Another day of exploring what Iceland has to offer nearby it's Þjóðvegur 1, the main national road around the whole island. This time, together with Chris, whom we met two days earlier, we discover the charms of northern Iceland up to the second largest city in the country - Akureyri.
I was faced with an unpleasant surprise in the morning. Hot water in the shower was extra chargeable, with coins (!!!). This way I paid $20 for, just and only, a place on the grass and as you can see I didn't even deserve to warm myself up with hot water! Since I didn't have any coins at all, I bathed this morning in a very brisk way. I packed away my wet tent, ate some quick, improvised breakfast (rice bread with peanut butter), and Chris just drove to the campsite. We set off on the road again.
North has opened up another portion of astonishing views for us. The road towards Akureyri is rich in large, dark deserts surrounded by gentle mountains.
Detouring towards the most powerful waterfall in Europe - Dettifoss. To reach it, you have to go through a rather gloomy valley, which brings to mind these evil areas of the savannah from the Lion King. The trembling of the earth and the rising breeze in the air herald something spectacular in a moment.
By this almost 50 meters high water monument an opening scene of Prometheus was shot (a movie hated by many, although I'm really fond of it).
A few kilometers earlier there's Selfoss, which I personally liked more. It is certainly more rewarding to photograph, as Dettifoss is largely hidden in the canyon.
Next we approach the lake Mývatn. I don't know how it's possible, but around this lake there are a few completely different, but exceptionally spectacular places. The absorption of what the Mývatn area offers took us practically the whole day, and we did it all quite hastily anyway.
BAM! - Turquoise lake Víti in the crater of Crafla!
Two kilometers from the crater, there is a shower by the way which allows to clean your footwear a little bit, but moving on...
BAM! - a large geothermal area Námaskarð, where you will find chimneys with fuming steam like a locomotive or boiling mud in the middle of every possible colour!
BAM! - a cave called Grjotagja, where Jon Snow and Ygritte had some amourous moments you will find a lot of tourists, especially fans of the Game of the Thrones. Unfortunately, the cave is no longer available for swimming due to its popularity.
And right above the cave is hmm some kind of crevice?
We get into the car, shoes, as you can see, are not willing to clean themselves but it's nothing, because...
BAM! - another crater of the dead volcano next door, this time several times bigger than the previous one and completely black! Here is Hverfjall!
It was late, so we didn't try to hike around on its top - with the naked eye you could see that it would take a lot of time.
However, the panorama of the area seen from above did not allow us to take our eyes off it for a long time.
And what you see there is not Mordor, but Dimmuborgir...
BAM! - moving to a place that looks like a city made of lava, where you have the impression that in a moment some orc or troll will jump on you. This dark kingdom (by the way - it was an inspiration for one black metal band, though not worth attention in my opinion) is vast - we chose one of several paths and set off for an hour to visit in this bizarre environment. It was formed in the result of a huge eruption that took place around 2300 years ago, when lava flooded the lake, which caused its rapid reactions and cooling down in these peculiar poses.
Before we got to the Icelandic capital of North we got to see the gods' waterfall, that is Goðafoss. It was here that, according to old sagas, Iceland symbolically converted to Christianity when then [lawspeaker] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawspeaker), after the national assembly, threw into the waterfall the statue of old pagan gods.
Akureyri, located in Fjord, was reached in the evening. Chris installed himself in a hostel and I meet thanks to CouchSurfing with Jan, who is Czech living here for some time. I wrote to Jan because he declared himself a libertarian and to meet a Slav libertarian brother in such a desolate, extraordinary place of Europe was appealing!
John arrived with his Subaru on Czech plates with a Gadsen sticker on his trunk. Together with Chris headed to a pub with some icelandic craft beers. How good it was to try something that actually had a taste, not just a percentage!
We have immersed ourselves in a lazy conversation about life in northern Iceland and, of course, about politics. I shared with Jan my story about a famous former member of the Party of Free Citizens who decided to found his own country and soon after his friend, who was from the Green Party and was just taking part in the regional elections, got on board! When I asked him if the Conservative Icelanders were in favour of joining the European Union, he turned to the back table and passed on my question to a large man with the Viking apparatus who was more than willing to answer his question. What was that? Half of the guests from the pub take part in the elections here, or what? As you can see, a peaceful dialogue between libertarians, greens and conservatives is possible!
We didn't sit in the pub for long. Jan was tired after a long day at work, so we went home. He went to sleep, and I talked for a while with his roommates. That was a very short, but interesting acquaintance with Jan. Hopefully I will be able to meet him som time later. The next day in the morning, with Chris, we visited Akureyri for a moment in search of a cheap, used Icelandic wool sweater - unsuccessfully. But we found Freemasonry temples, red heart-shaped stop lights, trolls, psychedelic graffiti and a lot of joy from - I don't believe I'm writing this - the exceptionally summer weather of that day.
To be continued...