SMELLIEST PLACE ON EARTH
If you decide to drive around the Ring Road (Route 1), you will stop in Myvatn. There are several important things to see here, but there is also a catch. The smell of sulphur.
The first stop is Hverir (aka Namaskard) lunar looking hot springs area with boiling mud, stemming vents, fumaroles, and sulphur evaporations. The scenery is really amazing, but the smell is almost unbearable. It is definitively not for those who are sensitive to smell, as even the strongest and least sensitive among us started feeling nauseated towards the end.
Also important to note is that there were no public bathrooms, despite it being a very popular touristy spot. That, coupled with the extremely strong sulphur smell made this visit very short. Few photos, and that's enough.
After this interesting experience we went to the Myvatn Nature Baths to relax. Little did we know that the strong sulphur smell was also present there. It was the shortest hot spring dip in history of geothermal baths- we were in and out of that place in 40 minutes, including showering before getting into the bath, drying and getting dressed afterwards. Given the length of our stay, this was rather expensive experience as the tickets are $30 for adults, and $10 for kids (we added one drink for the adults). It may also be that we were just unlucky and that the wind was blowing the extremely strong sulphur smell from Hverir next door because not everyone complained of this on Trip Advisor. For us, Blue Lagoon is much better, no comparison.
The highlight of this rather unsuccessful day was the hike up to Hverfjall Volcanic Crater. An Icelandic "easy" 15 minute hike up the volcano turned out to be a longer and more exhausting hike for those out of shape. Even when you add to that fighting off flies and the overpowering smell of sulphur, it is completely amazing feeling being on top of a volcanic crater. Below you see the amazing lava fields.
We ate a very decent pizza at Daddi's Pizza and stayed at (Sel - Hotel Myvatn) hotel- it was fine, clean, with great breakfast, and good souvenir shop across the street. The downside, other than the weak wifi signal in the rooms, was that the water had a very, very strong sulphur smell. Normal for the region, but after the whole day of smelling it, washing our hands was an accomplishment. I even had the courage to take a shower. Not the most pleasant experience, but my hair looked good in photos the next day. The next morning we visited the Viti Crater Lake in Krafla. This explosion crater formed in the XVIII century by a massive eruption of the Krafla volcano, has a crater of around 300 meters in diameter with beautiful blue lake inside.
Despite the beauty of everything we saw in Myvatn region, we were happy to leave the sulphur smell behind us.