The Green is Greener!

Yesterday when we got to the car rental office to get our car, the guy looked at us and said: "You've got a manual car..." and paused waiting for us to say something like: "Oh no, we want an automatic," but that didn't happened. We told him that it was fine, and he was puzzled.  He said that Americans normally get automatic cars.

After today, I am very happy we rented the manual. The Golden Circle was on the schedule today. I have to confess that I had a hard time trying to figure out what exactly the Golden Circle is. I did as much research as I could and we ended up doing a customized version of it. It also gets really hard given the fact that all signs on the road are in Icelandic and there is practically no information about anything anywhere. 

The first stop was a waterfall called Háifoss. It was far and it didn't make sense to go, so we went. Most of the time the road was fine, but about the last 10 km was a little bit of an off-road drive with lots of rocks and hills. Needless to say we did not rent a 4-wheel-drive. We rented a small VW Up, which is a really wonderful little thing that we put to the test today. There was a point where I thought we weren't going to make it. But we did! And the fact that it was a manual car made things a lot better.

The picture was taken in the nice part of it on the way back. Anyways. It was absolutely worth the effort. Getting to these places is a little weird because you don't see cars on the road. Some times a car passes you, or you pass a car, but we were alone for most of the drive this morning. And it makes you wonder if you are going to the right place. It is also refreshing. We are not used to being anywhere like this. And it feels really good.

When we got to the place there were just two more cars. We walked to the waterfalls and they were, as majestic and wonderful as they could be. We spent quite a long time there. Long enough to see two rainbows come out and a sunlight show like no other. You feel so small when you are there. This planet is really a wonderful place and we desperately need to learn to take better care of it.

It was hard to leave, but we had many places to go to. The drive down was better. Then we arrived at Gullfoss. The contrast was really impressive. There are no signs of humans taking advantage of the natural wonder Háifoss, whereas Gullfoss is a little bit like the Grand Canyon: built pathways, fences that stop you from going farther, coffee, a gift shop and even a bathroom that is not free. The amount of people was also a bit too much for me. But the place is still worth it. 

We were super lucky with the weather all day. Some very hard rain hit us while we were driving. But overtime after we arrived to our destination, it cleared up. After this waterfall, where we also saw a rainbow, we went to Geysir which is the place from where the word geyser comes from. I've never seen anything like that. This Earth is such a wonderful living thing. The water comes out with no warning and is so silent it leaves you speechless.

After that, we tried to go to two other places that we thought were not far away, but our information wasn't right. We ended up going to a cave in the middle of nowhere, where people used to live in the early 1900's and is now, as we learned, occupied by sheep. 

And this really was in the middle of nowhere like you can see in the photo below. We, of course, were the only people there. It was kind of cool.

Also, as you can see, the green here is greener, the blue is bluer the sun is brighter. And I am not exaggerating. Iceland looks exactly like every single picture I have seen and being here is like walking on the clouds. There was lots of rain today, which caused I don't know how many rainbows during the day. We saw about ten. I don't get over it. 

And...We Are Here!

We made it here. Of course, things don't always go like you imagined. I had planned to sleep all five hours of the flight, because we were going to get to Iceland and hit the road. 

But the flight didn't take off at the scheduled time and I really didn't manage to sleep as much as I would have liked to. I was surrounded by babies who would not go to sleep and one particular baby screamed for a very long time. I think I slept about 2 hours, may be three.

We arrived in Keflavík, which is a beautiful airport by the way, close to eight in the morning. There was no line in immigration and everything went very smoothly.

My friend's flight had a longer delay then mine, so I waited for her at the luggage bands. When she arrived we headed straight to get the car and left. We rented the car with what seems to be a local company and it was great. They were super nice. We rented a mobile router to be able to find our way through the island, and that so far has been our best friend.

Icelanders are very nice and happy people, and the women are strikingly beautiful. Our first stop was in a grocery store. We got our goodies and started our drive. I had planned a schedule for us, because I didn't want to spend our precious time here trying to figure out where to go.

So we knew where we were going and how long it was going to take. Driving through Iceland is like driving in a story book, a TV series or a surreal movie. The landscape is breathtaking. The clouds move constantly giving you a sunlight show like no other. There is green everywhere and almost no trees. You see horses, cows, and sheep all over the place. And the air...the air is so pure and clean...Being here just renews your system without you even trying to do so.

Icelanders are aggressive drivers, which was a bit scary at the beginning, but then you get used to it. You have to be careful with the animals on the road. At one point a car in front of us swerved because a bird was flying very low on the road and I ended up doing the same later, but my bird was walking on the road.

We went to a couple of amazingly beautiful waterfalls. Being there is unbelievable and we loved and enjoyed every minute of it. We also went to black beach which has amazing rock formations. The beach was not on the schedule and it was a bit farther than we expected. But it was all worth it.

We closed the day at the Blue Lagoon which was cool, but I am not the kind of person for that place. I rather walk through nature wonders and get my shoes full of mud.

The fact that it is summer and that it really doesn't get dark messes with your mind. It was 10 pm and we completely forgot that we might find businesses that could be closed. Oh well.

I am in love with this place. I thought I wasn't going to be able to survive the whole day without taking a nap at some point, given the fact that I slept little to nothing. But my excitement for being here kept me up and running longer than I expected. I can't wait for our the rest of it!

A Long Awaited Trip

My heart has always been a traveler. A friend of mine once told me I was probably born in a suitcase. That was not the case, but I was raised by wonderful parents who always encouraged me to expand my horizons and I have always been fortunate enough to be able to do so. I work hard for it. And I love it.

Of course every trip is different. Now I am just realizing that   certain kind of trips make you really comfortable and you kind of forget how it feels to be uncomfortable.

Let me explain. Last time I went somewhere far and completely alien to me was almost 10 years ago. Back then I had the opportunity to travel to places often and far away, completely unknown. The last trip was to Egypt and I went with my cousin on a tour. I remember being happy and excited, but not anxious. The fact that it was a tour made things a lot easier. It was an extraordinary trip. I had lots of fun and loved everything I saw and learned.

After that, all of my trips have have been in the USA and Mexico. Don't get me wrong, I've seen the most wonderful places and you learn something about yourself with every trip. But I knew the drill. I speak the languages. I felt pretty comfortable finding my way around. 

Until yesterday, right before boarding my flight to Reykjavik, I hadn't realized how much I needed to get out of my comfort zone. It's been a long time. I am a different person now and age does affect the way I feel about it. I am now an adult with responsibilities. And I am a freelancer. So going to far away places for a long time has a different effect now. 

I felt nervous the two weeks leading to the trip. I was stressing about things like packing and making sure I took care of everything I needed to before leaving. It wasn't until I was at the airport that I thought "I'm ok. I feel good about this." 

I am now at Reykjavik's airport waiting for my friend to start our four-day adventure in Iceland. And I can now say that I loved listening to a completely strange language, walking through a whole new airport and breathing this wonderful air.