Day 5: Glacier Lagoon

Continuing on Route 1 heading east, we left Vik after taking a few photos of the fabulous scenery around. Here's one:

This is Vik

A damaged bridge near highway

As we stopped by Jökulsárlón, it was the first time in Iceland we had a chance to see (closely) or even touch ice. We took a boat tour and traveled in the lagoon which is full of melting ice berg which later on flows into the sea. It was cold and windy.

This is the Glacier Lagoon

Some ice burg appears to be blue due to optical illusion as they absorb all the other light rays but the blue rays. The black ice burgs are in fact ones that are covered with volcano ashes.

Blue Ice Burg

The ice in the lagoon are over thousand years old so it is pretty strong and takes 5 times more time to melt it. While under water, they are crystal clear but would soon crystalize once in contact with air and turns 'white'.

Me holding ice. Icy!

To a person who has never seen snow in his life, crystallized ice burgs are already pretty new and exciting for me. Tomorrow, we've planned to go up to icy mountains and have close contact with snow.

Back on land, we moved on to our next destination - Höfn, a pretty small town. Our dinner at the hotel we stayed in was a fish buffet (which was really cheap compared to set dinner costing only Kr 3200 each). Every dish that could be made from salmon was served e.g. smoke salmon, steamed salmon, salmon dressing, salmon pie ... Delicious and full. We'll continue tomorrow.

Day 4: Geysir, Gullfoss and Vik

The day starts with a typical continental breakfast giving us a fresh and energizing start. We picked up our 7-person car hired from Atak (which would accompany us for the coming 6 days) and left the capital (don't worry, we would be back in 6 days). Like many other countries with cross-country highways, finding our way on monotonous roads can be very difficult. Luckily, we rent a GPS device which guides you point-to-point, loud and clear. You would be impressed by its accuracy and easy-to-use. Before our first stop Geysir, we went passed the former parliament of Iceland which is also the same location where the Eurasia plate and North American plate is both found.

Somewhere below me locates the former parliament of Iceland

Eurasia and North American plate

Then we continued on to Geysir (間竭泉), which are the natural fountains caused by super-heating of underground water. Occasionally, hot water pillars strike up into the air 10 meters above ground right after a blue water bubble is formed at the mouth of the hole. Because the water pillars strike only every few minutes, people gather round holes holding up cameras and camcorders desperately anticipating the next strike. With my skillful photography techniques, I managed to capture the whole process in a video:

Play the video once more. This time, play it frame by frame and notice the blue water bubble formed just before it bursts out. Cool, huh?

This is a geysir that ... doesn't blow

Moving on, we arrived at our next attraction, Gullfoss, a waterfall. Though it is not comparable with Niagara Falls in Canada, the scene was still astonishing.

My brother and me in front of Gullfoss

And finally, we drove to Vik where stayed at a hotel for a night before we continue our journey around the island.