Originally wrote this Iceland trip log post in German as language practice. Hence the interview format. Now I’ll be translating it back to English.

german post

moon walk

Q: Welcome back, where did you go?
A: Today I’m returning from an Iceland round trip. During my Iceland tour I saw black beaches, picturesque mountains, breathtaking nature.

Dyrhólaey rock arch

Q: This is your second trip to the Nordic region. Why do you enjoy traveling in Iceland and Norway?
A: In the Nordic region you get more untouched nature and beauty. They have tourist sure but not many, and are easy to escape from. I must say I’m fascinated my the nature and the weather of the north. The land reminds me of the Rockey Mountains, plus Olympic Mountains, plus Arizona, simply has everything. When I was a boy I spent time in mountains and now I continue to enjoy them.

waterfall xxx

Q: Well, you love Iceland but wasn’t it too cold?
A: Yes, Iceland has very cold and damp weather but its not a big problem. My cloths along with healthy dose of whisky every night kept me warm. With friends to share the experience with the cold is not so bad.

steam

Q: Where did you start the tour?
A: We started by flying from Munich to Reykjavik. Then we picking up our rental car, spent a night in a hostel, and properly got the trip started. We began the tour with with the Golden Circle (Þingvellir National Park, Gullfoss waterfall, and Haukadalur). It was very pretty but the adventure really became fun with driving an F-Road. We drove the F-249 from Seljalandsfoss to here. It had multiple river crossings and at one point the hood of the SUV was completely underwater! It was crazy. Took lot of team work, ex wading out into the streams to assess safest path of travel. We spent a night camping there but unfortunately missed the big glacier + volcano hike on a count of a massive server storm warning for lower half of the island. We were chased back to the ring road before the stream crossings became impassible.

crater near Reykjahlíð.

Stuðlagil Canyon

Q: That was dangerous no?
A: Yeah but we made it back to the ring road before the storm really set in. We continued up to Vik and Dyrhólaey to see the birds and rock arch. It was so windy it nearly knocked me over. When opening car doors one had to be careful not to let them blow open and get damaged. Unfortunately the birds were not out but we still had an impressive view. That night we tried to make it out of the storm to the north, but after hours of driving we settled on camping in the rain.

waterfall 18

Q: Did you have rain the whole trip?
A: No, we when we made it up to the East Fjords we had really nice weather. It caused us to explore them more then planned. We spent a day hiking and sampling local food, near Borgarfjörður Eystri. The travel group had really good teamwork and fill our activities with laughter. Most every night of the trip we got together and played a Russian card game Durck.

east fjords

Q: What did you see next?
A: One of the travel group members had a friend who is a whale watching guide in Akureyri so we headed there. Along the way, like most of Iceland, we stopped at waterfalls, craters, and geo thermal spots. Once in Akureyri we headed out into the bay by ship and followed a humpback whale for a few hours, which was good fun.

moon flower

thingvellir

Q: That is a lot for one week.
A: Yeah, after Akureyri we made our way south pretty fast. We ere tired by that point and skipped many waterfalls. Next time I’d like to see the West Fjords and the Snæfellsnes peninsula. Overall though it was an amazing trip and I’m really lucky to have shared the experience with such good company.

dusty road

waterfall 23