Blogs from Iceland, Europe - page 114

Iceland, the Golden Circle and Snowmobiling

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Reykjavík March 12th 2010

Today I toured the Golden Circle and went snowmobiling on the second largest glacier in Europe. The Golden Circle is made up of three very unique sights. Pingvellir, (pronounces Thingvellir), Gullfoss and Geysir. Danni , my guide for the day, picked me up about 8:30 this morning. Considering I got home at 2:00am the night before and get up about 7:30 this morning I did not wake easily. Anyhow, I made it to the shower, which smells a bit of sulfur by the way, read rotten eggs, went down to breakfast, suited up and was on my way. I climbed into the closest truly functional thing to a monster truck. I’ll tell you more about the functional part later. Once in the two of us headed to another hotel to pick up five fairly hung over ... read more

Reykjavik Day One, Explore the city and Northern Lights Tour

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Reykjavík March 11th 2010

Tjornin and her birds,

Brent B

Hello Reykjavik, Iceland! I got in this morning about 6:50 am. It was still dark after I had come through customs and met up with my driver Dennis. Dennis gave me a few insightful tidbits on the way to Hotel Fron. (Like throne but with an F.) I first noticed the lack of trees he told me that we were on a young lava field, some 800 years old. They do have trees, it’s just that not much grows in this particular part but moss. He then related a joke, “Do you know what to do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest?” “Nope” I replied. “Stand up.” Evidently there are few trees, but many bushes and grasses. So some good advice to start my trip. We also passed one of Iceland’s five aluminum melting ... read more

Iceland

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Reykjavík January 11th 2010

Photo 22

Luapskies

Pictures from our 3 days in Iceland.... read more

Rockin' Reykjavik

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Reykjavík December 29th 2009

Hallgrimskirkja

Delek Delek

Once we had arrived back at the Downtown Hostel in Reykjavik, we used the leftovers of our Christmas groceries to cook up a mean pasta before making our last use of the rental car to have one more go at a decent showing of the Northern Lights. Driving about 30mins out of Reykjavik, to a little side road pitched in complete darkness, we waited excitedly. Northern Light "forecasts" on the internet gave us minimal chance of actually seeing anything tonight - and unfortunately the forecasts were to prove correct. So back we drove to the car rental place, calling up a taxi to take us back to the hostel. Although we had kinda seen the lights in Hveragerði, we were saddened that it didn't really happen for us on this trip. I'll definitely make more attempts ... read more

Land Of Ice & Fire

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Hveragerði December 26th 2009

Strokkur

Delek Delek

Whenever someone asked me what I was doing for Christmas, and I replied "Iceland", I got this crazy stare back in return. "Won't it be cold there?" Errr...yeah? "Why Iceland?" I still honestly can't answer the second question. I guess I was looking for somewhere that would take a few days to explore and somewhere that I haven't been before, and I came up with the crazy idea of going to Iceland - and I'm so glad I did. Travelling on Icelandair, it was awesome to be flying a proper airline again where you don't get charged to check in a bag - and you get in-flight entertainment! My choice of entertainment was a documentary about Sigur Rós, in my opinion the best band to have come out of Iceland. The whole documentary was about a ... read more

Iceland

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Reykjavík December 23rd 2009

the really big waterfall

DR Drea AKA Ted

Seven days in Iceland but what with the way the weather was it was only just enough time to see the Northern lights and they were impossible to photograph! four hours of daylight a day not a lot. did a glacier hike way better than franz josef and loved the waterfalls esp the one you could hide behind! lovely week , expensive place but, cheap hot dogs! burgers canned beer. loved the blue lagoon, outside in a thermal pool. again better than NZ, sorry! go in the summer forget the northern lights i saw them but most people dont, wish id seen where the glacier moves into a lagoon. ... read more

Jokulsarlon

Europe » Iceland » South » Höfn December 4th 2009

Driving from Keflavik

Tee Surasak

It really makes me appreciate being Hongkee, imagine saying you are Rekker, Icelandic, or ... I am Longyearbyian. At least everyone in Scandinavia knows about Hong Kong. Even thou the beggers I saw in India, know we have Jackie Chan and world's smallest Disneyland in Hong Kong, but what about Scandinavia? Perhaps ice, or icebergs. So from 9 November, I was in Iceland. Shortly after touched down at Keflavik Airport, we were greeted by 3 immigration officer and requested us to show our passport, it was my second time greeted by security personnel on arrival within 10 days after Israel, asked us few questions about our trip in Schengen area. Soon after we collected our backpacks, we paid Euro 400 and got our Renault 4 doors car for 8 days, and we set off on the ... read more

A day in Iceland

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Reykjavík November 25th 2009

Great white open

Dolemitesprint

Iceland is like Bizzaro Hawaii: a rocky volcanic island, with settlement all around the shore - but very cold. As my travel buddy Randell and I wandered into the capitol at about 10a.m., we wondered if the sun would ever rise. It did, by 11, and stayed up until at least 3:30p.m. The day started with a long, dark bus ride. We watched as Reykjavik’s city lights began to come into focus, and wondered what wonders they would illuminate. After a short breakfast of bagel with Icelandic cheese and Icelandic butter (was starving because I didn’t eat on the Icelandair flight -- because the only edible thing on the menu, a veggie wrap, was all sold out by the time the burly stewardess got to my seat), we set off toward the old part of town. ... read more

Svartifoss

Europe » Iceland » East November 10th 2009

Skaftafell

Tee Surasak

I was pulled out form the bed at 8:30am every morning and the first thing to do is to make breakfast for everyone, basically I used the left over soup, pasta and fish cakes from the night before and re-heat'em and topped with fried eggs and bacon, before we continuted our way 80km towards west to Skaftafell National Park via Highway No.1. We parked our car outisde the tourist centre, then hiked 45 minutes and brought us to the mouth of Svartifoss Waterfall, something I've been really excited about seeing since I started planning to go Iceland. According to Lonely Planet, the water flows from the world's 3rd largest icecap and flows into the Arctic Ocean, south of Iceland. The weather was clear and sunny as we arrive, and the waterfall itself was amazingly beautiful and ... read more

Iceland: Land of the Midnight Sun

Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Reykjavík November 2nd 2009

wanderlustwest

Shane and I arrived in Iceland after our short 5 hour overnight flight to Keflavik airport just outside of Reykjavik. Thanks to the time change, we arrived just at the crack of dawn- or what would have been the crack of dawn if the sun actually set at night. Yes, we were in the land of the midnight sun, just a few days shy of 24 hour daylight. Instead, we were trreated to about 22 hours of daylight and a sun that barely sets, but just skims across the horizon. After figuring out the airport shuttle buses, we were on our way to the Centrehotel Klopp just off Reykjavik's main drag, a hotel we picked thanks to it's location and great price. Arriving there long before check-in, we were told to leave our bags and check ... read more

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