Photographs
If you're in the area, stop by the Brooklyn Bridge Park and check out Photoville! It houses a variety of galleries housed in re-purposed shipping containers by the pier. Shout out to Ms. Chan, who's working there for Getty Images, for inviting me! I also took the opportunity to try some long-exposure shots of the downtown NYC skyline.
This wasn't an easy task, as I had to sift through more than 1,300 photographs. I still feel as though I could do better, photography-wise. Either way, here are my favorite 25 photographs from the trip.
You can check out a video of the geysir erupting here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOSc4XIZDpk
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.
So much for updating on the road, huh? I'm sitting back in my room in New Jersey, looking at pictures from the days I haven't written about yet. It hasn't even been a day, but I'm reminiscing about sitting high in the mountains overlooking the fjord in Seydisfjordur, grabbing a hot cappuccino at Blàa Kannan in Akureyri and shouting "sheep," every time we saw one. I miss Iceland already, with it's homely atmosphere, good food and incredibly nice people. Anyway, while I wallow away in my longing to go back, follow the rest of Ms. Chan and I's trip through pictures.
At the end of day 2, we were sleeping in our car, next to a waterfall. Day 3 starts with us waking up early to be one of the first few that morning to walk up to see the waterfall. Here's Ms. Chan at the base of Skógafoss.
I miss seeing sheep littering the landscape. They're so cute!
There were a lot of campers when we got there late at night. We didn't have a tent. but a lot of people slept in their cars, like we did.
You can climb a pretty steep cliff to the right of the falls to go to the top. At the top, if you look past the falls, you can see the base of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull in the distance.
Afterwards, not too far away is a plane crash site, Sólheimasandur. It was a bit of an adventure to get there, since we had to get our 2x4 off the road and drive a few miles out on the black sands beach. We had to be careful so as to not scratch up the rental car. It's definitely worth it. Though people on board this plane survived the crash, you can't help feel as though the plane is haunted. The heavy wind continues to make the scraps of metal, hanging from the husk of the plane, sing for those travelers that drive out seeking it.
And not too far from the crash site, fortunately, is Dyrhólaey. It's a small peninsula that is the home of a lot, and I mean a lot, of puffins, which if I haven't already mentioned, is delicious.
We were running low of snacks at this point and it was getting close to lunch. We were going to be passing through a small town so we decided to find a place to eat. Vik, which means bay (Reykjavik = smokey bay), is a beautiful little town on the southern coast of Iceland. I wish we had more time to explore it, but we only had time to stop at a bed and breakfast for food, and fill up on gas.
We stopped at this spot alongside the Ring Road to walk around and climb these porous rocks.
Our next destination, which was about an hour or two away from Vik, was Fjaðrárgljúfur. It was a really beautiful canyon, and instead of going to recommended path above the canyon, we decided to go through it. We didn't go too far, since we would have been in knee-high water, but we settled at a cozy spot and skipped stones across the not-so-calm- river.
This was the grassy area surrounding the entrance of the canyon.
We had passed a restaurant on the way to the canyon, so we decided to stop at it when we were heading out. All the food was locally-grown at the nearby farm. It was super delicious!
Next stop: Skaftafell at the Vatnajokull National Park. Above is a piece of bridge, left as a monument to when the old bridge was swept away after a volcanic eruption.
Unfortunately, when we got to Skaftafell, the glacier tours were over and there was only a hiking trail to do. We decided to go take a closer look at some of the glaciers. You need a guide and the right gear to actually go walk on them.
We hurried towards Jökulsárlón, a glacier lake about an hour away. Below is the only seal we saw on the trip!
Jökulsárlón is much colder than other areas, but it's really beautiful. The lake is littered with slow-moving icebergs, with snow-capped mountains in the background. We did a tour on an amphibian vehicle and got to move around the lake and even take a 1000-year old piece of ice for ourselves. The bluer the iceberg, the more recently it surfaced from underwater. The black streaks are dirt flowing through the wind from great or small distances.
Ridiculously photogenic tour assistant.
And so ended our night. Well, not exactly. Our next destination was Seydisfjordur, but that was about 5 hours away. We ate at a restaurant on the way (I had langoustine pizza, which was great) and the owner helped us find lodging at a hostel in Hofn, 30 minutes away. By the way, if you're ever in Iceland and need to know if you can find lodging in the area, just ask store owners. Apparently most of them know the numbers for nearby hostels and hotels and can find out if they have available rooms for you, which is pretty neat.