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Get Me To A Glacier!
It’s easy to get distracted by the routine of Reykjavík life. Mine goes something like: intern, race to Bónus before it closes, write, make a fool of myself at Paloma, eat take-out in bed and feel like a sack of shit the next…
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Weekly #GVpics: The 10 Best Iceland Instagrams
We had a nice visit yesterday from Julia, the winner of last week’s #GVpics Instagram competition, who dropped by with her eight-year-old son Ágúst to pick up their two t-shirts. Here’s what went down: Our #GVpics winner @juliamai popped in the collect…
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This Week’s Iceland Instagram Hitz: #GVpics Contest Round 2
After last week’s inaugural #GVpics Instagram contest, it’s time for round two. The first week had a joint winner featuring maximum sheep, with Grapevine t-shirts now on their way to @ingibjorgolafs and @hannes_nrm. This week, the prize is modeled by part-time comedian…
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This Week’s Instagram Contest – 177 Entries And TWO Winners!
Last week we launched the first #gvpics Instagram competition – asking you, dear readers, to use the #gvpics tag on your best Instagram photographs of Iceland. But not just the oft-seen aurora and landscapes shots – we asked for characters, towns, wilderness,…
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Misbehaving Nuns, Ancient Ice: Five Seasonal South Iceland Sights
Ideally, all of your travels in Iceland would be accompanied by mild weather and cloudless skies, but waiting for perfect weather in this country is much like waiting for Godot. This shouldn’t faze you, though, because the shoulder seasons (September and October,…
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Photos: The Endless Winter Of Iceland’s Route One
Part of the adventure of any Icelandic road trip is the journey itself. The extremity of Iceland’s landscape and weather make passing through the wilderness an immersive, visceral experience – particularly in winter. A blue sky reflecting in plains of fresh snow…
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Under The Ice: Beneath Vatnajökull Lies A Photographer’s Paradise
Seeing a glacier for the first time is a memorable experience. As the southern ring road from Reykjavík gently loops towards the coast, the peaks of Eyjafjallajökull start to appear, a white shadow against the sky, almost unbelievably high. It’s soon followed…
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Drone Porn: Top 10 Waterfalls Of Iceland
Have you ever looked at a waterfall in Iceland and thought I wonder how this would look like if I was a miniature helicopter? Well today is your lucky day because Youtube user Hailey Keen used a drone to capture some of…
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Listicle: Thermal Pools In The South Of Iceland
It was with some trepidation that our crew set out to bathe in as many natural geothermal pools in South Iceland as we could manage in three days. It’s now common knowledge that some locals have become disgruntled at their secret hot…
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Get Outta Town: Stuff To Avoid Airwaves
Feeling an overwhelming urge to explore the nearby towns without missing out on Airwaves? Do you feel crushed by the drunken crowds? Guess what, here are some suggestions for how to get outta town, make the most out of your time –…
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Iceland’s Sonic Landscape: Driving The Ring Road
Not long ago, I was packing my travel bag into the back of my friends’ four-wheel drive SUV as we all headed out for an extended week navigating the Ring Road. I was somewhere between a tourist and a resident, living in…
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Thieving Santas And Priest-Driven Volcanoes: Hitchhiking To Skaftafell
Fists clenched, a middle aged bald man sits torn between frustration and amusement. “But Iceland is so ordinary. Nothing exciting happens here,” he says before walking off into the un-setting sun. It’s 6:30 am and I’m on a busy street corner with…
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Over The Glacier: Ice Hiking On Vatnajökull
Vatnajökull is the second largest glacier in all of Europe, covering 8% of Iceland’s land mass and dominating the southeast corner of the country. Visible only on clear days, the glacier’s peak sits atop a vast sheet of compacted snow and ice,…
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A Sunny World: Ecovillage Sólheimar
If you happen to be cruising down a valley-snaking road about an hour’s drive east of Reykjavík, there’s a chance you’ll curl around a grassy embankment and notice, nestled among rolling hills, Iceland’s lone ecovillage. The Sólheimar Ecovillage has existed sustainably since…
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In A Van Down By The Ocean, Touring to Vík
Nearly 200 kilometres of road lay in front of us. From Reykjavík to Vík í Mýrdal in two days, that was our mission. That’s not at all that much, you might note, but we had to make some stops on the way…
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Merchants’ Weekend Is Here! A Guide To Entertaining Yourself
Every year in Iceland, the first weekend in August is dedicated to celebrating Verslunarmannahelgi (“Merchants’ Weekend”), a labour day / bank holiday equivalent. While not everyone is actually a Merchant, every Icelander is encouraged to celebrate like the holiday is their own,…
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Into The Abyss: Þríhnúkagígur’s Magma Cave
“It’s a good thing you’re going underground,” our bus driver calls out as his windshield wipers work furiously to bat away the rain. I watch the drops race across my window, blurring the moss-covered lava field that surrounds us. We are headed…
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Just Out Of Plain Sight: Laugarvatn
I’m huddled over the steering wheel peering out from behind rapidly jerking windshield wipers as sprays of rain lash out across the glass. The car bounces up and down over the drenched crags of Þingvellir National Park. All of a sudden, the…
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A Craving For Caving In The Leitahraun Lava Field
Forty-five kilometres from downtown Reykjavík I’m standing on a snowy embankment surrounded by the Leitahraun lava field. The snow slopes down, guiding me under a shelf of rock and into a winding crevice to a basketball-sized hole in the ground. Feeling a…
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Riding With Fire, Tölting On Ice To Ingólfsfjall
Rule number one when riding an Icelandic horse: do not use your leg. Or at least, do not use as much leg as you would when riding a horse English-style. Swinging myself onto the saddle on a dark, snowy January morning, I…
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Suspended In Silfra
Fifty kilometres north of Iceland’s Þingvellir National Park, a drop of water melts from the glacier Lángjökull, liberated from the 1,000-year-old frozen mass. The drop falls into porous, volcanic rock where it spends 30 to 100 years being filtered through the ground…
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To The Vík-tor Go The Unspoiled Spoils
“There were only six people in my year at school,” says Eiríkur Vilhelm Sigurðarson, who is possibly Vík’s most familiar face. “The other five have moved to Reykjavík. I’m the last one here.” I knew it was small, but this detail puts…
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Hiking In Kerlingarfjöll
The fine group of peaks known as Kerlingarfjöll were named after a high rock pillar that is said to be a female troll who was turned to stone as she was hit by daylight back when her kin roamed the country. The…