This is the story of a three day weekend where I stayed up for 36 hours straight and got a total of 8 hours sleep over three nights. This is the story of a magical land full of lunarscapes, unearthly light, and a wind the never stops blowing. This is the story of when, two months ago, I saw a steal of a deal and e-mailed my husband and Lance & Val and said 'hey guys, Iceland for the weekend?' and they agreed. This is Iceland, and I loved it.
I didn't know there was anything worse than an international red-eye, but there is. It's a flight that leaves Seattle at 3:30 in the afternoon and arrives in Keflavik at 6 in the morning. Which is still only 10 in the evening in Seattle. Despite prescription sleeping pills, sleep would not come. You know what did come though? The Aurora Borealis (aka Northern Lights). From the plane. My hopes had been unnaturally high of seeing them in Iceland considering the forecast was not exactly for clear skies and yet we saw them before we even arrived.
It was still dark as the plane made it's approach and we picked up our rental car but as we made the 45 minute drive to Reykjavik, the pink glow of the sunrise began to reveal stunning mountains, a mossy volcanic lunarscape and some of the cutest coastal fishing towns I've ever seen.
(V&L)
After settling in at our hotel we headed into central Reykjavik for a few hours of exploration. We visited it's famous church Hallgrímskirkja, and went up into the tower for our first glimpse of what we would be exploring for the next three days. Reykjavik is adorable. I didn't take enough pictures to properly capture it but the colors pop, the cafes are cute, the homes cozy, the harbour beautiful, and the mountainous volcanic background tops it off. I loved the architecture. I think it is what feels to me like a fusion of modern and classic, which I adore. All the corrugated steel has a modern feel (I'm sure its not actually modern in Iceland) and yet the shapes are classic almost craftsman feel, which is my favorite.
(V&L)
(V&L)
In the afternoon we were off to the Bláa lónið (Blue Lagoon), one of Iceland's more famous attractions. It is a geothermal hot springs in the Grindavik lava field. And it's amazing. It was huge, steamy, uncrowded, and an unearthly blue. We explored and then sat ourselves near a steam vent heated by a lava flow and let the air rush past us. (Video to come...it was pretty cool). After three hours of heat, relaxation, sunshine, steam baths and silicia face masks we were thoroughly pruney and headed home.
(V&L)
Dinner was at Nauthóll, right on the harbour and next to our hotel, which happened to be situated on the tarmac of the quiet little domestic airport. The food was fantastic; Lance & Val had lamb and Matt & I shared the 'Selection of small courses for two' which had deep fried camembert, carpaccio, duck confit, marinated salmon with red curry and more.
We had been told that to see the Aurora Borealis you should get well out of Reykjavik because of the light pollution, and go between 10pm - 2am. As we stepped out of the car at Nautholl (right in Reykjavik) at 8pm we all did a double take because there was a giant, bright, squiggly green line from one side of the sky to the other. We spent five minutes outside watching it pulsing and shifting before stepping inside to get some food. After dinner we put on our warmest clothes and headed out into the night to go Aurora hunting. We were all sleep deprived but it was the only night that was supposed to have clear skies so we forced ourselves to do it. By midnight we had still seen nothing so we decided it was time to go back. Silly us, I guess we ought to know that Iceland does not mark gravel roads as such on their maps. Our little Mazda 3 ended up in the mountains we had been looking at all day on a gravel road and we discovered some volcanic lakes and lots of stars. I told myself not to think about how many hours we would have to walk before we found another human if something happened to our car. Our only Aurora sightings were from the plane and outside the restaurant but we enjoyed our late night adventure and finally tucked in just before 2am for our first sleep since Seattle.
Coming up: Day 2 filled with geysers, waterfalls, and the Continental Divide.
I didn't know there was anything worse than an international red-eye, but there is. It's a flight that leaves Seattle at 3:30 in the afternoon and arrives in Keflavik at 6 in the morning. Which is still only 10 in the evening in Seattle. Despite prescription sleeping pills, sleep would not come. You know what did come though? The Aurora Borealis (aka Northern Lights). From the plane. My hopes had been unnaturally high of seeing them in Iceland considering the forecast was not exactly for clear skies and yet we saw them before we even arrived.
It was still dark as the plane made it's approach and we picked up our rental car but as we made the 45 minute drive to Reykjavik, the pink glow of the sunrise began to reveal stunning mountains, a mossy volcanic lunarscape and some of the cutest coastal fishing towns I've ever seen.
(V&L)After settling in at our hotel we headed into central Reykjavik for a few hours of exploration. We visited it's famous church Hallgrímskirkja, and went up into the tower for our first glimpse of what we would be exploring for the next three days. Reykjavik is adorable. I didn't take enough pictures to properly capture it but the colors pop, the cafes are cute, the homes cozy, the harbour beautiful, and the mountainous volcanic background tops it off. I loved the architecture. I think it is what feels to me like a fusion of modern and classic, which I adore. All the corrugated steel has a modern feel (I'm sure its not actually modern in Iceland) and yet the shapes are classic almost craftsman feel, which is my favorite.
(V&L)
(V&L)
In the afternoon we were off to the Bláa lónið (Blue Lagoon), one of Iceland's more famous attractions. It is a geothermal hot springs in the Grindavik lava field. And it's amazing. It was huge, steamy, uncrowded, and an unearthly blue. We explored and then sat ourselves near a steam vent heated by a lava flow and let the air rush past us. (Video to come...it was pretty cool). After three hours of heat, relaxation, sunshine, steam baths and silicia face masks we were thoroughly pruney and headed home.
(V&L)
Dinner was at Nauthóll, right on the harbour and next to our hotel, which happened to be situated on the tarmac of the quiet little domestic airport. The food was fantastic; Lance & Val had lamb and Matt & I shared the 'Selection of small courses for two' which had deep fried camembert, carpaccio, duck confit, marinated salmon with red curry and more.
We had been told that to see the Aurora Borealis you should get well out of Reykjavik because of the light pollution, and go between 10pm - 2am. As we stepped out of the car at Nautholl (right in Reykjavik) at 8pm we all did a double take because there was a giant, bright, squiggly green line from one side of the sky to the other. We spent five minutes outside watching it pulsing and shifting before stepping inside to get some food. After dinner we put on our warmest clothes and headed out into the night to go Aurora hunting. We were all sleep deprived but it was the only night that was supposed to have clear skies so we forced ourselves to do it. By midnight we had still seen nothing so we decided it was time to go back. Silly us, I guess we ought to know that Iceland does not mark gravel roads as such on their maps. Our little Mazda 3 ended up in the mountains we had been looking at all day on a gravel road and we discovered some volcanic lakes and lots of stars. I told myself not to think about how many hours we would have to walk before we found another human if something happened to our car. Our only Aurora sightings were from the plane and outside the restaurant but we enjoyed our late night adventure and finally tucked in just before 2am for our first sleep since Seattle.
Coming up: Day 2 filled with geysers, waterfalls, and the Continental Divide.
