Iceland

[TreeHugger]

Well, it's not Utah, but some of you expressed interest! Returned from Iceland yesterday and it was an amazing trip. Weather was wet and chilly, 40s mainly, but didnt really put a damper on our adventure (no pun intended!). We spent the first part of the vacation backpacking and the second part touring. These pics are from the backpacking trip. Iceland is very unusual, as you can imagine. Greener than I expected, and so very diverse, it was really cool. These pics dont even begin to capture all of it, the character of the people, town and countryside, but are a good start, hard to choose only a handful out of 400!

[derstuka]

My lord, those are beautiful pictures Karen! They just take my breath away. I can only imagine the beauty in real life. How were the people? Did many speak english? How was the food? Any things you liked to eat?

Thanks for sharing!

[accadacca]

My lord, those are beautiful pictures Karen! They just take my breath away.

Ditto!

[TreeHugger]

My lord, those are beautiful pictures Karen! They just take my breath away. I can only imagine the beauty in real life. How were the people? Did many speak english? How was the food? Any things you liked to eat?

Thanks for sharing!

THANKS! Wow. :-) It was beautiful, even with the clouds and rain!! The people were super cool, very friendly and very helpful. Everyone we came across spoke English very well, which was nice. On our backpack, some of the time we camped and some of the time we stayed in mountain huts (about half and half), that is the best way to go, I think, you meet all sorts of really cool people, and they are generally doing the same trek as you so you see them again and again along the way, you really feel like you forged some friendships. We kept sort of hanging out with a couple from Norway, one that was half German and half Spanish, and a couple from Oregon! We ate mostly backpacking food and only ended up eating out 3 times during the whole vacation!! Staying in hostels while we "toured" allowed us to cook our own meals, which saved a TON of money!

[TreeHugger]

Here are a few more pics to show a bit of the character of the country. The city pics are in Reykjavik, the capital, with a population of around 117,000. These pics were taken in the city center. The view of the "whole city" is in Akeuryi, the second biggest "city" with a population of 17,000! :-) All around there were farms in the most surprising places, and most were white buildings with red roofs, I loved them! Sheep, sheep everywhere! Most of the houses and buildings were sided in that molded aluminum (I think, some kind of metal), giving everything kind of a modern look, very contradictory. And there is a pic of one of the mountain huts we stayed at, all the huts allowed camping in there "yards" as well.

[Jaxx]

Very nice. That looks awesome. You are a very artsy photographer! I love the town photos, the way the are framed

[KillEmAll]

Wow! Quite the trip with photos to back it up! Those are some really good pictures. I really liked this one.

[derstuka]

My lord, those are beautiful pictures Karen! They just take my breath away. I can only imagine the beauty in real life. How were the people? Did many speak english? How was the food? Any things you liked to eat?

Thanks for sharing!

THANKS! Wow. :-) It was beautiful, even with the clouds and rain!! The people were super cool, very friendly and very helpful. Everyone we came across spoke English very well, which was nice. On our backpack, some of the time we camped and some of the time we stayed in mountain huts (about half and half), that is the best way to go, I think, you meet all sorts of really cool people, and they are generally doing the same trek as you so you see them again and again along the way, you really feel like you forged some friendships. We kept sort of hanging out with a couple from Norway, one that was half German and half Spanish, and a couple from Oregon! We ate mostly backpacking food and only ended up eating out 3 times during the whole vacation!! Staying in hostels while we "toured" allowed us to cook our own meals, which saved a TON of money!

Thanks for the trip report Karen, now you make me want to visit Iceland! Smart staying at the hostels, that saved some serious money!

[Sombeech]

Great pictures!!!

[stefan]

wow absolutely spectacular tree

many thanks for sharin'

[Alex]

Very awesome, thanks for sharing, do you have any pics of the local people? Those pictures usually tell a lot of story.

[TreeHugger]

No, unfortunately, no pics of the people... Other than the ones that were working (and looking just like you and me!) there weren't any of those wonderful opportunities for shots like "the old fisherman on the docks", etc. I will say the Icelandic people, well, the city folks anyway, are really quite fashionable, otherwise, pretty "ordinary" looking. I agree, that "people photos" tell a great story.

[DirkHammergate]

Killer trip. I plan on doing these types of trips when my last kid hits college.

[Scott Card]

Great photos. Thanks for the TR. Looks like a great time. This is what this Forum was supposed to be for. I am also sick about what is going on in other threads including my passion, Canyoneering. I am responding "off thread" cause I refuse to participate on the other threads. Karen, I don't know you but I hope you will still post on this thread and other related threads so that we can enjoy your trips vicariously. It is sad when a vocal few screw it up for the rest. Stay put, I think this will pass, if not, I too will go else where.

[fouristhenewone]

Awesome shots. one more on the tick sheet that I have to visit now.

[sparker1]

Very cool trip, indeed. I'd call it a trip for the ages, something so very few will ever do. Great photos, too. Thanks for sharing.

[greyhair biker]

I cant believe it took me this long to see this thread! Absolutely amazing shots...I am SO jealous...always wanted to go to Iceland

[stefan]

looking through this again ... i'm stunned

[TreeHugger]

Hey, thanks, you guys. It was a very cool trip, very different. It's one of our "Backpacker" vacations, meaning we saw some pictures, thought, "damn, that's cool", so started planning! We picked our trip to the Alps that way too, and a couple others. Fun!