In Greek philosophy there are 4 elements in which all things exist and consist: fire, earth, air and water. For me Iceland is not the land of ice and fire, as many say, but the land of the four elements plus one, which is of course ice! How could one not consider, in fact, the omnipresent water, the wind and the earth of so many colours? Iceland is the most different land I have ever seen, with a variety and quantity of powerful and spectacular landscapes and natural phenomena truly incredible for its small size. It is a country with an ancient and proud soul that it refuses to give up in pursuit of a global homogenisation that is truly flattening so many cultures, even thousand-year-old ones, despite having very precise and transparent international political sympathies.
Icelanders preserve their identity so strongly, without for that matter giving up modernity, that, for example, despite being super advanced in the production of green energy with increasingly advanced and technological expertise, they do not allow new roads to be opened in those areas where elves and trolls “certainly” live, so as not to disturb them! Iceland is a dream, it gives continuous emotions that strike deeply, to the point of moving you, and the silences and solitudes it can offer are a treasure difficult to describe and to forget, unique and wonderful. My words will seem exaggerated, but believe me, if you don't see it and live it at least a little, it is truly impossible to understand.
To give a small example, I have a lovely photo book of Iceland: seeing them now compared with before is totally different, they look like DIFFERENT photos! Given these premises, I'll tell you a bit about how it went. I saw this trip as something fantastic, but out of reach, both geographically and, above all, economically. I kept hearing people studying its feasibility and in the end concluding: I'd rather go to the USA, it costs just as much anyway. That verdict stung me: what have the United States got to do with it, and why should they always be the yardstick of a beautiful but somewhat demanding trip?! If you're going to spend a lot anyway, for me the opposite applied: I was interested in Iceland, not the United States, so over the years I began to pursue MY own myth more concretely, until I made it happen this summer.
There are low-cost airlines that now reach Reykjavik even from Rome, as well as from Milan (for example WOW), but in the end the prices I found didn't seem like a bargain anyway, and checked baggage was not included and cost a lot. We have become absolute experts in the science of Ryanair-style hand luggage, but in this case we had to cram in a bit too much stuff: food, trekking gear and layered clothing, given the climatic variability we could expect. I also tried Easy Jet with a stopover in London, but here too the prices soared and were high. So searching and searching, in the end I booked flights with Air Berlin, with a relatively short stopover in Germany, at 400 € per person.
Iceland is far away and by now I have also understood and accepted that the airline market is bizarre, so I was already determined to spend that amount, but before ratifying this decision, another fundamental detail was missing that had put me off in the past, namely the crazy price of car rental. Even through Rentalcars, which I have used many times in various countries, I couldn't find anything under 1600 € for the rental of a 4x4 for 8 days. Decidedly excessive. Meanwhile I was also looking at some guesthouses to get an idea of both availability and costs, and by chance I found one near the airport that also rented out the car.
The one we needed cost 860 €, including insurance for some typical “Icelandic” damage, such as against gravel, stones or volcanic ash(!) and a second driver!! Moreover, for just 10 euros more, they came to pick us up at the airport in the middle of the night and drove us back there at dawn! Well, that's it, at this point nothing was holding me back anymore, I took the risk and booked everything!! I read dozens of Iceland travel forums in one go and based many choices on them, although fortunately on one point where all the supposed experts gave the exact same advice, namely for just 8 days to limit yourself to a few areas and exclude the full ring-road circuit to avoid always being in the car, I, also consulting my own, decided to force this and do it my way. And it turned out excellently: if I had followed that warning, we would have missed marvellous experiences.
So my advice is: in the end everyone knows themselves and should also go by their own instinct and take into account what kind of traveller they are! We are the type with a fever on during trips, we prefer to get up early and make the most of the days, and that's already a fact. Moreover here we had two other huge points in our favour: my son, although only 21, could be the second driver (I am poor at it, unfortunately, in this respect!) and he and my husband really shared the effort, and even though it is true that the speed limits are kept regularly low, you can cover long distances a day and every km, even from the car, is different from the next! Out of 2700 km covered, we probably found about eighty boring! The second point: given the time of year, our days were active for an endless number of hours.
