Iceland – Reykjavík
”I love places that make you realize how tiny you and your problems are”
Before you dive into this article, please keep in mind that English is my 3rd language, so…
Iceland – The land of Fire & Ice. A place full of volcanos, geysers, hot springs and lava fields with people proud of their Viking heritage.
Iceland was a surprise trip for my husband’s birthday. We wanted to get here for more than two years, and with his birthday coming up, I finally had the courage to book those tickets. I bought the tickets and then I told him – something like – we’re going to Iceland and now I need your help with planning the rest (accommodation, car and so forth) – SURPRISE!
Iceland does not have a public railway system. They do have buses, but we wanted to be on our own and I had all this big schedule planned – so a car was definitely needed.
Full disclosure – two weeks before the big day, we weren’t sure we were actually going. Everyone knows that Iceland is pretty expensive so we were like – hmm – are we doing this?
I am so happy we decided to go. I lived in Denmark before, so one word that comes to mind when I think of the Nordic countries is cozy. From their homes to their little villages – everything looks cozy, at least to me :).
In Iceland, we stayed in Reykjavík, the country’s capital and largest city. I mentioned cozy – well – here the sun doesn’t come up until 10:30 in the morning and sets around 17:00/17:30 (in January). But when the sun comes up, literally has the brightest light that you will ever see.
And most houses/flats have huge windows decorated with lights or candles and in Reykjavík all the trees, living fences are full of little lights. It is like a never-ending Christmas or at least this is how it was when we were there.
My top 3 here and actually top 5 or even more. I loved everything. I even consider moving here for a few months.
- Black sand beach of Reynisfjara.
- Hallgrimskirkja church – modern cathedral with a striking tower
- Saga Museum
- Skogafoss Waterfall
- Seljalandsfoss Waterfall
- The Sólheimasandur plane wreckage (we had to walk for 40 minutes to get to the site and 40 min back to our car – cold and windy, but definitely worth it.)
- The Northern lights – maybe I saw too many videos before and I expected a full-on lights show, it wasn’t like that. We saw the lights, I have pictures to prove it, but I in a way, I expected something else. I blame Youtube. 🙂
Here are a few memories…
Ohh well – I’ll get that lights show next time.