The Toilet on Mars

It's day 6 and we're on the road again! We're leaving Seydisfjordur and heading towards Akureyri, essentially heading directly west across northern Iceland along the ring road. The stops for the day include... you guessed it... more waterfalls! We enjoyed a modest breakfast as our guesthouse before hitting the road, the two longest days of driving are ahead of us now. We have about 4.5 hours of just road time planned for today and 5.5 for tomorrow. With only eight total days to get around the entire ring road, and less sights to see in the northern portion of the country, this was inevitable. In all honesty, Iceland deserves more time. There was so much to explore in the East Fjords, you could spend days just in this region. I won't even get into the West Fjords that deserve at least 3 days just on their own... we are bypassing this region completely. We totally understand why people visit Iceland and then plan another trip in that same year or the year after.

As our little Yaris climbed up the windy switchbacks to get ourselves up and over the mountain, we out of Seydisfjordur (which sits in the fjord at sea level), we said good bye to east Iceland and looked towards the north. This drive would for sure be our weirdest... all I have to say is good thing we stopped for gas in Egilsstadir, 30 min outside Seydisfjordur... because I don't think we saw another town or gas station for an entire quarter tank on the Yaris :P

Another beautiful day in Iceland ;)

Just a random waterfall and some sheep

Wait... where did the green go? Seemingly out of no where, the land was just brown volcanic wasteland and far as you can see. 

A one lane bridge where you can't really see across to see if another car might be coming... good there aren't really other cars around here! 

Oh good! A rest stop! We hadn't seen anywhere to stop off in ages... and I had had a lot of coffee. I'll spare you the details of the contents of these random highway portos on mars.... but let's just say, we don't think workers get out here too often to clean them...

First stop of the day! Dettifoss! This is supposedly the more powerful waterfall in Europe

Okay, this waterfall is 0.6km from the parking lot... doesn't sound like a lot, but it is COLD here. It was maybe in the mid to upper 30s with the wind chill up here and this waterfall as the most powerful spray. We had ALL our layers on!

Dettifoss selfie! 

This is Selfoss! Another beautiful waterfall. A better view would have been another 0.6 km or so even further from the car, so we didn't head over there. 

We continued onward towards Lake Myvatn where we planned to visit the cave used in the Game of Thrones filming! 

Geysirs near Lake Myvatn

Myvatn Nature baths! About ~$30pp for a nice soak :) We didn't stop, no time! 

What's happening with the road??

These cows were in a farm+cafe+bnb called Vogafjos Cowshed Cafe and bnb. Highly recommend stopping here to eat! 

Grjótagjá cave! As seen in Game of Thrones (hint, it's where Jon Snow lost his virginity). Don't get too excited, there's a reason there's no one in this water - it's too hot for swimming! 

Oh... and this is how you get into the cave... Andy for sure hit his head. This site is totally skip able by the way! Not a ton to see here :P We stayed for a whole 5 or 10 min.

We have no pictures of the actual Lake Myvatn which is kind of pathetic! The weather was terrible as it was raining again and we didn't think of it. There are plenty of sites around the lake if you have more time - marshes with volcanic rock formations, bizarre looking trees, and overall very interesting nature. Next time! 

This is Goðafoss!! Our last stop before Akureyri

He's almost sick of waterfalls... but not quite :P

On the road again...

#DrivingInIceland

Sheep crossing! 

Coming around the fjord into Akureryi!

I love the way the clouds form around the mountain

Iceland's second largest city!

We loved this guesthouse! We had the top floor to ourselves (the house wasn't fully booked) and we enjoyed this room with the skylight and the couch! 

We wandered around the city in search for food that wouldn't cost a fortune... we settled on some Icelandic hot dogs, but really, we don't like them very much :P Iceland took in only a handful of Syrian refugees and Akureryi is where one of the families settled. We read a short article about adjusting to their life in Iceland (and dealing with the cold). They had supposedly opened a small food stand, but when we tried to go, they were in the process of moving locations or something because they were not open at all that day. 

Even with all this driving, we knew that tomorrow was the longest and most the most boring with very few stop offs. Well, boring for Iceland which probably isn't boring at all.