Sorry my daily post is late, my accommodations wifi isn't the best! :(
Today was one of those days that started off badly, I woke to the noise of wind. ALOT of wind blowing snow against the hotel which was going to make driving almost impossible, at least it was for an unexperienced driver like me.
Driving over here has been the most stressful part of my trip, The combination of Ice on the roads (and my car), bad winds and then also being a solo driver has caused me to gain a few wrinkles over the last few days! Whilst I was waiting for the weather to clear up, I met two girls from Sydney that were doing the same trip but opposite to me :) we travelled to a few sites together and went for a small hike around one of the lava formation sites called Dimmuborgir. This site and another one called Hofdi were both used in the filming of Game of Thrones, I can now say that i have been "beyond the wall" and joined John Snow and the wildlings.
Today was one of those days that started off badly, I woke to the noise of wind. ALOT of wind blowing snow against the hotel which was going to make driving almost impossible, at least it was for an unexperienced driver like me.
Driving over here has been the most stressful part of my trip, The combination of Ice on the roads (and my car), bad winds and then also being a solo driver has caused me to gain a few wrinkles over the last few days! Whilst I was waiting for the weather to clear up, I met two girls from Sydney that were doing the same trip but opposite to me :) we travelled to a few sites together and went for a small hike around one of the lava formation sites called Dimmuborgir. This site and another one called Hofdi were both used in the filming of Game of Thrones, I can now say that i have been "beyond the wall" and joined John Snow and the wildlings.
As the weather got better and the temperature slowly climbed up to a beautiful 4 degrees above I decided to celebrate and go for a swim! So I headed on up to the Mytavn Natural baths, As i stepped out of the changing room in my bathers the cold wind shocked my body quite a bit, this seemed absolutely CRAZY! but as i slowly made my way in to the 38 degree water it became a lot more comfortable and very relaxing, I spent a few hours in the water here, had a chat to some New Yorkers who were here on spring break and got to look out to some amazing views whilst bathing!
I wouldn't want to do that everyday as it took me about 45 minutes once i was out to shower, get dry and put all my layers back on! By this time i thought it was time to head to Akureyri for my Easter weekend :) I detoured north through Husavik, which is a small fishing village on the coast that has beautiful views of the mountains and water! this is where they do a lot of the whale watching tours from, unfortunately I was too early in the year for that! Whilst out exploring the temperature hit a daily high of 8 degrees above, this meant gloves and beanie were off :D
From here i drove about 80km to the northern capital Akureyri. I cannot tell you how excited i was to see a town bigger than a couple of hotels! :) I unloaded my things and got talking with a few icelandic people that are staying at the guesthouse also, the come up here from reykjavik for a skiing holiday every year! I met up with a friend (of a friend) who lives here called Jo, we went out for dinner and she showed me around town and took me for a drive (in a old two door Toyota) to the nearest snowfields and to do a bit of food shopping :) It has been really good meeting her and knowing a local over here to give me advice, Im hoping to spend a bit of time over the next few days with her, seeing different places around the area. At the moment I have three nights booked here but am hoping to extend this for another 2 nights so i can adventure around a little bit more and do some shopping in the few shops they have here! I am also very excited about the food selection they have here, plenty of restaurants, so if the weather is miserable I can eat my way around town :)