24 hours for laundry!

Being home and enjoying your bed is definitely a treasure.... 24 hours at home is not enough, but it was all I had to do laundry and repack for my next trip. I'm currently sitting in a boudoir class in Vegas at 8:30am... Iceland to boudoir?! Yes, I enjoy landscapes and portrait photography.

When I was flying here yesterday evening, my brother was flying home from Vegas from a bachelor party. Not planned, his flight arrived at the same gate that I was leaving from at JFK. It was such a surprise and very neat. Even the pilot thought it was fantastic that he flew in from Vegas and I was flying to Vegas on the same plane.

Driving the southern coast back to KEF

I can't believe this trip has gone back so quickly. Today is our last day as we fly out early tomorrow morning to head home. It was cloudy when we woke up today so the sunrise was a bust. Even though this was meant to be a photo trip, we were able to get some good shots, but the weather really didn't cooperate too well for us... Had some yogurt and museli for breakfast, packed up all of our gear and hit the road.

We stopped at a few places along the way back and it took much longer than we had anticipated... About six hours of driving. We stopped at a waterfall we've driven by four times and each time we say we have to stop and photograph it and finally we did.

I flew the drone there and may have cracked a rotor the first time I took it up... Then it was much better! Whoops!

We stopped at skaftafell glacier again and flew the drone and took a few more photos.

Then we met up with Andrew again and went to skogafoss at just the right moment as there was a double rainbow appearing! And blue skies! Finally a great shot from the trip!

There was a waterfall in a canyon type cave that we wanted to go to near Seljalandsfoss and so we drove there (about 20 minutes from skogafoss) and when we drove up, we were greeted with a parking guard telling us they were filming a movie and that we had to park farther away but we could still see the waterfall. Well of course we knew what movie they were shooting as we've known Jackie chan was filming here but it was great to be able to see it in person. Unfortunately we wanted to shoot sunset there and the filming did not allow us to be able to do that, so we explored and then hung out for a while and watched them shoot the movie. It was exciting and seeing Jackie chan act was cool!

We usually try to avoid touristy things when we travel but last year we decided to go to the blue lagoon on a whim and it was one of the best choices we made so this year we wanted to venture back for the evening before we have to pack and leave. However, the lagoon closed at 8 pm and we never made it. We only got to our hotel by the airport around 9:30! Sadly, the lagoon will have to wait for another trip. We saved some money so that's okay too. Our hotel here is called the Bergas Guesthouse and its in a weird location, but it's quick elegant and nice and they packed us a breakfast to take with us to the airport in the morning! Thoughtful. Our flight is early so we are waking up around 6am! Woohoo!

See you tomorrow NY!

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!

Silhouettes and Drone success

Farmhouse breakfast with our nice view of the area.

It was so quiet and nice in our place 3.2km off the main road. I'm glad we have two more nights in this spot.

Yesterday evening while we were finishing up dinner, a group of ten Chinese tourists came in and had dinner. The wifi only works in the main room, so we were sitting working on our laptops and iPads and Aaron was editing some photos and showing Kelsey and Erik what the Aurora looked like from last year. The Chinese guys were so impressed and started asking questions. Aaron showed them his Aurora video and then we told them that the Aurora should be visible and told them a spot about 30 minutes away to capture some great shots. We also told them in broken English that they had to leave pretty much right then... They obliged and off they went. I'm very glad the Aurora did make an appearance otherwise I would have felt badly to send them so far out to capture nothing. This morning while we were enjoying breakfast, they all came in and were so excited that they got to capture the Aurora. They showed us their photos and wanted to see Aarons. It was extremely obvious that they could care less about any females or pretty much about anything that I had to say. (Even though most of the ideas for where they should shoot last night were mine!) Anyway, they really wanted to take photos of Aaron with his photos and then wanted us to pose for them... We were sitting across the table from each other and they wanted us to stare at each other because our 'noses' looked good from the profile. We tried very hard to keep a straight face as they showed us a silhouette image of our Jewish noses. It was a funny experience. They invited Aaron to come to China and visit with them. And the Asian invasion continues.....

Off to the glacier lagoon today we went. It was overcast and very white today and of course we were hoping it would clear up at some point, but it really never did. We went to the glacier lagoon first where there were so many cars and tour buses. It's exploding with tourism here and there is no regulation yet. We heard that in the ice caves there are about 90 people at a time... There is only one accessible tourism cave that people go to (though we are supposed to do a private tour to a different one but it may not pan out this year), and that is way too many people in a tiny space. Something needs to be done at some point before someone gets severely injured. We hiked for about half an hour or so out past most of the tourists and to some quiet spots along the lagoon. I flew the drone for the first time today and I'm totally in love! It is so much fun... I even flew it over seals! I was very nervous with the controls, but once Aaron taught me the basics, it was fairly simple! I can't wait to do it again tomorrow.

