Mountain glacier-glacier-glacier stream

On Friday morning, Tara and I had a breakfast of gas station purchased cinnamon roll and instant oatmeal and made the relatively short trip to the Snaftafell park in Southeastern Iceland. Unlike Þorsmörk, the hiking paths were clearly marked and the scenery was arguably superior. We hiked along a fairly flat path to get as close as we could safely get to the glacier (this glacier runs off of the third largest icecap in the world -- behind Greenland and Antarctica). We then took a more challening path up the mountain to visit some waterfalls (all better than almost any waterfall I have seen in the U.S.) Iceland seems slightly less obsessed with safety than the United States, as we were able to walk right up to the edge of the waterfall and look down at the water crashing on the rocks below. As we ascended the mountain, we warmed up so that a t-shirt was sufficient to stay warm. Here, there were far more tourists than we had encountered in other spots, and the directions were straightforward. We explored a sod roof house on the way down the mountain and passed by tents of people camping along the edge.

We had lunch (cold sandwiches and coffee) before heading even farther east to see Jökulsarlon, a sight described by an Oregonian tourist as "the most impressive thing she has ever seen." While this description may have been slightly over the top, the extra 50 km were probably worth it. Here, the glacier melts into the ocean forming a soup of blue-blue water with huge blocks of ice floatings downstream into the sea.


The return trip was tiring. So tiring that I had to stop driving in the middle of a lava field and go to sleep for about 15 minutes. Supposedly it took me about 3 seconds to fall asleep. It was worth it, because afterwards I felt much better.

I dropped Tara off at the bus station in Reykjavik at around 5:45, although sad to see her go as she was a good travel partner. I dropped off my Hertz rental car, checked back into the Domus Guesthouse.

Then, I called Eva, my long-ago Icelandic pen pal with whom I had not written in about 5 years. She invited me out with her boyfriend and her friends (and I, eager to experience the famous Reykjavik nightlife with Icelanders, accepted). They picked me up at the hostel, I grabbed a hot dog for dinner and went to there place where we began drinking for the next 6 hours.

I do not remember much about last night, but I do know that we listened to a lot of Queen, laughed hard, and went to two bars in downtown Reykjavik. I know that I woke up this morning on the couch of one of Eva´s friends.

It was nice to finally meet Eva after so many years. She and her boyfriend were extremely kind to me and I enjoyed meeting their friends. Tonight is Saturday night, so perhaps Reykjavik has more nightlife to offer me. In the meantime, I have been updating from this internet cafe for the past two and a half hours and need to get myself some lunch, a shower, and maybe a nap.