Video Extras [Uncut] from My Icelandic Adventures

There is nothing quite like having photos to remind you of the good times from your travel adventures. But you know what's even better? Having video of it.

I was not exactly religious about taking video of my experiences in the beginning of my 15-month journey in 2014 to 2015. I was barely familiar with my new camera during my first stop in Iceland. I also did not really have any ideas in mind about how I should film or what I should film. What resulted was a random selection of moments—what I think perfectly summarize my time in Iceland.

In this post, I share the raw, uncut footage from these moments. You'll see the Blair Witch-style in which I film and you'll get an idea of the carefree mindset I was in. The following are a sequence of videos from the start to the end of my 9 days in Iceland. It includes my starts and stops and the times I let the film roll when I suddenly felt the urge to capture the moment. It's random. It's fluid. And I think I naturally ended up capturing some of the best moments from my time in Iceland.

The Waterfall Sheep

I actually forgot I took some of these videos! Like this one, to start things off:

This was the morning after my first day road-tripping the Ring Road with Carolina and Fabrice, two solo backpackers I met through a couchsurfing meetup. It seemed there were waterfalls every 1000 feet along these back roads of Iceland. There were also tons of sheep, basking in the glory of this beautiful countryside.

Backpackers and a Harmonica

Eventually, the three of us backpackers made our way to another, more famous waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. It's one of the few waterfalls you can actually walk behind. 

In this video, we are walking back toward the waterfall after pretending to be "trolls" in a mossy cave we found cut into the side of the cliff:

Lots of laughter and music—both of which defined my time in Iceland.

Double Rainbow

The next waterfall was possibly THE most famous - Skógafoss. I was super excited about this one because we got there at the perfect time of day. The waterfall was catching the morning light at the exact angle to create a double rainbow. The result looked like the opening scene to a My Little Pony episodes especially with the seabirds flying around the top of the waterfall, the clear blue sky, and all of the gorgeous green moss around.

I am not surprised I took some video of the scene:

The Broken Bird

Then there was a random few minutes the three of us took to hang out on the Black Sand beach in Vik. Carolina found a poor bird with a broken leg and tried to see if she could help it:

Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do. But I learned Carolina is quite knowledgeable about animals since she grew up hunting them and caring for them on a farm in the North of Sweden. She amazed me with moments like this throughout my travels with her, both in Iceland and New Zealand later on.

Standing in Awe

Without fail, one of my favorite sights from my entire round-the-world trip was the glacial lagoon at Jökulsárlón. This is another gorgeous location that provoked me to hit the record button:

Sk8r Boy

I also learned quite a bit about my French-Canadian travel mate, Fabrice, on this trip. I admired his devotion to skateboarding. He actually brought his skateboard with him to travel long-term. I don't think I love anything that much to add an extra 4-5 pounds to my one bag!

Am I On Mars?

Soon after, we made it to the Northeastern side of Iceland where the landscape drastically changed. A volcanic wasteland that smelled of rotten eggs. The smell grew in intensity as we approached the sulfur springs at Námafjall hverir.

This place felt like I was on mars. It even sounded like another planet—one of the reasons I had to film a bit of it:

Backpacker Jam Session

To round out the trip, I'll share again a few videos I captured on my phone. Sometimes, the urge to video comes when my camera was locked away in my room. My phone, however, was usually still on me.

Here are a few videos I took in Akureyri and back in Reykjavik. You may recall these from my previous post in which I expressed how much I loved meeting these very musically-inclined backpacker friends. I am still in contact with most of these folks and they are all still rocking (and being hilarious)!

Check out Lee Rice—nomadic street performer extraordinaire—singing a tune with us all here:

Gotta love those falsetto backup vocals from "the German," Harold.

Then there's the epic Canadian, Williston Irvine, banging out our unofficial backpacker jam:

This song brings me right back—and that's exactly why video is so important while traveling. I am so very happy I took video during my whole trip! I can go right back to any country I visited. The feelings I cultivated come rushing back with a simple click of the play button.

More video extras to come in future posts!!