Iceland 2016

After the summer of rollercoasters (10 parks), fall quickly came in and left. Some notable things from the season: another great IAAPA conference in Orlando, my buddy Josh gave me some Disney insight, I turned 32, Jackson came in second at Nationals, Dad set his retirement in stone, and now I'm managing projects on my own and am responsible for a lot of Jersey City's FAA permits (which allows me to climb to the tops of unsecured skyscrapers... it's awesome). Something was missing, though. I hadn't gone anywhere crazy since Belize and Mexico with Neal. Going through flight deals and things to do next, it became apparent where the next adventure was.. Iceland.

I arrived in Iceland the Friday morning after New Years, it was 8am by the time I reached my hotel in Reyjkavik. Luckily, you get to sleep in during the winter in Iceland. The sun doesn't rise until 11:30am and most of the businesses stayed closed until 10am (they even have a 7-11 knock-off called 10-11). After swimming in a geothermal pool and exploring the city for the first day, I did the touristy Golden Circle tour. This included geysers, a tomato greenhouse tour, an awesome frozen waterfall and Thingvellir national park that includes the tectonic plates of Europe and North America. More of a warmup to the following day's tour...

I met my sister on a tour van southeast bound around 8am. We were off to Skaftafell for ice caving, though we had plenty of stops along the way. The black sand beaches in Vik where I heard Huey Lewis playing in a cafe, Skogafoss waterfall with an incredible climb to the top, Eyjafjallajökull volcano which caused a European plane blackout for six days, some horses and many photo-ops. After staying a night in a guest hotel, Maria and the Extreme Icelanders trekked us over via SUVs to the ice caving spot. The cave, which is altered every year, is a unique experience. My words wouldn't even be able to give it justice, so I'll gladly send my pictures upon request. After leaving, we stopped by the Glacier Lagoon (pictured above), with its glacier pieces breaking off the mountains and into the ocean. Nearby Iceberg Beach provided with some of my favorite photo-ops. Because the sun only stays up for 4.5 hours in Iceland during the winter, it never really rises above sunset. This gave the ice a bright illuminance. After the beach, we made our way back to Reykjavik, stopping at two glaciers on the return trip and a waterfall which was lit up at night. Fun note: we actually got caught in a snow storm on the ride home. Our tour guide didn't seem to mind, as these things are normal in Iceland... people just power through it like nothing is wrong.

Although Iceland is a small island (takes abour 17 hours to drive around the entire country), it packs a ton to do. Even with everything I described above, I still missed a fairly good deal of things I wanted to see and plan to be back next winter (snorkeling between the tectonic plates, Viking museums, etc.). Some things of note. Everywhere takes credit card, even taxis. No one expects a tip, not even servers at a restaurant or tour guides. English is predominant, though you would want to hear people speak Icelandic due to its difficulty (even native speakers have trouble with it). Winter is insanely cheap. I got a RT flight for 600, my sister got one for 300 out of Baltimore. And lastly, don't spend all your time in the city. The bars may be a great time (White Russians at the Big Lebowski bar, anyone?) but there is so much to see in the country. Landscape you'll never see anywhere else on earth... and depending on climate change, landscape you may never see again.

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