The Long Drive

Sunday, June 21

   Sunday was "the long drive," but not without incredible views at every turn. Landscapes changed from layered green mountains, to clear glassy lakes, to vast black sand beaches. During one stretch we saw a mountain in the distance which to us became first an eagle...but then a dragon. The shadows complimented the picture perfectly, as well as the clouds (what we depicted as smoke) that billowed up from the adjacent mountain/volcano. 

   Our first real stop for the day was at an Viking village set that someone had used for their film. It was fun to explore the little village, take fun pictures, and I even found a flower that looked and felt more like cotton on a stem.

You can just barely see the village in the background between us. 

Our Viking faces:

   After a few more hours of driving, we hit up the glacier lagoon. Words cannot really describe how beautiful the glaciers were, and after being in the car all day and with each other for a week, we enjoyed the scenery but also took quite a few hilarious (to us anyways) photos. :)

   Our last stop for the day was to have dinner in Vik. Stephen and I had a habit of ordering the same meals, and tonight was no different. Fish and vegetables became our common dinner, but it was hard to resist when everything on the plate was fresh! After dinner, we drove to a nearby beach. The contrast of the bright green plants over black sand was again, beautiful. At this stop, we decided to send off a message in a bottle. Emily's mom had given her the supplies, so we created our own version of a message, sealed the bottle tight with super glue (yes, we just happened to have some) and duct tape (we also happened to have that too). Using Stephen's good throwing arm, we launched the bottle out into the ocean, and if it actually goes out to sea and follows the currents, could potentially end up in Canada or the East Coast. :)

   That night, we had a last minute adventure. We reached our hostel, which was scenically placed beside a waterfall, and asked for our reservation. But they couldn't find us. We then had a thought that we had booked it for the wrong night....and sure enough, that is what had happened. There were no available spots there for that night, so they directed us to a hotel nearby. It was late at night, but the receptionist was still very friendly and gave us two rooms for the night at about the same price that we would've paid for the hostel. It was nice to have the sheets and towels provided as well as a full-on breakfast in the morning.

Our drive to the hostel:

Distance covered today: