Traveling Iceland with Strangers (Group Trip EP1)

Good morning everyone. My name is Trent and I live and travel out of my van all over the world at this point and currently I have found myself in the beautiful country of Iceland. However, me and my van here in Iceland are at the airport and I've actually been here in Iceland for a couple weeks now traveling around in this camper van. And if you guys haven't watched that series of me doing van life here in Iceland, I highly recommend you watch those episodes here first because I'm actually moving off to the next chapter of this adventure. For the next week, I will be hosting a group trip here just like the group trip that I hosted in Japan earlier this year. I invited 14 other people to come join me out here in Iceland and travel with me for a week. And today is day one of that adventure and all of these strangers we're meeting for the first time and I'm picking them up in this van and shuttling them to Reykjavik for a couple different reasons. One, it's fun, it's exciting and two, it's saving them a couple bucks because the transfer from the airport to Reykjavik is very expensive. But we've already got one person who's arrived. This is Sean. What's up y'all? And we're kind of just hanging out here waiting on other people to show up and they should be rolling in here soon so we should meet them real soon. Oh look who it is! Is that Megan? Hi! Oh my gosh give me a hug! How was the flight? Oh it wasn't so bad. Yeah? Well let's load you up. Nobody yet? Nobody yet, you guys are the first two. Are you taking movies? I'm filming the whole thing. That's the smallest video camera I've ever seen. All right we got a couple more people walking up. Welcome to Iceland my friends. This is Aurora. Hello. Lex. Nice to meet you guys. Ashby. Yeah it's quite the step up so be careful. All right. Yep just throw your bags in there. I made you something. You made me something? Okay. So I'm sizing you up through your videos. Okay. I was telling Ashby I go, I said I'm like rewinding, I'm rewinding the videos like he's holding an 18 inch laptop. I'm trying to like. Whoa that's in depth. So I hope it fits. Okay. But if it doesn't I will rock this thing and then I'll move on. Okay. Oh my gosh you made that? Lex I made it! Truth be told I was really gonna try to do your logo with the t's together and slanted. Yeah. And my skill level is not there. They didn't have the time to do it so I just taught myself how to do some color work. I am so impressed. Oh my god. You nailed it. Oh my god. It's cozy. It's real cozy. Heck yeah. Give me a hug. Thank you. I love this. So exciting. You know what since you got me a gift I got you all a gift as well. All right guys are you ready to see this epic design? It's not going to be nearly as cool as this. That's okay. My friends welcome to the land of ice and fire. Yeah. Large. This one's for you Sean. There you go. Ashby. There you go. Lex this is yours. Here's the design for the Iceland group trip. I added a lot of trees and I shouldn't have because there's not a lot of trees in Iceland but hey it's still a cool design. I don't think they even noticed. We got two more rolling in. Oh guys these next two folks rolling in might look a little familiar to you guys if you watched my Japan series. Yo oh my gosh. This is Joe and Mike guys. Hey good to see you. Give me a hug. Yeah this one's yours Joe. Yeah. Thanks bro. Yeah you know. See you again man. I know dude this is so freaking cool that you guys are here. All right everybody load up. Oh actually everybody get in the van we need to take a picture. Quick little group pic to make the five other people who aren't with us jealous. You guys ready? Let me double check that make sure I look cute. All right load up everybody it's time to go to Reykjavik. All right let's hit the road folks. Don't you come back no more. All right guys here's what we do. Let's go grab a quick bite to eat and then we'll come back to the hotel. We can check in at 12. Everybody get in the rooms get cozy. We'll change and then we'll go on a little adventure in the van. Sound good? Oh shoot what up. What up dawg. Good to see you again man. Yeah man pleasure bro. This is so freaking cool. I know right. I'm really caffeinated right now by the way guys. Okay so just like my Japan group trip we are eventually going to have a guide that's guiding us around taking us to each destination throughout this trip throughout the I think six days that we're all hanging out together. And that officially starts a little later today. We're supposed to meet around five for our welcome dinner and