697. Iceland 2.0 | Blue Lagoon, Icelandic Horses, Wow Air

During the final two days in Iceland, we visited the Blue Lagoon and went Icelandic horseback riding. They were two things we wanted to do on our first trip but didn't get a chance to. I really loved the horseback riding! Blue Lagoon was a nice experience but it is an over-priced tourist trap (with everything together it was approximately $200 per person). It is something to do if there is time in the schedule but I don't think I would do it again. I heard that the other natural springs in Iceland are nicer and more worth it to visit.


Starting the day with breakfast at our usual spot (Sandholt)

We booked a few hours of horseback riding with Islenski Hesturinn. We went around beautiful volcanic landscapes. As I was too nervous to take any photos during the ride (in fear of falling off)..I don't have any of the scenery unfortunately. The guides took some photos and said they would be sending the photos to us soon though.





Here was my horse, Graumann!


After the horseback riding, we got back into the city in time for dinner. We went to a Danish/Scandinavian restaurant called Jomfruin. During our first trip to Reykjavik, we didn't get a chance to eat here (since we didn't reserve and they were fully booked on the night we went) but I really wanted to. I like Scandinavian cuisine. So this trip, I was excited for a chance to eat here. Unfortunately we ended up being very disappointed in it. I ordered a schnitzel and it was WAYYYY too salty. My boyfriend said his was the worst meal he had in Iceland lol. I guess my expectations were too high for this place.


The following day, we visited the Blue Lagoon!



It was nice and relaxing being in the very warm water, surrounded by extremely cold temperatures.




Dinner at Geiri Smart that night. The food was delicious but I remember being extremely sleepy since we ate pretty late lol.

I'm sure you know by now about the abrupt closer of Wow Air. We had booked with them for this trip and the airline shuts down the day before our departure back to Toronto. It created a lot of stress for a few hours. We found this out the morning before visiting the Blue Lagoon, so we had limited time to frantically search for alternate flights/routes back home (entrance to the Blue Lagoon is pre-booked and timed so it's not flexible). At the last minute before catching the shuttle bus to the Lagoon, we were able to book tickets to fly to Edmonton, then back to Toronto the following day. We wasted a couple thousand dollars due to this but I guess it will be a memorable experience lol. As I always try to look for the positive in any situation, I know this could have been a LOT worse. For example if we were to find out the airline shut down while we were at the airport already, or flying that day. I heard a lot of people were stranded at the airport. The airline didn't announce their closure at first - the flights just kept getting "delayed" while people were waiting for it, then they eventually find out the airline shut down. Also if we didn't have the option to fly to Edmonton we would have had to spend way more on booking a last minute flight.

Leaving Reykjavik was pretty hectic though. At the airport at one point, their security system shut down due to the high volume and I was stuck in the customs line for awhile wondering if I'd miss the flight to Edmonton. Everything worked out though and we had a really nice seat on the flight.

There really isn't anything to do at all in Edmonton. The streets were very deserted and pretty sketchy. We stayed at the Fairmont MacDonald downtown and spent the majority of our time there at the hotel. We had breakfast with the Anaheim Ducks (well not "with" them, but some of them were there eating as well as they had a game against the Edmonton Oilers that night). After one night there, we flew back to Toronto.

& that concludes our second trip to Iceland! Even with the horrible Wow Air experience (for the second time)..and not seeing the Northern Lights again..I really had an amazing time!!

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696. Iceland 2.0 | Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon & Diamond Beach

After visiting the ice cave, we explored Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and Diamond Beach. Seeing the glaciers was my favourite. I really loved the contrast of blues and whites (I guess that's also why I love Greece/Santorini). I also hope to visit the Arctic someday to see the towering glaciers.

Jokulsarlon is the deepest lake in Iceland (~250 metres deep) and some of the icebergs are over 1000 years old.







Diamond Beach is a black sand beach where some of the icebergs have washed ashore.







