Incredible Iceland

My last trip of last semester was to Iceland, and I have to say that it was my favourite place so far. We were there for four nights, and stayed in a perfect Airbnb apartment right on the Reykjavik highstreet. The city was tiny (think big town) and lovely, totally full of charm! I also loved exploring the nature outside of Reykjavik; it felt absolutely magical! 

We arrived at Keflavik Airport on Sunday 14th December after an early start and headed to Reykjavik on the 'flybus' organised by Reykjavik Excursions. The drive takes you through the lava fields; Iceland is of course famous for the volcano Eyjafjallajökull (say that three times fast) that erupted in 2010 and caused disruption to air travel in Europe due to the resulting ash cloud! We spent the rest of the day exploring Reykjavik and seeing lovely views like the one below, just by the opera house. By the way - if you click on a picture, it will make it bigger! 

On Monday, I headed off on the Golden Circle tour - also organised by Reykjavik Excursions - all by my lonesome (and then proceeded to snapchat the whole thing. Are you really alone when social media is just a tap away?). I had wanted to do the tour when the weather was good, and I definitely made the right choice - it was freezing cold but absolutely beautiful; the sun was at sunset/rise level all day and the blue skies made the landscape look all that more magnificent.

I took a ridiculous amount of pictures that day, although the cold cold weather (-12°C) made my thumb feel as it is was seriously going to freeze off when using my phone. The first stop was at the Friðheimar greenhouse, where they use Iceland's abundant geothermal heat to grow tomatoes and cumbers. I ate some tomato soup that they had made fresh that morning and it was delicious.

The next stop was the Geysir Geothermal Fields in Haukadelur. It was the site of the first geyser documented in Europe, which was actually called Geysir. It was a really beautiful area with the little mountain, plus the contrast of the ice/snow and the steaming hot springs (which are 80-100°C) was awesome! The actual geyser in that middle photo is not Geysir though; it's Strokkur. I'll stop saying geyser now! 

The next stop was Gullfoss waterfall. It's absolutely huge and definitely makes the little trickly 'waterfalls' that I've seen before pale in comparison! I took a video to remind myself of how incredible loud it was too.

I <3 Iceland

The final stop was at Þhingvellir National Park, where the Eurasian and American tectonic plates pull apart a few centimetres every year to make an actual visible rift! In the olden days, the park was particularly important for its political use as a meeting place for the Icelandic parliament. Also, a part of Game of Thrones was filmed there, which makes me happier than it probably should. Like everywhere else on this tour, the park was just totally beautiful, and the day left me so appreciative of how beautiful and incredibly diverse Iceland is!

Snow storm! 

Tuesday was a more relaxed day, mostly out of necessity due to the terrible weather. We decided to head to a big mall outside of Reykjavik - although we missed the stop on the bus (it wasn't as obvious as we had expected it to be!) so ended up sitting on there for a while until it turned back around. The mall was a bit of a bust and we didn't buy anything, but we did make the most of the food hall there - I had a burrito and a hot chocolate. It was great.

Reykjavik Cathedral

On Wednesday, the girls I was there with did the Golden Circle tour, so I took the time to buy some Christmas presents and just wonder around Reykjavik. I found some lovely earrings featuring lava stone for my mum and I would've loved to buy more if my student budget was a little less restrictive! I also had an awesome lunch at Svarta Kaffi; a huge bowl of traditional Icelandic meat soup, served in a huge bread bun. It was delicious and inexpensive and I highly recommend it if you're ever there.

All in all, I had a fantastic time in Iceland - and I definitely want to go back, hopefully in the summer so that I can get to see the puffins next time!