Yes Iceland, the country and not the shop! (For UK shoppers).
When I initially decided that I wanted to go Iceland and was looking for people to go with no one would understand why I wanted to go there. Literally everyone kept asking me, "why Iceland? Why do you want to go there? Isn't it just ice?" Clearly the levels of ignorance were high. As cheeky as I am my response was always,
"it's not everyday beach and bikini (init)"
A lot of the time we go certain places because we know people who have been there and it looks pretty and it just hot and it is repetitive. Honestly I like purposeful holidays, yes rest or getaway being número uno but I like to learn and find out new things. Culture, history and stories maybe because I'm not a party animal or anything like that. I find Museums, sunsets, sunrises and unspoken/underrated territories mentally orgasmic 😂😂😂!
Iceland was my second fav hmm maybe fav holiday after Egypt torn between the two. However it was my very first SOLO TRIP! Listen I went on holiday by myself! Guys! Wait I went on holiday by MYSELF!
I've never done that before! I was always saying it that I will travel by myself but I was a scaredy cat, but this time I did it. I'll blog about the prep and the experience on another blog. I can't wait to solo travel again!
ANYWAY ICELAND!
I flew with WOWair and I have to say it was a pretty good experience overall. However, going, my flight was delayed by 1hr and 10mins. Now in normal circumstances I would have had a right-ol' fit but instead I went to Wagamamas and enjoyed dinner by myself and then I went Nandos to get my breakfast takeaway for the next day!
Usually when you fly the aircon is on and the plane is pretty chilly. However on this flight we were baking, literally, it was soooooo warm on the plane. I'm not complaining it was really good. It was about a 3hour flight from London.
When I had arrived in Iceland I had booked a coach transfer instead of a taxi that took me to my hotel. It was pretty cheap! I used Flybus excursion airport/hotel excursion, plus it had FREE WIFI on the coach!
Accommodation
I stayed at A Room with a view Apartment on Laugarvegur in Reykjavik. Now I personally booked an apartment because I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a hotel plus I was going to be by myself I wanted the feel of home. It was self-catering because I had book a lot of excursions so I knew I was not going to spend much time in the hotel/apartment.
These apartments are perfect if you're going as a couple or as a group they are so modern and spacious! They have everything; free FAST Wifi in your room, microwave, fridge, TV etc. Check it on trip advisor it looks exactly as the pictures! Trust me exactly like the pic!
Now I went to Iceland with no expectations but to have fun. Listen if you stay in Laugarvegur in Reykjavik, let me say, it is party central at night! I was not expecting that at all. It's like Soho in London or Red light District in Amsterdam. It's literally so lively!
*side note* they play RnB and trap music. Why was I hearing Bobby Shumurda?
During the day the strip/road has load of cafes, restaurants and retail shops. So chilled! It just so perfect!
Excursions
I had booked the South coast, waterfall and glacier walk excursion. It is literally a full day trip. I booked this with Grayline excursions. I booked this when I was in London but in Icelandic currency ( like 2months before I flew out) it worked out so much cheaper. The conversion rate was not bad at all.
The tour guide picked up from my hotel at 7:45am and we went to bus station to meet with all the other tourists. We left Reykjavik about 8:30am and we set off. The drive was interesting we learnt little facts about the areas we passed and the history of Iceland.
This is the first waterfall we stopped by. It was so pretty, you have the option of going behind the waterfall just be careful of the spray.
This is the second waterfall we visited you can't go behind but you can climb to the top and get an amazing view!
Just after midday we went to do the glacier walk. This was amazing, probably one of the best experience after climbing mount Sinai.
This is what I wore to ensure that I can safely walk on the glacier!
We ended the trip with a visit to the Black Sand Beach and dinner in a a town called VIK, I was so looking forward to this. Have you ever been to a beach where the sand is black? Nope! Well you should!
I chase sunrises and sunsets so to get to the beach just in time to see the sunset made my heart melt! You'll make many stops during the day for lunch and dinner. However still bring snacks. I had popcorn, water, haribos and cake. I packed light food because I didn't want my rucksack to be heavy. The food there is not pricey at all.
I got back to hotel about 7:30pm just had enough time to charge my phones and cameras before I headed out again.
I had booked to watch the Northern lights/Aurora Borealis the same night. My advice for this is book the most latest one otherwise you'll be outside for a very long time. I was picked up at 8:25 and departure at the train station was at 9pm.
If you book any excursions try to go to the Grayline office to print out your tickets (not the email confirmations but actual tickets) before you travel on the excursions saves you time. I did not print out any of my email confirmations I just showed them over the counter on my phone. However print it out just in case your battery dies.
