any big chunks come off, but when we were actually really up close and at the closest we can get, we started to hear a little bit of the cracks.

And he took us to this one area where it’s starting to create like a natural cave in the glacier where it’s melting.

1:10:21

And not a big chunk, but we saw a small chunk break off and I couldn’t even believe how loud that baby little piece was.

And you always hear this all the time, especially me when I’m watching like Nature doc.

So if people do, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

1:10:37

But they say when that ice cracks, it’s so freaking loud.

A baby piece cracked and it was so loud.

I can’t even imagine a piece 10 times or 100 times more because the piece that we saw fall was so small, but it was just so loud.

And it’s kind of one of those sad things because of course it’s melting and you don’t really want it to melt, but you also want to see it.

1:10:57

Like it’s like a kill on a safari.

You don’t really want to see it, but you also want to see it.

And that’s how I felt when we were here.

And I really love the experience out here on the lagoon.

It was just so beautiful on the boat, sailing through that.

And then we saw the seals on the eyes, multiple of them.

Just breathtaking.

I think he said we were going about 8 kilometers into the glacier.

1:11:15

So from the shore to the glacier it was about 8 kilometers that we took.

Got really close to icebergs, got really close to the glacier, got to see the seals.

And then there was like a whole bunch of birds in the sky.

And he was like, oh, what’s going on?

What’s going on over here?

And the birds are just making all of this noise and swarming around.

1:11:33

And they were all chasing a Raven.

It was a seabirds chasing a Raven.

And so we got close to that area.

The Raven actually docked onto like a rock that the birds nest on and stole one of the seabirds babies to eat and take to her babies.

1:11:52

And so we got to see that, I guess kill in a sense, because it had the baby bird in its mouth.

They were flocking all around that Raven making a big scene, but did absolutely nothing.

They were just like letting it take the baby and it eventually did.

So that was interesting to see.

1:12:07

Just even the the wildlife that’s out there created from this little environment of the glacial melt.

Really, really humbling and cool.

And I just want to stress how blue the the icebergs are and just the color.

This was my favorite thing I talked about the day before the that hike being my favorite hike.

1:12:25

But in terms of activities in Iceland, the Yokosarlan Glacier Lagoon Zodiac boat tour was my favorite thing.

From here we were going to head back all the way to Reykjavik and from this area to Reykjavik it’s about a 5 hour drive.

1:12:41

So to break it up, we stopped at the Keurid crater.

The Keurid crater is a volcanic crater which has made into a lake.

Now it’s only 6500 years old, so it’s not that old, and it’s one of the most recognizable volcanic craters in Iceland.

1:12:57

Jamal would say that we could skip this off the itinerary pass.

So you would rather do the five hours straight through then make this stop to break it up?

Well, this is maybe about 30 minutes collectively out of the way, so.

Minutes in, 15 minutes out.

1:13:13

Yeah, 15 minutes each direction.

So like I said, 30 minutes out of the way on the way back to Reykjavik.

Now, if you remember earlier, Brittany was saying I forgot on what day, but we were trying to figure out what to do.

And this is pretty close to Reykjavik.

So she wanted to go out of the way originally to go see this, which no big deal because on her way to Victoria that day, this wasn’t on the way.

1:13:33

So like, I get it, right.

But it’s cool and it’s one of Iceland’s most popular tourist attractions to see.

But also at the same time, it’s just it’s a crater.

It’s not a big one.

And there’s water at the bottom.

And OK, like I, I’m not impressed with it.

1:13:50

Like to do it, but don’t go out of your way to do it.

That’s my honest opinion about it.

Brittany liked it.

That’s the one of the things that I love about this podcast.

And when we get reviews, people say they love how we all have different opinions on things.

This one it just it could be a pass in my opinion.

1:14:06

Yeah, the caldera is about 55 meters deep.

It’s 170 meters wide.

You can actually do the little walk around the top of it where you can hike down to the bottom where the lake is, or you could just stand at the overlook, which is what we did.

I feel like because this is one of the very last things that we did, and with everything else that we did in Iceland, it’s not as impressive as some of the other things.

1:14:26

So I enjoyed it.

But yeah, I could agree with Jamal that if you’re not looking to break up the drive, it probably could be passed on.

We also broke up the drive a little bit by eating lunch back in Victoria.

So you could just do that instead and skip this and then get to Reykjavik a little bit early.

1:14:42

Because we were ending our day in Reykjavik doing the Sky Lagoon.

We kind of saved this for like our very last full day.

We were super excited about it.

So that was how we were wanting to end it.

But take it or leave it, we put it on the itinerary.

I did put a disclaimer on there that if you’re running low on time to skip it, then that’s one of the things I love about our itineraries is you can personalize them, customize them, and we give you little squat tips here and there.

