Caroline in Kensington: INCREDIBLE ICELAND!

Iceland was absolutely PHENOMENAL!!

This week is our spring break, so I went on a trip through my school to Reykjavik, Iceland for a few days!!

Beginning early Monday morning we traveled for most of the day and ended up in Iceland around 6:30pm. The bus ride from the airport was beautiful! And after getting settled into our apartment style hostel, we went downtown to grab dinner! We were all super excited to be in Iceland, and we fell into a great rhythm as a group! =) I loved downtown Reykjavik!! It was really charming with lots of restaurants and shops, and a great view down each side street too!! We also quickly discovered that everything in Iceland is very expensive!!

Tuesday was positively terrific!! We started off the day with breakfast at this old Laundromat Cafe, which was very cool and yummy too!!

On our way back, we walked down the street a bit to the coast of Reykjavik to check out this fantastic view! We were all so excited to be in Iceland!! =)

Next, we headed to the Blue Lagoon, which is a geothermal spa in the middle of beautiful scenic Iceland!! It was such a relaxing day!! =) What a crazy experience to be freezing outside in the snow, and then hop into this steaming body of water!! It was the coolest!!

After our spa day, we grabbed dinner and took off once again on a Northern Lights Tour!!! We all boarded a bus and rode outside of the city for about an hour and a half. We parked in the middle of an open snowy field and just looked up at the sky and waited!! Before long, streaks of light were dancing across the sky above us!! It was absolutely breath-taking!!! So unlike anything I have ever experienced, there are really no words to describe the incredible experience! =) After a few hours, we were completely frozen to the core, but also in complete awe of the Northern Lights!!

On Wednesday, we took an excursion to ride Icelandic horses through the mountains!! It was so much fun to get all geared up in snow suits, riding helmets, and everything else and ride through some amazing snowy scenery!!

The first half of our ride was fantastic... we took lots of pictures, laughed a lot at our attempts to control our horses, and just had a blast! Then the blizzard hit... It became extremely windy and snowy and frigid!!! Tears were literally streaming down my face it was so windy and freezing! Haha! All part of the authentic Icelandic experience!! =)

Unfortunately, because of the storm our second half of the excursion to see the famous waterfalls and glaciers around Iceland was cancelled, so instead we walked all around Reykjavik (in the snow/hail/rain storm for the rest of the day)! We went to this famous hot dog stand for lunch (where a bunch of famous people have eaten!) and also tried Icelandic Donuts for dessert! =)