Introducing Georgia

A little over a month ago I spent a week in Iceland, but alas, procrastination took over and I am only now writing my blogpost about my time there. However, with details still fresh in my mind I thought I would tell you about how I spent my time in Iceland and offer some advice on the best things to do, where to go, what to take, etc, etc…

I went to Iceland with my friend, Hannah. It was a country that I had wanted to visit for a long time, and was on my travel bucket list that I posted a while back. At last, after saving up, I was able to cross it off my list!

It was the first time I had gone away (to another country) without any kind of parental supervision and so I kind of felt a lot of pressure to make sure we were organised and knew what we were doing. We went on Monday 21st November 2016, travelling to Manchester airport by train, which in itself was a difficult task due to train delays and so on. Nevertheless, we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare!
We arrived in Iceland in the evening, meaning the day was pretty much spent travelling, leaving us tired and ready for bed by the time we got to the hotel – not without food first though, of course! We stayed at a guesthouse called Sunna Guesthouse which was located right in the centre of Reykjavik. We could see the Hallgrímskirkja from our bedroom window; it was literally a 30 second walk across the road from the front door of the hotel. A couple of streets across was one of the main streets in the centre of Reykjavik which had lots of restaurants and cafés dotted a long it, and so we headed out in search for somewhere to eat. It was pretty difficult on the first night to find somewhere that fitted our ‘dietary needs’. I myself am a vegetarian, and the Icelandic are known for eating lots of fish, which of course is not vegetarian friendly. However, if you look around enough there are plenty of places that you can find that serve a wide variety of dishes that suit most people. Iceland is also known for it’s high prices, and our first meal did not fall short of expensive expectations. After that night we were careful to look a bit harder for somewhere that was more in budget…

Tuesday was our first full day in Iceland and we got up bright and early in order to be picked up outside our hotel and taken to the Blue Lagoon. A trip to Iceland wouldn’t be complete without a visit to one of it’s most famous locations. It certainly did not disappoint. We got there fairly early in the morning but it was already quite busy. We got a fairly basic package of just a towel and entry, however, if you pay a little extra you can get a robe, sandals and a drink included. The mad dash from the changing rooms to the lagoon was freezing, making the entry into the warm lagoon even more welcomed. It is bizarre being outside surrounded by mountains and volcanic rock, feeling the harsh cold wind on your face and yet sitting in water that is warm. I could have stayed in it for hours, and we were in the water for a good two hours or so. By the end of it my hands were so wrinkly I was actually quite concerned they were going to stay that way. Exiting the lagoon, we got dried and dressed and decided to have something to eat in the cafe before heading back out to catch our bus back to our hotel. The great thing about these excursions is that you can choose how long you want to stay in the lagoon for because essentially, once you are there you can stay in the lagoon all day if you wish. 

That evening we went on the hunt for somewhere to eat that was a little more in our price range than the first night. We found a little vegetarian cafe called Café Babalú that served really nice food that was relatively cheap. The decor inside was so cosy and quirky and I would definitely recommend going there if you’re in Reykjavik. We got picked up again by bus that night to take us on our northern lights tour. Sadly on our tour the cloud was too thick for us to get a glimpse of them, but we could see some Aurora activity happening behind the clouds. The tour lasted around five hours, basically driving around the Icelandic country as the tour guide talked to you about the history of the northern lights and Iceland. All of this made the tour very enjoyable and interesting even if we didn’t get to see the lights themselves. Luckily, the company that does the tours allows you to keep on going back until you do manage to see the lights, and your ticket lasts for up to two years. This gives me an excuse to revisit Iceland in the future, not that I need one!

Wednesday held another early start for us, as we were taken on a Golden Circle tour which lasted all day. The tour consisted of visiting some of the main ‘nature sights’ of Iceland, including the Gullfoss Waterfall, Geysirs and Thingvellir National Park. The highlights of this tour for me were the Gullfoss waterfall, a smaller waterfall that we visited and the Geysir. We got to learn a lot about Iceland on this tour and how some of these natural wonders were formed. For instance, we visited a crater called Kerið which was formed when the magma chamber below a cone volcano emptied and the cone above collapsed into the empty chamber. It’s a very interesting tour that I would definitely recommend to anyone visiting Iceland.

