Day Three: Glacier Lagoon, Drive Back West & Night Out In Reykjavik
- Antonia Quinn
- Apr 10, 2018
- 3 min read
After waking up and raiding yet another breakfast buffet, this time at the Fosshotel (also included with the room.... SO great) we set off to drive even farther East to see Jökulsárlón and Diamond Beach. These were two of the destinations we were most looking forward to because glaciers are awesome and they were so different from anywhere we had been yet, or had ever been for that matter.
After about a 25 minute drive we got to Jökulsárlón, a glacial lake on the edge of Vatnajökull National Park. The water at Jökulsárlón has icebergs in it that have come off the Breiðamerkurjökull Glacier. Because it wasn't super cold when we went we were able to walk on top of the hill there and take pictures (normally covered in ice) and got to see some really cool icebergs!
There's a passage way that leads from Jökulsárlón to the ocean. The ocean is only about a hundred yards away and there's a beach right there where the icebergs from Jökulsárlón wash up on the beach. The beach is known as Diamond Beach because the giant pieces of ice that wash ashore there look like diamonds... It was pretty cloudy when we went, but still incredibly beautiful. Definitely a must visit destination!
After we spent time taking in the awesome views at Diamond Beach we began our long drive back to Reykjavik. The drive in total was about 5 hours, which really isn't that bad considering we were driving across the entire country in that amount of time.
About 30 minutes away from Reykjavik is Kerið Volcanic Crater, which Nick was dying to stop and see. The sun was almost setting by that time but it was still very cool. During the Summer the water is super blue at the bottom of the crater, and the sand surrounding it is bright red, so it must be incredible to visit then. If we had more time I would have loved to explore around the crater more, but we were pretty much ready to get back to Reykjavik and settle into our hotel.
Our hotel near Reykjavik was the Blue Mountain Apartments, and they really were full apartments. I loved staying here because we had so much space, a full kitchen, a great living room area, and a laundry room where we could do laundry for free - they even give you laundry detergent! That is, if you figure out how to use the machines... I'm a laundry freak, love doing laundry and could figure out any machine in the U.S. but the European laundry machines were impossible for us to figure out. Our clothes ended up taking like 4 hours to dry in the dryer.... but I'm pretty sure that was just our fault.
That night in Reykjavik we took full advantage of being back in the city and went out to the bars downtown to celebrate our engagement. There's a taxi app where you can call a cab to your address, which is really convenient, but beware... cabs are INSANELY expensive. I mean we were staying 10 minutes from downtown and our cab cost over $50 dollars there, and $60 for the ride back. So if you are planning on staying in Reykjavik and plan on going out downtown, it's definitely smart to spend a little extra on a hotel that's closer to the downtown area. For us though, I'm really happy we stayed where we did because we absolutely loved the apartment.
We went out to two bars downtown, and they were both SO much FUN. We went to Kiki Queer Bar which played the best music ever and had a great dance floor. And Lebowski Bar, which is totally themed around the movie The Big Lebowski... very random, but very cool. Beer at the bars is around $12 a beer, which is outrageous by any standards, so plan accordingly. Actually the best advice I can give about alcohol prices is buy your liquor, wine, and beer when you land at the airport in the duty free store. We bought wine and tequila there and it was super cheap (by Iceland standards) and really good!
