Now I normally don't bother with the details of the airport but this one was a bit hectic. Before arriving, we were both aware that the limit for carry on luggage was only 5kg. We didn't actually think they were going to weigh it! The airline was WOW Air and they are a 'budget' airline. Well this is how they make their money. Both bags being overweight, Nicole and I frantically took clothes out and threw them on and stuffed things into our pockets but we were still overweight. Luckily, the check in agent recommended we stuff as much as we could into one bag so we would only have to pay extra for one. £28 later and we were on our way through security.
When we arrived in Reykjavik, we were immediately greeted by falling snow, albeit windy. It was quite late when we finally settled in so we went straight to bed. The next morning, we suited up and went outside to see the city. We were immediately amazed by the nearby mountains, as this is something we both were missing out on in London.
Harpa
Hallgrimskirkja
Just our luck, Nicole checked her email and the tour was cancelled due to "adverse weather conditions". Yes, the weather that day had been very sporadic but we were still not impressed. Luckily, we were able to re-book the following night for free. We didn't do much that evening instead, although we went to a very cool restaurant for dinner, or as Nicole said the entire trip: "trendy". It was called Íslenski barinn.
For the next day, we were headed to the Blue Lagoon. Now, Nicole had asked me before we went if the Blue Lagoon was man made and I gave her a bit of a shocked look and said no it's natural. Well turns out I was the idiot because it is man made! It's essentially a big spa bath that uses the residual geothermal water used by the nearby plant! So while the water is supposedly good for your skin, it was just one giant heated pool. It was interesting because before you head in to the lagoon, you are required, and quite strictly so, to full on shower. Naked too. Luckily, there were doors on some of cubicles so it wasn't totally awkward. It was extremely windy out so the few seconds we had to get from the door to the water was painfully cold. The water was really nice but it was far from a relaxing environment as the wind had turned the lagoon into a wave pool. After some time, we ended up finding a spot that was kind of blocked by the wind and was a lot more peaceful. It was warmer in this area too. We spent most of our day in this spot, Nicole hoping the waters "healing benefits" would heal her cold. That didn't quite work out in the end. But we definitely felt some improvement on our skin afterwards. However, they recommend leaving conditioner in your hair (which I did) because the water drys the crap out of it. My hair was silky smooth afterwards. Nicole? Not so lucky.
Nope.
Just our luck again, Nicole checked her email and the tour was cancelled again due to "adverse weather conditions". We took that opportunity to stay a bit longer at the lagoon and of course, we got lots of sun and blue sky the rest of that afternoon. It was still windy though. There were also some serene moments with the snow falling that I wish I had a waterproof camera to capture. That night, we grabbed another great meal at a "trendy" restaurant called Lobster & Stuff. The whole time, I kept my eye out on outside and the whole time it was clear skies. We decided we would make the best of it and walk all the way to the edge of town to try and see the Northern Lights. The issue, of course, was light pollution so we were unsure of whether we would see something or not even if they were in the sky. As we were walking along the coast, we couldn't help but keep looking at this one spot to the west. There were city lights but above the lights were these green patches. As we had both never seen the lights before, we had no idea what to really look for. Would they be faint? Would they just appear out of nowhere? There were some clouds floating around that night so it was easy for our eyes to play tricks on us. We walked and we walked and were almost near the tip of the city when something appeared above our heads. We were still confused-were they just clouds? No. They were without a doubt the Northern Lights. Although quite faint, we could make out the shimmering vertical lines and the quick dancing movement. We had street lights right beside us so it certainly wasn't helping. We eventually reached our destination where there was a lot less light but at this point, they were gone. We didn't stay long as it was freezing out and it was getting quite late so we headed back while constantly turning our heads around to see if they had come back. There was a good deal of cloud cover coming so it was likely we weren't going to see anything else. We were getting close to the heart of the city when I gave my head another swivel. I grabbed Nicole's wrist and swung her around as sure enough out of thin air, they were there again and a little bit more prominent this time. We stood watch for the next 5 minutes and tried our best to get a good photo. It wasn't much but it was a great way to cap off the night. Our hopes had been let down because of the cancelled tours but we were still able to squeeze out something using our own method. I must say it was quite surreal but I can't say I can tick this one off the bucket list just yet. We basically got a preview and haven't seen the full show yet.
The next day started early as we headed out on the "Golden Circle" tour. It was miserable out today. When we stopped to look at the geysers, it was pouring down. At first, I was getting really confused as to what we were looking at. The first few geysers were just these really hot, steaming pools of water. Everyone was crowded around the biggest pool and I squeezed my way in to catch a view. I was honestly thinking, "What is so special about this? Where's the one with water sprouting out like a fountain?" when the pool swelled up and shot out water like a volcanic eruption. That's when my mouth dropped. I was dumb and didn't realize that's what it did, I thought it was like a continuous fountain but really only shot up every 5 minutes or so.
We were absolutely drenched after this and to make matters worse, we went to Gullfoss Waterfall after where I finally faced the consequences of wearing improper footwear. I had been fine up until this point but in order to see the waterfall I had to slide along ice and step in a few pools of freezing water. The view made it worth it though. It was probably my favourite part of the trip and the picture does not even come close to doing it justice. We made one more stop along the North American tectonic plate before we were headed back to the hostel where I think we were relieved to change clothes and get dry. We hit up another "trendy" restaurant that night and got these awesome pizzas. I must say, I could argue that the highlight of Iceland was their places to eat.
We got snow, rain, and extreme wind, but very little sun. Iceland was very hyped up for me and I think that it would have definitely been amazing if we gotten a little luckier with the weather. The Blue Lagoon and the golden circle tour wouldn't have been so miserable and our northern lights tour would potentially not have been cancelled. Would I return? Maybe. And maybe for the summer. I think that'd it be really cool to see the midnight sun, have a bit nice and warmer weather, and see puffins!! They look so cute! The good news is I'll always have the northern lights up north in Canada should I wish to visit again. Hopefully third time lucky? (I went to Yellowknife and didn't see them as well)...
Puffin! (I didn't take this)
