I(r/c)eland

Saw a cheap ticket to Dublin on Icelandair but wasn't able to convince any of my friends to go with me so decided to go solo anyway. I heard these 757s are supposed to be the sports cars of the skies with their acceleration but I certainly didn't feel that on any of the 4 takeoffs we did in this plane so maybe B752s are just too old to have the big engines. Or the pilots were just too cheap to gun it, either way I was a little let down since a pilot once told me a 757 is the most fun plane you can fly on. The layover at KEF was really odd, literally half the planes at the airport were just parked on the tarmac and all four flights we had to be shuttled between the ramp and the gate, heck they even built a permanent jet bridge there except it doesn't connect to the airport and you just wait for the busses out in the cold. I guess Iceland's tourism just way outpaced their infrastructure growth.

I was surprisingly well rested when I landed in Dublin despite getting no sleep on either flight but they do say flying eastbound isn't as bad as westbound. Customs was easy enough so I went straight to the car rental. Originally I was just going to take the train to Belfast and Galway and do day tours from there but a friend convinced me that the random towns in the countryside are worth seeing by car. Ended up with some base trim A3 that actually had a pretty nice interior, better than my GTI at least. Not much fun to drive though, the 1.0 L engine only put out like a hundred horsepower. Maybe that was a good thing considering it got me 5.6 L / 100 km, I basically paid €150 in gas to drive around the whole island. At first I thought they gave me a diesel from the way it sounded but nope it was definitely a petrol car. Euro street cred perhaps, but apparently those inline 3s do have a bit of that diesel sound. First time driving a manual with auto stop/start but Audi's was well integrated, engine starts with clutch in or if the car in front pulls away so I never had to worry about it and I'm sure it helped the fuel economy plenty. Actually I did stall once because I was parked and thought the engine was off so I put it into gear and let off the brake only for the engine to come roaring back to life (these are probably not the right words to describe a 1.0 L).. Hated the infotainment, every time I unplugged my phone to get out of the car it switches to FM radio and blasts static louder than Android Auto was playing at for the same volume level. Anyway I'm cutting this short before it becomes a car review.

Driving on the other side was so scary at first. Definitely missed my fair share of shifts, especially 4-5 and 5-4, but at least the pedals are the same (I kinda disliked that, LHD means plenty of room next to the clutch to rest your foot while RHD means the side of my knee is constantly knocking against the center console though I suppose that's less of an inconvenience than switching the pedals entirely). Spent the first half hour driving 20 under on the motorway but it a breeze to get used to considering by the time I reached Belfast I was weaving around, passing parked cars and squeezing through tight gaps like a madman. The drive up was nothing special, passed through some random towns but other than having a giant church they didn't feel drastically different from American towns. Stopped at Ring of Gullion (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty! Thank you UK for the wonderfully concise descriptive name) but it was too coated in fog to see much of a view so I went straight to Belfast from there.

As Van Morrison's Astral Weeks is one of my favorite albums, I had to make a stop at Cyprus Avenue before walking around the botanic gardens at Queen's University and dropping my stuff off at the hotel. The pitter patter of the rain between the harpsichord motifs was a real treat for the ears. Took a stroll around downtown and along the docks, honestly Belfast didn't impress me too much. Perhaps the weather made it too gloomy but it just all felt a bit run down and dreary. Of course I know it has had a troubled history though I didn't take a black cab tour or anything of the sort. It started pouring so I retreated to my hotel room after it got dark, figured I might as well hit the hay since it's been a long travel day.

Woke up at 3 AM the next morning but ended up laying in bed with my eyes closed for another few hours anyway. Packed the car, squeezed out of my tiny parking spot, and took off towards Carrick-a-Rede. I found it interesting how many tiny roads Google Maps routed me through, like why is the best route from the biggest city in the area to a tourist attraction through some random suburb? I love driving twisty back roads but everyone tailgating me sure didn't make it pleasant. Half those narrow roads were flooded front the rain, plus every corner is a blind corner; why would I be taking them at above the speed limit! Clearly nobody here bikes on the road here so I guess there's never anything to worry about around the turn, still I never got comfortable enough taking them at the speeds everyone else here does.

