For those of you who aren’t very good at geography, you may not realize just how close Iceland is to the U.S. east coast. It takes roughly the same amount of time to fly from New York to Reykjavik as it does to fly to Los Angeles. It’s an easy weekend trip. We took the Thursday night redeye, landing at sunrise on Friday morning. The only downfall was, unlike other redeye flights to Europe, we didn’t quite have enough time to sleep on the plane. I liked Iceland Air’s laid back attitude though; the seat covers and pillows taught us many useful Icelandic phrases.
View from the observation tower at the Hallgrimskirkja, a large Lutheran Church that sits atop a hill in central Reykjavik. On a clear day, you can see straight across the city of Reykjavik all the way to the ocean. Obviously we were not there on a clear day.
Sun Voyager.
The world-famous Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa nestled in an Icelandic lava field. I have heard from some that they felt the Blue Lagoon was overrated. We’re all entitled to an opinion, but I thought it was pretty cool. What’s not to love about swimming in a heated outdoor geothermal lagoon in the middle of a mountainous lava field? We got in-water massages and drank several Blue Lagoon signature cocktails at the swim-up lagoon bar. There are massive locker rooms to rinse off after. A word of advice for those with long hair – try to keep your hair up and out of the water, and bring your own detangling condition and a comb. The sooner you use it after leaving the lagoon, the better. Otherwise, your hair will end up feeling like straw. Not a good look.
Tectonic plates splitting Iceland in half one inch each year.
Strokkur, one of Iceland’s most famous geysers, erupts every five to ten minutes. Strokkur shares the Haukadalur geothermal area in Iceland with other geysers, hot springs and mudpools.
Little Geysir, a sweet miniature version of its powerful counterpart.
Snowmobiling on Langjokull Glacier. It rained the entire time which contributed to the late summer weather’s melting of the ice.
Yes, there were holes in the ice. We were advised to stay on a trail or risk falling into an ice hole. Scary stuff.
Gullfoss (translated “Golden Falls”) is a massive waterfall in southwest Iceland. It’s so much larger and more beautiful than this photo depicts.
While I had a fantastic time snowmobiling in the rain, I was thrilled to take the snowsuit off, hop in a warm shower and hit the town. I was there in September, when there was a somewhat normal ratio of daylight to darkness. However, at certain times of the year, Iceland sees only a few hours of daylight or a few hours of darkness, which contributes to Reykjavik’s reputation as a party city.
Nasa nightclub.
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