Winter Activities in Husavík and Mývatn
The 15 hours of sleep we had were absolutely necessary considering our super-packed days in NYC. I woke up like a new person, thank god. I would have hated my life if I continued being sleep deprived.
Air(Bed + Breakfast)
Remember how I said eating out every meal is expensive? Yeah, so we bought food to prepare for breakfast today!
I had Skyr, which is basically yogurt... Sort of. Today, I tried the blueberry one, and it's definitely tangier and thicker than American yogurt. Tam also cooked eggs and bacon with our toast. It was awesome. I don't think I've ever had yolkier yokes in my life. Also the bacon was awesome, and Tam offered to cook... So no complaints here.
Also, snow had freshly fallen and I was having such a ball.
Husavík
We decided to drive from Akureyri to Husavík, about an hour away. While driving, everything, of course was covered in snow. That tends to get boring to look at after a while. We were headed out this way because Husavík is a whaling village, and it looked nice based on my friend's pictures of the place.
We drove out and parked near a church. The views, of course, were beautiful. While they had a whale museum, we were most interested in walking around this small town. We headed to where saw some kids playing on the hills on our drive in. Let me tell you, watching them roll down the hill in their puffy jackets was probably the cutest thing I had ever seen. As a rather large child myself, I opted to try it after they disappeared.
After doing that, we walked around the harbor and did a little souvenir shopping. We also stopped and had our first Icelandic gas station hotdog. The kids in the gas station weren't super friendly, so we didn't ask them what the different sauces were. I put everything on mine; Tam didn't. I'd just like to point out that rest stops in Iceland have really unbelievable views.
We snacked on our hotdogs and stopped by on the side to play with Tam's drone. We hadn't used it since NYC, where it malfunctioned and kept flying straight into a wall. We managed to get a good picture of us, and he took some videos of the harbor and other things. I think this was one of the few places in Iceland that I felt truly isolated. Looking towards the ocean made me think of how there is no land between the North Pole and where I was standing.
I mean, sure I can look at the ocean at home and do the same thing. For context, you have to realize that modern technology, satellites, and GPS aside; there's no really reliable way to navigate those northern seas. In the Pacific, Polynesians could travel the ocean with the stars alone. Because of the weather in this part of the world, you can't reliably use the sky. Once it's just you and the sea, that's it. Good luck.
Random side note: Vík in Icelandic means bay.
Dettifoss Detour
We headed to Dettifoss next. We figured that we might as well get all the stuff we wanted to done before we needed to drive down the east fjords. When we got to Dettifoss, we saw a sign that said IMPASSABLE. It said that driving further could incur high rescue prices.
We could see a lot of people stopped at the beginning of the road. To be clear, the road was covered in about 6-8 inches of snow. While a gate existed to prevent people from passing through, it was just as easy to drive around. We could see one car already trying to drive down and attempted to ourselves. Though, after a few feet, we could feel the car losing control. We turned around and headed out, bummed we couldn't see this waterfall.
Random side note: Foss means waterfall.
Mývatn Nature Baths
We kind of planned to do this today. I had heard about it as an alternative to the Blue Lagoon. Its location in the north makes it more isolated from groups of tourists. We had stopped at a few lookouts near the baths before heading to it.
I will say I almost got trapped in my car, so I made a video showing how. I don't think they go over that with cars in Iceland. The water can freeze on your car and seal you inside. What a nightmare! Nah, it was fine. Just confusing at first. Snow is just a foreign and weird thing to me.
Once you pay your fare, men and women file into separate lockers. It's customary to take a full on shower before going into the baths. I will say it's cumbersome to take off layers of winter clothes just to change into a bathing suit. I tried very hard not to sprint from the locker room to get into the water. Tam said he would wait for me, but said it got too cold and he had to jump in. I don't blame him, I would have cried.
The baths were really awesome though. The contrast between the snow and the geothermal pools is shocking. Also, you are welcome to purchase alcohol if you like. Unlike the well known Blue Lagoon, this pool doesn't have the silica the makes the water appear milky. There were three pools ranging in temperature. An Icelander I would later speak to told me that the transition between hot, cold, and hot water was therapeutic.
I haven't yet talked about the water in Iceland, but all the warm water smells like sulphur... Or eggs. Whichever you think is more pleasant. This place was no different, but I don't think I noticed it nearly as much as the shower in our bathroom. From what I learned, they pump the water over miles (kilometers in their case) of pipes. The pipes are kept above water to cool as they travel the distance to become warm water in my shower.
Another side note, our iPhone 7 and 7+ really survived the pools. I think the water resistant iPhone is probably one of my favorite features of this iPhone generation.
Grjótagjá
Near Mývatn is Grjótagjá, another thermal pool. This one is particularly important if you watch Game of Thrones, since its where Jon Snow lost his virginity to Ygritte. The location itself used to be a public bath, but it isn't man-made like the ones we had just seen. Eruptions in the 80s caused officials to close the cave down as the temperatures became too hot for people to use.
Getting into the caves can be difficult because it's a literal hole in the ground that you have to climb down. When you climb on the hills above these entrances, you can see that the cave is made by a rift in the earth; as plates maybe are pushing together or apart. Some people suggest that you can swim in the cave, but since there is a little chance the steam can escape... I don't know how comfortable you'll be.
Either way, the area is beautiful. We were able to catch the sun begin its descent above the nearby crater as we were heading out.
Heading Home
It's crazy how quickly you lose track of time driving around. On our way home from Mývatn, the sun appeared to set more quickly. There are no street lights outside of towns and cities, so you're basically racing against the sun to safely make it back. We picked up some dishwashing soap and made dinner. The sun didn't officially set until around 715pm, but it was still brightly lit until 8pm.
Northern Lights: Part 1
All day, I had been checking Iceland's weather page for the northern lights. The main map shows you the cloud cover, while the numbers in the top right indicate the likelihood based on solar flares and reactions with particles in the air. I think we were looking at around a 5 or 6 that evening between 9am and 10am. The chances to see the lights are higher when it's a cold, but not cloudy, night.
Pesto pasta!
After showering and cooking dinner, the northern lights started to show. We scarfed down dinner and headed outside to setup Tam's camera. It was around 18 Fahrenheit and we were so excited. When you first see the Northern Lights, they appear like white wispy lines in the sky. As they intensify, they become the brilliant greens and pinks you often see in pictures.
Although Tam set a time lapse fixed on Akureyri, the best activity was going on right above our heads. We could see the lights unfurling across the sky like intrepid vines creeping up a wall. Different parts of the sky lit up and danced at the same time, the tips and edges of them turning pink as they traveled above us.
My fingers were numb, my lips were frozen, and I was covered in every piece of clothing imaginable. The cold seared itself into my face and pierced me to the bone. Even with all that, this was probably one of the most magical experiences that I've ever had in my life.
The clouds covered the sky and the aurora disappeared. We finished dinner excited, and I slept. Tam, on the other hand, stayed up so he could share this moment with everyone.