Iceland: the Crown Jewel

I mentioned on last week's blog post that I was in Iceland. Well I'm back now and it's time to write a blog post. Wow...where to begin...

First things first, even though I've travelled a fair bit in recent years (to Europe, Central America, and even within Canada) what made this trip really different is that it was a guys trip - just me and three of my best mates. It doesn't sound like a big thing but organizing an overseas trip with four friends, all with families, partners and different life circumstances, is actually a pretty big deal. For a couple of years now we talked about booking a trip for when we turned 40 and amazingly we pulled it off.

The crown jewel of the trip (for me) was a 3-day backpacking trip to the Landmannalaugar region of Iceland. I don't even know how to describe just how stunning this region is in Iceland. I visited 7 years ago on a day trip and I promised myself I would always return. I'll let a couple of photos do the rest of the talking:

Actually, scratch that. No matter how stunning Landmannalaugar was, the crown jewel of the trip really was spending a week with my 3 friends, D, J and R, while we laughed over some of the silliness we encountered, and overcame a few challenges. We experienced:

• 22 hours of daylight...every day for a week (the sun technically set at midnight and rose at 2 am but really it never got truly dark). "Just until sundown" is the ultimate excuse to stay up all night long and have just...one more beer!

2 am - Reykjavik style

• Chilling out in various hot springs (Do you know what's better than chilling out in a hot spring? Chilling out in a hot spring with a glass of whiskey).
• Trading stories with other foreign tourists about some of the realities of our home countries. 

Canada has a pretty good reputation out here

• Munching on beer-soaked hotdogs from a U.S. President-approved hot dog stand (hmmm I'm afraid this blog is giving the impression that I may have partaken in a bit of drinking).

I'll have the Bill Clinton special

• And generally, just having each other's backs as we slogged over mountain trails, on a couple of hours sleep, sharing one tiny hut with a group of 20 other strangers*.

Did the trip go off without a hitch? Hell no! Am I already getting about the next one? Hell yes :)

See you on the next trip boys!

*who hadn't properly bathed in 3 days. We kept the window open.