After over a year without international travel, I'm busting out my passport again for spring break. That's right, after buying the tickets in early October and many long months of waiting, Iceland is finally here! Although we don't have set itineraries, really, and haven't booked any accommodations past Monday, we do have a plan and a vague idea of how we're going to see most of the southeastern corner of the country - which is more than enough to get us all super pumped!
Here are some highlights of what we're planning to do:
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| Gullfoss |
The Golden Circle Route: this is a day-long driving tour of some of Iceland's most famous landmarks, including Þingvellir National Park (where you can see crack caused by continental drift, as the North American and Eurasian plates shift away from each other) and Gullfoss (one of Europe's most powerful waterfall).
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| Seljalandsfoss |
More Waterfalls: This country has so many waterfalls, and we plan to see as many of them as we possibly can. Some major ones include Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss.
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| Blue Lagoon |
Hot Springs: We're certainly not going to let all of this geothermic energy go to waste! Since the sites we'll be seeing won't be nearly as green as these pictures, we're planning to thaw out in plenty of hot springs, which are apparently everywhere. The famous one is the Blue Lagoon, which we'll probably visit on our last day (Sunday the 11th) since it's between Reykjavik and the airport.
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| Bláfjöll |
Skiing: So, even though Roommate doesn't ski, the other three components of Team Iceland are planning to visit Bláfjöll, a ski resort outside of Reykjavik. The crazy thing is that skiing in Iceland will possibly be even cooler than it sounds (which doesn't seem possible).
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| Jökulsárlón |
Glacier Bay: Jökulsárlón is a glacier lagoon to the east (probably the farthest east we'll go), which has been the setting of scenes in the Bond movies "A View to Kill" and "Die Another Day," as well as "Tomb Raider" and "Batman Begins." I'm also hoping to spot some seals.
Well, that's a very brief overview. Don't count on posts while I'm actually in Iceland, but I'll be writing while I'm there and post on my adventures when we return.
Wondering how I'm doing? Here are some links to check:
And, last but not least, some basic information about Iceland for the curious:
- Iceland is on Greenwich Mean Time (5 hours earlier than EST)
- Iceland is about the size of Ohio, and there is a single highway (called Þjóðvegur, Route 1 or the Ring Road) which circles the entire island
- The current exchange rate is 125 Icelandic krona (ISK) to the dollar
- There will be about 10 hours of daylight daily while we're there
Well, hope that tides you over until whenever I next get internet access.
Bless bless!
PS: yes, this was posted before 7am because I'm so excited I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Sleep is for planes!
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