Reykjavik Adventures

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This year for Thanksgiving, since I wouldn't be home with family, I decided to have a Friends-giving with all of the new friends I had met studying abroad. We each made a variety of dishes to share. I decided to make a corn casserole; since I couldn't find the Jiffy corn mix in stores here in the UK, I had to order it from Amazon. But, the dish turned out well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We had a great time having dinner, wine and it was very cool sharing the Thanksgiving tradition with people, most of whom had never celebrated Thanksgiving before. We managed to fit fourteen people around the table, and we realized that we were all from eleven different countries! During dinner, we all went around and shared what we were thankful for. All in all, it was a very fun night with friends which helped to make up for the fact that I missed seeing my family that day.

The next morning, Ashlee, Sabrina and I got ready to head to the airport for our trip. We had decided, very spontaneously, to travel to Iceland for the weekend. We chose to go to Iceland because we all wanted to travel together, and Sabrina didn't want to go anywhere in continental Europe since it would be almost as far as going home. So, we decided to go for an adventure and head to Reykjavik for the weekend. We made it to the airport and got on the plane, which was incredibly nice and had TV screens in each of the seats. We even got complimentary soft drinks, which I was no longer accustomed to after so many flights on RyanAir. After arriving at the airport, we found the bus that would take us into the city center, where we were staying. We noticed that despite the fact that it was only mid-afternoon, it was already quite dark. We found the apartment we were staying at, which was very cute. It had a small kitchen, bedroom and living room with a comfy couch that we were all very excited about since the chairs at the university are not that comfortable. After getting settled in, we found a nice restaurant to have dinner at before walking around the city center a bit and then heading back to the apartment to watch a movie and relax.

The next morning, we awoke to dark skies and realized that due to the fact that we were so far north, we would only get about five hours of daylight per day. We walked around the city center for a while, which featured a ton of cute shops. We got lunch at a cool vegetarian restaurant and then headed to a very cool church, where we could climb an elevator to the top and get amazing views of the city. After that, we stopped at a coffee shop Ashlee had been wanting to try since they served oat milk coffee. After that, we walked around the city some more before stopping at the opera house, which was a very beautiful. We got dinner there, and then went back to the flat to bundle up before our excursion for the evening. We decided to book a Northern Lights tour in the hopes of seeing the lights. We got all bundled up and headed to the bus, where we got on the bus to drive to the different viewing locations. Our guide explained that there has to be activity as well as clear skies in order to see the lights. They try to watch the weather in order to send us to the locations that have the best chance of exposing the lights. We drove to the first location, and had the chance to get out and wait to see if we could see anything. Since we had driven up into the mountains, it was quite cold and it was snowing a bit. Ashlee was very excited because she is not used to being snowed on. After waiting on the lights for a while, our guide decided that the chances weren't great there and we headed to another location where we were able to get a hot drink and wait some more. Unfortunately, there was no activity before it was time for us to head back. However, the tour itself was very fun and we didn't regret the decision at all.

Sunday morning, we let ourselves sleep in a bit before heading out to explore the other side of the city. While Saturday was very cold, the weather on Sunday was a bit worse because it was incredibly cold and rainy. After walking around for a while, we found an American diner to have lunch at. We then headed to the National Museum of Iceland, which was a good opportunity to get out of the weather and learn a bit more about the country. It was a very cool museum, and we really enjoyed walking around. We then went to a different part of the city where there was supposed to be a tree lighting. However, the weather was beginning to get bad and they were expecting a storm, so it appeared to be cancelled. We decided to head back to the apartment and cook dinner and warm up. We enjoyed an evening of television and relaxing on the couch before deciding that we should probably head to bed before our early flight the next morning. But, as soon as we got ready for bed, we got an e-mail from the airline saying that our flight had been delayed to 1:00 the next afternoon. We were very excited about this change, because we were able to sleep in and get to the airport later. We stayed up a bit more before finally heading to bed.

On our last morning in Reykjavik, we had a nice breakfast at a cute coffee house and then headed to the airport. When we checked our bags, they gave us a voucher for 2000 kronus (approximately 10 pounds) for lunch due to the delay. This was a very nice surprise, and we were excited that we not only got to sleep in but also got our lunch paid for. We then boarded the plane and headed back to Glasgow, where we decided to continue our holiday weekend by decorating gingerbread houses. All in all, it was a very fun weekend and a great break from reality and schoolwork.

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