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Hitch-hiking through Iceland for 4 weeks (June 2013)
 
We travelled through Iceland for 4 weeks and it was simply wonderful - what an amazing country!!
 
We drove & hiked through ever changing landscapes: lava deserts, glaciers reaching to the ocean, rocks covered with green moss, endless Fjords, ice blocks on the black lava beach and certainly uncountable waterfalls.
 
Hot river near Hveragerdi
enjoying the hot river near Hveragerdi
 
Hitch-hiking worked really well in Iceland - we only took the Bus a few times. In average we waited approximately one hour until we got a ride. We got picked up by so many wonderful and kind people and always had wonderful conversations. Both locals and tourists from all over the world picked us up.
 
Fish anyone?
Fish anyone?
 
We very much enjoyed the fact that in Summer it never gets dark in Iceland. Additionally this makes camping really easy and comfortable - you can always put up your tent in daylight. We slept in our trusthworthy tent every single night and cooked dinner on our stove almost every evening.
 
Except for the first week (where we had rather bad weather) we had much more sunshine and much less rain than we expected - we think that we were very lucky with the weather. We even had to use sun screen quite often :-)
 
We travelled around Iceland counterclockwise. We started in the south and travelled along the coast. Due to bad weather we did not spend too much time in the South. We then continued to the Eastfjords where we had wonderful weather and did wonderful hikes. Afterwards we went to the North to lake Myvatn (where we were confronted with 1 billion flies...) and to beautiful waterfalls. We then continued to the lonely and very sparsely populated Westfjords. They were very beautiful and we did very nice hikes in the Westfjords. We then spent our last few days on the Snæfellsnes peninsula and then our 4 weeks in Iceland were already over. We could easily have spent another 4 weeks in this amazing, breathtaking country.
 
Seljalandsfoss
Seljalandsfoss in South-Iceland
 
Jökulsárlón
Jökulsárlón Glacier-lagoon in South-Iceland
 
Eastfjords
Hiking in the lonely Eastfjords
 
Dettifoss
Dettifoss in North-Iceland
 
Godafoss
Goðafoss - Waterfall of the Gods
 
Látrabjarg
Látrabjarg - Iceland's most western point. Located in the lonely, beautiful Westfjords
 
Thanks so much to all the people who picked us up!! We owe you a big thank you and had a wonderful time with all of you!
 
Hitch-hiking
 
 
more photos in the gallery
 
 
NOTES & ANECDOTES
 
it is VERY easy to spot the difference between an Icelander and a Tourist - the local will wear shorts and a T-Shirt while the Tourist is wearing a long trouser, many layers, a warm jacket, gloves and a cap...
 
Icelanders are incredibly friendly and helpful - really wonderful people! Once even a Taxidriver picked us up while hitch-hiking - for free!
 
the Icelandic weather-forecast always mentions the wind speed first - weather conditions like sunshine or rain are secondary
 
we once got up at 2:30 just to watch the sun shine across the ocean.
 
we experienced wind so strong we had trouble walking
 
Icelanders play golf at almost every weather
 
one family that picked us up while hitch-hiking even invited us for lunch at a very fine restaurant - thanks so much
 
useless stuff we took with us: head-lamps. We just could not imagine how bright it would be in Iceland at "night"
 
there is not a single McDonalds in Iceland - but this does not mean the Icelanders eat very healthy - as soon as there is a gas station there is also a junk food restaurant inside
 
we once got picked-up by an Icelandic farmer in the morning who was on his way to the Airport in Akureyri to catch a flight to Reykjavik - when we asked him why he did not drive to Reykjavik by car he told us that he had to be back in the evening to milk the cows :-)
 
we got attacked by (angry) birds
 
at the Snæfellsnes peninsula we even saw orca whales from the shore:-)