This Would be a Wonderful Place to be a Sheep – Iceland

Welcome to my travel diary on Iceland! Title of this blog provided by Roy.  I think I laughed for a solid ten minutes when he said that. However, I do agree.

And you are probably wondering which place would be a wonderful place to be a sheep???

ICELAND!

Out of all my trips I’ve planned, Iceland was the one I was most excited for. Ever since I saw all the landscape pictures on Pinterest, it went right onto my bucket list. Iceland is expensive to fly to and we got lucky by finding a Groupon and saving on the flight. I highly suggest adding it to your bucket list.

This was my favorite trip so far!

I know I say that after just about every blog post BUT THIS TIME I’M SERIOUS. Not only was it such an amazingly beautiful country, but I was lucky to experience it with such a great group of people. My travel companions consisted of Roy from Spain, Vee from Australia, Joanie from Canada and Becky from California. Becky goes to Cal State Long Beach with me. WOO go beach!

Day 1: Iceland

We flew out of Amsterdam and landed in Iceland in the early afternoon. After renting a car (shout out to Vee for being 25 and getting the car cheaper and not killing us by driving on the wrong (Australian) side of the road) we headed to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa rich in silica and sulfur minerals. The water is about 99-102 degrees. Actually, before we made it to the blue lagoon, we stopped for ice-cream. Ice cream in Iceland. LOL

And then we walked around the surrounding area…  

Blue Lagoon Iceland

Then we got into our bathing suits and stepped out into the freezing air before stepping into the frickin hot pool. My body was confused.

After the Blue Lagoon, we checked into the Airbnb and went straight to bed because the next day was going to be long!   Day 2:   We would have woken up at the crack of dawn, but the sun doesn’t rise until about 9:30am. So, we were up and on the road before the sun.   We took a mini road trip along the southern side of the island.  

Day 2: Iceland Roadtrip

So, we would have woken up at the crack of dawn, but the sun doesn’t rise until about 9:30am. So, we were up and on the road before the sun. We took a mini road trip along the southern side of the island.

Thank the lord we rented a car. I personally believe the car ride made the trip 1000x more fun. We spent the whole time eating snacks, singing and playing car games.  

This video might be my favorite video of all time. Sorry Roy… this may have been my idea… Next time don’t fall asleep on our road trip.

Hahahahahahahha. I just watched it like 10 more times. We made about seven stops throughout the first day! Also, most of these pictures were taken on Roy’s nice, professional camera and not my iPhone. So I’ll give him credit for almost every single picture on this blog.  

STOP 1: Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

STOP 2: Skógafoss Waterfall, Iceland

STOP 3: Black beach at Sólheimasandur

STOP 4: Eldhraun Lava Field, Iceland

STOP 5: Fjaðrárgljúfur, Iceland

STOP 6: Skaftafell, Iceland

I don’t have any pictures, but we tried to go touch a glacier. But it was already dark (the sun sets at about 4:30pm). But, we saw it from afar so I guess that counts.  

STOP 7: Vik, Iceland

Lastly, we stopped in Vik on the way back. We had dinner in the small town before heading back into Reykjavik. We were starving and exhausted.    

Day 3: The Golden Circle, Iceland

The next day we did the golden circle. It was a way shorter trip then the day before. The stops were much closer together.  

STOP 1: Horses!

STOP 2: Thingvellir (Þingvellir), Iceland

STOP 3: Great Geysir and Strokkur Geysir

But, Jo almost touched the water. She wasn’t exactly sure what a geyser was. But she soon figured it out. Ohhh those French Canadians.

Hahahahahahhahahahahaha

STOP 4: Gullfoss waterfall

 STOP 5: Kerid Crater

After the golden circle we headed back to Reykjavik to walk around town, eat dinner, and try to do a Northern Lights tour.

Reykjavik

The Harpa

After we went to the Harpa, we stopped by the Northern Lights tour office. The Lady at the office told us that because of too much cloud coverage near Reykjavik, the 50 euro tour was canceled but the 8 hour long, 90 Euro tour, was still available. She couldn’t guarantee what time the tour would get back and we had to be to the airport at 4am. After a long, sad discussion, we realized that we couldn’t do the tour and chance missing our flight. Plus the tour was expensive and you weren’t guaranteed to see the lights.

Dinnertime

We came to terms with the fact that we wouldn’t see the Northern Lights and went and had a nice Icelandic meal.

Now, I’m not about to say the food in Iceland was fantastic. I think the word I would use is interesting. Trying new foods is one of the best ways to really dive deep into a culture. My sister makes me watch Bizarre Foods all the time, so I figured while I was here I would try some bizarre foods.

I don’t recommend really. Hahaha. I couldn’t get over the fact that it was whale.

Northern Lights

As we left dinner, we decided to just go back to the Airbnb and chill out for a bit and maybe go back into town later for a beer. As we walked to the car, a nice man tells us that the Northern Lights are out and you can see them.

WHAT?

No really… WHAT!?!?!?!?!

So we run through the town with our eyes to the sky, trying to find a dark spot in the city. We run up a random hill and right before our eyes… the Northern Lights.

I couldn’t believe our luck. We had already come to terms with the fact that I would see them on another trip later in life. I even told everyone we could take a cruise to Alaska to see them in the near future. But, no need to. Check. Another item off my bucket list: seeing the Northern Lights.

As you can see from the photos, they were kinda hard to see with the city lights. So, we decided since they were still out and about and dancing in the sky, we should try and find a dark spot to see them clearer.

And I think we found the best spot.

After a couple hours we started to get hungry again. Becky and I, being from California, spotted a Taco Bell a few days ago. So, naturally we had been craving it the whole trip.

Taco Bell

We said our goodbyes to the lights and took off on our next adventure: Taco bell Crunch Wrap Supreme.

With fire sauce.

But, luckily for us, in the Taco Bell parking lot, the Northern Lights were so bright and colorful. Even more vivid than when were in complete darkness. It was so amazing. So thank you Taco Bell. I didn’t get and tacos but I was still happy.

I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to an already amazing trip. This was one of the best weekends of my life. I forgot about the stresses of school, I forgot about graduating, I forgot about coming back to CA and needing to find a job and apartment. It felt like I wasn’t just on another trip, it felt like I was on an epic adventure with some amazing people. So, I want to end this post by encouraging everyone to go to Iceland! If you need someone to go with I am SOOOO down! I hella want to go back….

Up next: I am going to a Brantley Gilbert concert tomorrow and visiting Prague this weekend!    

BYEEEEEEEEE