After some internal debate (it would be so fascinating to go north and check out Grímsey Island, which sits on the Arctic circle! but the island is inconvenient to reach and I'd be using up my entire time just to get there and turn around again!) I decided to spend my time in Thórsmörk, a nature reserve in a dramatic river valley hemmed in by glaciers.
If you want to know where these places are, by the way, check out my handy map. I do love making maps:
View Iceland and the Faroes in a larger map
First, though, I had to get to Thórsmörk.
My research had revealed the following points:
– Buses in Iceland are very expensive.
– Schedules from the east to the west don't align well, so it would take me two days of travel just to get to Thórsmörk.
– The hostel in Höfn, where I would have to wait overnight to catch the next bus, was already full.
– All sources say hitchhiking in Iceland is safe, friendly and easy.
You see where I'm going with this?
Recently getting to know some freewheeling, hitchhiking, couchsurfing types in Berlin had inspired me, and I started thinking, if not in safe, friendly, easy Iceland, then when in my life am I ever going to dare to hitchhike? I decided to try it, with the bus as a back-up as necessary.
First attempt was in the parking lot before the ferry even left the Faroe Islands, but that yielded no results. Everyone else seemed to be headed north, not south, around Iceland's ring road.
Next I tried asking around on the car deck of the ship, just before arrival, and found a German couple willing to take me just into the next town, Egilsstaðir, which lies on the ring road. Here's a first glimpse of Icelandic landscape:
In Egilsstaðir, for the first time in my life, I did the real hitchhiking deal: Set myself up on the side of the highway with a hand-drawn sign and a goofy grin, feeling silly but determined at least to try.
And in fact, it only took 10 or 15 minutes before someone stopped. He was driving all the way across the country to Reykjavík, and could drop me off where I'd catch the bus into Thórsmörk. For a long stretch in the not-very-populated east of the country, the ring road (in other words, THE major highway) looked like this:
My ride was Zlatko, a Serbian soccer player who'd been living in Iceland for 13 years and spoke the language fluently. Yes, I had a moment of qualms about traveling with a man (might have preferred a woman, a couple or a family – but then, couples and families had cars that were already full!) and felt very much on my guard at first. But he turned out to be incredibly kind, even stopping at sightseeing points he thought I should see along the way, and very much a gentleman, telling me stories about his young son in Reykjavík and his current drive back from Serbia.
Yes, you read that right. He drove from Serbia to Iceland. Only a trip of about 2,800 kilometers (1,700 miles) on the road, plus two nights on a ship. By this point, he just wanted to get home!
Zlatko made sure I saw Jökulsárlón, the bay full of icebergs that calve from a glacier into the water. He said it was only worth seeing it if the weather was good, and he'd only had that, in changeable Iceland, once or twice in 13 years. We had good weather.
I was able to catch a bus into Thórsmörk that same evening, arriving a day ahead of plan. I estimate Zlatko saved me at least 100 euros, plus a day of travel time, plus a lot of bus-station-finding hassle. Not to mention being an interesting person to talk to. Thanks, Zlatko!
I don't know whether or not I'll be hitchhiking in the future, but I'm glad I did at least this once.
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