Blogs from Southwest, Iceland, Europe - page 30

One of the most striking scenes one comes across in the Icelandic countryside, apart from the volcanic terrain and beautiful rock formations is the lack of vegetation especially trees. So it is quite difficult for large animals to survive in the windy stormy exposed landscape. And that is why the Iceland horse looks more like a pony. Most of the original population was wiped out by the volcanic eruptions of 1780 but the population was restored by breeding about a hundred years ago. The animals looked very peaceful feeding off snow covered tufts of grass, mostly huddling together for warmth. One of our cherished souvenirs is a hand crafted wooden horse.... read more

This is my first contribution. This is just a hobby, an off shoot of another hobby, traveling. We have been seriously bitten by the travel bug. This blog is primarily intended as a way of remembering, a virtual souvenir, a travelogue for family and close friends. We were on our way to Iceland from Heathrow for our 2012 Christmas holiday. The weather was surprisingly fine half way across the North Sea, when we started to have several bumps and air pockets. The captain ordered the suspension of the food service, and we settled down waiting for the last part of the flight to be over. Everyone was watching the onboard movie when suddenly the captain announced that we have a slight problem, on landing our braking coefficient was 'rather low' and that we would have difficulty ... read more

Icelandair flies into Keflavik International Airport. The airport is about 45 minutes away from Reykjavik by bus. When I arrived at 6:30 AM (2:30 AM by my biological clock) I had no local money and only a vague sense of where I needed to go. The passport check and customs was a joke. I am not sure if the boarder officer even looked at my passport, instead just passing it through his scanner and asking me when I planned on leaving. Customs appeared voluntary and I just walked through the “nothing to declare” line without so much as filling out a statement or anything. There wasn’t even a guard that I could see, although there were several cameras. This is not what I expected. As soon as I left the duty free area (turns out that ... read more

Snow + candy + hot dogs + beautiful snowy mountains + amazing architecture and design everywhere + pickled fish + kind people = one amazing trip to Iceland. There wasn’t one big event, one huge tour, one main sight that made me love Iceland – it was all of it smooshed together that created an amazing experience – one that I hope to repeat as soon as possible. We landed, took a bus to the hostel and then sat there at about 8:30am in the dark of night staring at the ground in a jet-lagged haze wondering what to do until we could check-in at 2pm. Not being afraid of the dark and not wanting to waste any of the four days we had in Iceland, we layered as much as possible while slightly feeling like ... read more

Ah we had the best sleep last night! We woke up to our alarm at 9.30am and we were both dead to the world cos it was so pitch black outside!! We had a quick breakie downstairs cos the horses were awaiting our arrival! They picked us up at 10am for our Icelandic horse riding expedition but it was absolutely pitch black and made it feel like it was about 3.30am and we just wanted to go back to bed! They drove us about an hour to Islenski Hesturinn horse riding where we met the loveliest couple! After teaching us about the little Icelandic horses and how they are so disease free they don't even need to have jobs over here in Iceland. But as soon as they leave the country for a race or anything ... read more