When I got to Carrick-a-Rede the clouds had parted and the weather was gentle. The dude at the gate told me I picked a great time but wouldn't last though so I made the hike to the bridge a brisk one. Hopped on a bench to get a cleaner sightline and almost grabbed a handful of barbed wire the way it turned into a waterslide. The bridge was neat but the views of the cliffs were better; could even see a wee bit o' Scotland off in the distance. The sheep here graze right up to the edge, if I were reincarnated as a farm animal right there is where I'd wanna be. Saw some dolphins doing flips in the water too, they were super close to shore and that combined with the weather clearing just as I arrived made the place feel a bit magical. Didn't stay too long as I was praying the sun would stick at least until I made it to Giant's Causeway.

Spoiler: it didn't. Only a bit of a drizzle when I started the walk down but by the time I reached the Causeway it was full on raining. Took a few photos and climbed back up as it was only getting worse and my coat was already soaked through. There was a super cool mysterious lady in a robe there, at least I assume she was trying to be mysterious since the hood doesn't do much under the umbrella.

Drove to Derry, not much along the way but some small towns. I know this is dumb but I passed a wind farm and my first thought was 'hey that totally looks like Forza Horizon 4'. Parked it at the shopping mall while I wandered around the castle walls. Really neat town and the views from the walls were great, spent a lot more time there than I was planning to. Totally roasted the clutch on one of those steep hills but it's fine the rental company doesn't need to know, it's a consumable. Wasn't the first and won't be the last to do it to that car.

The plan was to see Glenveagh, drive along the coast, and loop back around to Donegal. That plan didn't account for me staying in Derry a bit long, the shorter winter days, or the fact that I woke up at 3 and was starting to fall asleep so I went straight to Donegal, spent a whole 2 minutes looking at the castle from across the river, then booked it to my hotel in Bundoran. The drive through the countryside was beautiful though. I think halfway between rainy and sunny is when Ireland looks the best, in a sort of sunshower state almost. The light hit the fog rising from the fields as if it were steaming or something and made everything glow.

Left the hotel at 7 the next day, as day 3 was supposed to be the longest day of driving. I had to make it all the way to Killarney today; this was a grave grave planning error, more on that later. I was supposed to see Ballycroy before taking the coastal roads to Connemara but taking into account the shorter days lesson from yesterday I decided to skip the former for the latter. As my luck would have it, on my longest travel day I ran into a car crash or flood or something blocking the N5. Sat in stopped traffic for 20 minutes before deciding I need to detour. Ended up taking some tiny dirt road to get around it but still, it added about an extra hour to the day and I was not happy. I will say though that section of N5 that bypasses Castlebar was freshly paved and felt so nice to drive on, don't tell the cops but I made up some lost time on that road.

Connemara was gorgeous, I love when mountaintops are hidden in the clouds. It makes them feel so much more majestic than they actually are. Back when I lived in Albuquerque, storm clouds often sat on the Sandias and I would pretend as if I were at the base of the Himalayas. Didn't do a whole lot here other than stop by the side of the road every now and then, I didn't have like a particular destination here I wanted to visit so it was just a nice leisurely drive.

Stopped for a bite in Galway, that town was packed! Just happened to be when the school kids were let out and every child in town congregated on the Latin Quarter and man did it feel alive. Seeing kids in uniform was adorable, especially the boys with their two-piece suits. Although everyone wore sneakers and that totally ruined the outfits. Still I kinda wish more schools in the US had uniforms but I get it, individuality and all that. The Riverside Soundwalk was great, I loved it so much. I swear every town built on a river needs one of these; I love walking city streets but walking on the river? That was serene.

Not wanting to delay myself too much, I didn't spend a lot of time in Galway. Headed to the Cliffs of Moher, again along some tiny local roads. Not sure if Google just doesn't have enough data to find a good route because the EU restricts their data collection or if it really is the quickest way to get there. I was actually not really looking forward to the Cliffs of Moher, everything I saw about it online just talked about its beauty and all but I didn't find any of the photos to actually be that interesting. But being there in person was crazy, the winds there are ridiculously powerful, blowing up sea water along the face of the cliff to create a spout at the top and turning me into a sail. It was a wild wild experience, I wanted to stay a bit longer and watch the sunset but Killarney was a long drive away so I headed out.

