That’s all we had, exactly 4 days. And yet looking back on the trip to Iceland (right as the Bardarbunga volcano was stirring up memories across Europe of that Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010) and the below photos it seems like a lot more. Despite the fact that it was cloudy for a good 2-3 days and rained quite a bit, it feels as if we’ve done a million things and spent a few weeks wandering and exploring. Which you should do, by the way — just rent a 4×4 and go deep into this incredible country because that’s where the real beauty lies; where narrow gravel and dirt roads lead you to long since last visited places; where you can trek for days without seeing people (plenty of sheep though 😉 ) or wind down in natural hot springs; where you can appreciate the immensity of the glaciers and mountains around you as they stand right at the sea level; where you can really feel what a volcano eruption does to Earth as you see the oceans of moss covered lava fields; where you can witness the light spectacle that is the Northern lights.
I can honestly say it’s one of the most unbelievable places I’ve been to with its vast empty spaces, breathtaking vistas, and surreal and often outworldly landscapes. It’s definitely as close as I’ve gotten to seeing a terraformed Mars or something. We’ve just barely scratched Iceland’s surface and my hunger for adventure beckons me to go back for more… 😉
Some highlights below, more in the coming weeks. Enjoy, comments are always appreciated!
***
First morning in Iceland. The mini camper van proved to be quite useful.
The incredibly clear atmosphere lets you see really far — that “little” rock in the middle is about 1,000m high and stands around 10-15km away, with the glacier at the back being at around 50km.
Even some of the back roads are well maintained with lights and signs.
Eyjafjallajökull in all its glory… what a view. Best part? I learned how to pronounce the name properly 😉
No currency tossing in rivers, please!
View of long extinct volcanic fissures from the Laki mountain — you can actually see where the earth literally opened up and spewed lava from its core, amazing. The 1783 eruption here was amongst the most devastating ones in recorded history, it basically wiped out a 5th of Iceland’s population and the majority of livestock, further impacting Europe and even Earth’s climate as a whole… mind boggling really.
Geysir!
Cool little lake in an old crater.
Relaxing in a natural hot spring as the rain is pouring over our heads… luckily and miraculously my equipment was dry, but we were completely soaked by the time we got back.
Comfy 🙂
The best lobster I’ve eaten!
Father and son playing at the empty Reynisfjara black beach at dusk. One of my favorite shots of the trip, totally worth the soaked boots I got from trying to take it 😉
Random sign that made me smile.
Plenty of waterfalls around, some of them really majestic.
Sheep protection. Seriously though, there were fences everywhere — they’ve built quite the infrastructure.
Perched above.
Sometimes it’s worth taking your eyes off the grandeur stuff and looking down.
First I’ve seen a house engulfed in rock.
One of the many glaciers from up close… perhaps the photo doesn’t do it justice, but it was very Moon-like.
This guy was sick and tired of the rain for sure 😉
An old US Navy plane wreckage, sitting in the middle of a gigantic black beach.
Massive waves.
Some down time.
Scuba diving in some of the clearest water on earth (so they say) — right in between the two tectonic plates!
The greenish-yellow looking moss was in sharp contrast to the black and curvy road.
4×4 fun 🙂
The first time we’d seen the sun in around 2 days.. always provides for some dramatic landscapes with the dark clouds in the background.
Around the canyon.
A tucked away little waterfall.
Abandoned farms amidst the vastness of Iceland’s landscapes.
A glacier some 20km away… believe it or not there were roads that did not make a turn for even more than that.
Iceberg in the Jökulsárlón glacial lake.
Reynisdrangar rocks at dusk.
Sheep are everywhere! 🙂
Wrapped and weather protected bales of hay.
The grand finale! Truly a spectacle of nature that we didn’t expect to see, but were luckily rewarded with… as we were chilling in hot thermal pools around 11pm! You couldn’t ask for more out of life really 😉 All Northern Lights photos here.
More photos and stories coming soon 🙂
In a Search of Balance 
Magnifiques photos!!!