then the adventure officially starts after that. But since I went ahead and picked everyone up from the airport I figured we'd walk around town a little bit hang out and maybe go off on a really crazy adventure before the group trip actually starts. I don't know why not you know. Wow it smells amazing in here. Thank you. Yeah yeah pay with Icelandic currency. Yeah yeah. It is packed in there but it smells amazing. What'd you get? Okay just cinnamon buns same. I'm excited to try it. Yeah are you guys ready to try these out? I'm ready. All right cheers guys. It's warm. That's good. What'd you think Jason? Bro oh my god. We're slamming. That was good. You guys want to go check out this church over here? Yeah. Real quick guys I just want to pause on this adventure and reflect on a few things as this Iceland adventure is slowly but surely coming to an end and this year is coming to an end. I've made some realizations and I want to reflect on that with you guys as well as mention today's video sponsor AT&T. If you guys have been following this channel all year long you know that I have had an absolutely incredible year this year. Between traveling all over the world to Japan, Iceland, all over the states and then having this incredibly unique opportunity to build out this new camper van with my brother over the summer. This has been one of the best years of my life. But you know it's not necessarily because of the places that I've been but more so because I made an effort to connect with people more this year. My heart and soul deeply needs that human connection to feel true happiness or love and that's exactly why I share these moments with all of you. Without human connection in this life the world is a very dark and empty place and I think it's very important that we share as many moments with as many people as we can because those types of connections fill those dark voids with a little bit of life. So in an effort to bring a little more life into this world I've partnered with AT&T to inspire all of you to connect with people a little more this holiday season. Whether that's leaning more into your family life with a video call every now and then, reconnecting with an old friend through text messages, or just positively interacting with someone online. Those connections do so much more than bring us together physically because your voice has the power to create light that brightens the world around you. So why don't we do that more often? So pick up your phone and share love this holiday season. Connect with someone in the comments of this video, share a funny moment on social media, or return your mom's phone call. And don't forget your voice has power and with AT&T that power goes a long way. Thank you AT&T for sponsoring this video and inspiring people to connect more this holiday season. And thank you all for being a part of this incredible adventure this year. It's been a pleasure having you along. But it's time to start wrapping things up this year so let's continue this epic Iceland adventure. It's a wild one. Well there it is guys. The iconic church of Reykjavik. That is beautiful. So is that hair right there. So it looks like you can walk inside and go all the way up to the top. So I think that's what we're going to do. Whoa. This is crazy. Whoa. Is that the organ? That looks wild. I can't imagine what that sounds like. You can hear it from like a mile away. Really? All right we're about to get on the elevator to go to the top. Are you nervous? Pile in guys. Pile in. All right first awkward elevator ride of the trip. Wow this is still bigger than the other elevators we were on. Oh yeah. In Japan for sure. Well big time. Yeah you got one little window facing that courtyard. Whoa. It's a lot better up there. Oh this is cool. Look at all the different colored houses. Yeah right. All the red. Yeah. That was amazing. That was like perfect timing too. Whoa. I'm coming across the threshold. So this is probably the best view of Reykjavik that you'll get. It's quite literally a bird's eye view. All these colorful rooftops. This is so cool looking. It's very different. I love it. And this is a beautiful beautiful church. That's the biggest bell I've ever seen. Dude it was terrifying. I knew it was coming but I didn't know it'd be that loud. Hello. Hello. How was it? Amazing. Well that was a cool experience. Really enjoyed that. This is actually my first time here walking around Reykjavik and so far it's freaking awesome. Well good morning everyone. It is a beautiful new day here in Reykjavik. You can hear a bird singing off in the distance. The sun is coming