Kirkjur, Fossa og Fjörur

Our first day in Iceland was, to say the least, nothing short of amazing! Since we landed so early, by the time we got to the city, we still had the whole day to play.  The only dampening part was that it was raining, but we were determined to not let that get us down. We pop into Kaffitár for cup o' joe and to figure out our plan of attack.  It was there that I had the best chai latte that I have ever had before, wow just wow it was so good!!

From there, we trudged up the hill to see the unreal Hallgrímskirkja, Iceland's tallest church.  What a site! I just could not get over how cool this church was.  We had hoped to go inside, but unfortunately there was a funeral going on.  This just gives us an excuse to go back another time.  

We then made our way down to the serene Tjörnin.  We walked around the Fríkirkjan, another cute little church and stood in wonder of the lake or "pond" as locals refer to it.  

We even hung out with some of the locals who frequent the pond.  If it hadn't started raining pretty hard at this point, I think I could have stayed all day here. 

In the afternoon, we hopped in the car and decided to drive the "Golden Circle".  We were not planning on doing this today, but the guy at the rental car place mentioned that we should, so we figured "Why not?" We saw some amazing views and scenery of Iceland.  It was absolutely stunning. However, our jet lag started to rear its ugly head, forcing us to abandon our plans and head back to the city, before falling asleep at the wheel.


If you can't tell, I have an affinity for the Icelandic churches.

The next day, we made the drive down to the town of Vík, one of the places that I was really looking forward to going to.  Along the way, we passed some crazy views and of course had to stop at all the waterfalls.  

The first waterfall we happened upon was Seljalandsfoss.  It stands at about 197 feet high; quite impressive.  Being that the car thermometer read 1 degree celsius, we bundled up and walked up to the waterfall.  The closer we got, the more if began to sleet on us.  It was really, really cool, but also really, really cold! 

The next waterfall we found was Skógafoss, measuring 200 feet high and 82 feet wide.  There was a trail leading to the top of the falls that was just calling my name.  I think Ray looked at me like I was crazy when I said, "Alright, let's climb up".  Luckily, he is always up for my out-there ideas.

Views from the top. It was a little too cold to hang out for long... On the way back down, I spotted a cute, little fuzzy friend.  

Back in the car, next stop Reynisfjara, the Black Sand Beach, and Reynisdrangur, the sea stacks, of Vík.  We stumble upon a blue sign along the Ring Road and notice that a few cars were pulling off towards it in front of us.  We decided to join pull off too and luckily we did.  This sign pointed us straight to where we wanted to go. 

We continued to drive this little road all the way down until it dead ended right at the beach.  I couldn't even contain my excitement.  I jumped out of the car and started walking straight towards the basalt columns, leaving Ray in the dust.  

The columns were so cool, jutting out of the black sand.  Not nearly as big as the Giant's Causeway as far as width and scope, but it definitely was taller.  I could only climb up about 5-6 steps before not being able to go up any further.  While standing there in awe of this crazy phenomena, I turned to Ray and told him, "We need to make it a point to go see all the the basalt columns in the world!".  I thought there were only 5-10, but upon further research, there's probably close to 100 or more.  So maybe we won't make all of them, but at least try to see as many as we can. 

We continued to walk along the black beach and it was utterly majestic.  The sand was as dark as night, while the white water provided stark contrast as it rolled up on the shore.  And all the way at the end of the beach were the sea stacks, poking out of the water.  Legend has it that they were trolls who got caught out in the sun.  I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

As I stood, watching the waves for a few minutes, I could see how they churned and danced with every breath.  They were unpredictable, sometimes gentle and whispering up the shoreline, while other times they grew angry, rushing to the shore as tempestuous and frantic as they could.  And then, suddenly a "sneaker wave" would come out of nowhere, surprising any unsuspecting passerby.  One actually snuck up on me; fortunately he was a small one and would have only attacked my ankles if I hadn't notice him.  But unfortunately for others, they were bigger and faster, ultimately dragging them to their death, yikes!! I wonder if any of the crosses at Víkurkirkja (the church in Vík) are from any of those less fortunate.

The drive back to Reykjavik consisted of numerous glacier sightings.  Not something this California girl sees everyday.  

That night we walked around Reykjavik for awhile trying to figure out where we wanted to eat for dinner.  We settled on Svarta Kaffi, a cute little place that served soup in a bread bowl and beer.  What could be better? That being said, they only served 2 types of soup per night. Tonight happened to be Asparagus or mexican meat.  Ass-per-gas for me and Ray had the meats.  Also, my first beer in Iceland proved to be a good one too, a Borg NR.3 Úlfur IPA.

 After dinner, we hit up a few more craft breweries to sample the local flavors.  We made a stop at Bryggjan Brugghús and MicroBar for a flight.

If you've been following us since the beginning of our blog, you'll know how we like to make up our own titles for statues that we see.  I called this one "Man on Horse on Rock with Stick and Dinner Plate"