Man your posts are wonderful! All of a sudden I want to visit Iceland. I wonder why. Your shots are lovely.
Thanks! You really should 😉
Bloody awesome!!
Iceland has been on my ‘places to visit’ list for a long time and your pictures make me wanna go there even more.
Awesome post!
Do it! And then come back and share photos / experiences 🙂
just wow! incredible pics!!
Reblogged this on adestroth86 and commented:
That sucks, Dang you Bardarbunga Volcano
Nice Pics. Though what was it taken with regular camera or camera phone
Not a camera phone, no. I have a Canon 6D 🙂
Nice
Lovely pics, nicely balanced.
Were the geysers sulfurous? Good and stinky?
Are those two wild goats or wild sheep on that canyon wall?
Is there any reason to put on insect repellent?
Thank you! To your questions:
Yes, very sulfurous and stinky but also and warm, which was nice considering it was below 10 degrees outside and quite windy.
They were sheep alright, but don’t think they were wild… farmers normally leave sheep to wander around so these had decided that it was as good a place as any to get stuck in 😉
Don’t think so, no. Even in the “summer” months July and August it doesn’t get too hot.
What lovely photos! I especially love the shot with the black road dissecting the light green/yellow field.
Thank you, it was a pretty surreal landscape indeed. You should see it for yourself!
Definitely hope to some day soon!
Beautiful! Great post
Ever since i saw that movie “Life of water mitty ” I became a fan of Iceland. And now seeing your pictures , it is just incredible.
Loved the movie, it was definitely one of the reasons why I flew there 🙂
Reblogged this on Moon Jitsu.
great!
Inspiring. Truly inspiring.
Impressive
This place has crept up my List due to this! 🙂
Reblogged this on 123travelingglutenfree.
These are magnificent. Because I live in a crowded part of the world, I had no idea such vast, uninhabited places still existed. Are there many people with you when you go out on these photographing tours?
There’s plenty of those places, but you have to go and find them 😉 I usually travel light, 1-2 other people max — after that it gets difficult to agree on things and not everybody has enough patience for my (sometimes) time consuming photo taking 🙂
Glorious! Just glorious!
I loved this post! What an incredible country. For years I’ve wanted to visit Iceland, and my friends don’t understand…I’ll have to show them this!
Please do 😉
Wnderful photos! Makes us all want to visit Iceland. Thank you for sharing them!
we leave for iceland tomorrow!! So thrilled by your pics!!!!
Enjoy it! Hope you are lucky with the weather… how long will you be staying?
Hristo, your photos are spectacular! I’ve only been to Iceland once, but those few days convinced me that I needed to return – and your great photo essay just confirmed it. The shot of father and son on the beach is a joy! And since my husband is a geologist I was particularly amazed by the “Some down time” photo. Amazing! Congratulations on the FP – you totally rocked it! ~Terri
Thank you for the very kind words! The natural pipe organ shot is one of my favorites as well 🙂 You should go back, as I’m planning on doing. When was the last time you were there?
We were there a couple of years ago and fell in love with the wildness of the place. We love to camp and said then how cool it would be to spend some time there. Did you rent a camper van? ~Terri
Yes, pictured in first photo — small, but very practical for 4 days 😉 Next time I go to Iceland though I’m renting a 4×4 and exploring the hidden inner beauty, SO much to see!
Reblogged this on Turisticar[í]o.
What did you think of the language? (besides difficult to pronounce?)
That it reminded me quite a bit of Greek, interestingly enough. Are you from Iceland / do you know the language? What do you think?
No, unfortunately I am not from Iceland but I am interested in the language. Perhaps it is a little like Greek but the writing….is something completely different.
Incredible! I can’t wait to visit Iceland someday.
Someday is a recipe for never 😉 Start making plans today!
Just got back from travelling and need to save for now!
Looks like you had a good time, Iceland looks like a hiker’s paradise.
Very nice photos. They capture the beauty of the landscape.
Reblogged this on Apps Lotus's Blog.
Reblogged this on RollerBand's Blog.
Wow!! Breathtaking and magnificent!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for commenting and reblogging!