1:15:08

And to reiterate, we’re talking about the potential disclaimer to skip the crater, not Sky Lagoon.

So I want to talk about Sky Lagoon because everyone when you talk about Iceland has heard of Blue Lagoon, right?

Blue Lagoon’s iconic and Sky Lagoon is also something very popular to do to into the thermal waters.

1:15:26

Now Blue Lagoon, when you do all the research on it and you really see people’s honest feedback, they’ll say that Blue Lagoon is really pretty.

For the Instagram shot, it’s called the Blue Lagoon.

Yes, because the waters look a little bit blue.

A little.

1:15:42

Bit blue.

I would say they’re very blue.

OK, thank you for the correction.

You are very right.

I don’t know why I said a little bit blue, you are correct on that.

But other than that, they say the surrounding environment of the Blue Lagoon is nothing to write home about.

You’re just sitting then in hot water at that point, whereas Sky Lagoon, it’s closer in the city center pretty much of Reykjavik and you actually have these thermal waters that then they create an Infinity pool at Sky Lagoon looking over into the ocean.

1:16:13

So you have a little bit cooler of a view and thing to actually look at.

And then they really do it up to by making the building look like the traditional caves where they have the grass growing on top of the rock.

So it’s this really cool environment, but it also allows you to do a SPA experience in here, which we also did.

1:16:36

Yes, we booked the pure experience, which was the seven step ritual.

There’s another experience called the sky experience.

It’s pretty much the same thing, but with the sky experience you get a private changing room.

We just chose the open changing room and on property there’s like a waterfall, there’s a swim up bar.

1:16:54

There’s plenty of places to sit while you’re in the soak.

But the seven step ritual, we’re not going to get super deep into it because on Friday we’re doing our mini episode on the whole spa experience and walking you through step by step.

So I’m just going to quickly go through it.

But step one is to soak in the lagoon.

1:17:11

Step 2 is a cold plunge.

It’s very cold.

Step 3 is a very nice warm sauna with panoramic ocean views.

The best sauna I’ve ever been in.

Step 4 is a cold mist.

Step 5 is a whole body scrub.

1:17:27

Step 6 is a steam room.

Step 7 is a shower to wash it all off.

And then you’re done.

But you entered back into the sky lagoon for one final soak.

How long did you soak?

Afterwards, after the ritual or just?

Before and after.

1:17:42

Well, we probably soaked at least 30 to 40 minutes beforehand and then afterwards we probably did 20 or 30 minutes afterwards.

We spent a lot of time in the the sauna and the steam room, so collectively we were there a good amount of time things.

1:18:00

Were there for almost 2 1/2 hours.

Yeah, because our reservation was at 7:30, Sky Lagoon closes at what, 11, and we left at 10301045 S By the time we got out and changed, it was around that time or close to that time.

So we spent a good amount of time there.

1:18:16

But just Google Photos of Sky Lagoon.

Of course, we’re not saying if you want to do Blue Lagoon, not to do Blue Lagoon.

If we had more time, we probably would have done both, but just we chose one over the other.

And we really enjoyed this experience here at Sky Lagoon.

1:18:32

I loved it a lot.

If I do make it out there this winter, I want to do both.

And you know, I would recommend doing both.

If you have time to do both, do both.

But we really like Sky Lagoon.

And again, we have no reference other than just the reviews of Blue Lagoon that we’ve read, but I’m sure Blue Lagoon would be equally just as nice.

1:18:52

My skin has never felt softer than it did after we left Sky Lagoon.

Even after the full body Korean scrub at U Spa.

Yes.

Wow.

The body scrub that they give you here and the the salt and oils for that.

And then you get in with that steam room after the fact and just a combination of everything with the thermal waters.

1:19:13

I even felt like really smooth afterwards and I was like, oh man, this is, this is quite nice.

You know, I can see why people are really into stuff like this.

And that’s how we ended our last full day in Reykjavik.

The next day, day seven, is the day we were heading home.

We had a 430 flight out of Reykjavik.

1:19:31

So we spent the morning doing a few last minute things on the Reykjavis peninsula.

This peninsula is the closest peninsula to the airport, so it’s kind of along the way.

We went and stopped first at the bridge between continents.

Like we mentioned before, the Eurasian and North American plates have that diversion.

1:19:50

And there’s actually a small foot bridge here that you can cross over the divide and then you can drop down into the sand between the two tectonic plates and get a good picture there.

Jamal was really excited that we were going to do this.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool.

Again, I like geology and geography.

1:20:05

And so when you’re on one side, it tells you, oh, technically you’re in Europe, you cross to the other side, technically now you’re in North America and you’re literally crossing a bridge that spans the tectonic plates.

And I think that was actually really cool.

And we did not do this, but there are visitor centers around in this area.

