| I visited Iceland in 2016 for 10 days with two of my friends. - We partied in Reykjavik on weekend and my god! I was amazed to see the clubbing culture there. It was so different from Bay area. Nightclubs were open till 4 and people stayed till 6. Not to mention it was summer; so sun was setting at 3am-ish while people were drunk on dance floor. - We went towards laugavegur next day for our adventure of 4 day trail. It was a pretty smooth drive until we were attacked by armies of black fly who entered our car through open window and my friend almost toppled the car over while fighting them off (yes the road was 9-10 ft above the land). - Next day, we started our trek where we experienced the unforgiving weather of Icelandic highlands.
I have been stuck in avalanches before (rockies, patagonia, himalayas) but this was a level up. The weather was colder, the wind had a deathly sting. We had to dig up our camp in snow and at that point tbh it seemed like I was digging my grave. It kind of made sense why they shot Castle black senes for GoT here. Don't get me wrong, I fully enjoyed the hike. The colors, the view and the greenery was amazing. The best part of it was making pinto beans over steam coming below 6ft of snow. - Next 5 days we camped near beautiful waterfall of Seljalandsfoss. It was surreal. We used to drive to same grocery store in morning, get basic stuff to cook and get drunk in the afternoon (or night..? it was hard to tell). It was pretty close to popular Skogafoss waterfall but this waterfall was equally beautiful with lot less people visiting. The point I am trying to make is yes, tourism is overwhelming for a delicate place for Iceland but you don't have to visit just the golden circle or the jokursalon.
Yes, these places are beautiful but the experience really gets terrible when there are a thousand people trying to get glimpse of snow island in 200 m long standing space. My advice to the people who are in 20s: Try to hike, drive to unconventional places. Iceland has a lot to offer than what you see or read in blogs/instagram. The fun of travel is in experiencing local culture, exploring places and stumbling upon things. It is NOT about getting selfie and checking off things to do in a list written in some random blog. |