up over this way and I am very excited to start today's adventures. We're gonna go eat breakfast downstairs and then after that we're gonna hit the road and start exploring the beautiful Iceland wilderness together and I couldn't be more excited. It is going to be a very busy and very fun next couple of days so make sure you guys follow along. We've got a lot of amazing things planned and I think this is going to be an incredible trip but it's time to go downstairs, feast, and then hit the road. I have no idea how I'm gonna do this. What was I thinking? How did I even? Did I carry all this to Iceland? How do I not remember that? That's wacky. I got way too much to eat bro. Good morning. Hey how are you? Good how are you? Great. I like your sweater. Yeah thank you. By the way guys this is Larus. Did I say it right? He's gonna be our guide for the next couple days driving us around Iceland showing us all the cool stuff right? Yes. Today's gonna be a good day. Let's do it. Wow this is what we're gonna be traveling in? Yeah. This is a big van. Whoa this is futuristic. All right guys this will be the bus that we will be traveling in for the next five six days all around Iceland. Plenty of seats, we've got charging ports up here, good airflow, and I've even got a microphone up here I can use. Check this out dude. Hello. I'm so excited dude this is about to be so dope. Come on in. All right to start off this adventure I'm gonna throw on the epic hoodie. Boom. Looking good Trent. Thanks guys. All right here we go folks. Are you guys excited? Let's go. Iceland baby. That means good day everyone. What do we say back to that? I can't. I can't. Everybody ready? Sure they brought everything from the rooms? Yep we're ready. Could I talk on the microphone? Yep. Check check check one two three. Hey guys how's it going? You guys ready for today's adventures? You got some good sleep? Yes sir. Sweet. I don't really know what to say I just wanted an excuse to talk in the microphone. There you go. Like to see it? You got the camera out? Oh yeah. Okay. All right so we're at our first stop here on the group trip at Thingvellir National Park and this national park's really cool because we are sitting between two continents. If you look this way that's North America and this over here is like the Euro-Asian continent and we are about to hike through the middle of it which is super cool. All right we're coming up on the last American waterfall. This waterfall falls on the North American side of the continent so that's why they call it that and then as I said over here is the Euro-Asian continent and we're walking right down the middle baby. I feel like we should be walking in slow motion right now. All cool with music. This is an epic moment and there it is my friends. All right. You don't even have to look at it. So we've got 14 people total on this group trip. We're all split up right now and that's sort of how these group trips happen. People break off, go off and do their own things, and then we converge again and then the cycle repeats. So that's why we're kind of just here with you know three people. Everybody else is just exploring, having fun. I mean this is like a playground to us so as long as everybody's having fun I'm having a good time. Oh this is cool. Guys we can touch the two tectonic plates here. I mean technically you know. Check it out. I'm gonna touch both sides. North America to the other side. Euro-Asian continent. Wow what a feat. All right I think it's time for us to head back so we're not late. We're gonna meet back up at the van at 10 30 and head off to the next destination. Oh what's up fellas? If you guys go right here you can touch both sides. So I can get both continents in one? No unfortunately you got to go to one side and then the next. Yeah you could hold hands. So Megan can we talk to the camera for a second? I can. Yeah how old are you? 72. 72 and you're out here traveling with us? I'll be 73 and in a week. That's awesome. Yeah you're in great health. Well thank you I stay healthy. I love it. I want to stay healthy. And the fact that you came out here is just so cool to me. I don't know with all of us I just want to commend you for that. You obviously are living life right now. I don't have to act my age. I'm as young as I feel. Yeah true. But yeah I'm glad you're here. Hope you're having a good time. I'm glad to be here. What are you most excited for on this trip here? I guess we're walking on the glacier. Walking on the glacier yeah that's gonna be awesome. I didn't know we were gonna see stuff like this so this is a this is an adventure. Yeah yeah. This here is Jack from Australia. Yeah. Bro you flew so far to get here. How long was your flight? It was three layovers in total. I think it's like 24 hours. Oh let's go this way. Yeah seven hours from Brisbane to Singapore. 