It’s taken us since September to finally sit down and edit our Iceland images…and I think you’ll see why! We packed an incredible amount into 5 days, (including the lovely day-after session of Julie + Shane) and took thousands upon thousands of photos during our time there! I’m not exaggerating at all when I say this was hands-down one of the best weeks of my life. Iceland is a magical place full of elves and fairies and people who believe in both – seriously. The landscapes there were so breathtaking and the people were so friendly and welcoming! There were 4 hours hikes while getting poured rain on, thundering waterfalls with singing birds circling around, vast open plains with golden sunsets, the ice-filled glacier lagoon with its blue, purple and golden hues, countless rainbows, a ridiculous amount of Icelandic hot dogs eaten, about 25 hours of sleep during the entire week (maybe…that’s generous!) and lots of quality time spent with Bertha, our Land Rover! We used the hashtag #icelandbyrover to document our trip on instagram, if you feel like checking that out too! All photos in this post are a mixture of Tim, myself, Olivia and Julie’s photos! Our first airbnb in Reykjavik, a converted church house! (with a mini toilet.)

hTHIS HIKE. Glymur Foss was so incredible – and also took 4 hours, roundtrip, in the pouring rain! We were completely soaked through by the end, and it was totally worth it. hOur airbnb we stayed at was in Snaefellsjoekull National Park, a beautiful area on a lake…and oh yeah, it was just dirt and rock roads to get there. I guess it’s not the craziest thing in the world that we popped our tire later…haha.

So, these next two pictures represent our flat tire escapade that lasted TWO HOURS because the Rover rental place didn’t give us the correct tire iron…it involved the guys ripping a rusty metal pipe out of some farmer’s land nearby (sorry, farmer! we put it back!) in order to leverage the bolts to get the tire off…as well us as girls waving our arms wildly in the middle of the road to try to flag down another Rover that might have the tools we needed! Icelandic people are SO friendly that they just thought we were happily waving at them, and they’d wave back! haha! Finally we flagged down a trucker to use his phone (since none of our phones worked) and called the company to come bring us the tool. We were feeling kind of bummed about our schedule being delayed a couple hours unTIL we ran into Gerard Butler at the waterfall (next photos) and realized that if we had not been delayed for that exact, precise amount of time, we would have missed him completely! Just hanging with our pal Gerry B! He was showing us footage from his phone of the helicopter ride they had just taken over the erupting volcano! HAHA! Julie’s face is still of complete disbelief as we were getting set up for a photo! (ps, the guy on the end realized he didn’t need to be in it and stepped out…we didn’t even notice! haha!)hHiking to this hidden pool was quite the adventure, too! Scaling the side of the mountain + wading through creeks to get to it…my Hunter boots were lifesavers on this trip!
A natural hot spring with a man-made pool to contain it!This is our little airbnb in Vik! We adored Vik….such a quaint little town with epic mountains, black sand beaches and the best wood-fired pizza and hot chocolate we’ve ever had (maybe it was because we were just ravenous from hiking!)
Breakfast on the beach!One of our favorite meals on the trip — meat soup + crusty bread from a gas station. Yep, the gas stations are also restaurants! Can’t beat the view, either!We found the plane pretty easily – there’s been some kind travelers who have posted GPS coordinates and general directions (“find the rusty farmer’s gate about 2 km past the waterfall on your left and follow two miles towards the water”…real specific directions, haha) and it was awesome. jSvartifoss was a really cool black rock waterfall on the way to the glacier lagoon. Unlike our first day, this was an easy 30 min hike and while it rained part of the hike, the sun came out beautifully too! Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon! We timed it to arrive at sunset and it was glorious. And FREEZING. Like, 80 mph winds and 30 degrees cold! Skogafoss was one of our favorite waterfalls! It was so spectacular in person.

If you made it all the way to the end, you have got to see this video by Willow Tree Films of some of our time there!