Iceland // FALLS

Pat two of my Academic Travel photos and I am quickly realizing that narrowing photos down is next to impossible! It is all so beautiful, but also so diverse! In this one tiny country there are so many different types of landscapes it is insane. 

This post is dedicated to two days of chasing waterfalls the second week of our trip! We spent the days hiking, climbing on cliffs, slipping on icy rocks, and turning into popsicles after getting sprayed with waterfall mist! It's always an adventure! 

ps that gray hat wins MVP of the trip! I basically haven't taken it off for the last 10 days. nbd. 

G U L L F O S S 

(golden falls) 

I don't understand how it is possible, but this whole country looks like it is a green screen!! It is just too pretty, this is just an iphone panorama but somehow it looks so otherworldly + fake! 

S E L J A L A N D S F O S S

A path lead all the way around the waterfall. It was so cool to see the waterfall from behind, but the path was 100% black ice! It is a miracle that I only fell 3 times. We all wore our best hiking shoes but were sliding our way around. Not to mention that my hair and all of my clothing got drenched and then it immediately froze over to form a crunchy ice layer.. Welcome to Iceland. 

S K O G A R F O S S

Insanely big and so fun to hike up to the top of it!! The top of the waterfall was actually the trail head for our next hike (below) 

Þ Ó R S M Ö R K   V A L L E Y   T R A I L 

[aka 10 km of hiking along cliffs and waterfalls]

somehow we had the ENTIRE trail to ourselves! 

It took a good 4+ hours, but we definitely stopped liberally for photo breaks and snacks! We saw sooo many waterfalls on the trail that it became somewhat of a joke! My favorite part was a particularly treacherous 500m of the path that involved scramble climbing along a thin trail on a cliffs edge overlooking a waterfall. Not pictured, because it would've been crazy to try and take a picture while clinging to the rock! haha. But it was absolutely breathtaking. 

If you've learned anything from this blog, you should know that I have some strong adrenaline junkie tendencies (ahem, see here!) My friend taking this picture was screaming at me to get away from the edge.. she mayyy not have appreciated my dare devil ways. 

The volcano on the horizon is the back side of Eyjafjallajoökull (easy name, right?) the volcano that erupted in 2010 and shut down European air traffic for a few days! Luckily the volcano currently erupting is on the other side of the island.

Another favorite Icelandic oddity: the sun starts setting at 2pm but it takes 3+ hours to set all the way, so most of the afternoon the landscape is bathed in this golden light. 

Sick of my Iceland photos yet? 

I sure hope not, because I'm going to need a few more posts to cover it all! 

I love this country!!!!! 

xx