June 2013 -- Iceland
It's surprisingly easy to get to Iceland. Icelandair, with a stopover in Keflavik, flies fairly cheaply between Europe and North America, and budget airline Wow flies from European cities such as Vilnius. Iceland is probably the most expensive country I've visited, and getting around (outside the major tourist hot spots) is difficult. Nonetheless, the country of fire and ice is overwhelmingly beautiful. Here's a picture of Eyafjallajokull, the glacier-topped volcano that erupted in 2010, interrupting air traffic (but not significantly melting the ice).
The 'Golden Circle' is a popular bus day tour. It includes Thingvellir, the national park and traditional seat of Iceland's centuries-old parliament; the double waterfall Gullfoss; and the geothermal area that includes the now-inactive Geysir and the geyser (guess where the name comes from?) Strokkur. Strokkur goes off every few minutes, sending a blast of boiling water into the air.
The big event of my trip was hiking the Laugavegur trail in the south in the country. It's a pretty brilliant trip, passing alongside glaciers and canyons and lakes before winding up in Thorsmork, a splendid forest. The trail is advertised to be four solid days of hiking (and there is good accommodation at the start and end, and at three spots along the way), but you'd certainly be stretching out your trip if you took that long. I took a morning bus into Landamannlaugar, slept at the secondary camp at Hvanngil, and made it to the 2:30 bus pick-up in Thorsmork. If you're planning to do this hike, you need to be aware that there are some intense river crossings (think glacial water, at a good clip, up to a meter deep at the shallowest). This picture is looking back over the valley of Landamannlaugar.