Thanks for taking us on this beautiful endeavour with you, nature is the most serene, humbling experience one can get.
You are very welcome.
Reblogged this on IAMBWF and commented:
Finding such gems as this make a great start to the day. A world, unseen by our own eyes, graciously shared.
Reblogged this on Çanakkale Şehitlik Turu.
Reblogged this on A Sawyer's Daughter and commented:
Fantastic!!
What an adventure!
Reblogged this on pauline23blog and commented:
❤ ICELAND.
you made my day. thank you. I was wondering if you could give me the name of the beautiful song you used.
Absolutely, it’s Kaleo — All The Pretty Girls. A little known band from Iceland that makes some beautiful music.
These photos are incredible. I never knew I wanted to go to Iceland.
Great photos, in complement of a nice travelogue.
Nice post! Reminds me
The movie.. Ee Walter Mitty!
This is unbelievably amazing photos!
just AMAZING pictures!!
This country looks simply amazing!! Thank you for portraying that through your fantastic photos!! 😀
Reblogged this on http://www.syech.com.
Wow! Awesome photos!
Beautiful photos!
Reblogged this on A E R O .
These are beautiful inspiring photographs! My new boyfriend keeps mentioning going and now I’m convinced. One of my favourite songs begins, ‘All the other girls here are stars, you are the Northern Lights…’
Speaking of songs, what is that one playing at the top, the Lay Me Down one? It’s lovely.
Really awe inspiring post. Glad to have found it on Freshly Pressed.
I appreciate the comment and the kind words, thank you! The song is called All The Pretty Girls and it’s by a little known Icelandic band called Kaleo. I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Reblogged this on Business Solutions.
Your photos are wonderful, Iceland is a place I have always wanted to visit and this post may be just the encouragement I need to fulfil that wish.
I hope it happens for you sooner rather than later. Come back and share your photos / stories / experiences!
Reblogged this on The Rambling Gardener.
That is just amazing !!! My dream is to visit Iceland it’s so different from us and such a great place to just forget about your day to day life.
Well done for all that you achieved.
:)x
Where are you from / where do you live that you say it’s so different from Iceland? Granted pretty much any place is, but still 😉
Amazing post, I’ll go to Iceland next year for sure
Enjoy it! Come back and share experiences 🙂
Thanks for that!
Amazing photos!! Iceland has moved up a few spots on my travel hit list after reading your post. Love your work!
Appreciate you taking the time to comment!
Wow! These are absolutely incredible! Thank you 🙂
I clicked on your post because my daughter will be in Iceland next week (only for a day, she works on a cruise ship) and so was curious about the country. Amazing pictures, thanks for sharing. P.S. My favourite is the boy and father on the beach as well.
You have excellent taste 😉
These are fantastic photos and I live in Colorado! Nicely done. Congrats on the Pressage!
Reblogged this on Progressive Rubber Boots.
Beautiful pictures! Love the father and son one especially
Your photos are spectacular. They really make me want to visit Iceland sooner rather than later. I look forward to seeing more of your work.
Thank you! Feel free to browse around, I think there’s other cool posts I’ve shared over the years.
Wow. Your photos are absolutely stunning! This is bringing out the wanderlust in me to just hop on a plane and head straight for Iceland! And if I’m correct, one of my best friend’s plane was delayed while she was in Iceland because of the volcano eruption in 2010 that you mentioned earlier.
Amazing landscape and wonderful pictures! you did see a lot in 4 days! makes me dream about Iceland… thanks for sharing!
Wow! Absolutely beautiful pictures! I’ve always wanted to go…this makes me even more!
Reblogged this on Dotsie01’s Weblog.
Incredible photos, I wish I could also go to places in the future. The place is incredible as well!
Haven’t read it actually, but I take the liberty of commenting already. Traveling is such a food for thought. And here I may add, even though your senses were rendered chill numb, that one instinct still is at work.
Appreciate the thoughtfulness!
Truly excellent. Congrats.
