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Iceland - ísland (June 2014) - Part 5

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Read Part 1 Read Part 2 Read Part 3 Read Part 4 June 19, 2014 Vík is such a photogenic town, and if you are traveling eastward you have to go by this impressive valley before arriving to Vík,   The night before I stopped by to have dinner and I wish I had taken pictures because the weather was great. I left the guesthouse early, and driving my little car thru the valley I just mentioned, I was following a car, there was another behind me and the wind was really strong.  Out of nowhere an object flew out of the mid size truck that was driving in the opposite direction.  The object hit the front of my car making an incredible loud noise. I was only able to safely stop when I arrived to Vík, and this is when I finally saw the damaged in my little Yaris.  Yankov didn’t look happy at all, specially since the bumper would have to be eventually replaced thanks to the newest fashion statement in my car: a bumper crack . The weather was crappy ...

Iceland - ísland (June 2014) - Part 4

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Read Part 1 Read Part 2 Read Part 3 June 18, 2014: “What is expensive?” This was the main question asked after I returned to Montreal. I also got the “how cold is it?”  Expensive is definitely relative to where you are from and how big is your budget right? Gas costs around CDN 2.50/liter compared Montreal's CDN 1.50/liter is a bit on the expensive side, but then some Europeans will claim to be “normal” pricing.  If I wanted to have a regular meal (fish/steak/lamb) with no drinks included the price was between CDN 25.00 to CDN 30.00. Burger, fries and soft drink was around CDN 20.00, finally if you wanted to pick up a sandwich from a super market that would probably cost you around CDN 10.00 - beer was around CDN 10.00 - that give you an idea of what I call expensive.  This was my vacation dammit and I was there to enjoy it so after day 2 I did not care anymore about prices, alright just a little bit. You will hear a lot about the Golden Circle Tour i...

Iceland - ísland (June 2014) - Part 3

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Read Part 1 Read Part 2 June 17, 2014: Happy Independence Day Iceland, and I should had bought my travel food the night before.  Once again it was 8:30am when I left the town of Stykkishólmur towards the Borgarfjörður region, which meant to take road 58 back to 54 and South on 56 across the Snæfellsnes peninsula. I was wondering about road 56 because it is pretty much in the middle of the mountains, unfortunately for me, it was super sunny when I started the day, but by the time I reached road 56 it was raining and foggy.  I did not feel like stoping to see the lava fields, but I did stop for the second time at the restaurant where the road 56 and 54 intersects.  National holiday and the place only opens at 10:00am, but a nice gentleman saw me and I was able to buy some chocolate bars, the ones I pretended were power bars because health. Followed the road 54 until I returned to city of Borgarnes, and then back on Road 1 because the first schedule visit of t...

Iceland - ísland (June 2014) - Part 2

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Read Part 1 There are basically 3 types of roads in Iceland, the main road or Route no 1, also known as the Ring Road because goes around the whole island (1,332 km), secondary roads using 2 or 3 digits in their names (some of them are gravel), and the famous mountain roads, also known as Highland Roads and they are marked as F-roads (F35 / F338).  Why is this important? Because if you want to drive on the F-roads you will need a 4wd vehicle, otherwise you might be subject to serious fines by the police, and who knows what your insurance will do if you damage your rental in non authorized zone. July 16, 2014: My final destination was going to be my hotel in Stykkishólmur, in the north part of the Snæfellsnes peninsula. Left my hotel at around 8:30am and drove north on Route 1 towards Hvalfjörður.   As soon as you leave Reykjavik your mouth starts dropping by the scenery in front of you, sometimes I must admit is difficult to pay attention to your driving because y...

Iceland - ísland (June 2014) - Part 1

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“…but I thought you were going to Croatia?” - “…but didn’t you say instead of Croatia Istanbul was your next choice?”.  Yes, yes and yes people, typical me, thinking about going somewhere and at the last minute deciding for an unexpected place.  Just like the time I was planning to go to Australia and I ended up in South Africa instead. It was a last minute decision, when initially I thought I was going to go to see the Adriatic sea, or where Asia meets Europe, instead I ended up in the island where literally the American and European continent are breaking apart from each other.   Let me tell you something, nothing will prepare you for how beautiful this country really is, and how expensive things are.  Paradise if you are into photography because the pictures you’ll able to add to your collection will be unforgettable, and incredibly breathtaking if you are into outdoors activities because literately you will lose your breath by either admiring what yo...

Iceland - ísland - preview

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Guys, I had the most amazing (and expensive) trip to Iceland, and now I'm back in Montreal.  Please give me some time to write a proper review and to go over the almost 6000 pictures I've taken during my trip.   It was about everything and anything.  I'll leave you with some pictures from this amazing trip (click on the pictures).