First full day

Yesterday was a long day.. With an overnight flight and then a full day of driving, looking at waterfalls and such. Today we started the day in Vik and explored the sea stacks and a beautiful black sand beach. It's very windy here, but such a beautiful country, even in the wintertime. This is a photo trip, so much of our time is spent scouting spots out for sunrise, sunset or aurora shoots. There's not much time to see too much of the culture, though where we are there isn't much else except for the occasional gas station, which actually has quite decent food. Vik seems like a cute, quaint town on the ocean. It's been super windy here and the waves and current are unlike any I've ever seen. The roof of the church is a beautiful red too... In fact, many of the homes are quite colorful and the Scandinavian feel is very evident here.  People are friendly, but also rigid.

We got a bit of a late start from Vik as we ran into this girl from Colorado who got her rental car stuck in the snow near us, and all four of us helped her push it out... We were unsuccessful and luckily a huge 4x4 truck (which are everywhere here as that's the only way to get around inland) came by and helped pull her out. She's here for three months just exploring and we keep running into her at every stop. We were surprised that she's from Colorado and had no idea how to drive in the snow. Lol. Oh well.

Oh, I should mention that our cars are all stick and they are very fun to drive! :)

So after Vik beaches, we made our way to the ice lagoon and ice beach, which were two of the things I most wanted to see on this trip. They did not disappoint! We arrived around sunset, explored the lagoon and then went to the beach, where we shot as long as we could into the evening! We then decided to make dinner there and sleep on the ice beach!  Aaron, being the friendly and awesome guy he is, ran into two photographer friends he knew that were here exploring as well. They offered to take us in their hummer to an ice cave the following morning after sunrise to shoot with Them! What luck! 

We cooked on our camp stoves (oh, I forgot to mention our grocery shopping adventure on the first day... Fun and everything is imported which is why it's so expensive!). We got some premade meals for the first night and just had to heat them up on the stove. Steak stir fry and a noodle dish, with some yummy digestif cookies for dessert. Alan did the dishes, thank you! :)

I should also mention that I'm here with three other amazing photographers, all based out of SF and we have two camper vans. Willie and Alan in one, and Aaron and I in the other!  We have enjoyed finding bathroom spots among the ice beach too.

We finally slept well that night without the howling winds of Vik, and woke up at 6:45 somewhat refreshed and ready to meet Colby, Brian and Joe for our amazing outing! More to come soon...  Off to an ice cave now.