1:20:22

If you go to those visitor centers, they will actually give you a free certificate with your name on it saying that you’ve actually crossed from Europe to North America or vice versa.

So you can go get those little certificates, if you’re inclined to do so, at the visitor centers out in the region.

And then we went to the Ray Conesta Cliffs.

1:20:39

This is the seaside cliffs and sea stacks that are constantly battered by sea waves.

They’re really beautiful.

You can see a lighthouse in this area.

You can see some of the birds in this area.

Just be careful because the birds can get a little aggressive in this area.

What do you mean?

Well, they have signs actually that says the Birds are aggressive.

1:20:57

And we’ll get to that in just a quick a little second because, I mean, we got some good stories on that.

But I don’t know if anybody’s ever seen Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds where they attack.

They kind of do that here.

They get really protective in this region.

So when we were at these cliffs, we didn’t experience it, but when we went to one area here in this region, we we did end up getting attacked by birds.

1:21:17

So we’ll get to that very shortly.

Jamal, what movie was filmed in this location with Will Ferrell?

I don’t know what movie it was.

I thought it was just like a little scene that they did.

But Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams did some sort of either film or scene for something out by the sea cliffs.

1:21:34

And they were dressed up like Vikings playing keyboards.

And they have those keyboards as a statue out there.

And then they have a sign where you could scan AQR code and like, watch them do that video.

So we were in that region, but I, I don’t remember exactly what it was.

1:21:49

So something cool if you’re into movie and TV trivia.

Just across the street there are some Hot Springs called the Goon Akvar Hot Springs.

It’s a little boardwalk area with mud pools and steam vents.

We just did the quick little boardwalk and enjoyed that the boardwalk is actually named after a ghost that was causing havoc in the area and it was causing havoc into the area until a local priest set a trap and she fell into the hot spring.

1:22:14

So it may or may not be haunted.

Some local lure going on out there at those Hot Springs.

Are they Hot Springs that you can go into?

Oh, no, your skin will boil off.

You don’t want to get into that.

Yeah, it’s definitely kind of like a Yellowstone activity out in that region, just like bubbling water.

1:22:32

Yeah.

Yeah, you definitely don’t want to get in there.

Were there any natural Hot Springs you could go into?

If there were none that we actually did our research on, I’m sure that blue, I mean, Blue Lagoon is a natural hot spring, right?

Yeah.

Sky Lagoon is also one.

1:22:47

I don’t know how much of the water they actually let cool off or if it comes out of that region in a cooler mode.

But yeah, none that we actually saw that were like, OK, I’m really out in the middle of nowhere and let me get in.

It’s temperate for my body, even though it’s hot.

I’m not too sure.

1:23:03

But I know there are in Iceland but they you have to hike quite a bit a ways to get to them and none of the areas we were at that I researched had them, but I know there are some there.

And so after we were done at the Hot Springs of Goonikvir, we went on to Brimka Tilt.

1:23:20

Now, this is a lava rock pool, and you can have all these lava and volcanic rocks that are just flowing into the ocean by flowing, of course, it’s not active lava, but of course, it was at one point.

It’s created these lava rocks and pools.

But this is the area where we ended up getting attacked by birds.

1:23:39

We were parked in the parking lot.

Apparently they’re nesting out in this region.

These are the same birds, by the way, that let the Raven take their little baby.

And here they are over here not even doing anything to the Raven, but they are physically attacking us.

They touched skin on my head over here.

1:23:55

We get out of the car, some people are walking back from the rocks and they said watch out for the birds.

They’re actually like attacking.

I said really?

I said we saw the signs.

But he’s like, no, no, I think they have a nest here.

They’re actually attacking.

But he said but once you get to the stairs, you’re OK.

So I think you get out of their area once you get to the stairs.

1:24:13

So we go and they start dive bombing us, trying to like hit our head, attack us.

And they’re, they’re really chasing us.

I was quite shocked.

We get to the stairs and then they stop and then we overlook the, the lava rock pool.

It’s pretty cool.

1:24:28

Again, something to do.

It’s not like an absolute must.

We were just killing time.

But those people, they waited in their car for us to be done.

And as I was going back to the car, I noticed they were filming and when I got to the car they said thank you for that.

They literally stayed to watch so that they can film it because they experienced themselves getting attacked and they wanted to see somebody.

1:24:48

They were dive bombing the shit out of me as I was going back to the car.

Yes, they were.

You know, I also got swooped on by a bird recently out here in Austin, first time ever, and I don’t trust birds anymore.

They’re up to something.

I feel like they have a little evil in them.

1:25:04

A lot of birds are nasty birds.

I don’t lie.

Especially seabirds.

Lots of seabirds are the nasty birds.

You know what I mean?

So I feel you on that one, Kim.

I, like I said earlier, I like birds.

I really do.

But some of them are just yeah, they’re gross.