Also because the natural sites, even the most famous, never close, simply because they have no entrance fee! This, besides allowing us to see even famous sites at the strangest hours and in perfect solitude, represented a truly remarkable saving, considering that the previous summer, both in England and in Cornwall, we left hundreds, really hundreds of pounds, between parking, monuments, natural sites, coasts and beaches!!!! This is another myth to dispel: not everything in Iceland is expensive and some things definitely offset others. I have already talked about the flights and the car. Eating out and buying food in general did not strike me as cheap, although, for example, Norwegian prices are much higher. Here there are also very affordable discount stores..the real point is finding them when you need them or finding them open when you pass by.
We saved a lot also because we brought pasta and canned goods from Italy (3.5 kg of non-fresh food per person is allowed, which is a lot!) and I took almost all rooms in guesthouses/apartments with private or shared kitchen use. I booked everything at the beginning of February for a trip that started on 27 July and, just as I had read, availability was already low, so much so that I had to decide the direction of the ring-road circuit and sometimes even the stops only based on where I found somewhere to sleep. There are entire areas that, however famous and beautiful, really have very limited availability.
Moreover, one night for four people, even sleeping together, in a very basic hotel costs from 450 € upwards, while the same night in a guesthouse or a very nice motel comes to between 150 and 270! So: hurry, hurry and hurry! I booked many nights through booking, but on the Icelandic tourism website, if you go by individual areas, you can ask for and find cottages in campsites or scattered around and, in short, spend even less. The watchword, however, is always to book really in advance. Petrol costs the same as in Italy, entry fees to attr
Day 127 Jul 2016
More tips...
Despite all the kilometres by car, we managed to do between 2 and 3 hours of trekking every day (except one); from a purely practical point of view, I think the trip was comfortable and, including the dinghy trip in the Joekulsarlon glacier lagoon and the outing with the Salka agency in Husavik to see the whales (both very expensive), we spent 1400 € each.
To make a dream come true, one that continues to remain such when you live it in reality, indeed surpassing it, seems to me an acceptable figure! We knew we would find highly changeable weather, often windy and rainy, so much so that an Icelandic proverb says: "if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes!" Instead we had outrageous luck, it rained very little and almost always only when we had to cover long stretches by car, the wind was there, but almost always only pleasant, and the temperature remained almost constantly around 18 degrees, sometimes reaching 25 and more often dropping to 12/15.
But, since we had the right clothes, we were-cozy-as-can-be! As for clothing, typically we had comfortable sweatpants-type trousers covered by light but extremely effective windbreakers, comfortable trekking shoes of truly not high technicality, a tank top, a short-sleeved T-shirt, a light fleece and a slightly padded waterproof jacket, and hats and gloves always within reach, even if used only a few times. We didn't taste anything typical, with some regret especially for the lamb, but the only two times we would have had the chance, it really cost so much that we preferred to get something else. As for money, we didn't withdraw any kronur and used ONLY the credit card, but honestly, given that every transaction had a cost, I couldn't say whether it was worth it or not! And by now... I don't even want to know! What happened to the use of the euro...
we just didn't understand it...! To get around and orient ourselves, honestly a normal map at a scale of 1:650,000 from Marco Polo, at 9.50 and bought in Italy, was enough! And then in this case the Lonely Planet, which I normally don't love, was indispensable and full of information. As I already said, I had obligatorily booked all the places to sleep and therefore I also had a schedule of everything we should/wanted to see and do, day by day. In fact, upon arrival in each place, especially if it was where we would spend the night, but not only, we always got other free maps and more detailed information about what we could do.
In this way, always thanks to our irrepressible energy and the very long hours of daylight, we discovered many places and phenomena that I hadn't read about anywhere, walked a lot and enjoyed, I'll never say it enough, a magnificent nature, also because many times it was only OURS! Among the myths to debunk is the one that the beaches around Vik are fantastic because they are black and rare: they are undoubtedly beautiful coasts, but in Iceland the rarity is represented by the light-coloured beaches, the ones we would call sand-coloured! Among the geological phenomena I risk making only an incoherent and long list...
but this is Iceland: in general it seemed to me like when I swam among the fish of the Maldives, I came out of the water and there were so many species I wanted to describe that I had forgotten many of them! Here, the same thing: so many geological phenomena and their "results" that I can't describe them and will certainly miss some! I'll try anyway a bit: incredible, always different and sometimes with crazy extents, are the lava fields; some glacier tongues literally made me cry; incredible canyons; waterfalls of all shapes, with characteristics always different and always in some way spectacular; powerful rivers full of grey or transparent waters; prisms and hexagonal columns of rock that seem to form natural cathedrals; solfataras, fumaroles or pools of boiling mud; fjords; magnificent mountains and hills that seem so gentle but that maybe are among the volcanoes that have erupted mor
e lava or ash than any other volcano in the world; perfectly round craters with and without a small lake; the many evidences of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that crosses the whole country and that emerges in very few islands in the world; the perception of frequent seismic activity, though slight; the geyser; the icebergs; the sandur, boundless plains of black sand of glacial origin, rocks of the most varied colours and the many areas with geothermal activity. In general every single phenomenon inspires a certain awe, both because they are magnificent or beautiful, and because some are potentially dangerous.
