Day 3 in Iceland - AKA hitchhiking and trying not to fall in waterfalls

We woke up refreshed on our third day in Iceland, after falling asleep watching tv. We were switching between what I presume is the Icelandic weather channel (hosted by a woman who looked to be Elvira's long-lost sister), Olympic highlights, and the ever-so-believable film, The Change-Up (hey, it was the only channel in English).

We explored a bit of Akureyi, which was really cute. I would've liked to walk around downtown more, but alas, we had a full day ahead of us. So, instead, I snapped some pictures of this church (where I huffed and puffed my way up every flight of stairs to see it).

We then left town and set out to check out the first waterfall of the day. Some (very shaky) shots from the road:



On our way there, we accidentally missed our turn. This marks day three of getting lost. But, hey, the roads are really poorly marked.

We found it odd when the Ring Road (the country's only "highway," AKA a narrow two-laner with a maximum speed of 54 miles per hour) turned to dirt, then rocks, then narrowed to one lane. But, we figured, "hey, we're in Iceland, there's nobody here. Maybe when a Super Target is more populated than certain regions of the country, one doesn't need two lanes." So, we kept going, assuming we were going the right way.

However, we quickly looked on the map and realized we were completely wrong. In fact, we had gotten ourselves on an F road (i.e., the roads that require four-wheel drive and often necessitate crossing rivers), explained more here:


After a harrowing turn-around (in which we had to back the car up on a rocky, narrow, shoulder-less, one-lane road that looked like it would plunge us into certain injury), we were on our way again.

Our first stop was to a waterfall called Goðafoss. I couldn't believe how close we could actually get to the falls! And I continue to be amazed that more people haven't fallen in while taking selfies because we certainly saw some candidates who looked close to doing just that.

Little pools at Goðafoss.

Our next stop was Dettifoss. P.S. It was around this time, I started to get the sneaking suspicion that "foss" means "waterfall" in Icelandic.

And thanks to googling, I can now confirm my suspicion was correct.

Anyway, back to pictures of the fosses.  Dettifoss was just unbelievable! Some shots:

I was totally amazed by these people not falling in.

I don't know if this dude was trying to shoot his album cover or just defy death, but he was getting his picture taken, in various poses, for at least 20 minutes while getting closer and closer to plummeting over the edge.

After cautiously making sure we didn't fall over the edge while taking our pictures pictures (on second thought, at least if I fell in, I'd probably get a tv credit out of the ordeal), we headed onward to check out some craters in Hverir.

Oh, you know, just scalding hot water erupting from the ground. NBD.

Hverir seriously made me feel like I was on another planet. The landscape was like nothing I had ever seen before.

After hanging at the craters for a while (and pretending I had just landed on Mars...until another family showed up right behind me to take pictures, ruining the illusion), the real adventure started.

We thought we might not have enough gas (we had a little under a half tank) to make it to our next destination, Egilsstadir, but figured we would stop along the way when the tank got low.

Two hours later, still no gas station. Our tank seemed to be dropping by the minute with no sign of gas or civilization in sight. We pulled off to a turn-around point that had a map. There was a family from Holland who happened to be pulled off at that same point. They let us use their map, which had little gas pump icons, indicating where the nearest stations were located. Sadly, the closest one looked pretty far away.

The Micra's gas gauge let us know how many kilometers we had left until we hit empty. It kept counting them down, and I felt like I was in some horror movie about a race against time.

44, 32, 27...it kept ticking.

Then, it happened: it hit zero.

It was at this point, I realized we were going to run out of gas. Not if, but when. So, we came up with a plan: we would hitchhike to the next town, get a can of gas, and hitchhike back. It is now that I should probably point out, this is not uncommon in Iceland. In fact, it is so safe in Iceland that people hitchhike all the time, including women on their own.

So, I wasn't too scared of having to hitchhike. I rationalized that we would make new friends and have a fun story to bring back home to the U.S. But, I was terrified of leaving the car on the road since there was no shoulder.

Keith white-knuckled the wheel, and we continued to drive on fumes and prayers.

And, then, like some sort of mirage, as we came down a hill, I saw a single gas pump. No station. No building. No attendant. Just one, tiny gas pump in the middle of absolute no where. I don't think I've ever screamed so hard in my life (because, unlike a mirage, this little petroleum miracle was real)!

After filling up, we made it to Egilsstadir, where we had an oh-so-fancy gas station meal at our new favorite place, N-1. I never knew I could spend over $14 on a beer and gas station sandwich, but Iceland has taught me it's possible.

We then meandered our way through the fjords (where we had to dodge several sheep sitting on the roads) and made it to our guesthouse in Seydisfjordur at around 10:45 pm.

When we opened the door, we were greeted by a sign saying the guesthouse closes at 9 pm. My heart sank. But, we opened the door anyway, and saw a non-too-happy front desk clerk, who informed us that had we been five minutes later, we would have been stuck without a place to stay since he was about to go home. Since Iceland is so small, and there aren't really hotels (there are, instead, mostly just guesthouses, which have 6-10 rooms and shared bathrooms), the accommodations don't usually contain 24-hour service. In fact, many times, the owner is the one who works there and only shows up around the time the guests say they will be there.

We profusely apologized, thanked him for staying open late to wait for us, and were given our key. It didn't take too long to fall asleep after today's adventure!