June 12, 2015 – Part Two
Last time we left off we were driving around Lake Myvatn, headed for Godafoss! This was something Jeremy was really looking forward to seeing, probably his most anticipated sight of the vacation! As you are driving, you sort of come up on this waterfall so unexpectedly, and it is in a really strange location, how everything has been built up around it. For such a supposed tourist location, there weren’t nearly as many people there as we thought there would be. Almost immediately as we started exploring Jeremy took his tripod and we climbed down to the base of the falls. We took lots of photos here, and it is still one of Jeremy’s favorite locations of the entire trip in Iceland. We enjoyed this waterfall infinitely more than Gullfoss, which everyone seems to love. It is definitely in a location too far away from Reykjavik for a day trip, so maybe not as many people have seen it, especially if they only do the Golden Circle tour, which compared to everything else, is pretty much the least exciting sites we saw in this amazing country!
After taking some photos from back up top overlooking the falls, we headed back to the van to get warm. We kept driving and passed our original campsite we had planned on staying at for the night, and kept going toward our next destination of Laufas. They are these gorgeous little turf houses and church near Eyjafjörður. Some would say a quintessential Icelandic turf dwelling. We arrived almost as they were closing, so we had the entire place to ourselves. The views from here, let alone the turf houses and church themselves was just breathtakingly beautiful. The sun was out, we had blue skies and this was a lovely afternoon and we could have stayed here for hours just soaking it all in, if they weren’t closing. We had originally planned to be here early the next day, but with us being ahead of “schedule” we made it here tonight!
We reluctantly left Laufas, and started the drive to Akureyri. We wanted to stop at the Botanical Gardens and walk around for a bit. After not too long we made it there and hopped out of the Happy Camper to stroll around and see the gardens, we took our time, took some photos of what little flora they had there, it was absolutely worth the 20 minute stopover! Afterwards we tried to find parking to see the Kirkja downtown, but with no luck we decided to try again tomorrow morning.
It was getting around dinner time, so we looked at our map and chose a new campsite for the evening around the town of Dalvik. We got there in a bout 30 minutes and went to the reception to check-in. Once that was all settled we found ourselves a lovely spot with a fantastic view! We are really glad we were able to find this one, it had one of the best views of the campgrounds yet! Since we had gotten propane for the grill we were going to be able to make food on it tonight!! I started on the mashed potatoes and Jeremy got the grill fired up and made some Garlic Rosemary pork chops! We had a Risa Buff for dessert and it was just a great cap to the meal! Oh I almost forgot, while we were back in Akureyri, we stopped at VinBudin (which is a liquor/beer store) and Jeremy grabbed some Einstock, an Icelandic White Ale, and he thought it was fantastic! It was his first unfiltered, unpasteurized beer, and he said it gives it an entirely unique flavor. After dinner I called my mom while Jeremy went to take his shower in the interesting “Communal Showers”, luckily we each were alone in them, I think we went early enough…haha! After dinner and showers, we made up the bed for the evening, as always wrote down our memories for the day, and nodded off to sleep in the Icelandic light nights!
Tomorrow we were headed out of Akureyri and in the direction of the West Fjords, little did we know something was going to happen to turn everything into another new adventure…not necessarily a good one either…
Total Distance Traveled on This Leg: 167 km
Links and Places we Visited in this Post:
- Laufás turf house in Eyjafjörður
- Akureyri Botanical Garden
- Vínbúðin (The State Alcohol and Tobacco company of Iceland)
- Campground in Dalvik
Thanks for reading along everyone, as always if you want to see more of the places we have traveled check out of Travel Map on the About page. If you have any questions or comments about anything we saw, where we stayed, or just want to say Hi, leave a comment down below!! Thanks for reading and have a great day!
continue reading…Chapter 13!
Wandering around in wonder 
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