Iceland is called the land of fire, water, and ice. It's so true. I didn't even realize how true it was, until I spent 4 days there. Every day was different with a different element as the main highlight. The best way to travel around Iceland is to rent a car. Route 1 is a ring road around the island. It's in good condition, and you can rent an economy car to drive around and see the main, touristy points. However, if you have time it's worth driving deep into the island, but then make sure you have an SUV, or another high clearance vehicle. 
We went to Iceland just for 4 days so an economy car was fine. Next time, we will definitely want to take some F-roads (fucked up roads). Seriously, they call all unpaved roads F roads, and I couldn't help myself and called them f*** up roads. In Iceland there are no trains, it would be destroyed by earthquake or volcano eruption. The same is with the roads. Road number 1 is a good quality paved road. There are a bunch of other roads (F-roads), but then you need to have a really good AWD car with high suspension. We definitely have to get back there with a better car to explore the whole island.
Anyway, our Iceland adventure was 4 days, with 3 different elements, 4 different weather conditions, and 3 awesome people.
Day 1: we landed in Reykjavik very early in the morning. It was around 6:30 am, but it was dark like in the middle of the night. Because Iceland lies very north, the days get shorter and shorter in fall and winter, and longer during summer time. In December, the day light can be only 4-5 hours when during summer time this is the length of the night. We didn't want to waste time, so we rented the car, and hit the road 1. We wanted to see as much as possible on our way to Kirkjubaejarklaustur, where we stayed for 2 nights.
On the way to Vatnajokull National Park it's worth checking 3 major places:

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall – you can see the waterfall from the parking lot but that's not the point. You have to get closer, get a little bit wet and walk around. It has 197 ft. but the most cool thing about this place is a cave. You can walk behind the waterfall through the cave. A few meters further there is one more waterfall. But Sejalandsfoss is better in my opinion.
Skogafoss Waterfall – yes, another waterfall. I told you that every day is one element. This waterfall is a little bit higher and is 202 ft high. When we got there, we saw a nice rainbow. A waterfall with a rainbow looks gorgeous. You can get really close to this waterfall. There is a river, but it's very shallow. If you prefer you can also climb 200 ft up and get to the top of the waterfall. From there you can walk even further to see the glacier.
Reynisfjara Beach – black sand beach. Somebody told me that it's possible to spot some Puffins there. Unfortunately, the end of October is not the best time. They are not that active and it's hard to see them. The beach by itself is very beautiful. There is a lot of rock formations and the black sand with the shiny black rocks is amazing. We spent most of our time there. It was really relaxing to walk on this endless beach. Most of the people gather next to the entrance, but it's so nice to walk away.
We stayed in Kirkjubaejarklaustur, it's relatively close to the park (45 minutes drive) and the hotel we got was really nice. We stayed at Magma Hotel. It's more like small houses. The location is the biggest advantage of this place. It's in the middle of nowhere, so we could see some northern lights later at night. October is not the peak season to spot northern lights, but it's still possible. Unfortunately, Iceland is cloudy, so the northern lights are not easy to spot. We were lucky!
Day 2: the next day, we went on a glacier hike. In Iceland, you can enter glacier straight from the trail. In other countries like New Zealand the lower part of the glacier melted and you need to take a helicopter to get to and walk on the glacier. Because Iceland has a lot of volcanoes it still has some ice on the lower parts.  
We bought the trip with Glacier Guides. I definitely recommend them. Stephanie (our guide) was very knowledgeable. She really loves ice and glaciers. We were divided into two groups – more advanced and less experienced. Luckily, we went to the advanced one. We could hike higher, we spent more time on the glacier, and we learned a lot.
11% of the island is covered by glaciers. We went to Falljokull glacier, it's a part of Vatnajokull glacier. Vatnajokull is the biggest glacier in Europe. Glaciers in Iceland are different than the one in Andes, Alps, or Himalayas. All those mountains are created because of the interaction between tectonic plates (pressure). As a result, mountains are getting higher and higher, and a glacier can be created because of the weather conditions.
In Iceland, it's a little bit different. Tectonic plates are moving away from each other, and that's how the volcano is created. There are around 30 active volcanoes on this island. They erupt quite often, and the last biggest one was in 2010. This one, caused a lot of damage and because of a lot of ash in the atmosphere the flights had to be cancelled between the Americas and Europe.
