A long first day with flower power!

Today was a long day yet a nice start to our trip. My mom drove me to the airport in the evening during rush hour traffic, yet surprisingly check-in was a breeze and I was the only one doing pre check.  The other three flew from SFO and were hanging out at shake shack in terminal 4 so I met them and hung out for a few minutes before we had to board. Aaron and I were sitting in economy comfort and luckily we had the middle seat open so we could stretch out for the whole trip! When I flew Iceland air last year, the flight was eh and we didn't get any food. On delta, we received a full dinner and drinks and the flight was great! Even if it's a bit more expensive, it's worth it. 

We landed half an hour early in Keflavik and our gate crew couldn't figure out how to get the ramp to us and after ten minutes finally figured it out and we could deplane. Passport control was quick and finding out duffels, easy. We all bought SIM cards so our phones would work too and then found our way to the bus that was supposed to take us directly to the regional Reykjavik airport but ended up going to the bus terminal and then we had to transfer onto a smaller van to take us to the tiny airport. We got there super early so relaxed and napped and hung out for a while (two hours) before we could even check in! The airport was pretty much just a room, no security and one woman who eventually took our bags. We were all exhausted, so I had some espresso and Aaron had two slices of pizza.

After we finally checked in, they called our gate number and everyone in the one room piles into one line, hands their boarding pass (which looks like a receipt) to a woman and you walk to the prop plane. It held about 25 people. It was a smooth flight and beautiful as we flew from south west Iceland to due north Iceland. The whole flight took about forty minutes. We arrived and found our rental car company was not there but we were able to call them and eventually a man came and gave us our car: a sweet Mazda station wagon. 

We made our way to Godafoss, the whole reason for this excursion up here and walked out to the waterfall. In English, godafoss means God's waterfall. It certainly did not disappoint. It was beautiful and quite cold. 15F with wind today here. Good thing I over dressed on the plane! We stayed at the falls for at least an hour photographing from different spots. 

As we were leaving from one side of the falls, Aaron backed us into a bit of a ditch and we were stuck. Luckily there were ten guys standing around and after half an hour of digging and pushing, they pushed us out while I drove. Always an adventure!

Our hotel was just down the road, so we made it, with one stop to get the snow out of the tires and it was starting to smoke and burn...not so safe! We are staying in a cute homestead called the North Aurora guesthouse and we have two rooms: flower power and volcano. After today, it's very fitting.

We were hoping to get back to godafoss to take sunset photos tonight, but the clouds have made their way in. So instead, we are going to dinner and then a place called the Myvatn nature baths... Natural hot baths. If I have enough energy after all of that, I'll write about this evenings adventures!

We made it, are here, and very glad we are! More later. Please remember that all photos in this blog are taken from my iPhone.