(Pre-apology: This blog would be so much more interesting if I had pictures to share, but there just simply isn’t the time to upload all of them quite yet.  Stay tuned.  Sorry!)

Following the shenanigans of our last night in Reykjavik, Clayton and I were anxious to put some mileage between us and the capital city.

Once we got our rental car, we headed east on the Ring Road.  We were headed to the town of Vik, where we would be staying for the night.  After getting accumulated to driving the rental car and the ways of the Ring Road, we quickly got comfortable and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  Once we left the vicinity of Reykjavik, huge mountains loomed in the distance.  That’s where we were headed.

We made our first stops at two incredible waterfalls, Seljalandfoss and Skogafoss.  Both were absolutely incredible.  You could actually walk behind Seljalandfoss, which was pretty incredible (and wet).  Skogafoss featured a giant set of stairs that allowed you to view the waterfall from the top.

We arrived at our guesthouse right around 6:00pm, with just a little time left before the sun set.  We settled in and headed to nearby Vik for dinner.  The only restaurant in Vik is attached to the only gas station in Vik.  As you can imagine, there was not a whole lot of action going on in Vik.  The restaurant served something called an “eggburger”, which was literally a hamburger with a fried egg sitting on top of it.  What the fuck?

After that, we headed back to the house.  We both hopped in to bed at 9:00pm fully intending to fall asleep after all the day’s craziness, but both of us quickly realized how off our schedules were.  Once we both did some reading though, we both fell asleep pretty easily after that.

The next morning we awoke to breakfast at the guesthouse and then off for a full day of adventure.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  There wasn’t a single cloud I could spot in the sky and it stayed that way the entire day.  Everyone we encountered was amazed at our good luck with the weather.  We took full advantage of the opportunity!

We made our first two stops at Dyrholaey and Reynisdrangar.  Dyrholaey was about a 5km drive on a potholed dirt road, but the payoff was excellent.  We drove to the top of a huge plateau from which connected a large outcropping that stretched out into the sea.  The bottom of which had been eroded by the waves and formed a beautiful rock arch large enough for a boat to go through.  The view from the top was absolutely incredible.  After that, we headed to Reynisdrangar, which are three giant sea-stacks in the middle of the water.  Local legend says they were three trolls trying to lure a ship to shore just before dawn, but the sun rose and turned them to stone.  The beaches here were all fine black sand and rock.  We were lucky enough to arrive at low tide which allowed us to explore the beach a little more.  However, as we lingered, the tide was clearly rising and the waves got closer and closer to soaking us.  We made it out okay.

We drove on to our next stop - Skaftafell.  Skaftafell is a huge national park that covers a large portion of Iceland.  It also is the home of Vatnajokull, Europe’s largest glacier.  We’d spent the past day and a half looking at giant glaciers in the distance, but now it was finally time to get up close and personal with one.  We took about a 7.5 km hike up into Skaftafell.  We saw a few waterfalls and then made our way across to the side of the glacier to really see it in all its glory.  It was truly impressive.  It also felt good to get out of the car for several hours and hike.  We hiked to a lookout point that gave us one of my favorite views in Iceland so far.

After Skaftafell, we were exhausted and headed to our second stop near Jokulsarlon.  We arrived to find dinner being prepared for us and we were a bit worried it might not be something we like, but we were thrilled to find an amazing menu.  We both had a delicious lamb soup that I wouldn’t mind having more of.  Maybe for breakfast?

We’re settled in now to our room and preparing to crash a little early.  We have a big driving day tomorrow and want to make sure we get an early start.  Of course, that won’t stop us from kicking back a few Viking beers and doing a little reading.  In a few minutes, we’re heading outside to see if we can catch the Northern Lights.  They appeared faintly last night, so we’re hoping our luck improves tonight.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Lake Myvatn.  We’re running dangerously low on clean clothes, so hopefully we find a little laundromat and yes, maybe a little wi-fi for more Iceland updates.