For the northern lights we were outside from about 10pm and I did not get back to my apartment until 2:30am. The crazy thing is the weather hit below freezing. It was like -3 degrees/ 26.6F I'm sure it dropped a bit more. So make sure you're dressed well and warm. Listen the best footwear for this weather is UGGs (the real ones) those shoes block any type of cold. You don't feel not even a breeze. No frost bite toes! My Uggs kept my feet super warm.
You pretty much drive to one location and wait for the sky to clear up and the stars to be visible. After a while if the sky does not clear up you'll have to keep moving locations until you find an area. However your guide will keep you posted. We didn't see it at our first location so we had to move to Geysir and then Lo Behold.... BAMM .... It appeared!
I'm so upset, when I got back to London I lost my phone that I transferred some of pictures on, I believe so at the airport, :( and no they were not on cloud. So I borrowed this pic from google just to show you how the Northern lights look like because I lost most of mine.
Northern lights are basically wind (magnetic) particles that flow from the sun and when they hit earth's atmosphere they display these amazing array of colours and sort of dance in the sky. It is such an amazing sight I could not believe that I saw it with my own two eyes!
The following day I was supposed to go to the blue lagoon but I overslept. The blue lagoon is a natural hot spring where the water is naturally heated. There are several treatments you can book or you can just book the basic package.
Iceland is quite volcanic, there are crates if you were to dive you'll see the continental plates of where North America meets Europe! It's pretty cool! Research Iceland it is such a hidden gem.
There is so many other tours to go onto the Grayline site, Golden circle tour or whale watching! I did whale watching a few years ago in Boston so I didn't really want to repeat myself. I'll definitely go back next year for the blue lagoon, diving and the Golden tour.
Iceland, Reykjavik is pretty diverse not as much as London or other places but everyone was so friendly. No one was hostile or racially discriminatory towards me. They were lovely, I was not singled out or looked upon like a different type of species. So don't worry you'll be fine! It's a pretty young and vibrant place! Just bring warm clothing and layer up with light cottons or wear thermals. During the day temperatures were maybe 5-6degrees and the later it got it dropped. I wore jeans, tracksuits, thermals, fleeced socks and uggs. Hats, scarves and gloves are a must.
One thing is bring a camera do not rely solely on you phone camera. When the temperatures dropped my phone battery would die because the cold was deceiving the phone into believing it had no battery life as the phone will turn completely cold. So I started putting my phone in my inside pockets or tracksuits pockets where it remained warm.
I will definitely go back! Thank you for reading!
Born a legend to leave a legacy.
When I initially decided that I wanted to go Iceland and was looking for people to go with no one would understand why I wanted to go there. Literally everyone kept asking me, "why Iceland? Why do you want to go there? Isn't it just ice?" Clearly the levels of ignorance were high. As cheeky as I am my response was always,
"it's not everyday beach and bikini (init)"
A lot of the time we go certain places because we know people who have been there and it looks pretty and it just hot and it is repetitive. Honestly I like purposeful holidays, yes rest or getaway being número uno but I like to learn and find out new things. Culture, history and stories maybe because I'm not a party animal or anything like that. I find Museums, sunsets, sunrises and unspoken/underrated territories mentally orgasmic 😂😂😂!
Iceland was my second fav hmm maybe fav holiday after Egypt torn between the two. However it was my very first SOLO TRIP! Listen I went on holiday by myself! Guys! Wait I went on holiday by MYSELF!
I've never done that before! I was always saying it that I will travel by myself but I was a scaredy cat, but this time I did it. I'll blog about the prep and the experience on another blog. I can't wait to solo travel again!
 |
| weird obession with white nail polish |
ANYWAY ICELAND!
I flew with WOWair and I have to say it was a pretty good experience overall. However, going, my flight was delayed by 1hr and 10mins. Now in normal circumstances I would have had a right-ol' fit but instead I went to Wagamamas and enjoyed dinner by myself and then I went Nandos to get my breakfast takeaway for the next day!
Usually when you fly the aircon is on and the plane is pretty chilly. However on this flight we were baking, literally, it was soooooo warm on the plane. I'm not complaining it was really good. It was about a 3hour flight from London.
When I had arrived in Iceland I had booked a coach transfer instead of a taxi that took me to my hotel. It was pretty cheap! I used Flybus excursion airport/hotel excursion, plus it had FREE WIFI on the coach!
Accommodation
I stayed at A Room with a view Apartment on Laugarvegur in Reykjavik. Now I personally booked an apartment because I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a hotel plus I was going to be by myself I wanted the feel of home. It was self-catering because I had book a lot of excursions so I knew I was not going to spend much time in the hotel/apartment.
These apartments are perfect if you're going as a couple or as a group they are so modern and spacious! They have everything; free FAST Wifi in your room, microwave, fridge, TV etc. Check it on trip advisor it looks exactly as the pictures! Trust me exactly like the pic!
Now I went to Iceland with no expectations but to have fun. Listen if you stay in Laugarvegur in Reykjavik, let me say, it is party central at night! I was not expecting that at all. It's like Soho in London or Red light District in Amsterdam. It's literally so lively!
