The idea to go to Iceland started with a Facebook post from one of my girlfriends friend's. She was gauging interest to see if anyone would be interested in going as this year was supposed to be fantastic for Aurora Borealis activity. So on a whim we decided to go. Why the hell not, given that our intention is to relocate to this year we thought it would check another item off the list and quell the wanderlust for a bit. The premise was simple, 6 days and nights in the land of fire and ice.
Flights were booked, condo was reserved, tours were arranged, and CrabJoe was kind enough to dog sit for our little monster. The trip almost didn't happen; a bad snow storm blew through the night we flew out and dumped 14" on the Boston area. Granted conditions were much the same when we landed in Keflavik, snow was blowing sideways in 35 mph gusts. Welcome to Iceland!
Not too much to report from the first day, we caught the shuttle to our home, unpacked, and slept for a few hours. I explored the place for a bit, enjoying the decor that was sourced solely from Ikea. Every. Single. Piece.
Our bedroom was one of the kid's rooms. It felt kind of odd sleeping with glow in the dark stars and moons lighting up the room.
We braved the cold and the wind that afternoon/evening and wandered around the city getting a feel of things. Considering that 2/3 the population of the country lives in the Reykjavik area it was amusing to realize you could walk across the city in 15 minutes. A few hours later found us at Iceland's most famous restaurant, the hot dog stand by the bay. The hot dogs were delicious, made of lamb with friend onions, and some weird sauces. Plowed down two of those and retired for the night, we were going on a glacier walk the next day.
Of course I mixed up our tours and instead of going for a glacier walk, we were supposed to ride horses and go caving that day. It was uh, a bit of a surprise, I had my full photo backpack and tripod. This was of course denied when it came time to ride the horses, I was forced to use nothing but the GoPro. After suiting up, donning helmets, and getting paired up with a horse, we set out among the lava fields.
The terrain was foreign, almost like another planet. Waves of lava rolled as far as the eye could see, scoured clean by the 45mph winds whipping across the landscape. Snow blew sideways and stung our faces as we trotted along.
Icelandic horses are unique and a great source of pride for the people. They are smaller than your typical horse with great flowing manes. They are like 50% horse, 50% donkey, and 50% lion. To preserve the uniqueness of the breed, they mandate that any horse that leaves the country may never return. No clothing or apparatus that has been in the presence of other livestock is allowed into the country for fear of disease and contamination of the breed's purity.
We spent the better part of two hours out and about, trotting along and enjoying the view. Unfortunately we didn't get to into their gait specific to the Icelandic horse, the tote (sp?) for much more than a few moments due to lame asses who didn't want to go fast.
We finished up the ride which was capped off by watching a guy in Calvin Klein dress shoes slip and fall in sh!t. I LOL'd at him. A quick lunch and we were ready to go caving.
Flights were booked, condo was reserved, tours were arranged, and CrabJoe was kind enough to dog sit for our little monster. The trip almost didn't happen; a bad snow storm blew through the night we flew out and dumped 14" on the Boston area. Granted conditions were much the same when we landed in Keflavik, snow was blowing sideways in 35 mph gusts. Welcome to Iceland!
Not too much to report from the first day, we caught the shuttle to our home, unpacked, and slept for a few hours. I explored the place for a bit, enjoying the decor that was sourced solely from Ikea. Every. Single. Piece.
Our bedroom was one of the kid's rooms. It felt kind of odd sleeping with glow in the dark stars and moons lighting up the room.
We braved the cold and the wind that afternoon/evening and wandered around the city getting a feel of things. Considering that 2/3 the population of the country lives in the Reykjavik area it was amusing to realize you could walk across the city in 15 minutes. A few hours later found us at Iceland's most famous restaurant, the hot dog stand by the bay. The hot dogs were delicious, made of lamb with friend onions, and some weird sauces. Plowed down two of those and retired for the night, we were going on a glacier walk the next day.
Of course I mixed up our tours and instead of going for a glacier walk, we were supposed to ride horses and go caving that day. It was uh, a bit of a surprise, I had my full photo backpack and tripod. This was of course denied when it came time to ride the horses, I was forced to use nothing but the GoPro. After suiting up, donning helmets, and getting paired up with a horse, we set out among the lava fields.
The terrain was foreign, almost like another planet. Waves of lava rolled as far as the eye could see, scoured clean by the 45mph winds whipping across the landscape. Snow blew sideways and stung our faces as we trotted along.
Icelandic horses are unique and a great source of pride for the people. They are smaller than your typical horse with great flowing manes. They are like 50% horse, 50% donkey, and 50% lion. To preserve the uniqueness of the breed, they mandate that any horse that leaves the country may never return. No clothing or apparatus that has been in the presence of other livestock is allowed into the country for fear of disease and contamination of the breed's purity.
We spent the better part of two hours out and about, trotting along and enjoying the view. Unfortunately we didn't get to into their gait specific to the Icelandic horse, the tote (sp?) for much more than a few moments due to lame asses who didn't want to go fast.
We finished up the ride which was capped off by watching a guy in Calvin Klein dress shoes slip and fall in sh!t. I LOL'd at him. A quick lunch and we were ready to go caving.