14 from Singapore to Copenhagen. And then four? I think it's all it was like over 20 to 23 hours. That's nuts man. Yeah. You literally flew from probably the furthest place you could fly from. I tried to. If I had to pick anywhere else I think it was Greenland is the only other place that could potentially be further. Is it worth it? Surf? Nah. Okay good to know. So far it's good. So far it's been pretty awesome. All right where's our van? Do y'all remember what it looks like? Because I kind of don't. Oh yeah there it is. We made it. All right everybody's here. Moving on to the next destination folks. Let's rock. Oh check it out. Look at all these steam vents here. We've made it to our second destination of the day. This is the Great Geyser and we're likely going to see some water shooting out of the ground about 30 meters into the sky. And on the way there we're going to be walking through this field of steam vents. It's going to be cool. All right gang you ready? Oh that's cool. Look at the water boiling right there. So as you guys could probably tell this water is very very hot. You don't want to touch it. They have signs, ropes here to tell you not to go over here because if you touch this water look at it boiling. Oh yeah it's burning your hand. This sign says it's about 80 to 100 degrees celsius this water. So yeah maybe maybe don't touch that. Oh shoot you can see it off in the distance. All right guys I'm going around doing some introductions on people because it's fun. This is Ethan. Hi. He's all dripped up, dripped out in the cozy merch. Oh yeah. He got the triple t hat. Link in the description. Where are you from man? I'm from Kentucky. Kentucky. It's your first time here in Iceland? Yes. You loving it so far? Oh yeah having a blast. I see you're filming. You got a YouTube channel? Uh yeah I do. What is it? It's just called Ethan Morrow. Ethan Morrow? Yeah I only have one video and it's when I went on a trip to Banff. Oh well you're about to have more videos from the Iceland trip. Go subscribe. Go watch his version of the trip. All right let's go. Oh hi. I recommend you see where the man in the wheelchair is sitting there. Uh oh yeah way over there? Okay go there and wait for this guy to blow for you. Okay. This is the blowing one. All right will do. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Oh it's turning out to be a beautiful day. The sun is coming out. We've got this dark cloud over here but I kind of like the way that looks. It gives a nice contrast to the day and the experience. But here's the geyser right here. It should blow any moment now. Apparently water shoots right up right up into the air and it's an epic experience. I've never seen one of these before so I'm super stoked about this. I'm kind of nervous. All the YouTubers here. Oh by the way guys you guys remember Joe from Japan. He had a moment on a channel where he took over and he filmed so well that he started his own YouTube channel. What is it? That's right. It's Seeking Summons with Joe. Yeah go check out his channel. Go watch his version of this trip and the Japan trip. And hiking adventure all around mostly New York state but all over the U.S. soon. There you go guys. Link in the description. Camp Outs with J. You guys already know that though. Do you have a channel Sean? Dude I don't. Should I start one? You should start one. Should I start one? Yeah. Whoa. That was better than I was expecting. That was so cool. That was way better than I thought. Yeah. That was so awesome. Yeah. So apparently this goes off every two to six minutes so you could sit here all day and it would just keep going. All right we're gonna try to walk all the way up there and get a bird's eye view of this place. This is amazing. I need to get an Instagram. Check it out. Watch out. Sorry. It's a little sundial here. I'm not blocking it. You can tell the time based off the sun's position and it is about 10 almost. No wait. Is that right? It's on point. It's about three minutes past. That's right. The leading edge. Oh these are minutes. Yeah. And this is the hour. Yeah. Got it. Yeah. Oh that's so smart. Where's the minutes? Well in between here is the minutes. So this is 53. Yeah. Got it. 55. Yes. Yeah. Oh I see. Right. Yeah. Oh okay. Okay. So once it's past 10 it's considered 11. I believe so. No. No. Once it's at 11 it's 11. It's in 1154. No it's 1154. Yeah. It's 