*side note* they play RnB and trap music. Why was I hearing Bobby Shumurda?
During the day the strip/road has load of cafes, restaurants and retail shops. So chilled! It just so perfect!
Excursions
I had booked the South coast, waterfall and glacier walk excursion. It is literally a full day trip. I booked this with Grayline excursions. I booked this when I was in London but in Icelandic currency ( like 2months before I flew out) it worked out so much cheaper. The conversion rate was not bad at all.
The tour guide picked up from my hotel at 7:45am and we went to bus station to meet with all the other tourists. We left Reykjavik about 8:30am and we set off. The drive was interesting we learnt little facts about the areas we passed and the history of Iceland.
This is the first waterfall we stopped by. It was so pretty, you have the option of going behind the waterfall just be careful of the spray.
This is the second waterfall we visited you can't go behind but you can climb to the top and get an amazing view!
 |
| climbed to the top to get this view |
 |
| don't go chasing waterfalls *sings* |
 |
| the lagoon in the pic is actually frozen "let it go let it go" *sings* |
This is what I wore to ensure that I can safely walk on the glacier!
 |
| if you don't have hiking boots you can hire it, all equipment provided |
 |
| ice cave! Elsa has been here :) |
We ended the trip with a visit to the Black Sand Beach and dinner in a a town called VIK, I was so looking forward to this. Have you ever been to a beach where the sand is black? Nope! Well you should!
I chase sunrises and sunsets so to get to the beach just in time to see the sunset made my heart melt! You'll make many stops during the day for lunch and dinner. However still bring snacks. I had popcorn, water, haribos and cake. I packed light food because I didn't want my rucksack to be heavy. The food there is not pricey at all.
I got back to hotel about 7:30pm just had enough time to charge my phones and cameras before I headed out again.
I had booked to watch the Northern lights/Aurora Borealis the same night. My advice for this is book the most latest one otherwise you'll be outside for a very long time. I was picked up at 8:25 and departure at the train station was at 9pm.
If you book any excursions try to go to the Grayline office to print out your tickets (not the email confirmations but actual tickets) before you travel on the excursions saves you time. I did not print out any of my email confirmations I just showed them over the counter on my phone. However print it out just in case your battery dies.
For the northern lights we were outside from about 10pm and I did not get back to my apartment until 2:30am. The crazy thing is the weather hit below freezing. It was like -3 degrees/ 26.6F I'm sure it dropped a bit more. So make sure you're dressed well and warm. Listen the best footwear for this weather is UGGs (the real ones) those shoes block any type of cold. You don't feel not even a breeze. No frost bite toes! My Uggs kept my feet super warm.
You pretty much drive to one location and wait for the sky to clear up and the stars to be visible. After a while if the sky does not clear up you'll have to keep moving locations until you find an area. However your guide will keep you posted. We didn't see it at our first location so we had to move to Geysir and then Lo Behold.... BAMM .... It appeared!
I'm so upset, when I got back to London I lost my phone that I transferred some of pictures on, I believe so at the airport, :( and no they were not on cloud. So I borrowed this pic from google just to show you how the Northern lights look like because I lost most of mine.
Northern lights are basically wind (magnetic) particles that flow from the sun and when they hit earth's atmosphere they display these amazing array of colours and sort of dance in the sky. It is such an amazing sight I could not believe that I saw it with my own two eyes!
The following day I was supposed to go to the blue lagoon but I overslept. The blue lagoon is a natural hot spring where the water is naturally heated. There are several treatments you can book or you can just book the basic package.
Iceland is quite volcanic, there are crates if you were to dive you'll see the continental plates of where North America meets Europe! It's pretty cool! Research Iceland it is such a hidden gem.
There is so many other tours to go onto the Grayline site, Golden circle tour or whale watching! I did whale watching a few years ago in Boston so I didn't really want to repeat myself. I'll definitely go back next year for the blue lagoon, diving and the Golden tour.
Iceland, Reykjavik is pretty diverse not as much as London or other places but everyone was so friendly. No one was hostile or racially discriminatory towards me. They were lovely, I was not singled out or looked upon like a different type of species. So don't worry you'll be fine! It's a pretty young and vibrant place! Just bring warm clothing and layer up with light cottons or wear thermals. During the day temperatures were maybe 5-6degrees and the later it got it dropped. I wore jeans, tracksuits, thermals, fleeced socks and uggs. Hats, scarves and gloves are a must.
One thing is bring a camera do not rely solely on you phone camera. When the temperatures dropped my phone battery would die because the cold was deceiving the phone into believing it had no battery life as the phone will turn completely cold. So I started putting my phone in my inside pockets or tracksuits pockets where it remained warm.
I will definitely go back! Thank you for reading!
Born a legend to leave a legacy.
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