And here's where my nightmare story begins. Passed through Limerick at maybe around 5, it was already dark out. No biggie, I have headlights plus it's a motorway so wide and comfy to drive on. Well I guess there must have been traffic because Google routed me off N21 onto N20, then had me turn on a small mountain road in Charleville, one of those super narrow roads barely wide enough to fit 2 cars side by side. Not a problem, I've driving plenty of these the past couple days. Except now it was pouring, I could not for the life of me see the road lines and it was too small of a road to have embedded reflectors. It took all my concentration to find the road between the falling raindrops and every time there was an oncoming car I lost all visibility of the road and was going in blind. My choices were to either drive slow, play it safe, and piss off the dude behind me or absolutely gun it and try to catch up to a car in front to follow it. I chose the latter and it worked out alright until they decided to not go the same way I was going (how dare they). Definitely put a wheel in the gravel a few times, probably would have been a lot more if it weren't for lane keep assist. First time in my life I've been grateful for that. It wasn't terrible to do for like 10 or 15 minutes but to drive like that for an hour and a half straight was just so draining. Cannot for the life of me figure out how these people do 80 kph around blind corners in low visibility conditions, Europeans are just built different. Turn by turn, pothole by pothole. Gone were thee creature comforts of streetlamps; pitch black all around me save the haze of raindrops in front and the blinding high beams behind. I'm constantly fiddling with the media controls and skipping through songs but I heard every second of whatever playlist was on.

I did eventually make it to Killarney in one piece, went for dinner and treated myself to some sticky toffee pudding for not ending up in a ditch. The hotel was actually really nice, I didn't think too much of it though as I was mentally exhausted and knocked out immediately after dinner. The next morning I headed west to drive through the Gap of Dunloe. Started out as a bunch of lakes and farms nestled in a valley but soon became a set of switchbacks up to the pass. Gorgeous view at the top of the pass, both towards the Gap of Dunloe to the north and Black Valley to the south. Continued south through Black Valley where the foliage was very different. While the Gap of Dunloe was fairly green, Black Valley was very yellow and orange. Different grasses I would assume, I wouldn't know I'm not a botanist. Super scenic drive though. Early morning was a good time to do this since the road is supposed to be prioritized for use by the locals during the day. The Gap of Dunloe part was a narrow single lane where you weren't supposed to park on the shoulders or passing pulloffs so I didn't get my camera out as nearly as much as I would have liked.

Got back onto the main road for the Ring of Kerry and admired Killarney National Park from an overlook before backtracking and going through Kenmare towards County Cork. Did a bit of a detour here and took Healy Pass instead of Caha pass because I liked the views (as judged from Google street view) and the drive looked more fun. I had the whole pass to myself on the way down and you know I hit a few apexes. 120 hp ain't a problem when you're going downhill.

Didn't make any stops between there and my hotel in Cobh, just outside of Cork. Was originally going to stop at some antiquity sites along the way but I had to drive on muddy one-lane roads to get to them and I just didn't want to do it. I was also a bit paranoid from the night before and wanted to get there before dusk (I was on N roads this time so it didn't actually matter but I still wanted to see Cobh in the daylight). Cobh was nice, the main street running right along the coast was a great walk. Went up the hill for that shot of the colorful houses in front of the church as well of course. But why does a town as small as Cobh need such a massive cathedral?

Day 5, time to drive back up to Dublin. Stopped in Cork just to see the place, parked near the Victorian Quarter and climbed up Patrick's Hill for the view. This was early morning, right when school was starting. And my God was school starting alright, I swear I saw at least a dozen schools all concentrated onto like two streets. I was straight up swarmed by all the kids going to school; I'd see a bunch of them congregate around the entrance to one building, walk 5 seconds, then run into another group headed for a different building. No clue what made this area the hub for schools but it was a total vibe, I would have loved to go to school like this.

The streets of Cork were awful to drive on though, totally congested because some streets were only wide enough for one way traffic yet were open to traffic both ways? Even my little Audi hatch felt too big for these streets, no clue why people want to drive SUVs and CUVs on these roads. There was a huge stream of children coming from uphill and I wondered if there was a metro station there or something but it just turned out to be a drop-off spot from the parents that didn't want to sit in traffic which I thought was amusing. Then again my dad did the same thing I guess I just never really thought about it until now. When I finally made it out of Cork, it was time to head north towards the Rock of Cashel. When I got there I saw an abandoned castle ruin (Hore Abbey) and decided to go see that one instead, great call considering it turned out to be free and I had the whole space to myself.

