Hot doesn't even begin to describe the heat we've had in Texas this summer. So today we thought it would be refreshing to escape to the faraway, much colder land that is Iceland.
Dyanamaria is our guide.
Last year Dyanamaria and her Red Lola were Iceland-bound to visit her family.
Dyanamaria's Iceland musts include:
1. Drive around Iceland - There's only one major road that goes all the way around the island and it happens to drive by some of the most incredible sights in the country. If you drive around the South, you can get from Reykjavik in the West to Eskifjörður in the East in about 14 hours including stops at all these unbelievable places (that's why I'm wearing the same outfit in most of my photos with my Epiphanie bag.) Then you can drive back home along the North and see how completely different the landscape is.
2. Jökulsárlón - An incredible glacier lagoon where you can watch icebergs break off the glacier and float out into the sea.
3. The Blue Lagoon - It's relaxing, it's warm. There's a reason every tourist goes there... it's totally awesome.
4. Námafjall - It smells like warm, moldy, rotting eggs. It looks like Mars and it's one of the coolest places I've seen on earth.
5. Eat - Iceland gets a bad food rap thanks to some of their more unusual food traditions, (especially their smelly fermented shark snack, hákarl, which Icelanders actually enjoy even though one open jar will stink up an entire room) but this was one trip I came back fatter than I left no matter how much hiking I did. The Icelandic Lamb was perfection and unlike any lamb I've tried anywhere else. On the East Coast, we jumped onto a little fishing boat to catch Icelandic Cod so we could have it battered and fried up for us at dinner. There are wild blueberries, bilberries and crow berries that you can pick on practically any hike to eat later with Icelandic Skyr and sugar. I ate flatbrauð with smjör in the morning, had an afternoon pönnukökur break, and an evening kleinur and coffee after dinner... sure you could try puffin or moss soup, but there's so much other good food to munch on that you may not even have time to try the crazy stuff!
(I'm sneaking in a #6. Þingeyrarkirkja - I'm biased... it was built by my great great great grandfather... you won't find it in any English guidebooks that I know of, but if you meet an Icelander, have them look it up in one of theirs. You'll get directions down a long ranch road and out of nowhere this black stone church pops up. It's perfectly preserved and really incredible.
More pictures from Dyanamaria's trip to Iceland can be found on her blog. And we're not kidding. You really should see them because they are absolutely breathtaking.
Dyanamaria, you are adorable and we are so grateful for your Where Did You Have Your Epiphanie? submission. We know our readers are too!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 10:00AM