1154? Yeah. Yeah. Not 1054. Oh I thought it was 1054. No. Oh jeez. I don't know. Shoot. I don't freaking know. It's cool though. Or if you can't just kind of take it with them. This is the perfect view to take my hoodie off because it's hot. Wow this view is awesome. Dang Ashby that's quite the spot. Yeah. You want a picture right there? Give me your, give me your camera. The backpack pics look like he's adventuring. Yeah that's a good point. Yeah take the backpack away. Guys gather on this rock. I want to do a quick little pan of us all conquering this mountain. All right act like you're just having a blast. Yes. Whoa. Oh my gosh. So we're headed back to the van now. We only had an hour here and an hour at the other place. Not a lot of time but that's only because we've got so much planned for this trip. We're trying to pack it all in. We're hitting so many stops here in Iceland on the ring road so we're trying to make the best of it. So after this I believe we're going to go see a really awesome waterfall. Then it's lunchtime or maybe vice versa. And then we're going to go soak in a really beautiful hot spring called the secret lagoon which I'm really excited for. Is everybody here? I think that's it. Let's roll out. All right here we go. It's raining. It's crazy how it was just sunny and beautiful and now look at this. Not even 15 minutes ago. Welcome to Iceland everybody. All right here we are at Gullfoss. The golden waterfall and it is I can see it off in the distance here and it looks insane. Oh shoot. Now that is a canyon right there. Wow. Look at the waterfall in the distance. That's crazy looking. Corinne have you ever seen anything like this? No. Never? It's the first time. What do you think? It's great. Look there's a cave down there. Here comes the rain. You know I just bought this rain jacket. It's brand spanking new and it ain't rain jacketing. I'm wet under here. If you fell in that, game over. You're gone. That water, there's so much of it and it is flowing so fast. Oh look check out this waterfall. Shoot bro. It's great. It's large. I just came up with a better idea. Yeah you can't not do this you know. It's amazing. Yo Seth you look soaked. Dude I am. It's like you just dove into the waterfall. These waterproof pants. Ain't waterproof anymore bro. That seems to be a common theme here with all our rain gear. Shoes are holding up though. Yeah. That's about it. And this is just unreal man. I can't get over it. All right time to head back. All right it's time to go eat some lunch. I am starving. What a view. Yes. Oh my gosh. All right who farted? I'm not the only one. Smells a little suspicious back here. Oh this place looks cool. All right let's feast. All right it's lunchtime and it smells so good out here. Apparently this place is known for their hot chocolate and their pizzas are really good apparently. So you know I'm going to feast. Oh right when you walk in you're greeted with the chocolate. Okay. Whoa this is way fancier than I was expecting. Wow there's a lot of options here. There's a lot of options. Yo scallops. I'm so overwhelmed with the options right now. There's just so many good things on here. The hot chocolate. Right away? Yes. Hot chocolate. Oh my gosh. You gotta get it. Yeah just go right in. That whipped cream looks thick too. You gotta put the pinky up man. I feel like I need to like move it around a little bit. Make some room. It's like heavy cream. Look at that logo. Whoa. Very creamy. That's very thick. Wow. It's like I'm I'm drinking a melted chocolate bar. Yeah right. This is the best hot chocolate I've ever had. Just look at how viscous it is. Oh that looks good. Oh thank you. Oh that smells good. What is that? I don't know what it is but it smells delicious. I don't know. That's strawberry jalapeno. No it's no it's almost like a soy sauce. It's like soy sauce strawberry and jalapeno. Yeah. Yeah. What is that? Empanada. You dip that in there and then these are lamb dumplings. Try this lamb dumpling here. Yeah I guess so. I want to try this sauce. Yeah that's like a strawberry cayenne pepper. Maybe like some soy sauce. Yeah something like that. And then you got a side of like three kernels of popcorn. I'm confused by that. Yeah I don't understand that. Dang that looks good. I gotta get a shot of that. That's a good looking za right there. It was the barbecue chicken one. Yeah. Dang that looks amazing. It's really good. Awesome thank you. This sauce. That is good. Is that good man? Try some. Oh yeah please. Oh my gosh. Try the lamb. That looks amazing. Look at his face. Look at his face. He knows. It's unreal. The