I’m on my way to Iceland! No this is not a scheduled post, I am physically at the London Heathrow airport, waiting for my flight to Reykjavik.
These days have been crazy, I had a flu and zero time to pack and buy the stuff I needed, so most of you didn’t even know I was planning to visit Iceland. Well, now since I have good 5 hours to wait, I can finally update my blog!
The itinerary
In total, I am spending seven full days in Iceland. Today and the 14th of February I will be traveling all day so they don’t count!
What counts is that I will land in Reykjavik around midnight so I hope to see the aurora from my window seat (I reserved a north facing one for this!). I know this will probably remain just a dream but it’s not forbidden to hope, is it?
Tomorrow morning I will pick up my 4×4 car from SADcars – they deliver! I will meet one of their representatives downstairs from the building where I am sleeping. Cool, huh? I didn’t feel like driving tonight, so I will jump on a Flybus (with free wifi on board… yes please!) and comfortably reach my destination in town.
I booked my stay in Reykjavik through Wimdu, and I found this website simply genius. I will sleep in two different places throughout the week, both are apartments owned by locals who rent out an extra room. Does it get any more “authentic” (yeah I know this word is hideous but still appropriate!) than this? Nah.
Expect a review or two!
What else? Oh yep. Tomorrow night the Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival, aka “Amazing Darkness”, is starting with concerts (free hot chocolate for everyone – me likes) and suggestive events all around the city. So tomorrow is my “Reykjavik exploration day”. For now I only plan to buy a simcard and see where my heart takes me…
I won’t spend the weekend in Reykjavik – I am not into pub crawls or anything like that so I will miss the runtur with pleasure. I am going to a place called Höfn í Hornafirði, in the eastern part of Iceland, for 2 full days. And I will also make sure I learn how to pronounce it, promise!
I decided to go when I saw the fantastic photography by Runólfur Hauksson (aka the Aurora Photo Guide!), a professional photographer I stumbled upon on Facebook. When I realized how amazing the surrounding areas are, I decided to go. Lagoons, glaciers, icebergs, wait for me!
I won’t be going by car as I am alone and don’t feel like driving on icy roads, especially because my arm is still very weak and hey why should I stress myself out? Lazy-bum-me is flying to Höfn í Hornafirði with Eagleair. Compared to the bus, it takes about a tenth of the time, and costs just about €20 more. To me it sounded like the perfect option. Then again, if I had a group of friends with me I wouldn’t mind the 5 hours drive at all, but you know what I mean.
Two days of inspiring landscapes and hopefully good photos wait for me in and around Höfn í Hornafirði (Jökulsárlón, glaciers). Please, cross your fingers for me, I need to see at least an Aurora before I fly back!
After that, I will go back to Reykjavik and spend the remaining nights there: I found a ride back to the city. Hitchhiking is very common in Iceland, and there’s even a very popular website for carpooling, called Samferda. It makes sense, because long drives divide the cities of Iceland, and sharing the ride is always a good idea. I am so excited!
The last three days will see me jumping on and off buses and my car all the time to explore the Golden Circle, go swim in the Blue Lagoon, and explore the southern coast of Iceland all the way to Vik.
I am having a pretty “classic” itinerary, and whatevs! I love it!
Of course, all of the above days will involve lots of feverish weather and aurora forecasts research, and sleepless nights waiting for the green wonder of wonders: the northern lights! Please please please.
But you know what? If I don’t see any, I will go back. What’s the matter after all?
Did you guess how excited I am? I hope so! I still can’t believe I will be in Reykjavik tonight… I’ve been dreaming of visiting Iceland since I started thinking about travel, and I wonder why it took me so long to finally go! Well here I am. Updates soon!
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14 Comments
I will see you on friday morning :)
Yesss, can’t wait! Please tell the sky to be clear! haha
This sounds awesome. Iceland is one of those dream destinations for me that I hope to do in the near future. I am planning on spendig time working in Dublin for a while in the next month or so, which seems like the perfect time to visit Iceland. Enjoy your time.
I am sure flying from Ireland and/or the UK is cheaper than flying from “greater Europe”… so you should take advantage! Thanks and I wish you a great trip to Iceland :)
Love sharing in the excitement of waiting at the airport for your next adventure! Enjoy Iceland!!
Thanks dear! Updates coming soon! :)
It’s great to see your Iceland itinerary – I’m going there in May and I’ve already got a huge list of things I want to see and do! Looking forward to seeing the photos from your trip.
Hi Polly! I am sure there’s much more to do in Iceland on May than now… but my #1 plan was to haunt the Nothern Lights:)
Thanks for following me and I promise tons of photos coming soon!
[…] landed in Keflavik late at night. Just a few hours later I updated my blog saying I was hoping to see the northern lights from the window seat of the plane… I still […]
And how was it? Let us know!!! Iceland is my #1 fav country in the world!!
It was AMAZING! I have at least 10 posts about Iceland coming up. I’m on the way back to Italy as I write! These days have been too busy to update the blog, but I’ll get down to work tomorrow :) Stay tuned!
Thank you for taking the time and sharing this inormation with us, great post and great pictures!
Thanks! Stay tuned for more updates about Iceland :)
[…] Hauksson (aka Ronni) was one of the greatest ideas I could possibly have when I planned my itinerary, activities and accommodation in Iceland. Runólfur Hauksson in […]