To give trivial examples, there is no shortage of people who died because they fell into some waterfall, while, although enough has been said about volcanoes and their unpredictability, I add that the island counts no fewer than 130 active ones and that all the types of volcanoes existing in the world are present! Moreover, knowing that in this country the thickness of the Earth's crust is equal to one third of the usual one and that magma continues to rise from the depths of the planet, causing the detachment and inexorable separation of the two oceanic plates... being, among other things, truly far far away from other emerged lands... well... it doesn't leave you completely serene and calm!
Couple sitting embraced on green grass, valley and mountains under cloudy sky
Day 227 Jul 2016
the tour!
As I already said, we covered 2700 km, roughly following the ring, which is 1300 km long, in a counterclockwise direction. The first night, having arrived practically after one o'clock, I didn't take rooms, we slept a bit in the car and at six we began our incredible journey from the Golden Circle, which includes a clearly visible stretch of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge fault in Pingvellir National Park, the Strokkur geyser and the Gulfoss waterfall. Just think that this area, being close to the capital, is the one visited by all travellers, cruise passengers included, and, by itself, already offers great emotions! We had covered it far and wide and with great satisfaction, already by 1 p.m. on the first day! And at 2 p.m.
we were at the South Central Motel: as shabby outside as it was comfortable, super-equipped and nice inside, this large room/apartment for four, which I had found for 156 €! After a well-deserved rest, we set off again to inspect various places suggested by the motel owner, between the Hekla volcano and the very scary and non-touristy Haifoss waterfall.
The second night was in Reynir, in the Vik area, as I said before, famous for the coast partly jagged and partly covered by black sand dunes, and where we had the luck to see the very sweet puffins at a truly close distance! Along the road we stopped at the Seljandsfoss and Skogafoss waterfalls; then we walked and stopped at various points along this southern coast (Dyrholaey, Reynisfjara and Vik) and, on the advice of the owner of the house, we went even further east, to Hjorleifshofdi, where we did one of the most incredible walks for me! It is a grass-covered tuff mountain, 220 metres high, which seems to have emerged from the depths of the earth and been placed in the middle of a boundless black sandur, as if it were a ship in the middle of the sea.
There is a loop trail that allows you to climb to its summit which overlooks the sea, the real one, and from which you can enjoy a boundless and breathtaking panorama... here too only for us! The third night was at the Artbjarg Guesthouse in Hofn, an apartment by the sea, very well equipped, which we paid 252 €. Along the road we stopped and walked at the small Fjadragljufur canyon, at the Skaftafell and Svartifoss waterfalls, and at 1 p.m. we had the reservation to take a dinghy ride (with Glacier Lagoon, 258 € for 4) in the Joekulsarlon lagoon, famous for the icebergs found there: unmissable! Up to Hofn we only skimmed part of the Vatnajokull glacier, the largest in Europe and the fourth in the world by volume.
I think we had not the slightest idea of its real extent, but I swear that the glacier tongues we skirted here and there were IMPRESSIVE! In the evening we took a walk in another crazy place, Stokksness east of Hofn, where incredible black mountains overlook the sea lined by a long peninsula of black sand. It seems that here too, as in other points of the island, more than one film was shot... and how can you blame them? The next stage would have been in Husavik, in the northeast, used as a base both to make the attempt to spot whales and as a base to visit the whole area of Lake Myvatn, because although the latter is not exactly close, it has a truly very limited offer of beds and in mid-February I already found NOTHING left! The route was long (406 km) and except for about eighty kilometres a bit boring in the interior, it was very beautiful and varied.
