I woke up to a beautiful ocean view from my hostel. After Iceland I’m really spoiled for views from my accommodation.

My hostel included breakfast! I probably had noted this when I booked it but now it was a nice surprise from past Megan. The breakfast was really cute and included waffles with homemade whipped cream and “eggs from our chickens.” I chatted with some other solo travelers about our plans for the day. Rain was expected. Since breakfast was at 7 I probably set off at around 8 or so.

The woman at the reception of the hostel told me of a place near Vik on my drive East told me about a place called Hjörleifshöfði. She said there was a nice hike with a cool cave there and barely any tourists went there (which is kind of surprising reading the description in my link – apparently Star Wars Rogue 1 filmed there). It wasn’t even in my Lonely Planet.

It was raining pretty hard when I got there, and I was the only person besides some people illegally camping (very bad! use campsites!). I had rain gear so I was not deterred from hiking.

This place must have amazing views with better visibility. It started to get really foggy and visibility wasn’t very good on top of the mountain. It was just me and the sheep, so I decided to turn back for my own safety. Maybe if I hadn’t been solo I would have kept going – but maybe if I’d been traveling with someone they wouldn’t have even wanted to hike in the rain!

I explored to see if I could get to the cave another way, but didn’t see a way, so decided to head out.

The rain did not let up as I drove about an hour to Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon. This became a really famous spot apparently when Justin Bieber filmed a video there (and read that article and apparently just do the opposite of everything he did in Iceland and you’ll be good!). Recently they’ve starting restricting people to footpaths since the environment was getting damaged and people won’t listen to ranger when they want their Instagram photo.

Like everything in Iceland, there’s a hike uphill to get to several viewing points. The furthest viewing point was my favorite, as you could see the color of the water the best.

It was still pouring rain and it gave the canyon more of a dark, moody atmosphere.

Next I was headed to Skaftafell National Park, where my goal was to hike to see the Svertifoss waterfall. It was a long drive of about 2 hours. It was beautiful even in the rain as you approached this giant glacier.

You can see how hard it was raining in this photo I took of a waterfall at the side of the road.

So I get to a big parking lot at Skaftafell and I’m excited that they have an indoors visitor center. I should have asked about getting to Svertifoss, but I followed what I thought was the correct direction to the waterfall.

You could walk right up close to the glacier (you are warned against going on it without proper equipment and guides, as it can be quite dangerous).

I then wanted to get going on the hike and started along a trail. It seemed weird that it was so empty. I somehow ended up back at the visitor’s center. Where was this waterfall?

At this point, all my activity was catching up to me and I was hit by a sudden wave of exhaustion. It was still raining and I was starting to get grumpy. This was a night I was supposed to camp and it was pouring rain, but there were not really other accommodation options nearby. My phone was running out of battery. I went to the cafeteria and got some beef stew and soda, which helped a lot.

Just like when you’re traveling with people, traveling alone has its ups and downs. It’s definitely not a perfect experience.

I planned to go the glacier lagoons and diamond beach around later afternoon/sunset and then return to Skaftafell to camp. Jokulsarlon was the furthest east I would go, and then the following day I’d drive back west. So it made sense to hike to Svertifoss the next day instead.

I decided to head to Jokulsarlon. In planning my itinerary, I knew driving this far would make for a long driving day the following day, all the way back west. But the photos seemed amazing and I’d seen some of the unreal scenery in Batman Begins (training scenes with Liam Neeson).

As I was driving, the rain cleared up and the sun came out. This was going to be amazing lighting. I went over a bridge and started to see the stunning glacier lagoon.

My mood improved a lot at Jokulsarlon. It was crowded and there were some boats that zoom around the glaciers, but it was incredibly beautiful. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and tried hopelessly to capture it in photos.

While it was busy, you could easily wander and find a spot to observe the glaciers floating, seals swimming, and seagulls taking rides on the glaciers. Pieces of the glacier would break off.

I also did appreciate the infrastructure of the place after a long driving day in the rain and got a hot chocolate, and later, the most amazing lobster (langoustine in Iceland) soup ever from a food truck. It had the most gigantic pieces of lobster. And I’m not such a fan of eating soup every day but the soup in Iceland is so delicious.

I also wanted to see the Black Diamond Beach, which is basically on the other side of the bridge from the lagoon. This is where I took one of my favorite photos:

Pieces of glacier wash up on a black sand beach, making it clear why this is a diamond beach. It’s mesmerizing and always in movement, like the lagoon, which is why nothing will compare to going in person.

The lighting this time of day was so stunning that I went briefly back to Jokulsarlon. It was just so unreal. The glaciers are this beautiful blue color that isn’t captured properly in photos.

I was getting tired but had one more stop I wanted to see on the way back to Skaftafell: Fjallsarlon glacier lagoon. I had read some people even preferred Fjallsarlon.

I would say both are worth seeing but very different. Fjallsarlon lacks the infrastructure and was very quiet. It’s closer to the glacier but has fewer ice pieces and less movement. It was a perfect last stop to meditate on.

I then drove back to Skaftafell and headed to the campsite, which was very busy, but certainly had plenty of space for my tiny car and one woman tent. I backed my car in and set up my little tent. I was proud of myself at how good I was at setting up my tent. The rain was over, thankfully. It was getting cold already but have a warm, indoor bathroom was nice. I made some noodles and then hot chocolate with my little stove.

I saw that this campsite had laundry. But, of course, it was out of order. So I handwashed more undies.

It got cold once the sun was fully set so I burrowed into my sleeping bag and once again, was so exhausted that I fell asleep easily. Once again, I got ready for bed and fell asleep to the sounds of people speaking ,many languages around me.