August 19th // Waterfalls and Ice Volcanos

     Bryggjan Cafe // Indigenous Foods ●

Plokkfiskur 

     After we ate breakfast at the the Bryggjan, a small cafe a little less than half an hour from the Blue Lagoon.  Kyndall finally found a food she liked, an Icelandic seafood pancake, aptly named seafood pancake.  "I mean, I like seafood and I like pancakes--," Taylor interjected by yelling something about waffles, "shut up Taylor, so I might as well try," said Kyndall. 
     When she go it she looked a little disheartened seeing a tomato slice laid on the top, and she picked it off like she had just found a long dark hair in her food. Alissa asked her if she was going to be alright jokingly, and she responded with, "I mean I'll survive," in all seriousness.  The second she took a bite, though, she looked like a toddler trying chocolate for the first time.  
     I had Plokkfiskur, a creamy fish Icelandic stew, made from fresh cod, potatoes, celery, heavy cream, chicken broth, chopped carrots, and topped with diced tomato.  All the meals we'd had in Iceland so far were made with fresh ingredients, local as much as possible.  Mainly because they value freshness in their food and being an island so far in the north, very few foods are imported from other countries.  Food there is more expensive if it involves foreign ingredients because of the difficulty to get them.  Fresh fruits and vegetables that aren't suited for cold climates are a little less than twice as expensive as they are in the states.  
     Taylor had a special kind of sandwich in Iceland, a smoked salmon, egg, and spinach sandwich.  Technically, it was more of a toast, because there was only a bottom piece of sourdough bread, spread with a sauce made from lemon juice and zest, mustard, and dill.  Normally back home smoked salmon is used more sparingly, almost like a garnish, however, it was piled on high.  Iceland has incredible seafood and doesn't hold back when it comes to serving it, the portions are full of a variety of fish in nearly every dish. 

     Seljalandsfoss Waterfall & Eyjafjallajökull Volcano // Nature ●

From inside the cave

             We got back on the Ring Road around 10:30 am to really start the road trip.  We drove for a little less than two hours and arrived at the Seljalandsfoss waterfall.  It's one of the best known waterfalls in Iceland.  It was formed from the nearby volcano glacier called the Eyjafjallajökull, and at 197 feet tall its only a few feet away from being the tallest waterfall in the entire country.  It is bed by the Seljalands River.
    Behind the waterfall there is a cave that you can walk along the ledge to.  We carried our picnic basket and blanket with us behind the waterfall and into the cave.  It was incredible in there and the cave was much larger than I had thought it would be.  From the outside it doesn't even look like there is one, but I'm really glad that we thought to Google all of the places we were going first to find out any and all cool unique things.  The inside of the cave was very different from the stereotypical stalagmite filled, damp, and creepy caves like in Scooby Doo.  Instead, thank goodness, it was mossy, dry, and all around comfortable. 
     From inside of it you could see all of the rushing water flood over the waterfall and the sun shone through it in a beautiful way.  It was really nice to have the padding from the moss to sit on under the blanket.  
     There were little clovers growing all over the caves, and Alissa managed to find a four leaf clover somehow.  She then proceeded to do the worst lucky charms leprechaun impression I have ever heard.  Taylor dared her to put it in her sandwich and eat it to "have the luck literally inside of you forever...or like the next eight hours."  We all bet her five dollars that she wouldn't, but "My mother didn't raise a fool," she said and stuffed the clover into her mouth, "Pay up idiots."  
     We hung out in the cave for a good hour after we finished eating just to explore it.  The moss is all over the cave, it goes up the walls and even though it looks like moss, it's actually grass growing from the roof of the cave.  We tried to skip stones in the water, but the current from the waterfall made it pretty difficult.  Also, the fact that I am absolutely terrible at it to begin with.  Abby and Kyndall tried to show me how, while Taylor silently shamed me with her skills and Alissa tried to look for another four leafed clover.  

Skógafoss Waterfall

     We got back on the road and drove only half an hour to the Skógafoss waterfall.  It's 82 feet long and 200 feet tall.  It has back rocks and sand which makes it look sinister almost.  It was really beautiful, but we had to move quickly past it unfortunately so that we could get onto the  Fimmvörðuháls.  It's a nine hour hike through the mountains, but it's got a lot of flat land, and leads to the Eyjafjallajökull glacier volcano.  
     The entire hike has a rock lined path with thin orange rope tied to stakes to guide hikers all the way to the volcano.  We grabbed our packs out of the car and set off.  Since we camped for the night, we packed sleeping bags, which were pretty bulky, but the nights get very cold and we knew we'd be thankful for it later.  
     We all took turns carrying the tent throughout the 14 mile hike.  It's the most popular hike in Iceland despite its length and the fact that overall the hike goes up 3,300 feet. In certain parts it's quite difficult, and Taylor, whose turn it was to carry the tent at one point, had to literally throw it up to Kyndal because it was so steep.  
     It was tiring and we had to take many breaks, but it was so worth it to see the views.  The path itself was beautiful, and it was the perfect weather.  Normally, weather in the 50s isn't very pleasant, but because we were carrying so much stuff that it was nice because we didn't overheat.  We sang camp songs like "Baby Shark" to keep busy.  Taylor insisted that we had to sing "500 Miles" at least three times We went an hour between every water break so that we could keep up the pace and make it to where we were going to set up for the night before too late.  
     We got to the Eyjafjallajökull around 11 pm at night, but it was still light out obviously because of the midnight sun.  Pitching the tent was really hard, especially because I lost rock paper scissors and had to figure it out while everybody just laid on the ground in sheer exhaustion.  It turns out that my terrible puzzle skills did apply to tents and I had to pass the torch to Kyndall and Abby who are really good at solving issues like that.  When they gave me grief for it I reminded them,"I can barely lace shoes what did you expect?"  
     We took the ramen out of our packs and prepared the bunson burner to make some dinner.  We debated wheather or not we should build a fire because Eyjafjallajökull has an ice cap and we worried if the heat would be destructive.  In the end I did build one because the ice cap has receded so much that we were in the middle of a clearing and around 100 feet from any ice.  
    Since we had to walk so far and already had a heavy load, we had to look for some fire wood.  Iceland is known for not having any real forests, which we probably should have considered before we looked for a good half an hour.  The good part of our failed wood search is that we got to explore the glacier some before going to bed.

Eyjafjallajökull Volcano

     The Eyjafjallajökull's summit is at 5,417 ft and has a crater around 2.5 miles.  The volcano is covered almost completely by an ice cap called the English Eyjafjalla Glacier.  The ice cap is covers about 62 miles.  Icelandic nature is very strange coming from the US because an active volcano and ice doesn't seem like it would work together.  Iceland is on a tectonic plate they have a lot of geothermic heat, and because they're so far north, it's very cold, the combo is actually very common.  Geysers that emit hot gasses, even more volcanoes, and hot springs are very common in Iceland, which is the opposite of what it's name indicates.  The last time the Eyjafjallajökull erupted explosively was in 2010, and ever since then the volcano has been more active than ever.   
     We didn't really know what to do with the little hot dogs we had brought, so just like they did in the olden days we roasted them over the bunson burner.  It didn't go very well.  They were still edible, but they were by no means good.  Surprisingly Kyndally actually did like the burned hot dogs, honestly she's a mystery.  
     Around 1 am we went to bed and climbed into our giant sleeping bags.  I couldn't help bu remember that little book called "The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar" when I saw Alissa all bunched up in the sleeping bag with only her face peeking out.  She started inching around like a caterpillar and we all almost died laughing.  Once we settled down it felt so good to lay down after such a long walk that we fell asleep almost instantly.