Road trip in Iceland!

The sun is shining, and the day is close to perfect. Emma is a few meters below me and we have agreed that we have to get to the top of Seljalandfoss. Suddenly a rock is falling towards me and I am shouting "Emma, watch out". The rock is hitting my knee...AUCH! Focused on climbing to the top we almost forget that getting to the top is always easier than climb down afterwards!!!

Emma on the top of Seljalandfoss

The street where Brillo lives

Me on the coolest bicycle ever!

Brillo (to the left) and some of his friends

I arrived in Reykjavik a couple of days earlier, and after a couple of days hanging out with Brillo, an Italian friend, and his friends in more and less trendy places I had to see more of Iceland! The biggest earthquake since 2000 stroke the island just a week ago and the damages were on everyone’s mouth.

I had to get out of town and into the wild!

In search of Gullfoss

Gullfoss

An active geyser

But how? with a low budget I considered hitch hiking as the best solution. You can learn a lot about a country and its people by jumping into different cars and meeting different people. However, I felt also the time pressure since postponing the flight to New York was NOT an option. I don’t really believe in angels, but Brillo’s flat mate, Sabrina, saved my trip when she the next morning ask me if I wanted to take her car.

The past has always showed me that one good coincidence always is followed by another, so when I met the cool and cute French girl, Emma, it didn’t really surprise me when she said, JEAH let’s go together!!!

After have seen Reykjavik disappear in the car mirror, we headed to see some geysers, huge waterfalls and the city were the epic center of the earth quake were. Emma must be one of the most interesting girls I have talked to, and once she even traveled from Canada to South America with her tent and bicycle.

The beach with black sand near Vik!

It soon became quite obvious that Iceland is just a gigantic volcano; big rifts in the earth, black sand on beaches, and fascination landscape. It is supereasy to drive around on Iceland, a main ring road, No.1, takes you all around the island, but make sure that you’re not running out of gasoline, we almost did.

On the glacier Mýrdalsjökull

We hiked a bit, visited the glacier Mýrdalsjökull, saw some interesting rock formations in Vik, were witnesses to a Icelandic mare (hoppe) giving birth in the middle of the night, and were amazed by the first tottered steps of the little foal (føll). However, to me the fantastic view from the top of Seljalandfoss was probably the highlight. After we wake up 6 in the morning we started the climb, and after the little “rock” situation we made it to the top. The view was nothing but fantastic, the weather was perfect, and the waterfall that attracts tons of tourists every day was just mine and Emma’s!

Early, early in the morning!

Seljalandfoss

Looking at the inactive volcano, Hekla!

The last hours of my stay in Iceland were also interesting. It is possible to take this special airport bus that stops for a couple of hours at the famous Blue lagoon. The geothermal water had actually a really blue colour. This is the only place I’ve been to where it seemed to be perfectly normal for men to put on a “mask”. To me it looked a little bit like when I was in the army and we all had to cover our faced with camouflage painting.

The Blue Lagoon!

I have never felt fresher on a flight before, and was smiling when I saw Iceland fading away from the plane window. I could only imagine how different it would be to arrive in the Big Apple just 5-6 hours later!!!

More picture from Iceland:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125740&l=86d5d&id=607925223