2023 in Iceland (Snæfellsnes)

On July 7, 2023, I took an overnight flight from Toronto (YYZ) to Keflavik (KEF), Iceland:

This made it my:

• 3rd time in Iceland
  • with previous visits in 2017-18 and 2021-22 (both New Year's Eve's)
  • 1st time in Iceland in the summer
• 1st time seeing a blue sky at midnight
• 1st time on Iceland's Snæfell peninsula (Snæfellsnes)
• 1st time driving in Iceland (had driven only in Canada and US before)
  • 1st time driving outside North America
• 1st time experiencing an earthquake (magnitude 5.2)
• 1st time experiencing a volcanic eruption (yup!)

Why I visited Iceland again

• En route to Berlin
  • decided to fly Icelandair and make a brief stopover
• Visit Snæfell peninsula
  • did not visit this region in my 2017 and 2021 visits
• See the midnight sun for the first time
  • and it proved mystical
• Drive around and experience Iceland without the tourists
  • away from the "first-timer" crowds of the typical Golden Circle and South Coast

Arrival

On July 8, 2023, I landed at Keflavik (code: KEF) airport with its small terminal building that, when constructed several decades ago, did not anticipate that Iceland would become such a popular tourist destination.

This time, instead of taking the one-hour shuttle bus ride from Keflavik to Reykjavik, I rented a car to drive up to a cabin in Sandgerði, north of the airport on the Reykja peninsula (Reykjanes). It had a geothermally-sourced hot tub in the backyard and I sure made the most of Iceland's water quality! Had some lunch in Garður at a restaurant called Röstin to have my favourite Icelandic dish, the plokkfiskur (essentially, Icelandic fish and chips). It felt like a more authentic experience of Iceland, away from the commercialized crowds of the Golden Circle and South Coast.

Later that night, I would see the midnight sun for the first time in my life!

Sights

Spent another 2 full days in Iceland after the arrival day:

🏔️ 2023-07-09

This day made the most of the rental car, driving through the Snæfell peninsula (Snæfellsnes) in northwestern Iceland:

• Ytri tunga (seal beach)
• Búðir (church viewpoint)
• Arnarstapi (Jules Verne monument + saga statue)
• Snæfellsjökull (beautiful snow-capped mountain)
• Hellissandur (high quality hand-painted murals)
• Kirkjufell (tall steep hill)

That evening, while relaxing in my cabin with the midnight sun, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake happened (I heard a loud bang but no shaking)!

🌋 2023-07-10

This day also made good use of the rental car, driving through the Reykja peninsula (Reykjanes) in southwestern Iceland:

• Bridge between continents (North America and Eurasia)
• Brimketill (lava rock pool)
• Grindavik (small town among the lava fields)
• Fagradalsfjall (lava fields)

I then went to Reykjavik to try to visit some sights that eluded me in the previous visits:

• Perlan
  • a museum on top of high hill
  • wanted to see Reykjavik from the hill
• Hallsteinsgarður (a garden of some awesome sculptures)
  • unfortunately due to road closures this made it possible to reach

I spent some time at a mall called Smáralind to feel like a local. I saw more Southeast Asian families and people than I expected. A sign of changing times even in what once seemed like a well-defined homogenous nation-state.

I went into a Hagkaup grocery store and saw a formidable sign (with no English) for self-checkouts: sjálfsafgreiðslukassar!

Breaking that centipede of a word down:

• sjálfs = "self"
• afgreiðslu = "service"
• kassar = "cashier"

After three full trips and a couple of decades of reading about Iceland, I felt like I could one day immigrate here and have no trouble with anything except for their high prices of everything!

🌋 2023-07-11

While driving to the airport to go to Berlin, I saw a volcano erupt in the same area that I had visited the previous day! To put the cherry on top of an already exciting visit, I saw parts of the eruption from plane (only to have its wings obscure much of it). Still, I really got more than I bargained for during this trip!