I’ve been really excited about this post! I finally have all the photos I took in Iceland with my professional camera edited and ready for you to see! This was such a great graduation gift, and a place I had been dreaming about visiting for a long while. It finally became a reality, and I’m still in shock that it actually happened. Read on for what we did, some cool pics, and a lil video that I put together at the end. Enjoy!
Day One
We were set to leave on an 8 pm direct flight. We made it all the way up the coast of Canada, and they had to turn the plane around to land the plane in Boston due to unexplained technical difficulties! It was a little scary at the time, but it turned into an overnight at a five-star hotel and $120 in food vouchers in Boston, and an unplanned day trip!
Day Two
Day trip to Boston!! We took the train into the city and walked around, went to a fresh market, and sat in the park before using up our food vouchers at the hotel restaurant! Then, we hopped on another 8 pm flight bound for Iceland. This time without a hitch!
Day Three
Arrived in Iceland 6:30 am their time but 1:30 am our internal clock time. Needless to say, we were TIRED! What better way to fight off the jet lag than a nice dip in the premier local hot spring,
The Blue Lagoon? We headed there first, and it was absolutely amazing! We spent the rest of the day settling into our condo, taking a look around the city and grabbing a bite to eat at
Rok before going to the top of
Hallgrimskirkja for a spectacular view of Reykjavik. We slept well that night!
Day FourI spent the morning at the
National Museum of Iceland learning all about the island’s history and culture before grabbing a bite to eat at the
University of Iceland cafeteria and taking a peek in their gift shop. It was a very cool campus! Then, we headed out for an afternoon adventure! We drove to
Geysir (also a clothing brand in Iceland) and saw an active one called “Strokkur” (Icelandic for “churn”) erupt before our eyes. Next, we headed to the most breathtaking (and very cold :)) place. It was a waterfall maybe even more majestic than Niagara Falls called
Gullfoss which is Icelandic for “Golden Falls”. The pictures don’t do it justice. After that we head back to the
Geysir Hotel for dinner!
Day FiveThis was arguably my favorite day! We saw so much as we traveled the
Ring Road to all the iconic sites along the Golden Circle. We started out at
Seljalandsfoss waterfall. So pretty! And we enjoyed donuts and coffee/tea at a little pop up stand by the falls. Next, we stopped at a little building on the side of the road that was showing informational videos on Iceland’s active volcano,
Eyjafjallajokull. This baby erupted back in 2010, and you might remember it from a few scenes in
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Sounds nerdy, but man, it was a very cool video and so interesting how it affected all of Iceland and could happen again at any moment. Along the way we stopped to see wild Icelandic ponies, and everywhere I turned there were these adorable sheep and little lamb that I wanted to take home with me (just wait till you see). They were too cute!
Next, we stopped at probably my favorite spot in all of Iceland. Skogafoss is hard to beat, especially since you can take stairs to climb what otherwise would have been a treacherous hike to the top of the falls. You get a phenomenal view of the scenery, and it’s unlike any other place I’ve visited.
A big way I actually found out about some beautiful places in Iceland that I wanted to visit was from watching a Justin Bieber music video of his song
“I’ll Show You.” Don’t judge me! I’m not a huge fan, but the video is amazing (minus the scenes of Bieber in his boxers lol).
Dyrholaey was one of the places we wouldn’t have known to visit if it hadn’t shown up on that video as Justin sat on the cliffs. Sadly, our car didn’t have four-wheel drive, so we could not make it up the terrain to visit that exact spot or see the lighthouse, but we found another spot to enjoy the view closer to sea level. This was by far the COLDEST part of the trip!! Since
Vik, Iceland was closeby, we made a quick stop there to walk on the black sand beaches and enjoy the small-town charm (and beautiful church!) before heading on.
The final two spots were to visit a glacier and the iconic plane wreckage of a DC 3 American Navy plan that crash landed in the middle of Icelandic nowhere (seriously) in 1973. It was a very cool sight to see after the 45 minute walk to get there one way. We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into, but it was worth it!
Look at this awesome house build into the side of the mountain!
Day Six
Before hopping on the plane back to America, we stopped at a local geothermal spa for a relaxing soak. It was a such a great trip! I took quite a few videos while we were traveling and tried my hand at a little bit of video editing. This was a first for me but ended up being so fun! Not planning on adding video to any of my wedding packages soon, though. 😉
Happy Wednesday, friends!
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