Being 30 is rad as @$%#!: Skaftafell: Good weather! Grassy fields! Cute French families! June 18-19 2015

The husband has been too jaded by American national parks- he expects big crowds and trees and pushing through crowds. Skaftafell, despite being the largest national park not only in Iceland, but in all of Europe, was none of these things. It's a relatively quiet (minus the tidal wave of tourists that wash in when buses arrive) park, with only a small visitors center, and a few non-descript paths leading into the low foot hills. I (the husband) was wary of the relatively unimposing surroundings -I should have learned my lesson after Porsmörk, but I sort of rolled my eyes and huffed: psh: what kind of teeny park is this?! Little did I know...

We pulled in and set up camp (after paying the requisite young kid with the hip haircut) in one of a bunch of grassy fields. There was a father and son playing frisbee as we trudged over, which I looked to as a good omen. The dad looked straight out of a starring role in The Life Aquatic - lithe, striking blue eyes, evidently taking his ten year old on an epic Icelandic adventure... And the kid had mean soccer skills, spoke English and was content to do planks and entertain himself as his parents were off galavanting around.

Svartifoss

Anyway. There was a mountain hike there called Kristínartindar that looked to be epic but we didn't count on showing up early into the season of an unseasonably cold year. The hike up the proper mountain was, alas, closed due to thawing, but we did a couple of smaller hikes (how quickly we change: now a smaller hike constitutes only 8 or 10 kilometers). Most notably up to Svartifoss or 'Black Falls', which is a waterfall falling over a basalt cliff backdrop. Then we continued up to a lovely view point called by another unpronounceable name to the tune of Sjónarnípa. It was nice and it was sunny!

Sjónarnípa

Historic turf-roofed houses on the walk

Finally we posted up for a sunny 9pm dinner and movie. Total date night!

Tent movie night!

The next morning we went to a small lagoon full of glaciers, then hiked up to an alleged viewpoint, but, as Iceland does it was fogged in and we couldn't see much. That evening we let our stuff dry and took refuge in a cafe, playing cards and reading until we headed back across the grassy fields to our tent.