Rest Day

Today was a rest day for us. Having hiked 3 good hard hikes in a row we were completely exhausted. On this day we also had the longest drive on the whole trip to get to our next hotel, so we decided to take it easy.

The day started by going to the waterfall that we saw the day prior from the bus: Seljalandsfoss. Since we were on a bus, we couldn't stop, even though the evening was perfect lighting on the waterfall. It was morning and it was super washed out, and the parking lot was jammed full of cars, so much that we couldn't even get a parking spot. So we decided to move on and hit this when we drive back which will at least be the right time of day and hopefully have better lighting.

After that, we drove to go hike around the Skógafoss waterfall. This attraction was also right off the ring road but a little bit further away so there were fewer people. It was still packed, but we started by seeing "Iceland's most beautiful waterfall", Skógafoss. It was a gorgeous waterfall, but the lighting wasn't perfect for us to capture the beauty. We had seen more beautiful waterfalls while in Iceland so far, so I'm not sure where this title comes from. It started raining on this hike, and we weren't prepared for it, so we turned around and went back to the car to get jackets since we weren't too far anyway. By the time we restarted the hike, the rain had stopped. This hike starts by climbing a million steps to the top of Skógafoss, and then continued along a gradual incline up the canyon for as far as you want to make it. Since we were tired, we turned around after a little over a mile where we had a snack, saw a few more waterfalls, and then we headed back down. Like many touristy places, the amount of people made this a meh experience, but the further we hiked the fewer people there were so it was nice to be able to get out from the people a little bit.

From there, we kept driving along the coast to get to Vik, where we stopped at the Black Beach overlook on the West side. This area was neat and great viewing, but the lighting was less than ideal so we didn't get that great of photos. We then drove to the Eastern side of the beach where we could actually get on the beach. The lighting was better here and we spent a little more time at this spot.

Next, we stopped at a really cool coffee shop, Skool Beans. It was inside of a bus where you order at the back. It was a really neat experience and the owners put a lot of thought into it. The main reason we went was because the name of it is "Skool Beans Micro Roaster... and Sometimes a Cat!", and Katie wanted to see the cat. Unfortunately, Jeffrey (the cat) was out wandering around and not on the bus while we were there. Since it was late in the day, we got hot chocolate so we didn't have a caffeine rush in the evening. I got white chocolate and fennel hot chocolate, which is unusual to see on a menu, but it tasted delicious.

We made it to our guest house for the evening and cooked dinner. Our room was in Kalfafell, a small little town that is literally just a few farms. it was a nice small place to stay, but we were only there for one night. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so no chance of Northern Lights.