One of those must-visit places in Iceland is the magnificent Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon beach with black sand and gigantic pieces of ice just lying around.

Surprisingly, the first time we arrived at the beach, there were no icebergs and it was, unfortunately, raining like it was the end of the world. But I saw some cute seals, that I found adorable, but nobody else wanted to take pictures of them. I felt quite lucky to be wearing my Goretex jacket and not be getting soaked thinking how did I live without this thing in Russia?

The second time went to Jokulsarlon, it was a beautiful sunny day, and there were plenty of pieces of ice. We had a great lunch full of arctic char (literally), and some fun bathroom stories. Denny put on his fancy waterproof boots, and we were all cheerful and happy to be there. But you don’t joke with the sea in Iceland – it can lure you and trick you into doing stupid things… and then it strips you down and laughs at you. So we were all mesmerised by the ice, roaming around, looking for the perfect shot, meanwhile we forgot to keep our distance from the sea… I was down at the beach, setting up my tripod when Kris came around and told me not to leave my backpack on the ground in case I need to run from the wave. I thought he had a point, so I put my backpack on my back, but somehow I forgot to do the second thing – which was to run from the wave. As I looked with mesmerized eyes at that big junk of ice in front of me, holding my tripod in place, I got swallowed by the sea and hit by that very piece of ice I was trying to take picture of.

And then yeah, I was half-body immersed in the sea, and yes, I had waterproof pants, and a jacket, but no matter what – my shoes are now full of water, and whatever is underneath those pants is full of water. Hopefully, the camera is safe but full of sand, and everything is going to be full of this black sand for days from now on… and outside it is still around 2 degrees (40 F), and we are here until sunset.

But you go to the bathroom and try to dry yourself, and then when you realize nothing is going to help you, so you just roam back with your shoes making that sound… if you grew up in Russia, you know it, because every mid-season you have your shoes full of water. That nasty feeling…

And then you see all your friends all in the same state really because everyone but one got hit by the same wave, or the next one. Patrick left his shoes in the hotel and gave up on the idea of drying them. But I made it till the end of the day, and maybe my mind wasn’t sharply concentrated on taking photos, I still had fun… the sunset wasn’t spectacular, but it was just amazing to be there.

Even if you don’t take any pictures, just watching these pieces of ice slowly drifting around is so relaxing. I wish we were there when auroras were dancing in the sky.

I was surprised I didn’t catch a cold, but to make sure that I didn’t I drank a couple of shots that night at the hotel. It was the third and the last night we stayed there, and the wifi was so bad in the room, you had to go hang out in the common corridor to catch some signal. Very conveniently Kris was there with his bottle of scotch.

More arctic char, and I believe we were brave enough for fermented shark that night as well…

The next morning was a beautiful sunny morning with a stunning sunrise, which we missed.

We ran out in our pj’s with Emily trying to take pictures of whatever we can. Those heaps of hay look like camels sleeping at sunrise.

After breakfast, we went back to the Glacier Lagoon, and the weather was absolutely blissful. It was even so warm in the sun that you could suntan.

As we roamed around the big pieces of ice, we were wary of the waves, and I screwed up some good otherwise photos because it is not a good idea to have polarisers when shooting into the sun. Nobody got wet this time.

We laughed and ran away from the coming water. Pat took this lovely picture of me surrounded by 1000-year-old ice.

Didn’t want to leave… but couldn’t stay there forever as well.

Here is a picture of Pat trying to catch a piece of ice. Yeah, I know, his backpack is bigger than him, but size doesn’t matter, right, girls?

Have a great weekend!

Love you all,

Anna