Iceland

 Yikes - I started writing this when we actually got back from our trip, which was over a month ago now! I've been traveling quite a bit lately, and between that, work, working out, and getting ready for grad school (eeee!) I haven't had much time to focus here. Regardless - here's the recap of our amazing Iceland trip!
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I know it's only February, but the potential highlight of my year was our recent trip to Iceland. I've been wanting to visit for years, mainly inspired by the beautiful scenery in a documentary by one of my favorite bands - Sigur Ros. You can see the trailer here  - I highly suggest you watch it, if you don't care for the music just watch it on mute and enjoy the footage. I bet you want to go to Iceland now too.

We got this great deal through Icelandair that included airfare (direct from Seattle), accommodations at the Hilton, and a guided glacier hike/northern lights tour. Iceland doesn't get many tourists this time of year so Icelandair has been making a big push to get people to travel there - it must be working because our guide said usually they're running hardly any tours this time of year but they've been working full time this year. Oh, and when we checked out of the hotel on Saturday there was a huge crowd - the hotel was overbooked and they were trying to find new accommodations for everyone. So glad that didn't happen when we checked in.

It was an easy 8 hours flight from Seattle (granted we did have to drive all the way to Seattle, but oh well) - the down side is that this put us arriving in Iceland just before 7am. With very little sleep. I had intended to spend the first day doing most of our exploring of Reykjavik and I hadn't really planned on serious jet lag. We were so relieved that there was a room ready for us when we arrived at the hotel since check in time wasn't really supposed to be until 2pm. I don't know what we would have done otherwise - I think we would have had to sleep in the lobby because we definitely weren't functioning! We ended up sleeping until about 2:30pm before we bundled up and headed out to see Reykjavik. 

It was about a 1.5 mile walk from our hotel to the city center - but the city was very easy to navigate and to make it even easier we could basically just walk straight down the same road the whole way. We weren't very productive the first day, but we did manage to find some food and go see a documentary called The Volcano Show. The film maker was there to give us some background - his father started filming volcano eruptions in the 1940's and he picked it up after him so there was a ton of great footage. To me, volcanoes just spew ash, so to see footage of the ground opening and a wall of lava shooting out is pretty crazy. I'm glad we went to this though - it was a nice easy way to learn a lot about the geography in Iceland. By the time we left to catch the shuttle back to the hotel it has started snowing. Normally I am more inclined to walk, but let me tell you - after the sun sets in Iceland it is absolutely freezing out! I was so happy that we made it to the shuttle where it was warm
  
Our second day was filled with the tour that was included in our package - we were picked up at the hotel along with a few other guests (I think there ended up being about 10 or so of us in the group) and headed out of Reykjavik. We stopped briefly to see Eyjafjallajökull - the volcano whose 2010 eruption caused huge air traffic delays in Europe (I remember this clearly because I was waiting on some shipments for work from Italy and there were a bunch of delays!).

Then we stopped to see Skógarfoss - a beautiful waterfall. Legend has it that there is a chest of treasure somewhere underneath it.

Next stop was Sólheimajökull Glacier where we were going to do our hike. When we arrived the weather was bitterly cold - the wind was blowing like crazy and it was dumping snow on us as we stopped to put on our crampons. This continued as we walked up the glacier but luckily the wind was blowing at our backs. As soon as we reached the highest point the weather had turned, the wind died down and the sun even came out! The "hike" was more of a walk really, which Jonathan and I were a little disappointed with but I guess it has to be accessible to a wide range of people (including those in our group wearing just jeans and a jacket! I can't even imagine how cold they must have been).

We explored the glacier a bit, and even got to climb inside of an ice tube! The ice axes we had weren't ever really necessary, but they did look kind of cool!

The sun was starting to set by the time we made it off the glacier, and it had started snowing again. We made one quick stop at another waterfall before heading to a nice little restaurant for dinner. Most of the group had lobster soup, but they did have a vegetarian soup option which was very nice. We had a chance to try some Icelandic beer - Skjálfti (if I remember right, pronounced something like ski-OW-fTEE) which was really good, they also had some of the most delicious bread which I'm pretty sure I ate my fair share of.

Since the clouds had rolled in at this time, our chances of seeing the northern lights were pretty slim - we did drive for a bit looking for a clearing with no success. I was a bit disappointed, but to be honest it was SO cold by that time that I didn't feel much like standing outside and looking at the sky anyway!

We took time to continue exploring Reykjavik on our last full day - we went to the National Museum and spent a good amount of the afternoon there, we then took a cab over to a place called the Perlan which is where the Saga Museum is as well as a nice restaurant and great lookout point. We didn't make it in time to go to the Saga Museum, but we did get some gorgeous views of Reykjavik before the sunset.

We then hurried back downtown to make a stop at the liquor store (which is the only place you can buy any kind of alcohol) to try to pick up some of the Icelandic beer we liked to bring home. Unfortunately they did not have any Skjálfti - must be popular because every time we ordered it anywhere they commented that they would have to check and see if they had it still. Instead we picked up a couple of other random beers in hopes that they would be just as good.

Since this trip fell over both Valentine's Day and our anniversary we took the opportunity to go out to a nice dinner on our last night - we found a cute little Icelandic restaurant  (Lækjarbrekka) that was an old house-turned-restaurant. Their vegetarian option was quite delicious (I was not quite sure what to expect since Icelandic food is not particularly vegetarian friendly) - I had the Icelandic organic barley with wild mushrooms, angelica, root vegetables and herbs and Jonathan had a chance to enjoy some real Icelandic food (although he did go for lamb and not the rotten shark meet, neither sound great to me but it was probably a wise choice).

To get back to the airport we booked a shuttle that made a stop at the Blue Lagoon - a touristy geothermal spa. However touristy it might have been, it was definitely worth the stop. The pools are a gorgeous milky blue - filled with silica mud and minerals and plenty warm to hang out in even though it was hovering right around freezing outside. The downside to all of those minerals though? My hair felt like a tangley mess for at LEAST a week afterwards - no matter how many times I washed and conditioned it it still felt terrible!

All in all, a fantastic trip - I wish it could have been longer, but I'm glad we have something to go back for now! Can't wait to start planning an awesome summer trip even if it may be a few years away!