New Hostels and New Friends
Hey friends, fam and maybe creeps lol Sorry for the delayed post from the past few days. Ive been exhausted from traveling and having so much fun and its only day 6!!
Day 4 -
Friday morning I woke up yet again another rainy day BUT up and at it we go! I decided today to hit some of the famous golden circle. My first stop was Kerið Crater. Kerið is a volcanic crater lake located in the Grímsnes which was about a 30 minute drive from the Bakki Hostel. Despite the gross weather it was beautiful. The lake was this teal color and looked like glass against the red rock surrounding it. It was really tempting to jump in but the signs reminding you that you would not survive more than 5 mins in the cold water and the closest hospital was 62km away did the trick of keeping me from that one lol
Up next was Haukadalur valley, a geothermal valley in South Iceland. This national park is home to hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots, and geysers, including the famous Great Geysir and the active Strokkur. I hike to the too of the small hill to get the 360° view and then came back down to see Strokkur, which bursts every 5-10mins. even thought I knew this info it did not stop me from jumping in the air whenever it erupted. After this, I grabbed some mushroom soup (was amazing) from the local cafe and headed out to Gullfoss. I won’t deny that I thought that Gullfoss was very overrated. It was a huge waterfall but the amount of tourists really made it unattractive :/ I have a few pictures of it posted in the Iceland page!!
After this I drove through Þingvellir National Park (Þingvellir nasjonalpark) but it was pouring down raining and i was exhausted so only did the 45min drive through the prk before heading to my new hostel Laekur Hostel in Reykjavik.
I wont deny when I drove up to my hostel i was a little nervous. There was an abandoned building one block away and it was above an interesting looking cafe. I checked in, rented a towel (which ended up being the size of a hand towel) and headed up to my room. I was in a mixed dorm with 4 sets of bunkbeds. I was resting a little when my bunkmate below me invited me to come to the cafe for a drink with a few of the other roomies and I ended up having the best night a few rounds of beer and one round of free shots and I was laughing more than ever remember. The crew was:
Clement - a flight attendant/influencer from France but living in Budapest or wherever his flight takes him.
Fernando - Clements friend that he met traveling before. He is from Alicante, Spain.
Marleen - A woman from the Netherlands that has been traveling and living out of her backpack for years now. Her dream is to visit every country before she dies and shes already at 102!!
Heidi - a woman from NYC that is traveling around
Miguel and his friend - Two guys from Mexico that finished Med School in Spain. Miguel is a Plastic Surgeon and his friend is a Trauma surgeon.
Justine - a girl around my age from Belgium that just finished up her first solo hiking trip! She was traveling for 12 days and it was her first night in a bed.
I forget the last mans name but he was from Afghanistan and had moved to Iceland for work. He lived here before the pandemic then sold his house and moved and now he is back but living in the hostel because finding housing has been so difficult. He works at sky lagoon, a pizzeria and works for a translator for google on the side!
Day 5 -
Today we woke up at 8:00 am to head out to the Reykjadalur Hot Spring & Thermal River with Clement and Marleen. They did not have a car so I ended up driving them but we had a blast. We stopped at a small bakery on the way and split a few pastries (parmigiana croissant, Rhubarb tart and vanilla cinnamon roll). We finally made it to the hot springs and realized it was a 2.5km HIKE there. We thought it was only a short walk and were definitely not dressed appropriately but hey, we were there and going to get it done :) Once there we had so much fun just relaxing for an hour or two before heading back. We stopped and got fish and chips and then I showed Clement and Marleen the Crater Lake. After that, we were all exhausted and soaked to the bone from the rain so we stopped for some coffee at this place called Cafe Petite in Keflavik which was so cool! Then we drove Clement to the airport and gave our hugs goodbye :( Then Marleen and I headed back to the hostel to shower and sleep ! Then I am off to Norway tomorrow morning!!
P.S. - Clement if youre reading this the bottle of wine you left us was amazing and tell your mom thank you for the free shower towel!!
One of my favorite moments so far was the entire 1.5 hour car ride from the crater to the coffee shop to the airport. The three of us were all playing our favorite songs over the bluetooth and singing along. It sounds cliche but was a core memory :,) Now when I listen to Budapest by George Erza I will always think of my drive through Iceland with random new friends Clement and Marleen.
