Week 1 ish

This is my first 1/2 week abroad and first time writing a blog so forgive me if its not as polished as it could be.

Hour 1 was tough, saying bye to mom and dad was not the easiest thing I have ever done but neither was finding the Iceland air check-in desk. Who knew the airport was going to be so busy on a Wednesday afternoon at 1 in the PM.

The first day was a little odd, between trying to figure out how to get to town and find my hostel. I couldn’t tell if it was actually difficult or was just the lack of sleep. Nevertheless we got to town I hiked about 400M to my hostel and wasn’t sure what to expect but to my surprise I was pleasantly surprised at the condition of it.

I dropped my bag off and needed some food and coffee in a hurry, the receptionist recommended this one place and apparently they offered discounts to people staying at that hostel. So I practically ran there, the food was pretty good just a normal breakfast eggs, bacon, potato’s and toast. So this discount they speak of? Yeah I don’t think so, allegedly it was 20% off, however that one plate was 3700 Krona and that is about 31 USD. So that was quite a wake up call.

So after breakfast i walked around for about 3 hours just wondering around with no purpose or place to be. This was quite an eye opening experience i have never seen a town like this before in my life there is no way to describe it or compare it to anywhere i have been.

This was one of the streets that lead to the sea, everything in this city is on a hill nothing is flat so you are either going up hill or down hill. However that makes it very easy to remember where you came from so I didn’t need maps for most of the week just when i needed to get to a new location, other than that it is pretty easy to navigate.

Day 2

The end of day 1 was pretty uneventful, i got checked in and fell asleep at 6. Day 2 is where the trip really started. I got up early and had to move hostels so that was not ideal. But before i left the states i booked a snorkeling trip to swim between 2 tectonic plates one of them was the North American Plate and Eurasian Plate. This is one of the coolest thing you could ever do. There was visibility 100M deep after that it just got dark. This water so clear, when you first saw it your brain couldn’t comprehend how clear it was. The water was from a glacier 50KM away, the water ran udder ground fro 70-100 years and is filtered over the lava rocks. So you could imagine if water is filtered for 70 years it must be pretty clear.

The water was 35 degrees, so the dry suits were pretty pivotal to our survival. The lips and hands got cold pretty fast other than that it was pretty warm considering all i had under that suit was shorts and a shirt. I suppose you should probably read the hand book they send you so you know what to bring and how to dress.

When we got back to town I ran across this fish and chips place when i was getting coffee and a cinnamon roll in the morning. So i walked there for dinner and a beer. This food was so good it was unbelievable. It was almost underground where you sat and looked out the window it was right at the sidewalk level so that was kinda cool.

Final Day

I didn’t have any plans for this day but I figured i better do something. So i booked an excursion well that’s at least what they call them. It was just a tour of the south coast of Iceland this included 2 waterfalls, the black sand beaches, and a glacier. These waterfalls were so incredible and breathtaking its hard to describe these waterfalls because I have never seen anything like it before in my life.

The first waterfall was called Skógafoss (photo above) this one was so big. There were stairs you could walk up and see it from the top but the from the bottom was so much better. The second water fall was called Seljalandsfoss this one is famous because you can walk behind. In my opinion the first one was so much better just because the size of it.

The black sand beaches were awesome, The Odyssey was filmed there and many other movies were also. There were so many people there so that kinda took away from the experience other than that it was great. Iceland is famous for the a bird called a puffin they are real small but very cute and real colorful.

The last stop of day 2 was a glacier lake. We had to hike about 15 minutes to the lake but right before you get there you crest this hill and just a giant lake is on the other side of it. There were icebergs in it and on the back side of it was the glacier. There is a lot of geo thermal activity in Iceland so when there is activity under ground it heats the water and flows under the glacier witch is how the lake stays full and the reason there is icebergs in it.

Stock up/Stock down

This is the part where i say what i liked/ didn’t. Stock down Iceland air, I paid for extra leg room on my flight over there which my left leg had all thr room in the world on the other hand my right leg was crunched up right against the plane door so that was not ideal and I couldn’t sleep so I was very happy about that. Stock down the jackass that was sitting behind me on my flight he kept kicking my seat or banging on it I’m not sure but stock down. Stock up the people of Iceland they were the nicest people and everyone is so respectful. Stock up our dive guide he was so nice/ funny and helpful. Stock down B47 Hostel in Reykjavik this place was horrible, scary and WAYYYY over priced. For what I paid i should have gotten my own room and breakfast but instead i was sharing it with some real odd people. Stock up our tour guide on the final day he was so nice and answered ever single question that was asked of him.

What’s Next?

I flew to Dublin today and i will be in Ireland for the next week or so then i am going to go Scotland to meet our friend and go see St. Andrew’s. I will keep y’all updated come back next week to see how Ireland was.