They’re nasty.

This lava pool, Kim reminded me of Queen’s Bath in Kawaii.

1:25:24

The way that it kind of creates that natural barrier, but you know, it’s an Iceland, so you’re not going to want to get into the water.

You didn’t jump on in, put your big sack of potato on.

No, I mean, I should have brought that, but no, I didn’t.

And then our last stop, just to kind of to kill time before the airport was called the Giantess Cave.

1:25:42

This cave is home to the legendary giantess who is actually a storybook character.

And this cave was designed in like 2008.

They have her in The Cave.

She’s about 5 meters tall.

She has a bed, her dress, some shoes and a few other items there.

1:25:58

But it’s just kind of cool to see in this, like, seaside town.

Yeah, it’s basically a famous children’s book or series that an Icelandic, the author has wrote about this one giant.

So because it’s so famous and they have a natural cave kind of by the water, they’ve made it a little tourist attraction.

1:26:15

It’s free to go into where you can go check it out.

And it’s basically her home.

She’s in there sleeping.

At one point.

She actually even farts too, because they have like audio going.

So they really keep with the theme of kind of like a little giant going on in there with with her giant toothbrush, bed, shoes, curtains, clothes hanging.

1:26:34

So there’s something fun to do if you’re trying to kill time.

Yeah, this could be a skip if you didn’t want to see it or if you’re running short on time.

And that really wraps up our time in Iceland.

We went and returned our rental car to the airport and we hopped on our flight from Reykjavik to Seattle.

1:26:53

Sounds like you had an amazing trip.

I’m so glad that you went.

I’m going to use so many of these tips when I go, but now it’s time for questions of the week.

Our first question coming in is I’ve heard Iceland is expensive.

1:27:09

Did it live up to that?

I felt like Iceland was expensive in terms of food and gas were the priciest and we got two bowls of soup one night and it was like $43.00 so food was a pretty pricey.

And gas is like 8 bucks a gallon when you do the equivalent from like liters and the cost per liter to gallon and comes to about $8 a gallon.

1:27:31

So luckily the SUV that they gave us was a hybrid SUV.

So I mean, gas was still expensive, but we didn’t motor through a lot of it considering how much travelling we did.

So, so do keep that in mind.

A lot of people in Iceland too, Britney kind of alluded to this earlier, can do like the RV or van camping and there’s lots of rentals for that, but they’re going to be a lot bigger.

1:27:54

So yeah, you’re saving on hotel cost, but you’re going to be using a lot more gas that way.

So depends on what mode that you want to go, but gas is about 8 bucks a gallon equivalent right now.

Our hotels range from 200 a night to 370 a night.

And then our rental car was pretty pricey.

1:28:11

It was about $1000 including the full insurance.

So in total for two people for about a week trip, what was the grand total?

$6068.27.

OK.

So that’s the flights, the hotels, food, excursions, rental car, gas, parking.

1:28:30

So about 3000 per person for a week trip.

I mean, it’s expensive, but I kind of think back to what we spent in Costa Rica and I know we were eating at resorts and whatnot or even Hawaii, and it’s not outrageous.

I was expecting higher.

1:28:47

We met a couple while you were there and they had recently gone to Switzerland and she said Switzerland was pricier than Iceland in their opinion.

So it’s not the priciest you could be, but I felt like it was pretty pricey and it could have been more pricey because we did save a lot of money not eating out for lunch every day.

1:29:05

You know, we were on the two meal per day diet.

Kim when?

Brittany travels.

She literally starves you.

You’re not allowed to have three meals per day, and in fact sometimes not even allowed to have two.

I know.

Which is so crazy because when we’re home, she’s so adamant.

Jamal, you need to cook me something.

1:29:21

Where’s my lunch?

Where’s my dinner?

Where’s my breakfast?

I need all three.

But we put her on the road, and I try to tell this to her, to have that mindset.

When we’re here, you’re good.

You don’t need it.

It’s mental mindset.

Mental mindset.

I’m glad we’re on the same page, Kim.

Second question for myself is you’ve seen Iceland in summer now and you want to go back for the Ring Rd. and to see more of the northern sides of things, Would you go in winter or are you wanting to go again in summer?

1:29:48

With what I want to see in the northern section, I would want to go back in summer.

I think I would save the Northern Lights for a country like Finland, actually.

That’s just my preference.

But I would.

I mean, there’s nothing stopping me going back to see Iceland in the winter.

1:30:03

It’s just going to be a lot colder and probably won’t be able to do as much hiking and things aren’t going to be as accessible.

But if you’re going for just the Northern Lights, yeah, it’d be worth it.

All right, you heard it here first.

Squaddies, thank you so much for tuning into our episode.

So this week, remember to click on the link in the show notes for the Iceland itinerary.

1:30:23

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1:30:42

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