So for starters, it’s almost ten pm here and the sun is still out…and while it went down last night it never really got dark.  AND I have to say the toilets here are WAY nicer than in Asia…I mean, my quads won’t look so awesome after we leave here but there are always trade offs, I guess.

We arrived on Saturday morning and after finally finding our rental car location

we were off!  We enjoyed our drive to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.  The scenery here is incredible-Mother Nature on crack is an apt description.  We drove to Stykkisholmur-the large metropolis on the peninsula and putzed for a bit.  We found out that one of our favorite movies was filmed partially here-The Secret Life of Walter Mitty!  Then we took off for Grunarfjodur and decided we were too tired to drive anywhere else safely.  We settled in with some pizza and checked into our room for an early night!

We got up this morning and noticed we are right next to the most famous/photographed mountain in Iceland…Kirkjufell.  We made the quick drive to Olafsvik and went whale watching.  There are so many reasons why whale watching in Iceland is better than in Sri Lanka.

1. I didn’t get roofied.

2. Not one person threw up on the boat.

3. I was never fearful that we might die

4. We never once thought we were being sold into human trafficking

5. You actually get to see whales!!  

We followed a huge humpback whale for about thirty minutes-it came so close to the boat you could see it’s entire body under the water-south an impressive creature!!  We saw puffins and white beaked Dolphins too-all in all a great outing!

Then we drove around the peninsula, checked out the Snaefellsjokull glacier-the basis for Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth-and then drove down to Ytri Tunga beach where we were able to watch a handful of seals just hanging out and playing in the water.   Then on the drive back stopped and climbed up to one of the crazy waterfalls just at the edge of the road.  Once we got back, we settled into dinner and then went for a walk outside before realizing it was almost ten pm and the sun is still shining!

So far an amazing trip-people have been nice-we met a couple who now live here with their kids but are from Minnesota and are pretty familiar with Wichita-small world!

The weather has been nice-two bluebird days in a row-although I am thankful for my warm underlayers!!!  We are having the best time just exploring with each other and getting spoiled by just being without any interruptions!  More to come tomorrow as we head up north for a seal colony and then down to Reykavik and the Blue Lagoon!