In July, our travel nurse friend, Kate, threw out the idea of taking a trip to Iceland! It would be a travel-nurse-girls trip, with me, Annette, Kate, and Jacquie. The added bonus was that her family friend is a travel agent, so she created a full itinerary of all the activities, as well as provided all of the travel logistics (ie. flights, transportation, hotel, etc). I don't think it's a surprise that the #TravelNurseBabes immediately said yes! October quickly approached, and we were boarding our flight from LAX to Reykjavik! The flight was about 7 hours, which sufficed as a decent night sleep!
Annette, Jacquie, and I landed in Iceland, and we headed to our hotel, the Radisson Blu Saga, where we meet up with Kate. We didn't let the jet-lag kick in, rather we went out and walked the quaint little city of Reykjavik. We stopped at a few bars and pubs for wine and apps, The Public House and Bravo, before heading back to the hotel to get bundled up for our night excursion. Nothing says Iceland more than the Northern Lights, so naturally we wanted to start our trip off by (hopefully) seeing them! It was a little discouraging when our guide's opening speech focused on the "low visibility score" for the night, meaning a very little chance that we'll be able to see the phenomenon. A few hours later, while dozing off on the bus, our guide squeals and over the loudspeaker we hear her telling the bus driver to pull over because she see's a glimpse of the neon-green lights. She's called a "guide" for a reason, because sure enough, we unloaded from the bus and saw the spectacular lights dancing across the sky. This is where the iPhone 8 would've come in handy (thanks for sharing your pics, Kate), because no matter how many photos our earlier generation iPhones took, it did not do justice to what our eyes were looking at. We ended up getting on and off the bus and witnessing the Northern Lights a handful of times more, which we were extremely lucky to experience.
Shoutout to the continental breakfast at the Radisson!! We ate like queens and it didn't cost us a thing (except for the hotel room bill I suppose). Today's activity was the highly anticipated Blue Lagoon!! It was 100% every bit as good in real life as it looks on Instagram. What a paradise! Understandably so, you are required to shower before entering the soothing, milky blue water fed by the geothermal seawater from deep under the lava. There's a short 10 step distance between where you drop off your towel and enter the water, but the chilliness soon disappears once you step into the lagoon. I think a smile was plastered on all of our faces the entire time we were in the water. We hit up the swim-up bar, and enjoyed drinks while we glided through the water. We spent about two hours in there, taking countless photos, chatting, and enjoying the clay face masks. After the incredibly relaxing day, we went back to the hotel and got ready for our first real night out in Iceland.
We went to Saeta Svinio Gastropub, where we first had drinks in the cozy, treehouse-like 3rd story of the restaurant which was glowing with stars through the roof. Dinner was served on the first floor, and Annette and I got a little adventurous with our order, trying their native bird Puffin (not a fan), whale, and lamb. That night was one for the books-- we started off at The Drunk Rabbit Irish Pub, where they had live music and a bustling crowd. Randomly enough, a guy recognized Annette, and we later learned that they had gone on a date years ago in Chicago... creepy that he remembered her first and last name? Ridiculous that of all the places we ran into him in Iceland? I'd say yes to both. After a few beers we headed down the street to Bjarni Fel in attempts to catch the World Series game on tv. While there, we befriended a group of guys from NYC who had also resorted to the sports bar to watch the games. The night was a blast, filled with drinking games and dancing.
Today we rented a car and explored the south coast of the island sans-tour guides! It was a bit risky since we didn't have service to connect to google maps on the ride, but with each stop we logged onto the free wifi and updated our route. Our day-trip started in Reykjavik and we went as far southeast as Vik. In between we made beautiful stops to:
- Seljalandsfoss Waterfall
- Eyjafjallajokull Volcano
- Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach
Each stop was magnificent, and the drive between the places of interest was on a one-lane highway surrounded by green meadows as far as you could see until they reached the mountainous glaciers. We all took turns driving, to give everyone an opportunity to take in the views and to dj the music. For the most part, it was a very relaxing drive, minus two near-death, now funny, experiences... While Jacquie was driving and Annette was co-piloting, we came across some winding hills. After a few hills, the momentum of speed that we picked up along with Jacquie's lead foot, had Kate and I in the backseat wide-eyed and terrified. For a moment, we were convinced she was a race car driver in her past life. I was too flabbergasted to formulate words, but thankfully Kate spoke up and soon after we were driving the speed limit and dying laughing that Jacquie and Annette didn't even realize we almost took off in flight. While Annette was driving, we spotted a rainbow arching perfectly over a pond and the glaciers- it was absolutely picturesque! Forgetting that she was driving, the excitement of finding the marvel almost had us squished by a semi-truck... Clearly we survived, and lived to tell our stories!! We got delicious sushi at Sushi Social (and broke an antique toy, shhh), and went back to both The Dead Rabbit for a beer followed by Bjarni Fel to meet up with our new NYC friends... we quickly became regulars to the staff at both bars.
Our final adventure in Iceland was the Golden Circle Classic Tour, which encompasses three of Iceland's most famous landmarks:
- Pingvellir National Park: where the tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia split and drift apart.
- Gullfoss Waterfall- a massive, double waterfall that cascades into a narrow canyon. BREATHTAKING!
- the Strokkur Geysir- one of the most hot springs, with bubbling mud pools, hissing steam vents, and a 20-meter high blast of boiling water every 4-8 minutes
All day we were on and off of the bus, which tired us out a bit. On our walk home, we all split a highly recommended Icelandic hotdog, which was hands-down better than the average American "meat". On our final night, we enjoyed dinner at Tapas Barrin, where we continued our adventurous ordering, and tried whale, duck, and lamb. The next morning we were boarding the airplane back to reality, but we all agreed that our majestic weekend trip would keep us dreaming about coming back in the future.
https://youtu.be/Ip_aiuMfiUU
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