Sooooo coool *.* and i love their hilarious website, the best tourism iniciative i’ve ever seen!
They have a good sense of humor these Icelanders 😉
Looking forward to vivit someday Iceland
I wanna go there like RIGHT NOW!!!
Well, there’s flights all the time 😉 What’s stopping you?
Woaah, so beautiful~~
Great photos and summary! Congrats on being pressed.
They say a picture speaks 1000 words and I think this blog confirms that, the place looks amazing! The page looks great too. Look forward to the next post.
Thanks! Unfortunately not every single post has as many incredible locations, but I try and make each unique and worth stopping by for 😉
WOW, just beautiful. But I believe the words can’t describe how beautiful it is.
Indeed, you need to see it for yourself. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Amazing post!!! Superb pics! I am glad I came across this blog 🙂 Iceland is on my bucket list and I hope the day comes soon when I get to visit it.
Jealous 🙂 amazing
Stunning photographs! This post has motivated me even more to start planning my trip. 🙂
I’m happy it’s had that effect 🙂 Good luck planning & traveling!
Beautiful place! Nice job on the pictures and blog! Iceland is definitely on my list 🙂
simply beautiful breathtaking thank you for sharing
Your photographs are beautiful!
Reblogged this on capadancers.
WOW what an experience!! I can’t believe you caught the Northern Lights?!!! But then again, all of your photos are freaking fantastic. Why were you in Iceland in the first place?
http://itsjpei.wordpress.com/
Yeah, we got super lucky with the Aurora, wasn’t expecting to see it… sometimes you just catch a lucky break 😉 Why was in Iceland? To marvel at its beauty 🙂
these photos are amazing!! i’m going to read the rest of your blog later and look forward to more beautiful photos…
Thank you! Comments and thoughts are always appreciated to feel free to let me know what you think of other posts as well 🙂
I will!
AMAZING! Love the photo “some down time” it actually looks like the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland!
Oh you’re right, I’d never heard of it before but they do share a striking resemblance… another item in the list 😉 Thanks!
Reblogged this on dario latrofa and commented:
Cool
Reblogged this on abuchi06.
Absolutely breathtaking photos! It looks like you had a glorious time! So glad I found your blog through Freshly Pressed. I’ll definitely be stopping back by for more photos!
Glad to hear that, thank you Leslie!
Reblogged this on La-Bel.
These images are completely stunning, at times it truly seemed like you were on a completely alien planet. How amazing to think these wonders are just the other side of the globe 🙂
The funny thing is sometimes (often even, I’d say) they are much closer than that. So I’m debating whether people can’t afford to spend the time traveling or are just happy without it and like staying in their comfort zones. Thoughts? 🙂
Very true. I am time (and cash) poor, so part of the reason I don’t get around much is because of that. For me it is definitely not the comfort zone thing, my honeymoon was the best time we ever had, we climbed a live volcano and looked down into it, we were thrown down hills in massive plastic balls, we went rampaging through a muddy jungle in a 4WD buggy and we climbed numerous waterfalls (apparently my Husbands friends were incredibly jealous), it was an incredible adventure.
I think it would be a combination of time, money and perhaps just a lack of awareness 🙂
Your honeymoon sounds incredible! Hope you get to re-live it soon enough 🙂 Thanks for stopping by & commenting, come back again.
It surely was and I surely will 🙂
What an incredible photo series from an adventure to one of the most amazing places on the planet! Those vast empty spaces, only occasionally dotted with small houses and sheep… Iceland at its best!
Your comments is much appreciated, Bama! You have some excellent photos on yours as well, keep it up 🙂
Congrats on being freshly pressed! Your other-worldly photos of this other-worldly place are just reeling me in…that’s it…Iceland is next 🙂
Haha, mission accomplished then! 😉
Reblogged this on Kresna Pribadi's Blog.
the photos are amazing . I especially love the last one 🙂
I’ll have a separate post on the Aurora with more photos, we’ll see when I get around to posting it 😉
Please don’t feel you have to reply to this, but you should know that this is the best photo post I’ve seen in a long, long time. Mesmerizing. Cheers from Texas, and thanks for putting Iceland on my short list of places I must go to.