I wanted to photograph a little bit on the ice beach as well so afterwards we went across the street to the black sand beach and tried to find a few icebergs. The ocean is super strong right now because of several storms and lots of wind and the icebergs don't seem to be reaching the beach as much as they used to. I was still able to get a few nice shots but definitely different.

We hiked out there with Andrew, a photographer friend of Aarons who we've been getting to know. He took an amazing shot of us flying the drone in front of the mountains yesterday and just sent it to me so I have to post it.

We drove into Hofn after the beach to fill up with gas, buy a couple things at the grocery store and then met Kelsey and Erik and all had dinner at the same spot we ate in last year! It was still delicious. We had langoustine:

We are hoping the Aurora comes out again tonight but it's very windy and cloudy! I'm looking forward to taking a shower after I finish this! Aaron and I picked up some local beers and are having a few while we take advantage of the wifi in the common room 

Aurora success!

The Aurora came out for hours last night! Yippee! That means this trip can now enjoy considered a photographic success! Here's a little sneak peek from the back of my camera:

Glacier lagoon, ice beach, and lamb

Currently, we are sitting in the dining room and main reception area of the sheep farm where we are staying for the next three nights. It's an unbelievable 360 degree view of the entire area with mountains, farm land, ocean, and lots of snow.

This morning we had a typical Icelandic breakfast of yogurt from a milk carton, muesli and corn flakes with coffee... Not so tasty but it did the job. I had some of the geyser bread that we bought from the dairy farm on our first night near godafoss... It's similar to a dense muffin but as bread.

We stopped at the N1 gas station and talked to the local guides who are supposed to lead an ice cave tour for us later this week but they are completely sold out so they are trying to squeeze us in as they are fans of SmugMug! Keeping our fingers crossed...as they are crossed for aurora tonight.

Off to the glacier lagoon and ice beach. It looks totally different from last year and you can see the recession of the glacier. The ice beach is in a different spot and there are barely any large icebergs to photograph! 

We hiked to a spot along the glacier lagoon that was nice last year and flew the drone and took some shots. We met up with another photographer friend of Aarons and he tagged along. Super nice guy from Toronto and he was shooting a phase one, so cool! We even took a drone selfie!

(That's a screen shot from the computer)

We were going to hike out to another spot along the lagoon but decided to do that in the morning when the light is better. So we made some lunch, chips and salsa and peanut butter and jelly and then decided to drive 35 minutes to check in to our hotel. We had planned to drive back to the lagoon to photograph sunset. We had to check into our hotel during certain hours so we thought we would check in early and then leave. However, we got here and fell in love! So we decided not to drive more and found some spots to photograph sunset and hopefully the aurora tonight!

The hotel is just a few rooms on a farm and for dinner we were served lamb that was grown here, local beer and some French chocolate cake. There is a French couple living here that does the cooking so they made us a chocolate cake as the boys were craving dessert. A pretty nice day as the sun was out! We are hoping the weather cooperates for a few more days, but we'll see! There is only wifi in the common area here so we are all just sitting around a table talking, drinking Icelandic beer and catching up on wifi related things as we wait for the aurora.

Hiking, glacier walks and yummy pb&j on the hood of the car

A short drive back into Vik this morning allowed us to see the salt stacks and walk along the black sand beach for a few minutes before we got on our way towards skaftafell. 

It was about an hour and a half drive and I drove today.... Through wind, snow, sleet and rain. As we turned one of my favorite corners on route one here, the sky started to clear a bit and the sun came out! Luckily for us, it appeared right when we got to the glacier. There are three glaciers in a few mile radius here and we went to the third one first because Aaron said that we could walk up right above it and it was a great view. We took the drone and my camera bag and hiked up a short distance, about 5-10 minutes. As we were setting up the drone, we realized we never put the memory card back in and I ran back to the car and grabbed it. Flying the drone is really neat. It was super windy so we were very concerned about it and the footage came out well but you can see the choppers moving in some of it because of the wind. Still awesome though!

Lunch time came and we made our organic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the hood of our car and ate them looking at the glacier. We later found out that Jackie chan is filming a movie on this glacier... It would have been cool to run into him!

We decided to drive back to the skaftafell glacier visitors center because there were two hikes we wanted to do that we didn't get to do last year because it was too snowy. There is a lot less snow this year and it's warmer but the wind is still vicious. Kelsey and Eric met us at the visitors center and we all hiked to a waterfall together a few miles away. 

Then we trekked out to the skaftafell glacier which was supposed to be a short hike yet it turned into a few hours because we actually walked onto the glacier and into the crevasses. It was by far the coolest thing we've done so far! 

We explored for quite some time and it started to rain hail on us for a few minutes but then it stopped. As the time was closing in on 6pm, we realized we needed to book it back to the cars before we lost the light. Of course we had head lamps just in case, but we did not want to be in the glacier at night time. My yak tracks worked pretty well on some of the ice but Aarons crampons were much more effective and some of the slippery glacial glass was impassable for me without his help. He helped Kelsey and Erik across those sections too. We walked through the wet, volcanic glacier bottom to get back to the trail and the visitors center.  After a ten mile day, Aaron and I were a bit tired. It was about a 20 minute drive to our hotel, hof 1, and we quickly checked in, walked into what felt like a dorm hallway and a dorm room that smelled like poop and then went to eat some dinner. I had the veggie option which was delicious. We craved the hot tub from the day and luckily there was a spa there and we ended our evening with a nice dip!

