ICELAND 2016 – THE TRIP OF OUR LIVES

Holy moly. Everything they said about Iceland is true. Except more. Having been a place we’ve wanted to go for a long time, expectations were pretty high. But Iceland blew those expectations out of the water. And literally, as cliche as it sounds, pictures and video do not even come close to doing this place justice. It’s pretty much like the difference between watching a concert on your tiny cell phone screen, versus actually being at the concert. No comparison. That being said, we still took a ton of pictures, of course. 🙂 We hope you enjoy them! Iceland Road Trip

Why Iceland? Hopefully the photos will best explain that. We had the opportunity, time, and means to go there, so we jumped at the chance. We just turned 30 this year, so wanted to celebrate a new decade in a special way. Even with a thousand reasons not to go. I think that’s the only way it would’ve worked for us. We also renewed our vows to each other while we were there! (Pics below!) We’ve been married for seven years now, and have changed a lot as people since we were 23. We’ve been through some incredibly good and incredibly tough times together now, and wanted to renew our commitment to each other. We spent a few days in Reykjavik, getting accustomed to the time change and exploring the city a bit, but then we hopped in a camper van and spent 11 days driving around the entire island. Those 11 days consisted of somewhere over 800 miles, about 100 photo “pit stops”, multiple gas station hot dogs, every Sigur Ros album, a new candy from every gas station we stopped at, camping in some of the most epic spots you could ever park a car, and zero darkness. The sun BARELY goes down in June, so exploring, or at least having the option to explore, never ended. Sleep was rare.

So, this blog will be broken down into a few parts, just to make it easy to go through. First, an assortment of our favorite photos from the trip. Second, a grouping of more personal photos, mostly from our iPhones. Third, a few photos we had taken of us by the talented Katch Silva while we were renewing our vows to each other. And last, a few videos we put together of some of our favorite spots. We’ll also include captions on some of the photos, explaining and detailing some of what you are seeing! Hope you enjoy, and grab a cup of coffee or something, this blog will take a few minutes to go through!

Out of all the hot pools in Iceland that we found, this one, Seljavallalaug, was probably our favorite. There were more waterfalls in Iceland than people, we’re pretty sure. From almost any point that you stood, anywhere, you could see waterfalls in the distance. We tried not to visit every one, but couldn’t help ourselves sometimes! Hot steam literally BURSTING out of the ground. v 1:30am on the north coast of Iceland. The most powerful waterfall in all of Europe, Dettifoss. This is our camper van we stayed in. After figuring out a system of how to pack and be efficient making meals, etc, we really grew to love it! So, this was insane. We actually got to go INSIDE of a volcano. Not active, obviously, but it is the only volcano on the planet which you can actually drop into it’s chamber. Typically, even if there is a chamber like this, we either don’t know it exists, or there’s no way to access it. But for only the last few years now, this one is accessible to the public, and MAN….What an INSANE experience. 400 feet straight down, and all the colors you see here are real, caused by volcanic activity. We actually saw some wild reindeer! This was all the closer we got, but we thought it was pretty fun to at least see them! Smile! So this place was cool. We actually met and talked to a guy who grew up on this property, and in 2010, Universal Studios bought it or leased it or something, and turned it into a viking village for an upcoming movie that was never filmed. Currently, it is now scheduled to be used for the upcoming movie Vikingr, so it will be fun to keep an eye out for that movie if and when it comes out! One of the little cabins we rented for a night or two here and there. We figured that mixed in with being in a van for 11 days, a few nights with a real shower, kitchen, and bed would be a nice change of pace 🙂 Had some amazing Skyr cake at this cafe. (Skyr is a wildly popular Icelandic yogurt.) Got to watch whales splashing in the distance, and enjoy a rare 63 degree day on the patio!!

PERSONAL PHOTOS

Okay, so these are all the iPhone, Polaroid, etc photos that we thought we’d share. (Since you’re still here, and obviously aren’t quite bored with this blog yet) 🙂

One super cool thing was morning runs were always through some pretty epic landscapes 🙂

Above is one of the raddest hot tubs we’ve ever sat in, and below is the room that we got to enjoy right next to it. All in a tiny fishing town of only 90 people, way out on the coast! Below left: Whale watching in the arctic circle. Super cold. No whales. But we got to catch fresh cod and eat it! Below right: Horseback riding on the beach! Audrey may or may not have fallen off her horse, kinda. Both were outings we can laugh about now, and both were actually really fun 🙂

Below left: There’s one of those delicious cod we caught! And below right: The Icelandic soccer team was in the playoffs at the time, and we got to catch the game with some of the locals in Reykjavik on the big screen!! Us with Katch! You’re about to see her incredible work below!

VOW RENEWAL

It was cold, but worth every minute. It felt like we were the only people in Iceland at the time, and somehow that just solidified our commitment to each other. All these upcoming photos were taken by the insanely talented Katch Silva who we cannot thank enough. (www.katchsilva.com) It was weird to be on the other side of the camera for once, but also a good reminder of what it is that WE ask people to do every weekend in front of OUR cameras.

There’s a full blog post from Katch on her website, if you want to see more from the shoot: http://www.katchsilva.com/iceland-vow-renewal/

VIDEOS

Quick video recap: A 2 minute glance at our trip in video form, set to the music of Sigur Ros, who has been partly inspiring a trip to Iceland for about a decade now.

Lastly, if you’re still reading this, here is an extended version of the previous video. Nearly 9 minutes of extra footage, all taken from Stefan’s iPhone! You’ll probably wonder what we are doing in a few of these clips… But you will see Audrey summoning birds who were attacking us earlier (Arctic Terns are evil!) and you’ll see Audrey deliriously finding agates, her precious. And you’ll also see Audrey after smelling the worst smelling fish processing plant of all time. 🙂

If you made it this far, congrats, and thanks for taking the time to go to Iceland with us. Questions are welcome if you have any, and YES, you should go to Iceland and we’ll join you to take some photos. And we REALLY need a wedding over there!!! Also, thanks to our friends Lynsey and Davis for going before us and giving us some great tips for our trip!

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Here’s just a few of our favorite things in Iceland that we discovered!

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Reykjavik Roasters – Best coffee shop we found in Reykjavik. And we tried a lot of places.

Braud – A pastry shop in Reykjavik that completely blew our mind. Best cinnamon rolls. Best rhubarb rolls. Best sourdough bread. Best. Aaaaaand now I’m hungry.

Kopar – A fancier, spendier restaurant that we splurged on one night in Reykjavik. Might have been some of the overall best tasting food we’ve ever ever had.

Þakgil Campground – Easily the most insane landscape we camped in. Wild, rugged, jagged volcanic rock everywhere, with flat, road-like canyons you could drive and walk through. All covered in moss.

Every single hotsprings – Bringing our swimsuit everywhere, jumping into all of them. Such a great way to break up a long day of driving.

Happy Campers – A really great company, with some great employees that we rented our camper from.

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We could honestly go on forever. And I’m starting to realize that I already have. So this blog is over. Questions are welcome. Iceland Road Trip