Hello from Iceland! It has been a fun extra long weekend solo adventure! It has been a while since I have been anywhere with my last real trip to the Olympics back in early August. I live in Europe so seems like I should remedy that! I booked this quite last minute by my standards booking everything about 2 weeks before my trip. I used to solo travel more when I was younger so it is nice to get back into it.
To start off, I took a 200 EUR flight to Reykjavik and landed in the evening. I already got a taste for the expensive price tag since it cost 28 EUR to get a ride into the city center from the airport. What a rip off 😅 oh well, it is setting my expectations for how the prices will be.
The first day, I took it easy and wandered around Reykjavik checking out a few local cafes and shops. To my pleasent surprise there is quite the ceramics scene in town. I must have visited 5 shops with work from almost 15 potters. I chatted with one for about 30 minutes learning about how she used volcanic ash in her glaze. It was so sweet to connect with her and we gave each other a big hug after chatting and are now instagram friends😊
Other activities in Reykjavik include seeing the famous church, wandering through the local bookstores, and that even one bookstore turns into a bar in the evening with great live music- how fun!
Other activities include a trip to both the Hvammsvik Hot Springs and Sky Lagoon (on different days). My manager and a few other colleagues visited Iceland a few months ago and recommended this more local Hot Springs so I had to check it out. Overall, what a nice vibe! I got a transfer from Reykjavik bus station as I didn’t rent a car this trip. On my last day I visited the Sky Lagoon which is probably the 2nd most popular hot spring to visit after the blue lagoon and wow what a difference! At Sky Lagoon I think I saw 2 tripods in the pool area and multiple people on Facetime. Like, I get you want a nice picture, but do you need to turn it into a full content shoot and photo session? It was definitely not as relaxing as the more local one. The first set of photos below is Sky Lagoon and the rest are from Hvammsvik.
Another day, I checked out the Southern Coast and did a glacier hike. For sure the highlight of the trip! We had absoultely incredible 11/10 weather with no wind and full sunshine. I honestly didn’t even need my winter jacket, hat, or gloves. The guide told us we should go buy lottery tickets because we got so lucky.
In the pictures below you can see the Skogafoss and Selijalandsfoss waterfall, Reynisfjara black sand beach, and then tons of pictures from the glaicer. How many people can say that they went hiking on a glacier?
Another big bucket list item for this trip was to see the Northern Lights. I got really lucky and saw them on my tour one of the first nights through the clouds. Trying to keep it real, as it isn’t quite as exciting as it seems. First off, there was no “chasing” as we stayed in one place on our tour. It was mostly going in and out of the bus once the clouds moved to try to get a glimpse of them. Also, the colors are so so much stronger from a phone than with your natural eyes. I could see them some from only my eyes, but way better through a camera with a longer shutter speed. I met some cute girls from Canada and South Korea to chat and hang out with on my tour. S/o to the young Korean girl who took the photos of me. Not to generalize, but Koreans know how to take good photos for the gram. It was also beautiful to see at the stars out at night.
Overall, a lovely trip and a nice break from the daily stresses of the world these days. Hope you enjoyed reading and take it easy!
❤️ Melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 