Seeing the lagoon from above. It was quite windy lol..



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695. Iceland 2.0 | Exploring Vatnajökull Ice Cave

Luckily the rain stopped the next day and it was sunny, yet EXTREMELY windy; the strongest winds I've ever experienced in my life. The photos look like the atmosphere was nice and calm but it wasn't lol. I actually thought I would blow away. According to our guide, this was the second day he ever experienced it being as windy (so it isn't like that all the time there). Even though it was freezing and I got soaked again, it was a fun experience.

We visited Vatnajökull National Park which included a large ice field and ice cave. We had to wear these things on our boots to walk in the ice cave:



This is the opening of the ice cave, where we would walk into.


It was really cold and windy in there the entire time, with water dripping down. It did feel like we were on an extreme expedition lol.






At this opening, the winds and water/ice was so strong it was pretty painful as it hit my face.

This is the opening where we had to climb out of. The photo is taken looking up (it's not a straight walk across). There was a rope I hung onto on the side and rocks/ice to use as steps. I was so scared I'd slip and fall on the way up. Water was rushing down the sides and a huge splash went into my right boot.



This was the truck we rode on. It was a very bumpy ride around the ice field.




There are two people in this photo (if you noticed) so you can get an idea of the scale

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694. Iceland 2.0 | Waterfalls & Glaciers

As a gift for my birthday, my boyfriend took me to Iceland again. It was our second time there in three months. The first time was for the Christmas holidays before going to Europe last December. I had an amazing time there despite some bad luck we had (really bad weather, not being able to see the Northern Lights, & another bad experience with Wow Air). This time we visited places we were unable to on our first trip; the South of Iceland, the East of Iceland, the Blue Lagoon, and Icelandic horse-back riding.

Here we were flying over Toronto on the way to Iceland..on board a now non-existent airline, Wow Air. They caused more issues for us than I want to write about on here lol. The airline ended up shutting down a day before our flight back home (more about that in a future post). It's kind of ironic that we booked the tickets for this trip partially with a voucher we received from them in order to compensate for our last bad experience, and now this happened.

Age of Ambition: I was reading this book on the flight over. I really love it so far..it's really interesting and pretty funny in some parts. I bought it many months ago and only managed to start reading it now. That's part of the reason I like flights; being about to catch up on my overdue reading.

One of the many inconveniences of Wow Air flights was that they landed at 4:45am in the morning in Reykjavik. So we had many hours to kill until we were able to check into our hotel room (that day we managed to get our room at 12:30pm). So we sat around for hours the first morning, waiting.

After we got our room, we took a nap for several hours then went out to dinner at our favourite restaurant there - Kaffi Loki. They have the best fish there!! Afterwards, we just walked around the city a bit and then went back to the hotel for an early night.



Breakfast at our hotel the next morning.

The first couple days of our trip, we joined a tour to visit the Southern and Eastern parts of the country. It was an overnight trip that spanned two days. The first day, the weather was the worst I ever experienced. There was literally non-stop (pretty heavy) rain all day, very windy and very cold. Less than halfway through the first day, we were completely soaked already from top to bottom, and had to stay uncomfortably in wet clothes all day. I never experienced that before lol. It was quite an experience. So the photo above was from the rainy day at Seljalandsfoss waterfall. We came back to this spot the next day. Here you can compare how it was on a nicer sunnier day (you can even see a rainbow!):



Back to the rainy day:


This one is called Skogafoss


Then we visited the Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach.


It was soooo cold and rainy/windy here I didn't manage to get many photos as I thought I was getting frostbite.



This was my favourite place from the trip: Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon. We ended up coming back again the next day in nicer weather though.




We also visited Diamond Beach. I really liked the contrast of the ice against the black sand.


In the evening we stayed at a hotel somewhere in the area and spent part of the night trying to dry our completely soaked wet clothes using a hair dryer. Unfortunately the skies were not the right condition to see the Northern Lights.

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