Shanon, thank you for the indeed very touching words! For an enthusiast like me that’s everything and motivates me to keep going. If you liked this post, I think you might enjoy the other two WordPress featured as well — https://inasearchofbalance.wordpress.com/tag/featured/
Btw, I replied because I wanted to, not because I had to 😉
Thanks. I can only imagine how daunting FP comments can be. You are obviously a seasoned professional.
Absolutely fantastic photographs. Fantastic and intriguing place. Makes me want to go there. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Awesome! And all that in just 4 days!?
Regards Daniel
Yup, almost to the minute 😉
Pretty good photos.
Great photos. They make me want to go back to Iceland and see more of the spots I wasn’t able to (it was close to winter and reaching many parts of the country required a more serious vehicle than I had). I really miss the chocolate-covered licorice. Did you have any of that?
I did, yes, but I’d have to admit I’m not the biggest fan of licorice… sea food was to die for though 😉
These photos are stunning! What a beautiful country!
What an incredible place! I have so many places I want to travel to, but your pictures sure made Iceland look like it should be way further up my list.
Reblogged this on razgui019 and commented:
The journey and photos posted in the blog are incredible ! I just felt I was part of the journey.
Nice photos! love the father and son playing at the beach photo. Looks like a fun trip, I am sure to visit there some day. 🙂
Breathtaking!
Wow! Gorgeous photos. Iceland is definitely on our bucket list! We were hoping to include it on our current trip, but it wasn’t to be. Next time! Great post.
Just don’t postpone too much, otherwise stuff will get in the way and you won’t do it 😉
Makes me homesick! Iceland is the most amazing country… Makes me proud to read about how others enjoy this little island of ours…
You should check out jokulsarlon glacier lagoon in November time-ish… The Northern light are absolutely amazing over the lagoon…
Thanks for the tip! Next time I’m in Iceland (hopefully sooner rather than later) I’ll make sure to do it 😉
Reblogged this on Italy can wait… and commented:
I just wanted to share these stunning images of my beautiful home country with you. Experiencing mixed emotions of country pride and home sickness right now…
This is amazing. Keep posting dude !
Thanks, keep commenting and following!
Magnificent photos. Some of them are even incredible. What a blessed place! 🙂 Happy to have found you through the Freshly Pressed posts!
Thanks, happy to have a new follower! Love the title of your blog, btw 😉
Thank you! 🙂
Great photos! And if you want to see more rock-engulfed homes, come to Gran Canaria, we have plenty here!
Adding it to my list 😉
Oh, and for seeing and feeling ” what a volcano eruption does to Earth” I recommend going to Lanzarote, especially Parque Nacional Timanfaya. It’s a wonder!
Just saw some photos… wow! So many places, so little time 🙂
Iceland… wait, that’s where the fairies live, isn’t it?
These photos are absolutely surreal. Absolutely out of this world. And the colors! Now I know where my next trip’s headed! Thank you for the daydreams… 🙂
Haha, it just might be the place with the fairies, yes 😉 Glad you liked the post, go and explore this great country!
Enjoyed looking at those photos!
Wow.. I like all photos~!…
Enjoyed looking at those photos!
Beautiful stunning photography….I visited Iceland 12 years ago….fabulous
who is the song by? amazing pics also 🙂
Thanks! It’s a little known Icelandic band called Kaleo, the song is All The Pretty Girls. Enjoy 🙂
Thank you for share this awesome moments to all of us.
It’s really beautiful, you might see how speechless I am.
And I think I didn’t wrong to put Iceland and Aurora as two of my bucket lists.
I think you very much did the right thing 😉 Hope you get there soon!
Amen. Thanks for the reply. Spend your next days in Indonesia 🙂
Reblogged this on Dr Sigsbee Duck.
Reblogged this on Awaré and commented:
Friends hé hé hé,
Wondering of will make the same beautiful trip. the answer will be, Yes let’s go for that!
xj
Wonderful!