Howdy fellow travellers, I am Aparna, I hail from New delhi, India and for the longest in my career I've served as a flight attendant for different domestic and international airlines. I discovered in early age that travelling and fellow travellers sufficed my heart leaving me with a feeling of content and happiness is why I feel I'll chase travel my entire lifetime.
Let's get into the details of my recent trip to Iceland, Yes you read it right, The destination that harbors the top slot of mostly every travellers bucket list. I was lucky enough to have spent close to a month in overly dramatic country with endless extraordinary landscapes to relish, I found myself in a situation quite a few times where I had to pinch myself to realise what I am seeing is actually true and it's no dream.
but but but, It is expensive, Let me emphasize on the expense part again, It is ridiculously expensive. also thinking with the whole mindset of a traveller, you might have to live on their famous cheapass hotdogs, which aint that bad but .. only that I throw up on the very sight of hotdog now because thats literally what I lived on for a month lmao.
I had a group of friends, we stayed in a regular property in keflavic city, a small town next to the airport, approximately 50 km away from reykjavik (Pronounced Reyk-vik) The capital of Iceland, we visited Iceland in the month of december and january and spent our new years over there too. It was deadly cold, you got to trust me, as a flight attendant, when we landed, I had to call another crew member to give me a hand to push the aircraft door out as It was insanely windy and the door refused to go out no matter how hard we pushed so I am sure you can imagine, it was -7 degrees when we landed, with the feel of -20 because of violent wind blows.
Iceland is unbelievably clean and air quality can flip your head, especially when you are from delhi, lol. and water, I know I maybe be sound insane rn but the quality of water was so good, everyone drinks straight from the tap over there and there's absolutely no need of water filters, and the taste of water, sounds weird right, taste of water is so good that I must have'd litres of it in one go, slurrrrp.
We planned our famous Golden circle trip, which would take us to southern Iceland, Starting from the reykjavik city, covering about 300 kms into the southern uplands of Iceland and back, It showcases the number of icelands main attractions like Gullfoss Waterfall, Oh Gulfoss (I left my heart there) , The great Geyser, litli geyser where geothermal water spouts, it was incredible to have experienced natural phenomena so beautiful. Honestly looked like one of the sets from The vampire diaries. After Litli we stopped to grab some hotdogs (LOL) and some beers for a while and then headed to our next stop, The Lava Tunnel, I clearly dont remember the sequence but I sure remember it was one of our stops, We headed to the place I loved the most and since It was peak winters, It was pitch dark even at 11 am the morning,the sound of water and the feel of cold dusk made it even better, As far as I can remember I think this stop was before geysir, This place is called thingvellir, and what really makes it interesting is that its a place where north amrican and eurasian tectonic plates meet, this can easily be seen on land in Thingvellir, which is a national park and it is one
Of the united nations world heritage site. It may interest those who're geography geeks that tectonic plate floats loose from other tectonic plates but comes close to them to interact where their edges meet, cool right? yeah, maybe!
wait hold on, hear me out, These interactions of tectonic plates are believed to be the main reason of most earthquakes and volcanic activity on the earth, woah!
There are about approximately 130 active and inactive volcanos in Iceland, and its said that when these tectonic plates move apart, that's what causes some sort of disturbance which leads to eruptions, recent example of this is the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in april 2010, which disrupted air travel across large parts of Europe.
These tectonic plates make landfallin reykjanes peninsula, sounds fancy eh, and stretches towards thingvellir and further. It was beautiful, the landscapes from over there looked beautiful, It was unbearably cold tho.
The last was the most beautiful part, we headed to Laugarvatn Fontana natural hot water springs and steams where an Icelandic woman showed us how they authentically bake bread in natural hot water springs and explained us the whole process, mmm interesting. Then we changed into our bikinis and jumped into geothermal hot water springs, the view and the place was breathtakingly beautiful and It's said that Its a lot better and cheaper than the world famous Blue Lagoon. I believed it because We didnt get a slot in blue lagoon because of its high demand.
On our way back to the city, we saw icelandic horses, dramatic landscapes and beautiful fields, it was nothing less than a fairytale, atleast for me. The sky looked so unbelievably beautiful that I captured it in my head and everytime I think about it, Sigh, I go breathless.
Lets talk more about expenses here, It was ridiculously expensive. There's no uber, and private cabs cost you an arm and a leg. It is always recommended to hire a self driven than to take a taxi, it is relatively very very cheap. A regular 5 seater hatchback would cost you about 40-50 USD a day, the usual minimum age is 20 yrs to drive and most importantly, off roading is an offense, so keep your horses in place.
New Years was lit, literally Lit because icelandic people are crazy about fireworks, crazy is an understatement, they dont stop. also since it was peak winters, the sky looked litt'er if that's a word, it was lights and colors all around. totally worth spending my new years in iceland.
I have a memory of it but its absolutely hazy for obvious reasons guys, we were all out and everything was beautiful and bright and beautiful, I was the happiest. :)
The only thing I couldn't experience was Aurora borealis better known as northern lights because for you to be in luck with them, weather has to cooperate, two conditions for you to experience them are, One, It should be pitch dark and second, It shouldn't be cloudy and unfortunately, throughout our trip, It was snowing and it was cloudy. Pfft!
But hey I did see a quaint stream of it, if that counts, Lol.
Nevermind.
Lets get a lil deeper into pockets,
Through flight fare - USD 1,145 ( Free for me, I worked there so it was sponsored)
Budget hotel- USD 280 (any budget hotel, approximate cost for 8-10 days)
Miscellaneous- 250-500 USD
Here are some beautiful pictures from Iceland
