Iceland was the first stop on my three month backpacking trip through Europe in 2016! The trip was from January to April so you can imagine it was pretty chilly when we landed!
Instead of staying in Reyjavik first, we rented a car and headed south towards Vik. I had read online about some cottages that are popular in the summer, and with increasing tourism to Iceland had decided to stay open for the winter.
At the car rental place, we asked if we should purchase a map to navigate with, to which we were told, “There’s one highway, you can’t get lost!” With that in mind, we set out into the snowy abyss! We landed at 6 am, so we got to see the sun rise while on the road and were blown away. The landscape in Iceland is incredible!
We had an awesome time driving and admiring the scenery. Just like the rental car guy said, it was no problem following the highway towards Vik. We stopped at a grocery store along the way for supplies, and found ourselves at the Hellisholar cottages with no problem!
We got a recommendation to go check out a nearby waterfall and see a black sand beach! At this point we had been up for almost 16 hours but decided we wanted to stay up as late as possible to force the time change.
We made dinner in the cabin that night and called it an exhausting, but satisfying day. Right as we were getting snug in our beds and most likely minutes from conking out, Chris says, “Hey, do you guys see that light outside?” Yup, the Northern Lights were getting started!
We all ran outside and spent the next hour or so watching the most spectacular sky show I had ever seen. The sky was so vibrant, and the waves of colours flowing above us was incredible! I had seen plenty of photos and videos the Aurora Borealis before but nothing really compares to seeing it in person. Unfortunately, I had no means to try and take photos so you’ll just have to trust me on this one.
After that jolt of adrenaline and standing in the cold air outside keeping us awake, the realization that we had been up for two days hit hard. I think I fell asleep within a minute of my head hitting the pillow, but I felt pretty good about the trip if this was only day one.