I decided I needed to put the highlights of my first solo trip on “paper”, as it was a truly life-changing experience. I didn’t document the details of my entire trip at the time, so here is what I did write. My trip consisted of Iceland, Denmark and Sweden and I loved it all! For more details on the costs of this portion (Iceland) visit this blog post.
It was my first trip post-divorce, and my first international trip flying solo. I was terrified that I would have the worst time stuck with nobody but myself for the entirety of the trip, but it was a great learning and growing experience. As it turns out, I can definitely travel by myself, and the experience was freeing. I had nobody to please but myself. My agenda was completely up to me. My time was my own. My memories were for me only.
Anyways… back to business! I decided to book this trip to Scandinavia after I saw some cheap flights to Copenhagen via Iceland right before Christmas. I believe I booked this trip on Christmas Eve – a Christmas present to myself. I mean, how can you possibly resist a $420 round trip flight including a stop in Iceland! I do my trips scrappy, and I don’t know if I could ever do it any other way.
My first stop on my trip was Iceland. I didn’t really have high expectations for Iceland if I’m being completely honest. I decided to go because Icelandair offer free stopovers in Reykjavik, and why not? The more I looked into it, the more I got excited. Iceland is famous for being extremely expensive, so I think I did a good job at keeping the cost down considering a lunch will cost you at least $25.
On my flight, I sat next to a nice (and small) girl from Vancouver who was heading to Ireland. When I arrived in Reykjavik (early, I think it was 6:30am), I went straight from the Keflavik airport to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon has recently been made famous by the likes of the Kardashians and other celebrities visiting it. I was more interested in going because it looks incredible. When you arrive, you are given a towel, a wristband and you’re forced to strip down and shower in front of everyone before entering the lagoon. Welcome to Europe y’all! The Blue Lagoon was stupid expensive in my opinion, but totally worth it. I spent a good 3 hours just floating around and enjoying my time. You have to slather your hair in conditioner and put it on top of your head to prevent the water from destroying it, so I obviously looked like a supermodel.
My package included two face masks (one algae and one silica) and a drink from the bar. I opted for a skyr banana smoothie. Skyr (pictured below), is a sheeps cheese, almost like yogurt that is extremely high in protein and very good for you. I had at least one a day.
After leaving The Blue Lagoon, I headed to my Airbnb and went to explore Reykjavik. The city is small and I somewhat regret spending half a day there. Iceland has so many natural wonders to explore, I wish I had gone and seen the golden circle instead. Next time! I spent half my time trying to find food to eat or a grocery store, only to discover all of the grocery stores and gas stations close at like 4:00pm! Good for them when it comes to work-life balance, bad for Adria who was starving at 7:00pm.
The next morning I had a tour booked to see Southern Coast of Iceland. After getting up early to walk to my bus stop, waiting 30 minutes for the bus to arrive and then finding a phone to call the tour company, I realized the tour company forgot me. Luckily they had a smaller tour going out in an hour and put me on there instead. I am actually happy this happened, because instead of being stuck on a huge tour bus with a ton of people, it was my tour guide and just a handful of other people. Our tour guide was wonderful and everyone was nice.
The first stop was the Glacier – Sólheimajökull. Although you aren’t allowed to hike the glacier itself without a special tour and equipment, it was absolutely beautiful.
After that we went to Vík – the famous black sand beach. I actually “stole” some of the sand to bring back with me. The ocean and I have a very special relationship, and I always find peace there. I spent a lot of time just admiring the beauty. We also did a little off-roading and drove up to a viewpoint further up Vík.
On the drive we were also able to see the famous volcanos Hekla and Eyjafjallajökull (the volcano that erupted in 2010 causing all Europe flights to be cancelled). We then stopped at Skógafoss where we were greated by beautiful sunshine and a perfect rainbow over the waterfall. Skógafoss is 196 feet and was breathtaking.
As a final stop, we went to Seljalandsfoss (another waterfall), where you can actually hike behind the waterfall. Even though the path was closed, the daredevil in me decided to break the rules and hike behind it anyways. Although I don’t regret doing this… it ended up completely frozen and DRENCHED. Man that waterfall did me wrong.
More Rainbows!
We came back to Reykjavik, and I had enough time to take a quick nap and snarf down some food before going to my Norther Lights tour. Although the chance of seeing the Northern Lights was relatively low, we were blessed with an amazing show of dancing lights. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I wish I had brought my DSLR to take photos. iPhone’s just can’t handle that level of beauty. Thank goodness for tour-mates who take proper photos!
We got back around 1:30am, and I had enough time for a short nap before hopping on Skype for my brother’s mission call. He got called to Tokyo, Japan and I cried. What a loser, eh? I ended up just staying up because I had to head to the airport at 4:30am to head off to Copenhagen, Denmark!
