Guest Post: I Come From the Land of the Ice and Snow

There aren't adequate English words to describe Iceland, so I'll use some of their own. One Icelandic proverb I came across, "Ilt er þeim er á ólandi er alinn" translates as "Things look bleak for the one who lives in a foreign country."

After spending 4 days in Iceland, I understand where they're coming from. My soul felt happy there. This is the sunrise that greeted us on our first day:

Our first day's adventure took us on a whirlwind tour of the natural beauty around Reykjavik. We drove in darkness to our Bed and Breakfast the night before and could only anticipate the scenery which awaited us on our trip to see Gullfoss (Golden falls).

Only an hour from Reykjavik is this amazing waterfall. It's not one drop-off, it's three! The name comes from the golden hue the waters have in the afternoon under the glow of the sun. Iceland is so far North that in the winter the sun never makes it all the way in the sky, casting a warm, ethereal light below. Just as soon as the waterfall appears, the water seems to fade into the gorge below.

The falls is close to Langjökull Glacier (long glacier), the second largest in Iceland. To get there, you need to take a bad-ass vehicle off-roading. Only the roads in the cities and major areas are actually paved. Once you hit wilderness, the paths are marked by tall yellow poles and are only marginally leveled. 

Once we reached the glacier, Blair and I got to drive around on a snow-mobile and see Iceland from several thousand feet.

Convinced you to visit Iceland yet? The saga continues in my next post after I upload more pictures of Strokkur, and the Northern Lights. 

Thanks for sharing Chelsea! Catch up on Chelsea's other Iceland posts:
View from On-High
Mush
Off to a Warmer Climate
And be sure to check out her blog, Chelsea's Air Force Life.