SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2025 // Day 2
“Iceland is one big volcano, you could say.” - Osk, our awesome tour director
We set off at 8AM to head west for the day to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. We drove for an hour before stopping for a stretch break, and Osk gave us a lot of interesting info about Iceland. One thing she told us about was the Icelandic elves...
The elves exist because once upon a time, Saturdays were meant for washing children. They would spend all day washing their children. One day, they heard God was coming, and they began to panic because they had only washed half of their children. To solve this problem, they hid all of the unwashed children, and presented only the washed children to God. God of course, knows everything, so when he realized this, he told them that the consequence would be that those children would stay hidden forever, and that’s how elves were born. They are the same size, shape, etc. as regular people; however they are very beautiful, but you don’t ever see them because they’re always hiding in rocks, hills, caves, etc. Though the population of Iceland is a little over 400,000, she joked that the actual population is closer to 800,000 due to the elves!
Osk also told us about the trolls of Iceland. They are horribly ugly and terrible creatures, and as horrible as you can imagine. The good thing is that they cannot come out in the day light bcause if the light touches them, they will turn to stone, so you're pretty safe from them in the summer. On the winter solstice is really when the trolls come out and look for misbehaving children.
Osk shared with us a lot of fun facts about the overall geography of Iceland. She said that Iceland goes through active periods of volcanic eruption, and periods where they don’t see much activity. They have now been in an active period since around 2020 and have seen more volcanic activity since the 1800s.
After our stretch break, we drove another hour and a half to Búðir, where we walked out to the coastline which was lined with giant lava rocks. We also stumbled upon a whole skeleton! Based on the hooves, we figured it must be a sheep, then hypothesized that perhaps it got caught in the tide and drown, washing back up onto shore.
A little bit further down the road, we stopped in Arnarstapi where we had lunch at Snjófell Restaurant and wandered the cliffs. I had another round of fish and chips! The cliffs were really cool, though honestly the whole landscape of Iceland is pretty freakin’ fascinating.
We continued along the road through the peninsula until we got to Djúpalónssandur Beach, a black sand beach (like all the beaches here!). We walked down the coastline where waves were smashing against the large volcanic rock lining the beach. You could tell how powerful the waves were because they would slam into those rocks! It’s important not to turn your back to the water, because those waves will shoot further than you expect them to and will sweep you right out into the Atlantic Ocean. We did end up running from a wave once as it overshot how high it had been going!
We continued to drive through the lava fields that had a lot of green most growing everywhere. This is a good thing! Osk said the moss often is a dull grayish color, but was currently a glowing green due to all the rain as of late.
Our next stop was Snæfellsjökull Glacier. It is the second largest glacier in Iceland, with the first largest being further east of Reykjavik. It was SO windy out, I was certain the bus was going to blow over as we drove down the road.
Our last official stop of the day was Mount Kirkjufell and a flowing waterfall. The view was beautiful, but man, that wind!!
We had a 2.5 hour drive back to Reykjavik, including a 5 minute, 10 second drive in a tunnel taking us under the water. When we got back we unloaded our things, then went for a walk to find dinner.
I knew exactly where I wanted to go - FUEGO Taqueria! It was in a food hall, so everyone got different things. I got a fish taco, a beef taco, and a pork taco. They were messy but tasty. Then Ike talked me into dessert but I couldn’t decide which so Aaron and I split both the chocolate lava cake and the orange crepes.
We did a little shopping along the street, then headed back to the hotel for the night. It is so easy to forget what time it is here. Partially due to it being vacation, partially due to the time change, but mostly due to the amount of time the sun is up! As I write this, it is 9PM, but it looks like it should be 6PM!
ICYMI
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