Windy and breathtaking

A windy evening kept us awake for most of the night and also our alarm that woke us up every hour to check to see if the Aurora were out. They never made an appearance but we did wake up to beautifully clear blue skies, a gorgeous sunrise (though not super photo worthy), and super winds! 

Breakfast was good... I feel as if I'm turning into bread as that is one of the only really good things to eat here, though I am having some yogurt and museli too.

We are driving to the eastern fjords today where I've never been before so I'm hoping to find some more beautiful views.

It's now about 11pm and we are just returning home to our guesthouse. The fjords were truly breathtaking. It's hard to put into words or even show them on photos just how magnificent they are. One of the most beautiful places I've ever ventured. Ok, well before we drove around the fjords, we left the guesthouse this morning and drove into Hofn where we met two photographers friends of Aarons. We were supposed to meet up with them just to say hi for a few minutes but it ended up being about an hour of talking... The nice light was fading... However, an Icelandic man came over to us while we were talking and asked where we were from. We replied the US. He then proceeded to ask us if we were trump or Hilary supporters. One of the photographers said that he was a Sanders supporter and the Icelandic man said, "ah, okay. Well the other two are dog shit and cat shit, respectively." I almost lost it. By far the greatest comment about them I've heard thus far. He then went on to talk about how he can't believe Americans are supporting trump and how stupid they are. We all nodded our heads.

After we said our goodbyes, probably 45 minutes past when we should have, we made our way to Vesturhorn, where we photographed the Aurora last year. I wanted to get a shot of the mountain during the daytime so we stopped, took some photos and flew the drone! It's a beautiful mountain... Steep peaks and they bottom directly in the ocean with the black sand beach surrounding it and some sand dunes!

The light began to disappear quickly with some cloud cover that started to appear so we packed up and started to make our way to the fjords. To get there, we drove through a tunnel behind Vesturhorn and on the other side, it feels as if you've entered a whole other world. The mountains are huge (they are gigantic over here too but different), there is more snow, more wind, more sunshine, lots of reindeer, the ocean waves were gigantic, and I felt as if we were in the Swiss alps on the ocean. It was one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen. 

This photo does not do this area justice but it's a start. We drove for over two hours along the windy, curvy, steep road and found ourselves at a seaside fishing village when we stopped for a bit, filled up with gas and had to drive around following WC signs to find the bathroom. It ended up being a nice bathroom which I did not expect!

The town has a great name starting with a D and of course I cannot even begin to pronounce it so when Siri tried to say it, it sounded like yogi bear to me... The town has now been dubbed yogi Berra.

I drove us down one of the dirt roads in this town and took us right out to the ocean. There was not a single person anywhere. The ocean is in back of me crashing from the photo below.

We also found another spot where we hiked out onto a cliff face to get closer to some of the mountain peaks and it was so windy I could barely stand up. I videoed a bit of the journey for our video of the trip.

We drove about another half an hour north and then decided to start heading back so we could catch sunset on the way at a nice spot. We stopped frequently as it was just too gorgeous not to. We found our sunset spot overlooking a frozen lagoon at the base of the eastern side of Vesturhorn and the beginning of the fjords. We flew the drone and hovered over a herd of reindeer. It was really neat. They are scared of humans but not of cars and a little spooked by drones. Sunset was nice.

Kelsey and Erik were exploring Hofn and said they found a nice spot for dinner so we drove into Hofn after sunset and met them for a nice meet at a hotel there. Hotel Hofn. A real hotel... Rarely are their hotels here so it was odd, but the food was pretty good and expensive. Lobster pizza!

Aaron was driving us home from dinner as he had yet to drive the 3.5km road out to our guesthouse that is covered in ice and snow and a bit sketchy and he needed to do it once this trip, but as I was looking out the window, it appeared that the Aurora were starting to come out. We stopped in a spot along the way that we had scouted earlier and started shooting. It was faint at first but definitely there, reds soon started to appear but so did ominous dark clouds... As the dark clouds took over, we did some light painting which is so much fun! I'm getting good at making the letters look sharper with my flashlight!

After about an hour of shooting, we made our way back home, hoping the clouds would disappear. They never did though Aaron woke up every hour and went out to investigate. We only have one more day in Iceland so we're hoping for more!