day four: vatnajökull, jökulsárlón, and seyðisfjörður

We did a TON of driving on day four—it's all beginning to blur together in my head so I hope I get everything straight.

The distance between Vík and Seyðisfjörður (our final destination in the Eastfjords) was something like 500 km, or about 6 hours of driving... AND taking into account that we'd probably be stopping at places of interest along the way. So. That was a lot. And the drive, during parts, was a bit like the boringness driving through Utah or Nevada, except instead of vast expanses of dirt it was vast expanses of lava fields. However, the boringness in the stretches on the south coast was completely trumped by the breathtaking beauty of the Eastfjords. And by Icelandic ponies with hilariously short legs. [Fun fact—if an Icelandic pony leaves Iceland IT CAN NEVER COME BACK because the breed is so pure. Banished.] It was also trumped by the sheer terror of me driving a stickshift on a 12% grade uphill and then stalling in the middle of it. Good one, Hanner. That whole stretch was horrible (the hill). I don't want to think about it. But then we finally got over the hill and we ascended into a cloud, which was NUTS. AHHH Iceland.

Okay, back on track. Before we left Vík we headed down to the black sand beach and did a little bit of bird-watching. Pretty fun. We also went to a woolen goods store and got Robbie a sweater. Although we both love our sweaters (I bought mine later that day in Höfn [you say "hup!" while breathing in... sorta]), whenever we wore them around Iceland we felt a bit like the people in DC who wear those DC shirts they buy from vendors on the streets. Okay, it's different, but I did feel a little self-conscious, especially when people would start speaking to us in Icelandic and we had to admit, "No, we're not Icelandic, we're just posers and like your woolen goods. But look—I have blonde hair! That must count for something."

After Vík our next (long) stop was Jokülsárlón. The best way to describe Jokülsárlón is that it is a bit of an iceberg graveyard—huge chunks of Vatnajökull (the largest glacier in all of Europe) break off and float slowly away into the ocean... if they don't melt before they make it out of the lagoon. It was beautiful and eerie, and a bit sobering. We actually ended up coming back to Jokülsárlón on our way back down the coast for a driving break and the colors of the ice were even more blue and brilliant because it was sunny out. Really cool stuff. We even saw a seal swimming around in the lagoon, which was really cool (and added to our list of animals you hope you'll spot while you're in Iceland).

We never went up close to Vatnajökull (Robbie's biggest trip regret), but it was always looming in the distance. Glaciers, man.

The rest of the trip just included a lot of white-knuckle driving while Robbie filmed me cursing under my breath every time I crept up one of those long hills up the fjord. The view from the top was spectacular, though, and I felt like I had won a prize by the end. I earned that view, man!

We finally pulled into Seyðisfjörður as it was getting dark, which is a real bummer. Seyðisfjörður is a cool port town at the bottom of a fjord (if you couldn't tell from the name) and it gets a lot of traffic from people taking the 30-hour ferry to and from continental Europe. In fact, we were shocked that our campsite was packed with RVs and all-terrain vehicles from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and who knows where else, but it was because the ferry was leaving the next day and everyone was there to catch it home. After we set up camp, we walked around the town and enjoyed the fog and the eerie silence. We ate dinner at a charming café and had the best bruschetta-esque appetizer of my life. If anyone wants to help me recreate it I'd love you forever—slices of toasted baguette topped with a piece of lettuce, Serrano ham, diced chili-roasted almonds, and a rhubarb chutney. Apparently it is a local specialty, and I died and went to heaven.

I really wish we could have stayed in Seyðisfjörður longer, but alas. Maybe next time.