Now, to part 2 of the Icelandic story! Apologies for late post cause its nearing the end of term and I am down with a number of coursework.. Don’t worry, life is good haha! I chose the shag life so the shag life it is:)
Meanwhile, I still reminisce about the Iceland travels here and there. Really cannot believe that we were in Iceland, OMG! Here’s to the dream coming true:)
Iceland is also known as the land of fire and ice 🔥❄️, what a dramatic contrast right? But it is true, Iceland is formed volcanic activities and a 200 volcanoes are scattered on it (the most recent erupted in 2014). At the same time, it is located high up in the northern hemisphere and that makes it very susceptible to extreme fickle weather conditions. You can see snow for 5 months of the calendar year, which gives it the title of ‘land of fire and ice’.
Of course, when it comes to braving extreme weather conditions, Iceland is rewarded with higher probability of viewing the northern lights (from October-March). For choosing to go in late November, we would have some expectations and desire to meet the Northern Lights! To see them, there are a few conditions to be met, including high geomagnetic activity and clear skies. We monitored the probability every day from these websites:
https://www.softservenews.com/gps-aurora-borealis-forecast.html
So as we ruined our best chance to see the northern lights in Reykjavik, we decided to try and catch it on the last night – where the skies are semi-clear near Jokusarlon (Glacier Lagoon). We waited there in the car for about 3 hours 🚗. As the time passed, we started to entertain ourselves by singing K in the car and having our dinner. More cars started joining us at the carpark and that gave us relief as we weren’t the only idiots waiting through the night. The night sky was really beautiful and without any light pollution (except the car lights), we could see it covered with stars!
Wanted to camp outside the car to take some long exposure photos but the winds were blowing at 30km/h. So we took turns to get out and take our photos. Man, it was so difficult to keep the camera stable! However, on one of my shots, I started to spot a flash of green on the photo. And the next moment, Xinyi and Rachel were out of the car, trying to get the photo of the northern lights 😝 From all the shaky shots, I filtered out and this is my best shot!
Yay so one checked off the bucket list! I have to add in that the northern lights are not as beautiful as they appear on photos, they are much fader and your eyes need time to adjust to the streaks before you can start to see them moving:)
Other than watching the northern lights, I really enjoyed hopping from places to places, mesmerising ourselves in sights we have never seen before. One of my favourite is the little canyon Fjaðrárgljúfur(its nothing like little by the way!) Once again, it’s geography heaven because we got to see the water flowing from the waterfalls and meandering around the canyon! Despite being rainy, the canyon still appear green and stands out well against the mist! Just like Wanling said, it is easily my favourite!
Another of my favourite has to be Jokusarlon itself! Its my first time seeing a glacier and I expected it to look whitish and icy. I was wrong, it was blue like the blue-colour pencil you have been using to colour your ice when you were young. The first thing I did when I left the car was just shriek OMG! Yea, its that outstanding hahaha! Saw alot of models shooting their photos there. Guess it is either I have became quite fashionable yo go where the models like to shoot or the modeling agencies are scouting me out for a hire😅 Oh and apparently, you can visit the ice caves in winter, by paying 100-200 Euros. However, do check what the package entails first before paying for it, the tour guide brought my friends to walk through a 100m long cave, took some photos and then head back out cause “you cannot see much even if you go deeper cause the sunlight cannot reach inside”. Heng we didin’t go hahaha!
And finally, the black sand beach! Leaving this for the last because I want to remember Iceland for this. The formation of black sand beaches are the trademark of iceland being volcano land:) the volcanic sands are black and they contrasted really well with the white snow falling on them. And surprisingly, en route to the DC plane crash, we spotted the change in landscape from rows of orderly vegetation to monochrome black sands with snow cover! It’s a pretty amazing scene! The official black sand beach was closed to foot walks and we needed to view them from a hill top, and it contrasted against the mist which added a level of mystery to the beach!
At the heart of another black sand beach, the DC plane crash site (nobody was hurt) was found! Since the plane crashed in 1983, the government did not bother clearing the wreckage away and instead leaving it there became a tourist attraction. There was no boundary around it nor any staffs managing it, the wreckage’s fate was just opened to the hands of photo-hungry tourists. The way up to the top of the train was to climb through some holes(presumed created by tourists) and it is quite sad that the wreckage might be destroyed by tourists one day:/ however, the randomness of this plane makes the view really memorable😆 So I finally got my mandatory icelandic shot with the plane hahaha!
And that marks the end of the short but fruitful journey we had in Iceland:) Apart from all the sites, the people mattered a lot as well! Go with people who have similar travel interests and goals and your trip will guarantee to be real fun:) also very thankful to meet the Singaporean family at Vik who heard about our northern light miss on day 1 and offered to send us their pictures instead. Talking to them make me miss home but feel at home at the same time:) I suddenly had a slight nostalgia of my family trip to Europe in 2013 and oh boy, it was so homely then haha! So excited to meet them in a few weeks!
I am very thankful to Rachel for joining us on this trip. To make the decision to crash this couple’s travel adventure, it would not have been easy but Xinyi and I are really sincere about wanting to travel with others as well haha! With an extra friend to travel with, it is not so tiring driving around and meals are not so routine too hahaha! Of course, this cannot compare to a couple trip like we always have, but Iceland is a place to travel with friends😆
Lastly, thank you to Xinyi for being so accommodating! I know that being surrounded by two domineering souls, it will be really difficult and unbreathable for her since she will not dare to voice her opinions as freely. But throughout the trip, Xinyi looked after our welfare and accommodated to us really well. Thank you!
So that marks the end of the very very long post but for everyone who is coming to USA and Europe, do drop by this mystical place if you have the opportunity to. Even if you don’t, CREATE the opportunity too;) summer is a better time if you want to cover more grounds, ie northwest, northern icelands and the volcanoes! Yay, looking forward to the travels once again after the term ends!
CinqeMinte 