3/6/24
Mon: *Not feeling giddy anymore so I think my jetlag is finally over~* Woke
up at 7am and had breakfast 30 minutes later. I remember seeing snowflakes
while we were eating, and we left earlier than planned at 8.30am. Potato went
to pump petrol (5000 ISK) before we drove to Goðafoss.It
was freaking cold by the time we walked over from the carpark to Goðafoss at
9.30am. It might have only been a five minutes’ walk, but the temperature was at
about 0 degrees Celsius! Spent 15 minutes there and it was magnificent, even if
the sky was gloomy here. We skipped the two other waterfalls nearby because we felt
too cold to walk further as strong wind blew.As
we drove to Myvatn Visitor Centre, snow came and got heavier as we left the
place. When we were at Lake Myvatn viewpoint, the snowing was still on and off.
*still planned to hike initially but oh well~*
In
the end, we came earlier to Myvatn Nature Baths at 11am since we could not hike
around Skutustadagrig pseudo crater either. I showered, stepped out into the
cold and straight into the steamed sauna room because 1 degrees Celcius outside
was too cold!Ran
straight for one of the heated pools after a short while in the sauna room. The
39 degrees Celcius’ pool was shiok but when we went into the 35 degrees Celcius
one, it felt “cold” lol. *smell of sulphur was obvious* Geothermally-heated
pools are great in such weathers and we took shield from the wind at some
corners keke.The
weather in Iceland was very “fickle-minded” indeed. We experienced snow, rain, hail
and sun in that one hour at Myvatn Nature Baths lol. *saw snow on our hair?*
After we got out of the pools and headed inside to the common area, I felt a
bit giddy so had to sit down for 10 minutes before showering. Had mocha and
chocolate muffin after we were done… just nice because I needed sugar haha.Passed
by Myvatn geothermal area and at 2pm, we tried to drive up towards Krafla
Crater’s carpark but the slope was too steep with snow piled on it, so our
small car could not make it up at all. Had to make a U-turn to come out and
head to Namafjall Hverir instead.
The
parking costed 1200 ISK… so expensive for a 15 minutes’ visit. The place had
this very “other-worldly” look, which reminded us of Mt Aso in Kyushu, together
with the cold temperature, strong wind and the smell of sulphur. It was quite a
torture to be out there with the cold wind and me being underdressed for the
weather lol. Potato was freezing and so was I! My face was freezing out there.
When
we got back onto the car as we could not stand the cold anymore, we saw that our
face turned very red and I felt some numbness already. *See that blu-ish
lake? 100 degrees Celcius. Don’t play play~*
It
was so freaking cold outside, and we were very early for Hlíð B&B check-in,
so we stepped into a mart for a short while at 3pm. 10 minutes later, we went
to a handicraft shop and the locals were telling us similar things regarding
the weather being weird in June in Iceland because it was very rare to be
snowing, much less encountering a snowstorm now.
At
3.30pm, we walked into a random eatery and had cod fish (2390 ISK, S$23.49) and
it was the nicest I had so far here because it flaked off easily! In Iceland,
alcohol are only sold at Vinbudin and this store opens only for two hours from
4 to 6pm on Mondays to Thursdays. We bought a lager and a raspberry and yuzu
Breezer for 858 ISK.Waited in our car nearby Hlíð reception from 4.20pm onwards and it was windy, raining and snowing on the outside. At 4.55pm, the receptionist came and I ran down the car to go inside and queue for check-in. *The name “Myvatn” came from huge numbers of harmless midges found there in summer~ well nowhere in sight when we were there in such weathers.*
After 5pm, we finally checked into our room 2D, which was just next to the dining cabin. *The wind blew the door and Potato was a bit startled as he tried to catch it haha!* It was not too shabby inside but it was probably the start of our “nightmare” in Iceland because of the snowstorm. The snow got heavier and the wind got stronger after we checked in and it was the start of the “orange alert”.
It’s
a good thing our room was just next to the dining room and we had our tom yam
cup noodles for dinner at 6.30pm! The views outside was very pretty but quite
scary at the same time, not knowing when the snowstorm would pass. *Friends who saw my posts on Instagram was saying how beautiful it looked but deep inside, there's a fear in me because I don't know how bad it could get since it's the first time PotaTOHs could be trapped in a snowstorm and that can be bad for our round-trip drive in Iceland.*
As
the uptight one, I was constantly checking their road conditions and weather
alert website in our room. Keep in mind where the level of snow was at probably
two hours into check-in across the road where we parked our car for now because
it’s a completely different scenario the next morning.
As
the wind howl into the night (still bright~), we tried the alcohol we bought. The
raspberry and yuzu was so-so only and Potato thought his lager was meh too, probably
because they were not chilled. I probably did not sleep the whole night because
of the noisy wind “banging” against our cabin and noise coming from the cabin
behind us. I was also worried about the snow piling and if it would probably pile
up and block our door from the outside or even bury us omg, while the ache in
my left hip made me more uncomfortable.
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