Leaving Cashel, the last stop was the Wicklow Mountains. The grass here had a reddish-orange tinge that I don't think I've seen in the states. Nothing crazy here so I passed through the mountains to the east coast and drove up towards Dublin. Someone on the /r/cars subreddit claimed that Europe is heaven for driving stick since traffic moves forward at a manageable speed in first gear and nobody creeps forward especially on hills. Well I can say firsthand that's utterly false, sitting in traffic in the suburbs of Dublin didn't feel any different than in the US.

My hotel was right on St Stephen's Green and had a great view of it. Walked through Grafton Street towards the river, then kinda just let my feet take me wherever. Tried two different restaurants that I thought looked interesting but they both required reservations. Defeated, I retreated to my hotel room to eat the cookies they left me and drink whiskey in the bath.

Dublin was great, I loved it although I am undoubtably biased towards bigger cities. I should have budgeted more time for it, there were plenty of things I wanted to see but couldn't so I'll have to save them for another time. In fact, I overbooked myself in Ireland in general. I thought I would have more time in the day (nope, high latitude winter) and more energy (nope, jetlag) than I actually did. I love walking around cities and I wish I spent more time in the likes of Galway, Cork, and Dublin instead of just taking a quick stroll in the main area.

But alas, no time for regrets it's onto Iceland now. Stepped off the plane at 2:30 and the sun was already starting to go down. Honestly not the worst, it's basically golden hour / blue hour all day and you get to see the northern lights earlier! In fact, I already had a northern lights tour lined up that night. But that didn't start until 9 so the whole see the northern lights earlier idea meant nothing. I was in Iceland after Grindavik was evacuated over the possibility of an eruption there and I was hoping it would erupt while I was there so I'd be stuck and could extend my vacation (I didn't get so lucky). Still, it was the talk of the town and I think it probably increased the number of tourists on the road since it closed the Blue Lagoon.

Got to town and remembered just how much I hated hostels, Christ the place I was staying at smelled like a high school locker room. It also had construction being done on two sides and I was worried it would be a night job.. but then I remembered just because it's dark out here doesn't mean it's even 5 yet so it should be ok. Killed some time wandering the hill around Hallgrimskirkja while waiting for the tour.

Evidently also performed a rain dance while I was doing that because the clouds rolled in and no northern lights were to be seen. I was really hoping to see the lights because when I was in Patagonia, I didn't see the southern lights either due to cloud cover and I was real bummed about that. That's ok, I still had one more chance the next night and the guides were saying that was going to be a good one so I kept my hopes up. Here's also where I learned that I was way underdressed. The temps here were freezing and so was I. A shirt, two sweaters, and a down jacket were barely enough to keep me warm. The lower body situation was even worse, all I had was thermals and jeans so my legs were nearly numb. My feet felt cold and clammy through my boots too, how the heck am I supposed to layer shoes? I already know I'm cold-sensitive so I'm not going to compare myself to people there wearing cargo pants and a loose sweater but I really should have prepared better.

Went on a Golden Circle tour the next day but that didn't start until noon so I got some decent sleep in and tried fermented shark for lunch (not a whole dish, just some sampler pieces as part of the plate). Honestly really cool, tasted awful but had an interesting strong aftertaste and gave me a light tingle in my throat after going down, I guess from all the ammonia. Not at all like wasabi but that's the closest thing I can think of to describe it.

The tour took me back to Thingvellir, where I tried to see the northern lights the night before. It was pitch black then though so obviously I couldn't see anything. In the day it's a neat rift valley where the North American and Eurasian plates meet. I think it's pretty unique that it gets to be a UNESCO World Heritage site / national park for both natural beauty and cultural significance.

Drove around the lake and continued east to Geysir, the origin of the word geyser. The drive over was honestly quite boring, this part of the country is all just farmland and doesn't have that alien feel that some other regions have. I liked Geysir though, Yellowstone might have bigger geysers and more colorful hot springs but Geysir was all very concentrated so you're just walking around in the fumes basically. Ok that sounds worse than it actually is, I mean it's just steam. My hands were also frozen solid so walking around in warm steam was honestly the best feeling ever.

Last stop was Gullfoss, which the guide said was the most popular waterfall since every tourist does the Golden Circle. I'm sure the proximity to Reykjavík helps too. The sun had already gone down when we arrived so it was a perfect chance to pull out the tripod and do some longer exposures. No sun + spray from the waterfall + already cold anyway was not a great combo so I packed it up after a short bit to grab some food inside.

