Here We Go! Day 6 (Snaefell-upagus II)

Hearty breakfast on the grill.

Stopped in Arnarstapi: This is that half-troll Bárður I was talking about yesterday. What a grumpus!

Gatklettur: super cold wind!

Milady on the stone bridge.

Pissed off these seagulls.

More flowers!

On to Saxhóll volcanic crater.

387 steps up, 387 steps down.

Kirkjufellsfoss (how many gorgeous waterfalls can one country have? Probably a whole lot.)

Kirkjufell Mountain

Soaked in Lýsuhólslaug hot spring pool (with healing minerals and algae), and headed back to the cabin to plan the next leg: on to the Westfjords tomorrow!

Here We Go! Day 5 (Snaefell-upagus)

After a good, hearty breakfast, we set out to explore Snæfellsnes Peninsula. First stop, Ytri Tunga to see some seals playing around in the ocean.

Hiked up to Bjarnarfoss: the approach was like something out of Tolkien.

Took a nice long walk around Búðakirkja, this black church, and down to Búða beach.

Picnic lunch near Laugarbrekka farm (where a half-troll named Bárður Snæfellsás used to live until he got sick of humans and lost himself in the nearby glacier/volcano). This statue is of Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir, who was born on the farm and traveled all around Europe and north America back in the day. The baby is Snorri (seriously), her son and apparently the first Caucasian born in America (in Vinland, Canada).

Some bird-watching near Londrangar, some rocks that look like a viking ship.

Lots of cool little flowers on our treks today.

Cooked up some tacos on the grill in the freezing wind, made a great meal to end the day.

Here We Go! Day 4 (Road Trip!)

We set out on this after cleaning up our last home.

First stop: the not so "Secret Lagoon" hot spring near Gamla Laugin. Just a pool that was like 28 dollars to swim in. We skipped it, but this sign was a nice touch.

Stop 2: Geysir! The guy at the top went off every five minutes or so. This place reminded me of a childhood trip to Yellowstone: sulfur smell, lots of tourists.

On to Friðheimar, a tomato and horse farm with a nice vegetarian restaurant inside the greenhouse. Very interesting geothermal heating system on the greenhouses, tomato beer, endless bread!

And Thingvellir National Park: beautiful lake; rugged, barren scenery with obvious results of tectonic activity.

Then on to the longest leg of the journey. Headed through Hvalfjörður Tunnel (amazing: more than three miles tunneled under the ocean) after getting some groceries. Good thing we got groceries, too. The next hour and a half was barren wilderness, and then we found our next home.

Cute little cabin on the edge of nowhere. I love this place! Had a nice meal, then closed the blackout curtains and tried to get some sleep.

Until these little bastards woke me up!

Here We Go! Day 3 (Huffin' and a Puffin)

Thirsty? Seljalandsfoss to the rescue.

So much Seljalandsfoss!!

The info signs at sights are awesome here. All have little stories from history/legends of vikings, hermits, and elves, delivered in a matter-of-fact way.

Beautiful day for a ferry ride to Vestmannaeyjar islands.

Over hill and dale (and sheep fences), we got a little lost looking for the puffin blind, but had a nice hike through a sheep pasture on the way.

We were ready to be disappointed, but eventually noticed a flock of puffins in the water, and spotted some of them making landing runs for the shore. They have a funny way of flying, really fast wings, that is distinctive. Glad Wendy got to see puffins for her birthday!

Stopped at this cute little farm restaurant for dinner, smell of manure outside, good beef inside.

And one more waterfall (Skógafoss) before limping home by 11: really hard to keep track of time when it's always light outside. Good sleep, and ready to move on to the next place.

Here we go: Day 2 (The gang's all here [allir eru hérna])

Bye, England!

Halló Iceland!

Cheers to Icelandair, who made their own special IPA, with an alcohol content inspired by their new airplanes!

Picked up a few stragglers in the airport parking lot, went grocery shopping, searched for a bathroom*, then headed to our horse farm in Hella!
*Our first two stops were at gas stations that didn't have any buildings at all, let alone bathrooms. We ended up storming some random Thai restaurant, and driving past billions of well-appointed convenience stores 5 minutes later.

Here's our farmhouse, with our sweet little Daxia Duster in the driveway. 

We made it! A little wine, a nice salad, and we're ready for bed.

And the sun is (sort of) setting. It's like 11PM...

Here we go! Day 1.5 (How to GTFO of PK)

Step 1: finish the Paris puzzle so we can leave with a sense of accomplishment. 

Step 2: Out the door with appropriate excitement

Step 3: 5 hour delay in a shitty airport. 

Skip steps 4 (long boring plane ride) and 5 (uninteresting night in London)  for 

Step 6: bloody Mary and a real breakfast in Gatwick airport, ready to head out to Reykjavik! 

Get ready, Iceland!

Lombok

We're lazing around by the pool on the last day of our stay on Lombok, Indonesia. Made it through our first semester in Lahore, which has been a struggle for various reasons, and it was nice to have a relatively long break to unwind and regroup.
We met up with Kim and Jay, a couple of teacher friends from our last school, for the first half of our stay. They're working at a school in Surabaya. It was nice to spend time with people we know, and know how to interact with. We both miss having good friends to talk to.
During their stay, we took a couple of snorkeling trips: one to the northwestern Gilis (islands) of Trawangan, Air, and Meno (disappointing, lots of dead coral and water crowded with douchey tourists doing their best to kill more coral); another to the more remote east side of Lombok around Gili Lampu (beautiful, healthy coral fields, mangrove islands, no other tourists in site). We also took a day trip to a southern beach (Pantai Selong Belanak) for a great day of playing in the waves.
They had to go back to work about a week ago, giving Rani and I some time alone, which has also been nice. We took a dive trip up to Gili Trawangan, where we saw an amazing number of turtles, some really interesting squids and cuttlefish, a righ-out-in-the-open octoupus (changing the color and texture of his skin depending on surroundings), and 6 FREAKIN' SHARKS!!! That's a first for us. They were small, and mostly hiding in some caves, but one swam out a couple of feet from me, and I freaked out for a second until I realized that I could definitely take him down if it came to it. Rani got really sick after the second dive and had to sit the third out, but she didn't miss anything on the last one except for a black rockfish.
Anyway, the rest of the time has mostly been spend by the pool. We've each read 5 or 6 books, and (mostly Rani) planned what's shaping up to be an epic summer touring the islands of the north Atlantic (Iceland, Azores, UK). We're settling into the idea of going back to Lahore, and to work, with mixed emotions.
I haven't taken many pictures this trip, but I'll leave you with the view from breakfast at the hotel.
Happy Holidays everyone. Peace, love, and best wishes for 2018!

If you zoom in, that's the Bali volcano letting off some steam.