Food
I took more than 1,000 photos in Japan, and editing all of them has made me want to go back. It’s a country I have always wanted to visit, even before I attempted to study the language for two years in college (I failed). It’s a beautiful country, with incredible food, and did I mention the almost perfect infrastructure?
Before I start rambling forever, here are the photos you want to see. It starts with Tokyo, then Kyoto, into Nara and Osaka briefly, and then finally back to Tokyo.
On our final day, we began at the Citadelle Park, and made our way towards the Barcelona port. We had some really delicious paella, and then went up to Montjuic Castle -- where the views are astounding.
We took a cable car down, and we continued to spend most of our time in the gothic quarter, before we headed back to the hotel.
The final day! I woke up early in the morning (we slept on the side of the road) and continued towards Snaefellsnes peninsula. Along the way, we saw cows!
We reached the peninsula! There was so much we could do, but we decided to do a cave tour and see the coastline. This area was about 10 minutes from the visitor center.
Birds along the cliff edge.
Yeah this is tame compared to the time I cleaned the car in Seydisfjordur.
Rainbow!
This cave, Vatnshellir, was created from a volcanic eruption from Mount Snaefellsjokull. There's an Icelandic myth about a troll called Bardur to go along with it. Mount Snaefellsjokull was the inspiration for Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. So was this cave. In the book, when you go through the cave, through the earth, you come out in Stromboli, Italy. Apparently, that's true.
Apparently, 8 types of rare bacteria live in this cave. When you point your light, this bacteria, which is eating the cave, shines.
Further down the rabbit hole we go. Eventually, we got to a point where the tour guide told us to turn our lights off, and we experienced true darkness. He told us to be quiet and we heard the sounds of the cave, which was basically water droplets falling.
We stopped to go through this mountain. It looks like two fists.
Narrow spaces!
We then drove straight to Reykjavik, which was about 2 and a half hours away. We parked and first headed for the Settlement Exhibit, which was really cool. It showed us artifacts from the settlement age, and the history and genealogy of the vikings. Most Icelandic people have Nordic and Celtic blood in them.
I really like the runes Vikings used to write. Here's a passage from The Book of Settlement.
We ended up eating at Icelandic Fish and Chips, which again, was pretty delicious. Afterwards we headed back to our AirBnB host, where we crashed for the night. We woke up early the next day to catch our flight and said goodbye to this wonderful country. We keep talking about going back to live in Seydisfjordur or Akureyri for a few months or so. Who knows. No matter what, I'll definitely see you again, Iceland.
Day 5! After waking up early at the Keldunes cottage, we stopped by the gas station/diner where we had a hearty breakfast. Right as we left, we passed a couple looking for a ride. They looked nice enough so we stopped the car and asked them which way they were going, to which they replied Dettifoss. We were passing Dettifoss again so we cleared out the back seat and told them to get in. The guy was from France and his girlfriend was from the Czech Republic, they met studying landscape architecture in Sweden. They were working at Jorkulsarlon during the summer! We talked about the state of looking for jobs out of college, our personal histories and I mentioned that I lived in Sri Lanka for 13 years and the girl shouted that she was going to Sri Lanka in January, so that was pretty cool. Myvatn was on our list but they told us to definitely go. Myvatn is named so because the little bugs that fly around there are called my (pronounced me). They also told us to skip the West Fjords because of time and go to Snaefellsnes peninsula so that we can make the most of our trip.
We dropped them off at Dettifoss and got to Myvatn about an hour later. The first place we stopped at was another sulphur field, Hvenir.
There were also these rock piles that had a lot of steam coming out of them. They were pretty hot!
Recommended by the hitchhikers, whose names I wish I had gotten, we stopped at the nature baths. The water is slimy, but you're wading into a lot of minerals and it's nice and warm. The hitchhikers said this is basically what the blue lagoon is like, except less expensive and smaller, with less people. I felt as though I had a cold coming and my body was aching from the 2 hour kayak, and this bath made me feel good as new!
Afterwards, we departed for Akureyri, the capital of the North. 
We passed by a group of three leading a group of horses somewhere, right next to a waterfall. So we had to stop. And later, we saw the horses again!
We drove to Dalvik first, north of Akureyri, in hopes of catching the fish festival, but unfortunately, I was too tired on the way and took a nap so we missed it. Oh well, maybe next time. We drove back to Akureyri. I like it better than Reykjavik. It's quirkier, it feels more modern, but quaint at the same time. We decided to eat two dinners, first at Hamborgarafabrikkan (Hamburger Factory), which was delicious, and then at Rub23. We had a break in between of course. 
We stopped at this cozy cafe called Blaa Kannan to recharge and have some Daim Merengue, which was delicious as usual. Nothing is too sweet in Iceland, it's like they never add sugar and rely on the natural sugar in food.
We stopped at this other juice bar to have a smoothie, which again, was not sweet, but healthy-tasting. Of course, you can't go anywhere in Iceland without seeing a little bit of graffiti. 
Rub23 was a nice, cozy restaurant. We had fish and you can choose the seasoning you want them to rub into the raw product before they cook it, hence the name Rub23.
We left Akureyri that night and drove for 2 and a half hours toward the Snaefellsnes peninsula, before we stopped the car and fell asleep for a little bit.
I followed this recipe to make this delicious tomato sauce. Ingredients (from Smitten Kitchen):
"Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan (it fit just right in a 3-quart) over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste (you might find, as I did, that your tomatoes came salted and that you didn’t need to add more) and keep warm while you prepare your pasta."
