Reykjavík, Iceland!

This weekend Allana and I went on a short trip to Reykjavík, Iceland! This was such a fun trip. Iceland is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve been to, and we got to see a lot of the nature around Reykjavík.

We spent our first day at the Blue Lagoon, which is a geothermal spa near Reykjavík. You can buy different ticket packages, and the one that we got included entrance to the Blue Lagoon, a silica mud mask, an algae mask, and one free drink. You get a wristband which serves as your ticket and you can use it to access your locker in the changing room and to buy snacks and drinks at the swim-up bar. Outside it was in the 40s, but the water is about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Since its a geothermal spa, the water is naturally heated, and it has such an icy blue color because of the minerals in it. There was a bunch of steam rising up from the lagoon too, which was so cool. We spent our time there relaxing in the lagoon, taking some fun pictures, using our free face masks, and sipping on our free smoothies. The blue lagoon was such a cool experience and definitely a must-do in Reykjavík! After we got back from the lagoon we walked around Reykjavík city and got dinner before getting to bed since we had an early wake up call the next morning.

The next day we went on an all-day tour around the Golden Circle, which is a popular tourist route in Iceland that highlights some of the area’s most beautiful sights. We first drove to the Faxi waterfall. It was so pretty, and extremely blue, but we ended up seeing a much larger and more impressive waterfall later on in the tour. Then we drove a bit further before stopping at the Geysir hot spring & Haukadalur geothermal area. We got lunch and then went to wait for Geysir, Iceland’s most famous geyser, to erupt. We saw it erupt a handful of times! There were also a bunch of hot springs that were really cool, especially because of all of the steam that was coming off of them. There was also a big mountain nearby that we hiked to the top of. We got a great view of Geysir, the hot springs, and all of the surrounding mountains.

After that we drove to Gullfoss waterfall, which was SO beautiful! We got to go down to the lower level to see it up close, take pictures, and feel the mist on our faces. If you look closely in the first picture you can see the people down on the platform to get a better perspective of how big the waterfall is. Our guide told us how Gullfoss is not the largest nor the tallest, but that it is definitely one of the prettiest. For a country like Iceland that is filled with waterfalls, that’s quite the compliment.

Our last stop of the day was Thingvellir National Park, but we made a short pit stop on the way there at Lake Thingvallavatn. The water in the lake is completely clean and safe for drinking so we all filled up our water bottles with some of the lake water. The water flows through the mountains for 50 years and is cleaned of all the unsafe minerals before it finally makes its way into the lake. It was some of the coldest, clearest, and most refreshing water I’ve ever had. Then we kept on driving to the National Park where we had some time to walk around and see all of the beauty of the park! Our guide was telling us how a lot of episodes of Game of Thrones are filmed in Iceland, and particularly in Thingvellir National Park. She pointed out some areas to look for that you could find in recent episodes. I don’t even watch Game of Thrones, but I could totally picture an episode taking place in this kind of setting and it was still cool to look for the landmarks from the show. There is also a small river in the park that has been coined as the park’s “wishing well”, so Allana and I both threw a coin in and made a wish. It is some of the bluest and clearest water in the world!

We drove back into Reykjavík city, got some dinner, and hung out for a bit before we met up with Allana’s mom and cousin for a short visit. Then we were off to the airport to head back to London! Iceland was an awesome trip, and we got to do some really cool things. There are so many more things I’d like to do in Iceland (whale watching and snorkeling between the tectonic plates?? YES PLEASE), so I hope to go back there someday! But for now, I’m off to Edinburgh and Dublin. Then one more week in London before I’m headed home!