Iceland Day 2: The South Shore (Aug, 2015)

Hello everyone,

It's been a while (sorry about that). A lot has happened over the past year- I traveled across the United States from Seattle to New York, then hopped across the Atlantic to Iceland and then Denmark, where I spent a month attending class and exploring Copenhagen. Upon returning stateside, I jumped headfirst into my second (and last!) year of graduate school. I can now say with pride that I have earned my Masters in Library and Information Science! Wooohooooo! :D

I'm currently on the job hunt, but I decided it was time to take a few hours out of my job hunt life to post the long awaited photos from Ilse and my tour of the South Shore of Iceland! Our tour was led by a wonderful older gentleman from Iceland Horizon's tour company. He picked us up from our Airbnb in a small bus and Ilse, myself, and 15-20 other tourists headed out of Reykjavik to explore.

Our tour group was much smaller than the others that were available, a fact that I became increasingly grateful for as our bus was able to maneuver up hills to locations that the larger tours missed. We were also allowed to spend more time at each stop than other tour groups I observed- in fact our guide allowed us so much extra time to explore that we got back almost 2 hours after our scheduled return time!

We visited the following locations (see photos below):

• The Eyjafjallajokull Volcano
• Solheimajokull Glacier
• The Black Sand Beach in Vik and the surrounding area
• Skogarfoss Falls at Skogar
• Seljalandsfoss Waterfall (Note: If there is a breeze you will get soaked.)

Iceland is a beautiful country, and I couldn't be more pleased with my trip across the South Shore. It was an amazing experience and I would highly recommend the trip to anyone looking for a great day trip out of Reykjavik.

---

The Eyjafjallajokull Volcano

View fullsize

Solheimajokull Glacier

The Black Sand Beach in Vik and the surrounding area

Skogarfoss Falls at Skogar

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

Happy Travels,

Mia

Iceland, Day 1: #MiaWandersToDenmark

Hello everyone,

I am writing this while I am in ICELAND!!! EEEEEP someone pinch me! Today might be more appropriately described as #MiaBlundersThroughIceland, as it was a smorgasbord of small blunders that resulted in lots of laughs and great memories.

Here are the highlights:

1) We had misplaced the name of the street we were staying on, so we had to guess when we told our bus driver where to drop us off (luckily for us, our bus driver was very nice and knew what street we were trying to say). Also, they overbooked the bus, so I ended up sitting in an emergency seat over the bus stairs, which was alright by me, as it gave me an unobstructed view of the Icelandic countryside through the front window.

2) We arrived at our apartment early, so Ilse and I sat on the steps and laughed about the small mishaps we had already made. Also I tried black licorice salt candies (it was not a pleasant experience), and Ilse made friends with on of Reykjavik's many cats (a much more pleasant experience).

3) Turns out our shower door doesn't close all the way, which I discovered when I mini-flooded the bathroom this morning (whoops). :'D Since then, Ilse has figured out how to move the shower head so that it doesn't hit the door anymore. Also, the water here warms up within a minute of being turned on and is deliciously hot.

4) By this point both Ilse and I had been awake for way too long, so we took a nap... until 3:30 in the afternoon! Whoops! While it took away from our time to explore,  the extra Zzzzs gave us the energy to go pick up groceries and then explore the city- and oh yeah, did I mention that the harbor is surrounded by stunning mountain views?

We found the Rainbow Road, which was painted for the Reykjavik Pride Festival that occurred earlier this August.

I made some charming new friends :)

Found the famous Reykjavik boat

Also, a paver that has an open flame... is this normal or is this an Iceland thing?

5) At around 8 we walked into a cute basement restaurant where we ate out of Mason jars and I tried sweet potato fries with a vanilla yogurt based sauce and royal pudding, while Ilse had lamb, fish, wild game, and hummus based dishes (her comment on them was a very happy YUM) . We then headed back to the harbor, where we met a gentleman who was fishing from the pier and cleaning his catches right on the dock- he didn't see us at first, so we almost got smacked by one of his catches (whoops!). It was worth being almost smacked in the face by a fish, however, as we found a perfect spot to watch one of the most stunning sunsets I have ever had the pleasure to witness.

6. We ended our day relaxing in our beautiful apartment, working on our computers, and watching the first few episodes of Sense 8 on Netflix. All in all, it was a perfect first day in Iceland. I can't wait to see what adventures and laughter the next few days here bring!

Until next time,

AK