That evening we went out for a little explore around the city. We basically just walked around seeing what the city had to offer as we planned on exploring it more thoroughly the next day.

Thursday was our final full day in Iceland and we decided to spend it exploring the city of Reykjavik. We first went to the Hallgrímskirkja. You can pay a small fee of around £6 to take a lift to the top of the tower, where you can look out over Reykjavik. You can also go inside the church itself which was full of people taking photos of the beautiful architectural designs inside. In the image on the left below, the white building at the very left hand side of the photo is our hotel which gives you an idea of just how central we were.

Following on from this we decided to try and find the Tjörnin pond; a pond in Reykjavik. We knew the general direction of the pond, as we could see it from the church tower so we just walked in that direction and miraculously managed to walk straight to it without getting lost.

Hunger soon set in and so we decided to go for something to eat. We found a lovely little Indian restaurant that did lots of vegan options as well as options for meat eaters so it was perfect for us both. After lunch we walked up the main shopping streets in Reykjavik, making sure to go into pretty much every souvenir shop that we passed. There are lots of shops to go in, from clothing stores to record stores to souvenir shops, however, on a tight budget we were not able to really indulge in any purchases. We did get a couple of souvenirs for ourselves though to take back home with us. Nevertheless it was lovely to walk around the city for a few hours and see what Reykjavik had to offer.

That night we went to a lovely Italian restaurant called Rossopomodoro before heading back to the hotel for our last night in Reykjavik before flying home the next morning.

My tips and advice:

• Spending money – I would recommend taking a minimum of £250 for about four days in Iceland to spend on food and drink. I spend around £260 the whole time we were there on both food and drink and on souvenirs, but I made sure to stick to a budget and we tried to choose relatively cheap but nice places to eat. Just be prepared for everything to be very expensive!
• What to do – I would do all of the excursions that we went on again and would definitely recommend others to do them. I feel like you can do Reykjavik in about a day, as there isn’t a great deal in the city itself. I didn’t feel as though we needed any longer to explore the city, although I would have liked to have gone to the harbour and seen that area, but due to distance and weather we decided to stick to the city centre. Other excursions that we didn’t have time to do and that I would love to do are the black beaches and waterfall tour, whale watching tour, glacier, volcano and cave tours, among others.
• How long to go for – Personally, I think that you need at least a week in Iceland to be able to do everything. We were there Monday – Friday but were only really there for three full days. This was definitely not long enough to do everything that we wanted, as you can see by the list of excursions that I still wish to do. I think that a week is a good length of time to be able to fit in lots of different activities.
• What to wear – THERMALS, THERMALS, THERMALS. Iceland is cold (duh). When I was there, most of the time I was wearing four layers on top. I had on a pair of thermal leggings, thermal socks, jeans, a thermal top, a long sleeved top, a jumper a coat and I wore my Dr Martens. Yes, I had all of this on at the same time. I probably looked like Joey from that episode of Friends where he layers up to protect his arm from his girlfriends playful punches.

Anyway…my point is, make sure you take lots of warm clothes with you that you can layer up. If you get too hot – which I doubt – you can always take off a layer!

• Where to stay – I would definitely recommend the Sunna Guesthouse as a hotel, especially for those who are on a budget. The rooms were very basic but had everything we needed; a bed and a bathroom. We got an en suite but if you wanted to save even more money they offer rooms with a shared bathroom. Breakfast was provided which again was pretty basic but for the price we paid it was fine for us. Additionally, they have a fridge on the first floor with cupboards where you can store your own food. This was handy for us as we were leaving very early on the Friday morning, before breakfast was served, so we went to a little supermarket round the corner from our hotel on the Thursday night and got some cereal and milk to have for our breakfast the next morning.

All in all with a bit of preparation and budgeting, Iceland is very much accessible for everyone! Just make sure to save up plenty of spending money and do your research of places to eat, visit, stay before you go. I will DEFINITELY be visiting Iceland again as it is one of my favourite places I have been lucky enough to travel to.

So, until next time Iceland!