Miss Travel Girl » Iceland

Photos from the Road in Iceland

Rachel — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:37:54 +0000

During a few days out of my eight days stay in Iceland, I trekked outside of Reykjavik and toured the landscape of the island.

Blue Lagoon

Rachel — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:12:03 +0000

I just went to the Blue Lagoon today in Iceland. It’s a huge hot pot with steam coming out or in other words, a huge hot bath. It was my first time going there and so, it was quite an experience! The picture I’m attaching is me with mud silica on my face. It’s some kind of thick and mushy natural moisturizer made from the mud of the lagoon. I sure do look like a ghost, don’t I? I actually had a lot of fun playing with the mud as if I were playing with play-doh.

Silica Mud

I also had a weird experience there. In the changing room, there were bunch of females walking around naked and half of the shower stalls had no doors and so women were showering with their bodies exposed to the whole world! I felt strange to be in this space because this scene does not exist in America. It was so hard to hide my reaction. I just wanted to pop my eyeballs out and shriek with non-sense words! We’re very secretive about our bodies in the US Fortunately, there were a few shower stalls with doors and so, I was able to shower without exposing my body to the world! LOL.

A Taste of Icelandic Food

Rachel — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:08:36 +0000

When I was on the plane, on the way to Iceland, I watched a documentary film on Reykjavik. In the film, the tour guide mentioned a little cafe nestled in the small town near the cathedral called Cafe Locki. This is the ideal place to get some real taste of Icelandic food including shark!

I ordered the most complex platter of Icelandic food so that I could have a taste of every bits. My plate consisted of rye bread with fish and eggs, flat bread with smoked lamb, dried fish, and shark. When I tasted the shark, my brain literally felt like it was going to explode! It is a very BITTER fish! I’ve been told by Icelandic that the only reason people eat shark is the fact that it was the last source of food in the old days. At least I tried it and know what it tastes like. Otherwise, all the other pieces of food I tried were absolutely delicious, including the dried fish and smoked lamb!

The Serene White Place

Rachel — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:29:17 +0000

On another day, I did a tour of the Langjökull Glacier. I traveled to Europe’s second largest glacier by bus which took about two to three hours and then spent about two hours on glacier. I really enjoyed the glacier which was a very peaceful and serene place to see. It gave me a greater appreciation for the importance of preserving glaciers as climate change occurs.

The Golden Circle

Rachel — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 03:54:06 +0000

Anyone visiting Iceland cannot miss the Golden Circle, the most popular tourist route in Iceland, covering about 300 kim looping from Reykjavik into the central part of the country. This circle covers the geysir, Gullfoss waterfall and Þingvellir National Park.

Gullfoss Waterfall

Þingvellir National Park

Geysir! WHOOOOSH!

Rachel — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 03:18:17 +0000

The geysir was so much fun but also a HUGE mess! At one point, the geysir exploded beyond the roped area getting all of us including my camera soaking wet and then it spouted out again within seconds later and it was even BIGGER and even if we ran away far enough, we still got wet! I had a good laugh though! On the other hand, my camera is now broken! I will have to take it to a repair shop and hope it can be fixed.

Click on the image to view a larger size.

Venturing Iceland

Rachel — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 03:04:10 +0000

I’m in a country where it’s so underpopulated unlike China, but yet beautiful and peaceful – Iceland. As I walk through the capital city, Reykjavik, it is seemingly bizarre to be in a place that is so small and to call it a capital city. All the capital cities to where I’ve travelled are busy with lots of people and too many roads to navigate in one day. In Reykjavik, it takes only a few hours to explore every roads. The buildings are extraordinarily colorful – so colorful that they standout too much from the landscape. Some buildings are bright red or yellow or green. There is even one in my favorite color, TURQUOISE. In my hometown, Boston, we have quite a few wildly colorful buildings and when I see them, I always react, “Why the heck someone would paint in bright colors?” I’ve realized that I haven’t asked this question here. It’s because in my hometown, bright buildings are far few and between. In other words, there are not many painted in bright colors as that’s not the norm in our culture. However, in Reykjavik, most of the buildings are in flamboyant colors and so, it is obviously part of the culture in Iceland.

I have to shamelessly admit that I thought Icelandic people would have a totally extravagant and different fashion style from other cultures as this country has only a few hundred thousand people and didn’t think that other countries would pay the expense to import goods to a tiny country and therefore, create their own ordinary fashion and plus, this country is so seemingly isolated from other parts of the world when I see the map of the world. I couldn’t be anymore wrong. These people look just like any other Europeans. They were same and ordinary clothes that Americans and Europeans wear. Although, they do have one unique fashion piece and that is hand- knitted sweaters with interesting patterns below the neckline. Iceland is known for its unique wool that can’t be found in any other parts of the world due to having this unique breed of sheep that doesn’t exist in other countries. I brought one sweater for myself.

It’s in middle of the night here in Iceland and the sun is shinning as bright as it can be. It’s a challenge to live in 24 hours of sunlight. I’ve been struggling to sleep because the sun wakes me and moreover, I have a hard time going to sleep because my mind is telling me, “It’s still light out! No need to go to bed!” I was so exhausted last night that I actually was able to fall asleep earlier, but tonight, that’s not the case. UGH! Fortunately, tomorrow, I’m going to the Blue Lagoon, a spa resort and relax in this nice and big thermal bath and get a massage. It’ll be my first time going to a thermal bath and so, I’ll be interested in seeing how this experience goes. I hope it doesn’t smell too bad…when I put on hot water in the shower or in the sink, it smells kind of like rotten eggs! Ewww! BUT – it’s still totally natural water…it’s just how it smells in Iceland!