Driving through eastern Iceland Part 1

This weekend I had the great fortune of accompanying my boyfriend on his work retreat to Breiddalsvik, which is approximately a two-hour long drive from Hofn. His work friend has a car and offered to drive us as well. We decided to make it more of a touristy trip, so we stopped at some of the sights along the way. This was my first time traveling in eastern Iceland and my boyfriend hadn't to these parts of Iceland since he was six years old.

As we started out we drove through a tunnel to get to the other side of the mountains. This is actually a more recent development. The old road that goes over the mountain is still in existance and many people like to hike it now... I saw it and it's really steep. In the wintertime, it must be much safer to drive through the tunnel.

On the other side of the mountains it was almost like a different Iceland. Not long after passing the mountains we came to a beach with black sand! It was beautiful! Apparently this is a popular place for fashion photo shoots.. makes sense given the beautiful backdrop. We drove out to this lookout to take some pictures of the beach and of the mountains that we passed through (the ones I look at everyday in Hofn). When we looked the opposite direction (the way we were headed), you could see more mountains, but ones with more snow. At this stop there was also a lighthouse; a very strange looking lighthouse. It most certainly did not look like the light houses that I'm familiar with. This one was more boxy looking and bright yellow. It was really cold and windy (as per usual in Iceland), so our stop was short and soon we hopped back in the car and drove off.

We passed herds of reindeer and fields where sheep and horses were grazing. The Icelandic horses are a bit different from the horses most of us are typically accustomed with. These horses are much smaller and almost look like ponie. But they are so cute!

Our next stop was in the small town of Djupivogur. This town is a traditional fishing village with a population of about 450 people. This was the place we had pre-determined we would have lunch, but first we decided to drive around it and see what there was to see. We drove to the outer edges of the harbor to Merry Bay and ran across the egg scultpure artwork by artist Sigurður Guðmundsson. It was created in 2009 and displays eggs for each of the 34 bird species that are typical of that area.

Then we drove past the rock, bone, and shell museum. While there is usually free admission, the place looked pretty dark. I'm sure that if we had pre-arranged it could have been opened for us. This is how it usually works with these museums in Iceland. The place had a kind of hippy vibe. There were scultpures of boats, people, and animals all built out of bones, rocks, and shells. We got some pictures and then continued on our way.

We then drove back to the center of the town and ate lunch at the only place open - a small convenience store type of place. I've noticed that when driving through Iceland this is pretty much all that is available, so if you have any special dietary needs or just prefer to eat more healthily, you are probably going to struggle finding food.. especially on Sundays. We grabbed a mediocre cheeseburger and fries and then went out to see a little of the town.. not that there was much walking to do. The harbor was right across the way. There some cute, traditional buildings and some nice looking guesthouses and cafes/bars that open in the summertime for tourists. It's small town such as these that really make me appreciate the small town I'm living in - Hofn. It could be worse!

This was really our last stop before we reached our last destination of Breiddalsvik. We were running short on time and the weather had turned (heavy wind and snow), so the remaining sights we planned to see on the way back to Hofn the next day.

One thing that surprised me about the main roads in Iceland is that some of it was not paved. It just seems strange to me to think that parts of the main highway in a country might only be gravel. There were also many spots where the road (one lane going each way) merged into just one single lane for both directions... this sometimes occured around corners and at hills. This just didn't seem very safe to me. I know there isn't much traffic in these areas.. but still. I guess I thought that some of these parts would have been a bit more modernized.