Short flight and drive to Vik.. Aaron wanted me to name this, I pooped today.

We are currently sitting on the tiny propeller plane from Akureyri to Reykjavik; it's a quick 40 minute flight where there is barely enough time for me to write one sentence on my iPad.

Yesterday evening, we ventured about 35 minutes from our lovely Aurora guesthouse for dinner at a dairy farm. Literally a dairy farm. We walked into the building and there were cows chewing and a side room for milking them, and then about 15 tables.

 We were seated at a four top. Yes, it smelled like a dairy farm, but the food was quite good. We tried to order dishes with dairy in it as that's what they are known for, so we tried their homemade mozzarella which was good, grittier than the usual mozzarella we are used to. We had Arctic char and then their desserts were delicious! It was a nice meal with good cow company. We had wanted to go to the hot springs after dinner, but everyone was feeling kind of tired, so I drove us home. Kelsey and Eric slept on the way to dinner and Aaron tried really hard not to fall asleep on the way home, but right as he was dozing off, he flipped his phone up into the air and back onto his lap; even though this doesn't necessarily sound funny, it was so hilarious that I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. We all slept well.

Today, we woke up to the smell of yummy coffee and a table full of typical Icelandic items, all organic. Smoked lamb meat, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, homemade bread, waffles, jams. A delicious start to the day. 

Kelsey and Eric really wanted to hike while they were here but they didn't exactly realize that not much is accessible during the winter. Last night, I asked the restaurant for any good trails around here and they told us of one that is usually packed down enough to hike on. So that's where we went this morning! Hiking around volcanic rock in the snow. Beautiful and good exercise. 

We also finally could stop and take some photos of the Icelandic horses that I've been trying to photograph since the last trip here! 

The lake here, Lake Myvatn is gorgeous and I'm sure it's even more beautiful when it's not frozen over.  We had to rush a bit on the way back, so I drove a bit faster than usual to make it... Pick up our bags at the aurora guesthouse and then a quickie stop at godafoss for one last viewing and then arrived at the airport at 1:10 for our 1:40 flight. Right on time. The regional airports here do not have any security at all... Nothing to walk through or check, so it does make it much easier. 

However, when Aaron and I tried to board this flight, the woman was unfortunately not very nice and made me weigh my camera pack and of course it's 4kg overweight so she said that I had to wait until everyone boarded to put my camera bag in last. What a pita! We waited until everyone boarded and then had to hand our packs to the luggage guy so he could put them on top of the other bags on the side of the place. Not the most ideal situation, but we are making the best of it. Hopefully everything will be okay when we land. The rental car company is meeting us at the airport to take us to their headquarters to pick up our SUVs for the rest of the trip. I'm excited. I took some delta pillows so that we can make the car a bit more comfortable too especially if we are waiting for the aurora during the evenings! Ok, landing now. Quick flight over the beautiful country.

Flying in the small planes are nice and easy and smooth, which was a pleasant way to have our midday. When we landed, the rental car company said they got lost coming to pick us up at the airport so we waited for about 45 mins for them to get there... This is the regional tiny airport in Reykjavik and the woman driving grew up here, so that seemed odd to us. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the rental car place once we got into the white van with clear plastic covering everything... It was very clean. They didn't have the cars that we rented and we're excited about and gave us an upgraded car with an automatic transmission. I was hoping for a manual as they are much better in the snow around here. We have a Hyundai Tucson which is old but functions. It smells like gasoline inside the car and when we started driving and needed the windshield wipers to work, we discovered that they were totally destroyed. I mean completely falling apart. So about 20 minutes into our drive, we stopped at an N1, the gas stations around here, and measured and bought new wipers. We also went grocery shopping to stock up on some lunch foods and snacks... Chips and salsa, Icelandic Brie and French bread, sushi, digestif's, and some water. Oh, and organic peanut butter and jam and bread. :)

We had to rush a bit as it was getting late and we wanted to go to two waterfalls before sunset, but we ran out of time so ended up just getting to Seljalandsfoss and precariously with our crampons on hiked up behind the waterfall to photograph it. The sun didn't make an appearance, but it was still beautiful!

A quick stop at the next waterfall even though it was dark to scout if the moon would be in the correct direction for a moon bow, but unfortunately it was not, so off we went another half an hour to our hotel just outside of Vik. It's much larger than we had planned, but a good change.  We quickly got a bowl of soup and had some of our cheese and bread for dinner and then went into the natural hot tub! We spent almost an hour in there with Icelandic white ale, which was quite good. And finally sleep and recharging batteries, our personal ones and our electronics!

The breakfast from this hotel was ok, but the view of the sea stacks from here is quite beautiful!

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.