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Published: January 2nd 2018
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2 notes first:
• I added in photos for yesterday's post about the Golden Circle, if interested
• Nothing weird is happening to me on this trip...?? it feels so unlike me to not have weird travel moments. Ok nothing weird other than the 10-11 cashier guy talking to me about horror movies
Ok so last night! The forecast weather-wise was in our favour, but the aurora forecast was pretty low... regardless they take you out with the idea that if you don't see them at all you can re-book. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to re-book because getting back at 1am is just too much 2 nights in a row lol.
We actually bussed back to Thingvellir park (but a different area) and were essentially let loose in a giant parking lot lol. Literally just as the bus parked, the tour guide was like "oh look! there is activity!" so it was a mad dash everyone trying to get off the bus.
It was so beautiful.
The lights were dancing just above a bunch of snow peaked mountains. They were pretty big, and relatively vibrant enough. They had told us not to
bother with pictures on your phone / automatic cameras because they won't be good. But considering I didn't want to look away to start setting up my camera and tripod, I chanced it and took a random shot with my phone that turned out surprisingly well (just it's a little blurry, the lights had smoother edges). They didn't last all that long, but man, they were amazing to see.
For the next 75min or so we literally all just stood in the parking lot staring at the dark sky lol. Actually. I'd say only about 1/3 (if that) of us stayed outside - everyone else went back on the warmth of the bus and figured it would be obvious enough if the lights came back out.
I befriended a couple from Amsterdam (she's originally from Chicago, he's originally from England), so at least we got to chat a bit while we froze lol. She was saying how happy she was to have proper snow and cold again for Christmas/New Years. It was certainly cold with the wind last night, I'll give her that.
It's too bad the lights didn't come back out, but that one burst was
worth it anyway. I also enjoyed just staring at all the stars - it's so dark out there with no light pollution or cloud cover that all the constellations are crystal clear. Just lovely.
And that was that. As for today, it was a super lazy one. I slept it then I bussed out to Hafnarfjörður which is a suburb of Reykjavik. I had planned to kind of bum around and explore the area, walk along the harbour, but the winds were insane so I pretty much just wandered around the shopping area with Christmas decorations and got on a bus back lol.
And that... was pretty much my day. No lie. I'm back at the hostel now and I'm going to catch up on some reading time - I'm so used to reading when I travel, but usually I just sit on park benches in hour chunks to read... it's a tad too cold to do that at this time of year.
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