lamb is so smooth. It's like butter. Fantastic restaurant choice. Yeah. That was delicious. Alright folks here we are at the last stop of the day before we go off to the hotel. However this spot we're going to take our sweet time at because here we are at the beautiful secret lagoon. A hot spring here that's now open to the public but it used to be a legit secret. However apparently it got out on social media and now it's open to the public. We get to enjoy it now and if you look over here as you can tell you can see all the steam coming up from the hot spring and then you've got greenhouses on this side and of course those greenhouses harness the energy from all this geothermic activity to both heat and light these greenhouses so they can grow food in here which is so cool and I just love seeing stuff like this but we're gonna soak here. It's gonna be amazing. We gotta go in, shower, change, and then it's relaxation time. That feels great. Oh my gosh. Okay the bottom is like rocks. Right? Was not expecting that. That's really nice actually. Welcome to the party. What's up yo? I just want to be like under the water the whole time. Yeah dude. That's drowning. Be careful what you ask for. Guys this is incredible. It is so warm but the rain is very cold and it adds a nice little contrast. I love it. Oh the sun's coming out. Love to see it. It's almost getting a little too hot for me. Megan's zenned out. Relaxing. I'm taking a nap. There's a cold plunge? Who wants to do the cold plunge? Have you ever done a cold plunge? Yes but it's not in the nature. Oh my gosh. I bet that's insane. Yeah we should definitely do it. Is it as cold as it looks? My heart rate was going like a rabbit. That was cold. So while this hot spring soak is naturally fed, this pool obviously isn't natural. It's man-made but they pull this hot spring water in and cool it off to a manageable temperature and then feed it into this pool. And a lot of hot springs are like that but it's still cool you know. No it's hot because it's a hot spring. Oh that's awesome. Oh yeah you can feel it. That feels so good after that cold plunge. This is great. And then as soon as you're out of it. Oh a little geyser action. Oh shoot. No this just started. Hey watch out. Oh that's hot. One hit my foot. One hit my foot. Whoa. Oh shoot she does bend air and water. Wow what a show. That was so random. Did someone press a button? I'm ready to jump back in. It feels like 50 times better after doing that cold plunge. Oh man this is so nice. I'm having such a blast. It's only day one. We've already done so much. Ate some great food and ending today with this. It's just so nice. You don't get to hug an Icelandic tree that often but here we are. Oh that was such a good soak guys. Oh man. But it's time to head back to the hotel or to the hotel. We're going to a new spot tonight and I was just made aware that our chances of seeing the northern lights in the sky here are pretty high if these clouds clear up. Crossing our fingers here. What the freak do you have in here Jason? What is in here bro? You're very good at Tetris. All right this is home for the night. After about an hour drive we made it to this cute little farm. There's some cows out here and there's a restaurant across the way this way that we're actually about to go eat dinner at. And this is a cozy little spot. Got all the essentials. Nice little cozy bed. Got a tv and a desk and then nice bathroom here. And then we're all on the same hall here. Hi neighbor. Yeah I think it's gonna be a good night sleep. I'm quite tired. So I might check out early. I don't know. We'll see. Is there karaoke here? Wait hold up. Hold up now. Oh heck yeah. You wanted karaoke. To me. Oh that looks so good. All right guys I'm gonna go pay and then I'm going to sleep. All right guys I'm back in the hotel room after a long busy day of traveling around. Today has been an awesome day. We saw so much and ate so much good food and tonight's dinner was spectacular. I'm so full. I consumed way too much food today so I know that I'm gonna sleep really great tonight. I am about to open up an edit and start finalizing that so I can get that uploaded. Maybe peek out the window every now and then hoping I see the northern lights and if I do that would be fantastic. But this is what the rest of my night is gonna look like and then I'm gonna get some sleep, wake up early in the morning, have breakfast, and start tomorrow's epic adventure which I'm excited for you guys to see. We've got a lot of great things planned so yeah I'm gonna edit and I will see you guys in the morning. Good night.