Iceland, November 2015

We visited Iceland in November for my birthday as it had been my dream destination for a while. I'm happy to say that Reykjavik didn't disappoint, and up to date still remains my favourite place for a lot of different reasons. The city center is small but feels so friendly and surprisingly cosy, despite the fresh cold air. I would say it is also one of the more expensive places I have visited but not in a negative way – I felt as if everything was worth the money I spent so I didn't feel robbed at any point, and many of the day trips you probably couldn't manage by yourself, especially as we can't drive, so I felt happy to pay the cost. Having said that, I also never seemed to get a grasp of the conversion rate, and kept buying things that I thought were cheap, but really weren't so maybe you shouldn't trust my money advice haha! (On the plus side, I now own a lovely and very expensive lava bracelet, and it was totally worth it no matter what Arron says.) The only thing that underperformed was the Whale museum which was very overpriced for such a small area, and although the 3D models were pretty awesome in honesty you can give this one a miss. The restaurants are great quality and, even as a vegetarian, I managed to find a great option every night, although I possibly would've struggled if I was looking to stay for 7 – 14 nights. Call me crazy but salad doesn't appeal when it's snowing outside... 

I booked us a one-bedroom apartment which although was technically more like a studio room, it served its purpose well and I probably would go back to the same place if, or more likely, when I visit again. It was also conveniently opposite a great coffee shop called Reykjavik Roasters (We liked to think its a small local shop, but could easily be Iceland's version of a Starbucks...) which serves great Chai Lattes and started up my love for Avocados when I ordered an amazing snack that everyone around me seemed to be eating... It was literally just avocado and lemon juice on toasted sourdough – utter genius.

Reykjavik is covered in awesome street art (see some examples below) which makes it a beautiful place to walk around, and the walk along the seafront is a good way to spend an afternoon as you will pass the Sunvoyager Sculpture (see above) and in winter you'll be able to see Peace Tower lit up across the sea. 

The Hallgrímskirkja is the city's central cathedral and is a very modern structure in comparison to cathedrals in central Europe. It offers amazing panoramic views and is an awesome sight to see in itself. I'm sure this kind of non-traditional architecture will divide opinion but I personally think it's quite imposing!

I would also advise speaking to the staff at the information center as they will be able to give you good information about the surrounding area and they have lots of good tour options if you don't manage to sort out what you want to do before you arrive. A bit of good advice passed on to me by my best friend from school is to book the Northern lights tour once you are there as the staff can advise you on what evening you will get the best chance of seeing it according to the weather forecast. We were advised to go on our first day of arrival, which we hadn't planned for as we were pretty tired from an early flight, but it was well worth it as we were lucky enough to see the northern lights! They were just as incredible as I had imagined they would be. Interestingly the colours come across much stronger at first through a camera compared to the human eye, though it was still hard to get a brilliant picture of them. I think I need to get some practice in night photography!

We pre-booked all our other tours through Nordic Visitor and they really were awesome. I would recommend the company to anyone – we were picked up and dropped back off again at our front door making early pickups nice and easy, and on top of that the tour guides were amazing. No awkward silences even though you're on a coach for a reasonable amount of time, and they're really knowledgeable about the history and culture of Iceland. On the first day, we did the Golden Circle Tour (9am - 5pm) which is probably one of the most popular and well-known options. You visit some awe-inspiring waterfalls and geysers, but the most amazing part for me was the Thingvellir National Park, see photos below.

The blue lagoon is another famous spot to visit which we did on our second day in Iceland. There really is something so magical about stepping out into freezing temperatures, surrounded by black lava-covered ground and snowy top mountains, into warm and beautiful blue natural springs. There are two separate changing areas for men and women which make it hard to know when to go out into the open as I couldn't contact Arron but also didn't want to have to stand around outside waiting for him in a bikini in freezing cold weather... Once you're over the initial shock the experience really is unforgettable and I was glad I took in a throwaway underwater camera to get some blurry, but good shots for the photo album.

One of my other goals and reasons behind being so interested in traveling to Iceland was to go Whale watching, but unfortunately, we went on our last day and the weather was awful (we were gripping onto the side of the boat for dear life) and although we saw dolphins I wasn't lucky enough to see a Whale. It is known however that summer is the best time to travel if you want to go Whale watching so I'll just have to go again to improve my chances...