In Husavik we stayed 2 nights and we really managed to do everything we had planned, except for the Myvatn geothermal baths, although not for lack of time. So, as I was saying, it is an area incredibly rich in geological phenomena, truly a circumscribed summary of the country! Near the lake there are many hiking trails and for example we did: the Skutustadir pseudocraters; the Grjotagja cave (the only stop that is really not worth it, except for the fact that a famous scene from Game of Thrones was shot there); the splendid walk on the Hverfell loop, a perfect tuff crater formed 2700 years ago and 463 m high, which dominates the lava fields and the lake; another walk in Dimmuborgir, a gigantic lava field with irregular pillars and spikes, covered however by vegetation including shrubs,...
something not at all common in this country! Then we went to Namafajall where the area of the steam vents begins, which has its peak at Hverir where the landscape becomes lunar, with steam vents, boiling mud pools, sulphur deposits and fumaroles. From here, in 30 minutes you can climb to the Namafjall ridge and enjoy an incredible view. About 7 km east of this area there is the whole area of the Krafla volcano with many possibilities of walks of various lengths among lava fields and craters with small lakes inside, such as the Viti (not to be confused with the one found in the heart of the island! In fact, not only are the place names difficult and generally unpronounceable, but they often repeat themselves!), solfataras or... apparently nothing! Yes, I say apparently, because this area is truly a set of time bombs from a thousand "geological" points of view...
with the Earth's crust, among other things, the thinnest in the world!!! From here up to the north coast there are a lot of other unmissable attractions, although connected by rough roads where a 4x4 is indispensable (even if then you run into them, the madmen in a Micra!)! In general this area too is full of gigantic fissures that constitute one of the clearest proofs that Iceland is separating starting from its centre! One should not miss the most powerful waterfalls in Europe, Dettifoss and the smaller Selfoss, with a scenic walk between the two; the lush depression of Asbyrgi, which according to legend would be a hoofprint of Odin's winged horse; outside the usual circuits, the Vesturdalur area, where in particular at Hijodaklettar, along the rushing river that gives it its name, there is more than one trail on which you see lava caves, vertical and horizontal (!) basalt columns, spir
al and honeycomb rocks, as always just to name a few! Here too, people encountered: almost zero! There are many other possibilities: we only managed to DO this. The town of Husavik is nice and from here we did the whale-watching excursion (317 € with Salka), booked and paid for already in Italy. Although we had a beautiful day (I think that even with little rain, despite the suits they provide, a great deal of cold accumulates!), although we saw humpback whales (in reality only the tail) and although I would do it again, I'm not sure it's really worth it. I mean... not for over 300 €! Because, ok, nice excursion, but after a while it's too long, fine they explain many things to you, fine we saw some animals, (but that didn't even give me that great an emotion)....
all the same, I have doubts! Also because if I think so, who all in all had luck, who knows about those who get the cold and/or the rain and/or don't see animals... So: think about it!
Krafla geothermal area..contrasts!
Day 33 Aug 2016
Last stops.
The next stage (464 km), up to the Snaefellsnes peninsula, was the longest and that was the only day when we walked on foot very little, but the scenery of the road that took us back to the south-west honestly never seemed boring to me. At the beginning of the trip, we should have stopped at the Godafoss waterfalls, the famous waterfalls of the Gods, but only many kilometres later did I realize that we had passed them, so we missed them! We slept for 210 € at the Grundafjordur Guesthouse, in a quadruple room with a shared kitchen overlooking the famous and much-photographed Kirkjufell mountain. On this peninsula too we did several hikes: on the inland glacier and at several points along the coasts, where there are lighthouses, tiny villages, cliffs and beautiful beaches.
The village of Stykkhisolmur is very delightful and the Vatnashellir caves are interesting, where you pay a moderately expensive ticket for the guided tour (there are no alternatives!), but which is definitely worth seeing if you are there at the visit time, I think every hour from 10 to 18, but also and only if you know English. The last full day we dedicated to a slow approach to the colourful and lively Reykjavik, where we took a nice walk, visiting only the famous cathedral, which I liked very much. In the evening we reached the Ace Guesthouse in Keflavik, a few kilometres from the airport, where we spent the last night and from which we had rented the car. This room cost us 153 € and was the cheapest room; the next morning they took us to the airport at dawn, as agreed.
It took me days to write this account and I realize that the more I said that nothing can really make you understand what this island at the edge of everything is truly like, the more I went on with words, descriptions, adjectives, lists... Forgive me, I suffered a true bewitchment! From this comes my predictable conclusion: go to Iceland because it is a dream and you too will be enchanted!
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