Travel light: save those sample sets

Small samples of your favorite products are the perfect sizes to travel with, but what happens when you run out for you next trip? Luckily you can easily refill them! 

Step 1: get a child/baby liquid medicine syringe. (CVS gives these away for free just ask the pharmacist) 

Step 2: fill it up with up

Step 3: position the dropper over the opening.  (if it's too large or small it will work if you continue to press them together) 

Step 4: squeeze the air out of the container you want to fill 

Step 5: 

Press the dropper down. And repeat as necessary.

Done! 

Day 8: last day on the road

Day 8: last day on the road 

Waking up along the river upstream from  the Hraunfossar waterfall was so beautiful. 

Having access to water is a bonus too. I was able to wash the laundry. 

Our little Hyundai work horse. We put this little guy thru a lot!! 

I opened the car doors to hang the laundry while we prepped breakfast. 

At the hostel, I got these bags of rice and an instant chicken noodle soup mix. We cooked then both into a porridge for bfast. It was a nice change from oatmeal. 

As we got ready to go, we realize the car battery died from the open doors. We tried to push the car onto the road but the rocky incline was too steep and the car kept rolling back. Our only hope were jumper cables. 

I saw a camper van and rv in the  road and race to the street waving them down. They stopped right away and had jumper cables! The family was from Vancouver and had just begun their Iceland trip. The car started and we were on our way! 

Hraunfossar : these waterfalls emerge from the ground! They stretch far and it's so beautiful. 

Next stop: the peninsula 

We stopped for gas and picked up a hot dog. We share one. Damn these hot dogs are delicious. The secret is fried onions as a garish. 

We got this drink cus I thought it would be like Icelandic root beer. But this is all the beer taste without alcohol. I don't drink so that part doesn't matter but ugh the taste is so gross 

Hellnar Arch 

The rock formations are insane. How does it grow in sheets like that? And the columns? 

The waves made this arch and these openings. Today was the first day we didn't have rain!! It felt so good to just wear a shirt and not 5 layers and rainshell. 

Heading back to Reykjavik is bittersweet. I wish I could look at these mountains, waterfalls, and sheep everyday. 

  

Day 7: Waterfalls and a Wedding

Day 7: 

We left our campsite at Myvatn and headed toward the Grjotagja, the grotto where John Snow & Egritt had their moment on Game of Thrones. It was so warm my camera fogged up again and it was hard to take photos. Good thing for iPhones as a backup 

Next was this giant crater. Hverfell 

It was an exhausting hike to get up to it.  We had to option to hike the rim of the crater (which I totally would have) but it was raining hard and it was cold so we only walked a small portion and headed back down. 

See the tiny people? 

Inside the crater 

Next was the waterfall of the Gods, Godafoss 

There was an engagement photo shoot and a separate wedding happening. 

Still amazed how close we can get

Our next stop was a far drive to the Koluglijufur. It was a small waterfall but so beautiful. The gorge it created was breath taking. Imagine these farmers have this as their backyard! All I have is the backside of the 60 freeway, hah! We collected more waterfall water to filter and drink (thanks Grant for the platypus!) 

We're a day ahead of schedule so we're gonna go to Hraunfossar to spend the night. Sleeping next to a roaring river and waterfall is such a beautiful music to my ears. 

Day 6 - a walk through the lava fields

Day 6: 

Driving on the 1

Theres really nothing to see on the east. Mainly fog and flatness. 

Last night we parked somewhere to sleep. We woke near a town we called "DJ Up". (Djupivogur). 

We drove through a pass called the 939 Oxi and it's SUCH A BEAUTIFUL AREA! I would love to backpack through there. 

Cascading waterfalls surrounded by greenery. It's like a fairy tale land. 

photos cannot even capture a tiny tiny tiny fraction of how amazingly beautiful  this area is!!  

First stop Detifoss:

It's so amazing how close you can get to these places. In the US there would be gates and guards etc cus someone would get to close to the edge and fall and sue. 

We hiked down 2km to have our lunch (chicken noodle soup with rice) with a view.  

Next : 

Walk through the lava rock fields. 

I took some "souvenirs" again. :) 

My camera got fogged up so I didn't get any good pictures. 

This is  moss that grows very slowly and the Icelandic people are very protective of it. 

This area is where Iceland gathers hot water produced from the geo-thermal activity (aka lava) and they send it down to the cities. This is why there is no shortage of Hot water in Iceland. 

It's so readily available that there is this perpetual shower always running. (And the water was warm too!) 

I thought that similar to Landmannalaugar that the hot springs would be free/easy to get to, but the hot springs at Myvatan were pay per use. So we skipped it. 

For the past few nights we slept on the car because it was easier but I'm much more comfortable in my tent on the ground (with my cot). 

So tonight we are tent camping and it feels so good!! The campgrounds also have HOT showers (my 2nd shower for this trip). It not that I don't have access to  showers daily, it's just too inconvenient to me to take a shower everyday. I really don't feel that I need to. Hehehe

Day 5: we picked up a hitchhiker

Day 5: we picked up a hitchhiker, Rodger from the Netherlands. 

We began our day at Sejalandsfoss where we dropped off Roger. 

We did a stop at Vik to see the black sand beach and picked up a few souvenirs. 

There are these column rock formations 

As we drove to our next destination we stopped for gas and saw Rodger again! We picked him up and headed off. He was stopping  half way to our next stop so it was perfect and he gave us these Dutch waffle caramel cookies as a thank you. 

Next: 

The 2.6km hike Skogafoss. Pretty awesome. 

We weren't able to go into the ice caves  because it was a 4+ hour tour for 1.590 Kr per person and it was not guaranteed that we could go into the caves either, so.. Passed on that. 

Next:

Jokulsaron, the Ice Lagoon

Then icebergs were incredible. I wanted to have dinner there but the water was brackish (mixed with ocean water) so we prepped dinner (one me my favorite backpacking meals, chicken curry with rice) and started singing while the food "cooked" in the thermos. 

our next leg was is gonna be a long drive to Detifoss, so our plan was to drive as far as we could and  camp along the road. We were woken up to this great sight.