If you're lucky and somehow make it to Snæfellsnes Peninsula, one of the places you should stop is Djupalonssandur and Dritvik. Their is a a great view of the famous glacier Snæfellsjökull which is famous for being cited as the entrance to the center of the earth in the novel Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. Djupalonssandur and Dritvik were so beautiful and I took way too many photos, as usual. I hope you enjoy this first post and all the others that follow as well!
We've finally reached the end of my Ytri Tunga Beach posts. Previously, I wrote about our search for sea lions, but never seemed to find them. Thankfully, every stop in Iceland is worth it not matter if you find what you're looking for or not. As I explored the area, I started to think about the people that used to live on this land and what life was like for them. It seems like such a beautiful place to live, but could be very isolating. There was a farm nearby, so I'm sure that the people that live there love this land. Either way, I enjoyed my little snippet of it. After walking along the shoreline for an hour or so, Markus and I continued our road trip exploring the beautiful Snaeflellsnes Peninsula.
One of the things I loved most about Iceland was the juxtaposition of mountains and the ocean. Growing up in Florida, I saw enough ocean, but never enough mountain. When we lived in South Korea, we had both, but the look and feel was different. The mountains were far from the ocean and there was heaps of buildings on the mountainside.
In Iceland, everything looks unreal, almost like an oil painting. It reminded me of that scene in The Voyage of Dawn Treader, when Lucy, Edmund and Eustace enter Narnia through a painting. Despite the tranquility of the photos, the wind was so intense that Markus and I had trouble standing still. Looking at the photos now and thinking of the weather, it felt like being in our own version of Narnia!
I've come to two realizations about our Iceland road trip. 1. We made many unplanned stops on our road trip through Iceland. 2. I'm still editing pictures from day 2. I hope you guys haven't gotten sick of Iceland. I still have 12 days to go!
After our first day of driving all over the Southern coast of Iceland, we headed toward our accommodations for the night. When I looked at the location on the map, it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. On the way to the guesthouse, we turned down an isolated dirt road. We drove for what felt like forever, but it was only 15 minutes. It was early in the evening, maybe close to 7 pm. The sun was still out and it would stay that way. During the summer, the sun never really sets and it never gets completely dark.
As we finally approached the Vellir Guesthouse, the beautiful Pétursey Mountain came into view. It reminded me a bit of Ayers Rock in Australia. It wasn't as majestic, but it was still quite stunning. When we checked into our room, we looked out the window and had this magnificent view. The following morning, we couldn't help ourselves and frolicked about before we began another day of exploring.
