686. Exploring Madrid

I am a few days behind - we are currently in Amsterdam as I make this post. On Christmas Day, I suddenly became sick. Unfortunately now my boyfriend caught it too and is sleeping early, so I have some time to update this lol.

After my previous post, we left La Coruna on an overnight train to Madrid. The train ride was horrible for me thanks to my extreme coughing and difficulty to sleep. After what felt like the longest 11 hours of the trip so far, we arrived in Madrid bright and early in the morning.

We checked into our hotel, had breakfast then walked around the city for a few hours to explore the main sites. It was my first time in Madrid and I really loved it! I think I enjoyed it more than Barcelona. The city was really festive and there is a lot to explore. We only had two days here which wasn't nearly enough.

Here are some photos of the first day:






A really cool food market. Everything is gourmet and looked delicious. It was super busy though.










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685. Christmas in La Coruña

Merry Christmas!! For the past several days, we were in La Coruna. It is my boyfriend's hometown so we came to spend Christmas with his family. It's so cozy and festive here. It was my first time ever celebrating Christmas outside of Toronto I think. I had a wonderful time. The weather here has been pretty nice as well for the winter. About 15-20 degrees each day. Here are some photos to sum up our week. Tonight we leave to Madrid.

This was our Christmas lunch yesterday. My boyfriend's mom made these cute ornaments with all our faces hahah. I love them.




















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684. KEF to BCN to LCG (& our experience with WOW Air)

We are currently sitting at the airport in Barcelona. It's now 5pm and we've been here since 8:30am this morning. The last couple days consisted of waiting at airports for our flights. So in the beginning when we made our bookings, we booked WOW Air to depart Reykjavik early morning to arrive in Barcelona at noon. Then our next flight to La Coruna would be around 3pm. It was the ideal flight schedule.

Then a couple weeks ago we received notice from WOW Air that our flight to Barcelona got delayed. Well it got 'delayed' until the following day (roughly 19 hours after our originally scheduled departure!) and they would not tell me what the reason was. Our new departure time would be 3am in the morning to arrive in Barcelona at 8:30am. Then here in Barcelona there was no 3pm flight available for La Coruna anymore so we now have to take the 8pm flight. Meaning 12 hours stuck at the airport. We also had to pay extra for the flight change to La Coruna as we needed to reschedule it to the following day. It was a very frustrating experience and as a first time customer of them, not a good impression of WOW Air at all. Our entire schedule these days got messed up and we also had to pay extra to accommodate the changes with the other airline. With no compensation from WOW. I guess this is what happens with low-cost airlines lol however with their ridiculous fees for luggage it ends up not being very low cost at all (extra ~$150 per check-in and carry-on bag).

So on our final day in Reykjavik yesterday, we just spent the day around the city before heading to the airport around midnight. Every day for breakfast we went to a bakery cafe called Sandholt. Yesterday I got this spätzle. It was delicious!!


The sky finally cleared up and we were finally able to take some nice shots by the water.


Then we went to Joe & The Juice to work for a few hours.

At night we decided to go back to Kaffi Loki where we had gone a few days before. We both had our favourite meals of the trip here. I got the "Fish of the Day" both times which was steamed codfish, sweet potatoes and salad. My boyfriend had the mashed fish. The portions are very large. I would recommend this place if you visit Reykjavik. They are located directly in front of Hallgrímskirkja Church.

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683. Reykjavik Day 4 | Exploring Snaefellsnes Peninsula

Yesterday we booked a tour to visit to Snaefellsnes Peninsula (a few hours away from Reykjavik), an area known for its dramatic landscapes. We really enjoyed it. We saw glaciers, a black lava beach, fishing villages, mountains, waterfalls and some of the most stunning scenery. Basically the impression I always had in mind when I thought of Iceland. We had fairly good weather as well yesterday (no rain!) which made the tour better.

The Golden Circle sights are the most popular for visitors however we thought Snaefellsnes offered a lot more. I would definitely recommend it if you come for a trip. Now I wish we had a few extra days to explore more places of the country. I think the further away from Reykjavik the more beautiful the areas are.

Tonight we leave for Spain. It will be a long two-day journey of flights and layovers..




I really wish my eyes were open here.







Djúpalónssandur is a black lava pearl beach. We walked through this lava formations path to get there. It felt very surreal as if it was on a different planet.




All the rocks and pebbles were super round and smooth.


Then we visited this little village which had a lot of cabins available for rent. A good spot if you want some isolation (& probably a good Northern Lights viewing spot). We walked a bit along the coast.







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