Iceland 2013

From London, we took an approximately 3hrs flight to Iceland where we stayed for 4 days.
It was my first time taking WOW airlines and also my first time hearing about this airline. The culture is very casual and I think it is all about being fun. The in-flight announcements were made in a more causal tone and there are always jokes included in them. Passengers were always laughing whenever an announcement was made. Even the vomit bag has funny jokes on them.

We opted for a hotel-car rental-self-drive itinerary for this leg of the trip through http://www.icelandguest.com/ as we wanted more freedom to go wherever we wanted. The contact person was very helpful with the planning of our itinerary and provided us with many useful information. We collected our car upon arrival and were all ready to hit the roads!

Since it's winter, there was only about 4 hours of sunlight each day. Even though we arrived in the afternoon, it soon turned dark hah (which made me felt sleepy everyday hahah)

Our first stop: Blue Lagoon. Definitely a tourist spot... but who cares hahha I was skeptical about wearing my swim suit in this weather even though I'm going for a soak in a hot spring. It was freezing!

The path leading into the hot spring has snow everywhere and the ground has became ice, making it very slippery to walk on.

Fortunately, I checked with the employees that we can get to the hot spring through the bathrooms. We do not need to rush out into the cold to jump into the hot spring hah.

Once in the hot spring, we decided to venture out through the side doors on the right of the pic, into the open! It was so cold! I had to make sure I was submerged in the water all the time.

Derrick with his obviously freezing to death face hahah

Since it was already so dark, we decided to check in our hotel as it requires another hour drive. And to my surprise, it started snowing suddenly! I was staring at the windscreen wondering what was flying towards us all of a sudden.

We arrived at about 8.30pm and settled for food in the guest house. For appertizers, we decided to go for Icelandic specialty and that's where I ate smoked reindeer meat and chopped up sheep head! OMG! One of the red meat below belong to a reindeer and the jelly like cubes belong to a sheep head (We only ate 1 cube each). There was no descriptions in the menu and I only knew what I ate when I asked the server when he collected my plate. I should not have asked. Fortunately our mains were familiar stuff like cod fish and trout.

Iceland is all about nature and hiking trails. There are mountains, waterfalls, glaciers and vast land everywhere. The waterfalls and mountains are so big that they seem rather intimidating to me. Every landscape was just breathtaking. Having said that, I think with my kind of photography skills, I do not do justice to the place. Just a thought... I think with the right attire, Iceland can be a pretty good place to hike with a group of friends :) Some breathtaking highlights on day 2:

1. Seljalandsfoss waterfall

The frozen path towards the waterfall where we kept slipping. The proper shoes are very impt! Will keep that in mind next time.

I was excited to see some snow as it was my first time :)

2. Eyjafjallajokull. The spot where the major volcanic eruption back in 2010 that caused many plans to stop flying.

I also had a chance to meet the couple who stayed there with their family at that time (The guy in black jacket with white hair in the background). I learned about how he dealt with the situation, how he and his family managed to come and pick up the pieces and bring the place back into living condition. The amount of work done.. WOW.. this guy is amazing.

3. Skogafoss waterfall

5. Village of Vik, famous for its black beach. The sand was fine and dry and my hands were clean after I touched the beach hahah. Guess I was expected my hands to feel eeky since the sand is black.

Ended day 2 with a good lobster feast but i thought it was rather pricy. For 500grams of lobster with 4 sides, 1 bowl of lobster soup and 1 slice of chocolate cake to share among both of us, it cost us around SGD$125. On a good night with clear skies, we were supposed to be among to view the northern lights from the windows from where we were seated. Unfortunately, it was raining that night.

On day 3:

1. Kerio. It started snowing again suddenly when I was visiting the volcanic crater, Kerio (pronounced as carrot). I was standing out in the open when the snow started falling on my head! I got all excited again :)

2. Gullfoss. Known to more even more magnificent than the Niagara falls. Well I guess I was equally impressed.

3. Geysir (pronounced as Jesus). The boiling water spouts out at regular intervals and can go as high as 30 meters.

4. The muscular looking icelandic horses.. They are just roaming around everywhere on the vast land and they are friendly too.

This poor horse looks like a cow haha

We spent most of our time in the Southern part of Iceland. Only a night in the capital, Reykjavik. Our guesthouse at the South called Frost and Fire was located in front of the mountains so the view from our balcony was pretty amazing.