Not sure why it's called the Golden Circle when it's more of a line but heyy I'm not the one who named it. With an hour and a half between the drop-off of this tour and the start of the northern lights one after, I just hung out at the bus stop and had a $10 beer that to be frank did not taste good but it's from like their biggest brewery so I'm not gonna slander it any further. The tour though, was great: the skies were clear that night and I was actually able to see the green glow with the naked eye. Granted it wasn't lighting up the night sky and dancing because the K_p was only a 2 but still, it's incredible to get to see in person. Remember what I said about doing the tour earlier because the sky's already dark? The tour companies totally should have listened to me because the lights were strongest early on, in like the first ten minutes. Everything after that was super faint, you couldn't make out the green anymore. I stayed outside for hours hoping they would flare back up but they didn't, my body really hated me for that afterwards. That's alright, typing this now in my warm apartment not fully remembering how it actually felt I can definitely pretend it was worth the pain.

On my last full day in Iceland, I had one final tour planned for the southern coast. Was pretty tired for the whole of this day since the previous day was long (or rather mostly just went late into the night) and this one started early. Covered a ton of ground though, saw Eyjafjöll and Skógafoss in the early morn. Would have loved to see this place while it was erupting in 2010. Dunno if it's worth the lung cancer but I've already visited an abandoned asbestos mine so I'm sure it can't get any worse. Climbed all 527 steps to the top of Skógafoss, stayed for a whole thirty seconds, then came back down. The guide was right, the view from the bottom is better than from the top. But hey I got my steps in and I'm not hitting the gym when I'm travelling so we'll consider this a workout. Someone mentioned a Justin Bieber music video was shot here so I looked it up after I got home and I think it's absolutely hilarious that not even Justin Bieber's production team could avoid getting tourists in the frame when filming in Iceland.

Next was the black sand beaches of Reynisfjara, which I didn't think was too special. The sand was quite coarse and littered with other rocks and such so it wasn't pure black and just didn't feel as impressive as something like White Sands or even some of the black sand beaches in Hawaii where everything is super strikingly uniform. There was also a cool columnar basalt formation here but having literally just come from Ireland, well.. Not to knock it though, the location felt super open with its unobstructed views of Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull.

Hiked to the mouth of a glacier after lunch. Sólheimajökull was quite dirty with a ton of volcanic ash embedded in it, to be expected from a glacier here of course. This place was packed with guys wearing crampons and harnesses; I didn't even think about glacier tours where you get to climb on top of the glacier when I was planning, definitely something to consider next time. The guide definitely did not give us enough time here, I barely made it back and I didn't even go all the way to the glacier. I might as well have though considering we waited half an hour past the depart time for two stragglers to get back to the bus.

Last stop was Seljalandsfoss. I didn't care for this one much, there's so many waterfalls you can walk behind at Silver Falls! I was looking forward to the waterfalls so much on this trip but found myself a bit disappointed. To be fair I'm pretty spoiled for waterfalls, growing up with easy access to Yosemite and now living in Oregon with all the falls there. Still, the photos of Icelandic waterfalls looked so much more spectacular than they felt in person.

The weather was great that day. Cold but sunny, or rather sunny enough considering how low the sun was in the sky. That all changed when we headed back to Reykjavík though, climbed the mountains and the clouds rolled in instantly. Low fog, heavy rain, snow in some places, and just overall miserable weather. Sure lucked out on the weather that day. I was worn out so I went to bed around 7, slept a whole twelve hours. Probably a good thing I was flying home the next day, don't think I had enough energy for too much more. Not that I couldn't take a rest day if my trip were longer but I never end up getting any quality sleep in hostels.

I think overall for this trip, my expectations were set totally wrong. I didn't think Ireland would be nearly as interesting as it was because none of the photos I saw on the internet really intrigued me. Conversely, I thought I would absolutely love Iceland, I mean I did, but it was nowhere the pristine volcanic wonderland I imagined it was, more just normal geological features overrun by tourists (yes, I know I was mostly just around Reykjavík, I'm not saying this is representative of the whole country). Granted I didn't visit the highlands or drive the ring road so who knows, my opinion on this may change the next time I'm there. But there definitely will be a next time, the ring road is a must do (supposedly)!