[:en]Iceland: Inside Volcano & Reykjavik[:]

This post is part of the series [:en]Iceland Road Trip[:][:fr]Road Trip en Islande[:]

[:en]Iceland: The whys and wherefores[:]
[:en]Iceland: Inside Volcano & Reykjavik[:]
[:en]Iceland: Golden Circle & Secret Lagoon[:]
[:en]Iceland: Waterfalls & glacier lagoon[:]
[:en]Iceland: glacier Xtreme & Diamond beach[:]
[:en]Iceland: Dettifoss & Mývatn Nature Bath[:]

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Inside the Volcano Tour

After a short night stay at B47 hostel (side note: it’s possible to book a bus to go directly to the hostel/hotel for a small extra fee from the airport), our first day started with the most expensive tour of the trip: Inside the Volcano tour (ISK 42,000 / 300-350€), available only during the summer time!

After hiking under progressively heavy rainy and windy conditions for 50 min across a lava field, where we saw the lava holes/tunnels and the crack between the North American and Eurasian continents, we arrived in a warm shelter/base camp for hot refreshments and equipment (helmet and harness) for going down to the volcano.

During the hike in the lava field, despite of the weather, I just got the feeling that I will be back in Iceland 🇮🇸 soon!

The highlight of the tour is the descent of 120 m with a tiny Germany-made (building windows cleaning) lift into the dormant Thrihnukagigur volcano, for 30 min.
You won’t get much of explanation inside the crater/magma chamber and you have plenty of free time to walk around.
The last eruption was over 4000 years ago so it’s pretty safe and the crater we were is high and huge enough to fit the statue of Liberty. Inside the crater, you can see different colors on the rock: red (iron oxide), green (cooper oxide) and yellow (sulfur oxide). It’s not easy to take selfie inside the crater without light.

Once outside the crater, the weather became extremely windy, rainy and froggy. We could not even see anything beyond the risk of falling danger sign… Luckily we got the good quality full-body raincoat provided by the tour, even tough the rain still got inside the coat as the wind was blowing the rain into all directions!!!

This was quite an experience as well!

The lift up from inside the volcano!

Reykjavik

Back to Reykjavik in the late afternoon, we picked up our luggage in the bus station and drop them in our Airbnb, then we went to visit the city with the must-see landscape of Reykjavik: Hallgrímskirkja church, the largest church in Iceland.

We did not go to the top of the church due to the weather conditions but took a walk in the downtown, saw some street art and bought some food in the supermarket BONUS 🐷 .

In the evening we ate the “world’s best hotdog” according to CNN, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur(the best hotdog in town), where you can buy a hotdog without hotdog for half of the price, then we visited the Harpa Concert Hall. The architecture was indeed nice (better inside), we decided to see a one-man show “How to become Icelandic in 60 minutes” once saw the poster, and took a moka coffee in the hall.

The show was indeed funny and you know how to walk, talk and behave like a Icelander through 15 lessons.

Some of them are quite hilarious and instructive, like the prononciation of Eyjafjallajökull volcano, give general direction, know the sagas, believe in elf, like the (sour sheep) balls, wash! (shower naked and wash thoroughly before the bath) and believe in “þetta reddast“, i.e. “it will all work out okay”!!!

After the show, we went to see the Sun Voyager (Sólfar)near Harpa but did not stay long there as it was quite windy.
Before going back to the Airbnb, we went for a drink in a Danish bar (Den Danske Kro) with local concert.

P.S. One question asked during and after the trip concerning the statue in front of the church, it’s Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson, the first known European to have discovered North America before Christopher Columbus.

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