Iceland Day 2: Superfluous j's and lots of wjind

We started day 2 after a good 11 hours of sleep and some mediocre instant coffee, so we were feeling alright. Unfortunately, the sleep and coffee got in the way of an early start so we didn't beat the tour busses to the first stop like we had planned. Seljalandsfoss was busy (note: foss means waterfall).

Stereotypically, British folks are very good at queuing, but these ones seems to have missed that day at uni. We dodged, ducked, and dodged as groups of British teens snapped photos and cracked wise. "Bob's your uncle, pip pip" they said as they stood blocking our path. The cool thing about this waterfall is that there's a path behind it with some really cool views. Despite the brits we made it around, slightly damper and sicker of teens.

There was a little walk away from people where we saw a few smaller waterfalls. Then we headed to Seljavallalaugundraugerflaugerkjarn (the last 21 letters are added for effect). I'm concerned that when we get back I won't be able to name a single thing we saw. There are random hot springs everywhere in this volcano-laden land. In this case a farmer made a swimming pool that's heated by a spring. 

The 2 mile hike was along a gorgeous river and was away from the big crowds, so it was lovely. The water in the pool wasn't super warm and I forgot my swimsuit so we just creepily dipped our hands in the water and ogled the swimmers. 

This is when the wjind started picking up. By the time we got to Solheimajokull glacier it was blowing 20 metric knots. There are a lot of tours that put on crampons to hike the glacier, but this was supposed to be a cheap trip so we forwent the $300 guided tour. Cris bailed halfway due to blowing gravel, but I made it to the bottom. Luckily, I arrived just as several tours left so I had the place to myself. The glacier was awesome and there were some black sand dunes to scamper so I had a grand time. 

At this point we were tired and windblown but had one more stop to make. But first, petrol.

Pet peeve of the day: Pre-pay gas stations. I'm in a rental van with no idea how big my tank is, how much gas costs, what the exchange rate is, or what the heck a litre is. So, let's make me prepay using a debit card with a pin: would you like to pay 2000ISK, 4000ISK, or more??? Make sure there's a line of people behind you that also don't know what's going on. I chose "pick a random number and pray it's a full tank". It was not a full tank.

Next on to Reynisfjara Beach. It was extremely windy so walking to the beach was quick, but we had to walk backwards on the way back to avoid being sandblasted. There were cool basalt formations, big waves, and black sand. 

By that time we were desperate for chocolate with nougat inside (according to Cris) so we stopped to shop and then headed to the campsite. On the way were dozens of miles of land that had been overrun with lava at some point. There was just lava rock for as far as the eye could see in every direction, all covered in moss. 

It's humbling to think that nature is powerful enough to just wipe out an entire square 50 miles of land in one eruption. We finally made it to our camp, sipped some beer, ate lamb stew and crashed. 

Future days will be a bit less busy (and hopefully fewer bloody brits). We're planning on doing some longer hikes to get away from the crowds and to really experience Iceland, weather permitting. Tonight is a bit clearer so possibly some northern lights if all goes well. This place is amazing, y'all should stop by a minute.