Tag Archives: iceland

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Iceland – Day 3

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The third day was the day I was most excited about; lots of waterfalls! We had to getup pretty early as we had a lot further to drive on this day, and it was still pitch black as we went to our first stop; the lava centre.

Seljalandsfoss

The first waterfall we went to was Seljalandsfoss. The group pretty much ran around it, I don’t think I’ve ever had to take photos so fast before. This is also when I found out that my tripod head was well and truly broken.

Seljalandsfoss

The day before everyone else had gone into the secret lagoon, and I’d opted to stay out and edit photos. It was whilst I was here that I noticed that my tripod head wouldn’t lock into place, so I asked the coach driver of he had a screwdriver or something I could use to try and fix it. He did, and I thought I had, however when it came to trying to lock the head in place at the waterfall I realised that I had, in fact, not fixed it at all.

Seljalandsfoss

We went from this waterfall to the black sand beaches at Vik. The sun was rising at the point and the light was just delicious.

Road
Vik

The tide was pretty far in at the beach and the waves were ferocious.

Black Sand Beach
Vik

Finally, we ended up at Skógafoss at sunset.

Skógafoss at sunset
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Iceland – Day 2

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Gullfoss

On the second day of Iceland; we did the Golden Circle tour which is something I’ve done before.

Mountain Gullfoss

The last time I went to Gullfoss you couldn’t walk down to the bottom, so it was cool that this was open this time! It was pretty busy, you could tell that this was the tourist hotspot compared to the places we’d been the day before.

Geyser Gullfoss

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Iceland; Day 1

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I somehow managed to get myself a free trip to Iceland… The downside? It was a school trip!

Hot springs Hot Springs Sunset Gunnuhver Hot Springs

On the first day we saw some hot springs, the gap between the tectonic plates and some hot mud pools.

Mountains Lighthouse Gunnuhver Hot Springs

The weather on this first day was awesome; which was good because my big coat was in the hold luggage which was in the coaches hold! We all met up at school at 330 in the morning, and didn’t get to the guest house until tea time, so it was a super long first day.

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Day 4: The Northern Lights (And Happy New Year!)

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So finally! On the last day of our mini holiday the Northern Lights tour was on!
Odd how Tues and Wed the weather had been fine in the day but the tour was cancelled, but on Thursday when it was snowing heavily it was on. I had honestly given up on even going on the tour, so I was beyond excited when we returned to the hotel covered in snow to be greeted by the little Northern Lights plaque saying instead “Northern Lights tours are on tonight”. I was so excited I almost ran up to our room to get the booking number.

kB was down playing the whole thing as usual. I know that there isn’t a guarantee that you will see them, but I was just excited for the opportunity!

We drove there, and the tour guide was saying “Oooh look you can see them straight ahead, look for the north start” and everyone on the coach was like ‘WTF where’. When we pulled over I could see it, but it just looked like a very long curved strip of cloud… Until I photographed it!

Aurora Borealis // 01 01 15
001 // 365

So yep! ^_^ And what made it even better was that after we had been there for like 5 minutes they started to turn green to the eye. They weren’t dancing across the sky, but there was activity towards the edges and at one point there were three.

So pleased we managed to see them!
Sun voyager

Back home now though! Booo. And I need to take a picture for today!

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Day 3: The Golden Circle

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Geysir // 31 12 14 365 // 365

So that is it for 2014! I’m doing a 365 again next year so I’ll be posting again tomorrow.
We are in Iceland, and there were a hell of a lot of fireworks going off earlier, now most people are inside watching something on the TV and the fireworks will kick back off again at about 1130.

Today we have been on the Golden Circle tour, which involved a random stop off at a tomato green house, the geysier, gullfuss water fall and thingvellir national park.
Gullfuss
The weather was lovely, and on the way home it started to uber snow. Luckily it has stopped now and it is time for the fireworks.
Geysir pr. II
A little bit annoyed that the northern lights tour was cancelled again, but the sky is clear, but at the same time the fireworks have been epic so it’s not all bad.
Fireworks and the sun voyager

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Day 2: The Blue Lagoon

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The Blue Lagoon // 30 12 14364 // 365

Today is day 2 and first full day meaning the first time we saw the sun in Iceland! The sun rises at about 1130 and then sets again at about 330 so there isn’t much of it, but it was nice to see.

The Blue Lagoon was our first port of call after a leisurely breakfast (kB tried picked herring, well tried a very small bite of it then pushed it to the side of his plate, I mainly ate Icelandic bread. Tomorrow we shall have waffles.). It’s only about 45 minutes away from Reykjavik so the ride isn’t too bad on the coach – plus the coach bonuses are that it’s toasty warm and there is free wifi!

We had to queue for a bit to get into the Lagoon as it was full to capacity, which it turns out is only 700 people, but we didn’t really have to wait that long. Whilst we were queuing they brought out tea, coffee, biscuits and ice cream too so can’t complain.
It is a very surreal experience, it being 2 in the afternoon the sun dipping behind the mountain and being submerged in lovely warm water which is so thick you can’t see your hand until it is at the surface.

By the setting sun

The Blue Lagoon pt. II

The Blue Lagoon pt. III

On our way home someone on the coach got a phone call saying that his Northern Lights tour had been cancelled, so there was a collective groan from others as we assumed a similar fate. Surely enough when we got back to the hotel our tour had been cancelled as well, so we shall try again tomorrow night.

As we had a night free, we walked up and down the main drag of down town Reykjavik, I became somewhat over excited about the most beautiful jewellery and tight shops (to be explored on Thursday), and we had some tea. After tea we walked down the harbour front (Bloomin’ cold and windy) whilst eating blueberry sorbet (me) and Bounty ice cream (kB) cones.
Concert Hall

Tomorrow it is the Golden Circle tour, and hopefully the Northern Lights!