Iceland

In Iceland we were a little concerned as there was no passport control and we walked straight through with our bags. We declared our food but were waved away like we were crazy - “any bees??”. We got the shuttle to the campervan hire place and got our little camper. 'Camper' is a broad term used for our station wagon. Then like complete amateurs we sat in it at the hire place, for about 20 minutes and had a minor panic as we had absolutely no idea where we were going.
After a while we just drove and found a campsite but first, we found a supermarket and got a few supplies, and then KFC was calling us. $40 later we left. The campervan was extremely basic but the bed was comfortable which was the main thing! The next morning we drove to a view overlooking a lake. It was sooo cold but very pretty. We drove back to the campsite to try and find someone (for the 4th time) to pay but couldn’t find anyone so finally left. This meant it was a “cheap” night for us. Pingvellir National Park was our spot for breakfast.
We moved on to our first natural sight (in the same park) which was like a small canyon – a formation of rocks and crevices and was massive. We had beaten the crowds which was such a nice feeling. It was sunny but freezing and fresh – a lovely way to start the day. We walked further and saw the location of the old Viking courthouse or Parliament and then a small waterfall which is where the Viking people drowned others as a form of punishment – it was a beautiful spot until we learned this. The water was so pure and clear – you could have had a drink from straight out of it! After that we went to Laugarvaten which was a thermal pool. Here was a pool in which we could buy tickets and have a swim – there were three different tiers of hotness and we went in all three, although the ‘coldest’ one was probably the nicest as you could sit in the water and overlook the thermal lake. The weather was exceptional and was truly a lovely sight and experience. After that, I came out of the changing rooms to an extremely stressed Kyle who thought he had lost the keys to the camper. He had looked in every single locker in the changing rooms and was running around like a mad man - they were in my bag as I had taken them earlier - disaster adverted.
The next stop on the Golden Circle were some

waterfalls. There were so many of them, we are pretty sure this one was Gullfoss (foss meaning waterfall). This was a massive waterfall with a canyon and plenty of tourists around but our luck had run out in the lack of tourist area. However they were beautiful and we walked around and got a little wet in the process. After that we went to a church that had Viking ruins – Blaskogabyggo.
Next stop was the Kerid Crater which was such a beautiful colour which is an old lava chamber that had collapsed and that is how it was formed. We walked around the whole thing and really enjoyed that site. We then drove all the way back to basically our starting point (Grinavik region), so that we could go to the famous Blue Lagoon. This is a natural blue spring that you have to book to go into. We could only get that night so we went for it. It was very expensive ($385 for both thermal pools that day) but worth every cent. We got a free drink and mud mask and swam around in this beautiful temperature of water. It was truly an experience and we are so glad we did it. It is also compulsory to shower naked before you get into any swimming pool here so that was also an interesting experience. We then found a camping site and cooked pasta at 10pm by the sea. Thankfully we had another good night of sleep and paid for the site the next day.
After that we took off to a waterfall which was a high one rather than a low one at Rangarbing Eystra which was truly spectacular. We then dropped our car off got a shuttle back to the airport where we had to catch two buses to Reykavik. Once at our guesthouse accommodation we cooked pasta and went to sleep.
Bright and early we headed to a museum which had a long house and dated back to 872AD. It was so cool to see the original ruins there – after that we went to the oldest house in Reykavik which was also a museum and it had information about the progression of Icelandic life. Kyle went to the National Museum while I waited for him and was told by an American lady that my English was really good when I told her how to connect to the wifi. We went back to our accommodation and did some planning and then went to dinner on the beautiful marina. We had an expensive meal but was

great to treat ourselves! I had salmon and Kyle had a white fish. It was an early night as the next morning we had to get up at 3.15am to catch our flight to Glasgow.-Danielle