So how is the glacier created? They appear in the top parts of the mountains and then move slowly down. It has to be cold (of course!), but also there it has to be the right terrain, and a lot of snowfall. In the top parts of Vatnajokull it falls more than 13 meters of snow a year. The heavy snow pressure lower layers, and then the ice is created. It's like constant process of adding next layers. But when the new layers are created they push down the bottom layers, and that's how glacier is slowly moving down. Falljokull is moving 50 meters a year.
It was an amazing feeling to explore this glacier. We could walk around. When we saw something, our guide, Stef, took us there. It was easy to walk because we had crampons, the terrain wasn't steep and when we wanted to go down to the glacier crevasses, Stef created stairs in the ice for us. Luckily, our group was more about hiking than taking pictures so we could hike really high, explore a lot, and have fun. We still took a lot of pictures. Because it's hard not to click one picture after another.
Iceland's glaciers are more cleaner than the one we saw in New Zealand. It's mainly because of the terrain and volcanic activity. In Iceland, glaciers are moving more than in New Zealand so it's cleaner. We had amazing time, and I recommend Glacier Guides a lot.
Jökulsárlón Lake – is an amazing place. We went there just after our hike. It's a few kilometers further east, but it's one of the most beautiful places in the wold. The lake is full of icebergs that got separated from the glacier, and they float away. You can take a hike around the lake, and admire this amazing landscape. The sunset at this lake, with all those ice bergs around us was a perfect ending of the 2nd day. 
Day 3: was dedicated to fire (and volcanoes). We left our hotel after breakfast to get to Reykjavik. Because in Iceland there is a lot of volcanoes there is obviously a lot of magma. Even our hotel was called Magma. By the way, it's a very nice, cozy hotel. When we were driving to Reykjavik we saw a lot of lava fields. On some of them plants started to grow, some were still rocks. Volcanic soil is very good and a lot of plants can grow there. Unfortunately, whatever is created is also destroyed by lava again.
There are also a lot of hot springs in Iceland. The most popular one is Blue Lagoon. If you don't want to go inside you can stop next to the road and feel the heat. Iceland's electricity is produced almost entirely from renewable energy sources: mainly hydroelectric and geothermal.
Finally we got to Reykjavik. The first thing we wanted to visit was brewery. Unfortunately, you can't just walk in and take a tour, not even get a beer. In Iceland, prohibition was till 1989. There are still a lot of limitations regarding selling and serving alcohol. The prices are also super high. It's common that in Scandinavian countries, Alaska or Iceland, where during winter, days last only a few hours, the alcohol is quite expensive. Those countries tend to have a higher depression rate (because of the darkness) so the alcohol is limited.  
We expected high prices – but not as high as we saw. At the bar or restaurant you have to pay $10-$14 for a beer and $25 for a drink. It's almost like in fancy clubs in Manhattan. The food is also expensive because most of the stuff they have to import from other countries, but who cares when you are on vacation and have an amazing time. You can save some money during happy hours that are in most of the bars. Just do some research.
Some restaurants worth to visit in Reykjavik:

  1. BÆJARINS BEZTU PYLSUR - is a hot dog place. Hot Dogs are very popular in Iceland. You can grab there a quick bite of delicious hot dogs.
  2. APOTEK RESTAURANT - great place to grab a drink. Go there during happy hours 3 pm - 6 pm.
  3. FREDERIKSEN ALE HOUSE - pub for beer lovers, they have a great selection of craft beer
  4. FISH MARKET - great up scale restaurant.
  5. GAUKURINN - local bar with great happy hours. Place where we could get $6 beer after 8 pm
Summary – such an amazing country with a great landscape. It's a must see for people who love glaciers. It's not that far from New York, and you can even get there for a longer weekend like we did. Peak season is during summer time when the day is super long and you can take longer hikes. During winter time it's popular to go there to see the northern lights. We were there at the end of October, and it was good choice. The day was long enough to see something, take a hike, and we could spot some aurora during the night. If you plan to go there for a week or two I recommend renting a big SUV, that you can drive off roads (F-roads), and you can even sleep there to save on accommodation. For us, it was another place where we wonder why we didn't go there earlier.
Ilona
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