A First For Iceland

There have been several firsts for me the end of August. First time flying in an airplane. First time leaving the country. First time ordering room service. And first time witnessing the beauty Iceland had to share. Let me assure you, there was lots of that last one.

As before, I wasn't able to blog during the trip, so I'll give a summary.

I discovered rather quickly that I LOVE flying! Particularly, watching the earth get smaller and smaller the higher you go. Our flights were nice, too. On the back of the seats were screens to watch a movie or show, listen to music, learn Icelandic, or play games on. It made the trip faster and a lot of fun (unless you had a broken screen).

We arrived in Keflavik around midnight, Saturday morning, and were driven to Reykjavik, the most populated city in Iceland. That day turned out to be a big event -Culture Night, August 22nd. There were bands playing all over the city throughout the day and into the evening, and it ended with a gorgeous display of fireworks (in my opinion, ten times better than we have here in the states).

After two nights in Reykjavik, our adventure began to circle the entire island in 6 days. We received our vehicle in the morning on Sunday and set off that afternoon. Our drives each day were full of land, water, and mountains or at least two out of three. The land ranged from lava rock, gravel, and black sand. Green moss was a frequent growth, unlike trees, and was more often than not found growing on the lava rocks.

We stopped several times to see some incredible waterfalls and glaciers. The water there is so pure and clear, if it hadn’t been so cold, we would have jumped in for a swim.

The places we stayed were lovely and unique. My dad opted for the highest rated ones and they sure were. We either stayed at the foot of a mountain, in a big city (which there weren’t many of), or near water of some sort.

At Lake Myvatn, we got to ride Icelandic horses which look like ponies because they are smaller than the horses we have in the US, but to call them such is actually offensive to Icelanders. The ride was so enjoyable!

We wandered off our mapped route once to see a harbor town and boy, were we glad we did! More beautiful water across from mountains with snow spotting the peaks. It was breathtaking.

The trip was definitely something we all will never forget. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an escape to a gorgeous location, and I think we all would love to go back!

My sister and I took lots of pictures and my brother actually filmed the trip. You can see the pictures on my Facebook page, just find me under the address www.facebook.com/lauri.pierce88 -Lauri Pierce. I’ll let you know when the video is up online once my brother finishes editing and such.

Sorry the update is late! With school starting and such, things have been crazy. In fact, I’m rushing off to get ready for a busy evening. Hope this finds you all well! :)

Until next time,
~L. Pierce

P.S. I simply must figure out how to add pictures to my posts. I would have put one up with this had I known how.