The first day

I guess we'll say the first day started when we arrived at our apartment in Reykjavik - 2am for me and 8am for Matt. I got about 4 hours of sleep, Matt none, but nonetheless we headed out. First stops in the morning included the famous church (which was a minute walk from our place, easy marker), a big flea market, a famous hot dog stand, and the Knitting Association of Iceland shop, where I bought a very expensive hand knit sweater. Our other goal before the afternoon was to find an electronics shop to buy a charger for the gopro, which didn't get packed. That involved a long walk past warehouses and shipyards along the water, but was ultimately a successful trip!

We were met at the flea market by a guy from Cheap Jeep with our car. We were waiting by the hot dog stand when he called to say he arrived, so we stared towards the parking area. "I think I see you" he said. "By the hot dog stand?" "Yes it's you then. I'm right behind you" then BAM we turned around and he was right there. Interesting character.

With the car, we headed out toward Thingvellir, where the North American and european continental plates divide, and also where Iceland's first parliament was. Matt was feeling the 30 or so waking hours at that point, so we poked around a bit while we waited for Silfra snorkelling under the midnight sun. Basically, between the two continental plates is filtered glacial water and some of the clearest water on the planet. And we snorkelled it. The preparation process was a bit brutal, since we had to don dry suits, then wet suits, which snap tight around the wrists and neck, then a tight head sack thing, flippers, mitts and mask. Once in the water we had air pockets trapped inside our suits, so we basically just went limp and floated down the chasm. The water was something like 4C but we only felt it in the hands where water leaked in... and our mouths, which went numb after a couple minutes.Hard to describe without pictures but it was pretty awesome. Finished up with some hot chocolate and cookies, then drove back to Reykjavik with some Iceland radio for company.