Sunday 20 November 2016

Iceland adventure day 3

Today [Tonio: 1 November], we had a lot of things to do but little time. We woke up, did everything to do in the early morning, and went straight into adventure.

It was -2 degrees when we started off by going to an old farm from the 19th century but evidence showed that some building parts dated back to the 11th and 12th century. It was very cute with a cute chapel with cute houses and a cute graveyard. I don't know if you can call a graveyard cute but anything small is cute to me.


Then, we went to a big waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. It wasn't just one waterfall though. There were a group of waterfalls there and we saw all of them but one was unfortunately too dangerous for my arm but at least it was still visible from where we were. Tonio took a video because water was falling.



After the waterfalls we went into a glacier. We were driving on a road next to it when I told Tonio about this road cutting inito the glacier. Tonio said we had too little time but I insisted. Just as we were about to pass the road we saw a sign and it said something like this, "Glacier Tourism Hike just 2km away". Tonio read the sign and said that we should see what there was. We drove on that road and found out that it was a big attraction. Tonio said that if it wasn't for me, we wouldn't see this place but I think we would've still gone there without me saying anything. We walked until we could touch the ice of the glacier. We took many pictures there including us touching the ice. My fingers went numb touching the ice and I hate it when any part of my body goes numb.




Apart from the main places we went to there were many great views and little parking areas to take pictures from so we took many pictures of the mountains in the south coast and it was perfect for pictures because the sun was always opposite the mountains at a perfect angle that was low and lighting all the southern coast.

 



We went to a little place which I forgot its name and it was a little area where there were lots of stones piled up because there was a story where there used to be a farm but it was destroyed in the first recorded eruption of a volcano which I also forgot its name. Whenever a person passes by for the first time they need to add a stone to the piles of stones everywhere to give good luck but unfortunately I forgot why or who needed good luck and I hate myself for forgetting all these things that I should remember!





Lastly, we went to a hotel called Nupar. It was a very strange hotel with just one floor and the rooms like cabins but despite all the weirdness of the "hotel" it was very nice and they even had a list that if there are northern lights, they will knock on our door to wake us up and see them. We put ourselves on that list. We had dinner there and it was quite delicious. I had lamb soup and Tonio had pork fillet.


Finally, we settled down into our cabin room 29, crawled into bed and went to sleep...

Did you have fun? If you have then join us on our next adventure in Iceland!!!



GianlucaDeGringu

Iceland Adventure Day 2

Today, I found it quite hard to wake up because of yesterday but eventually, I woke up, did the usual early morning things, had breakfeast and set off into adventure.


The first thing we did was go to a place called Þingvellir, a place where the first parlament meeting was back in 930 AD! That is also the place where Iceland is splitting up into two! Not until a few million years or so but there is already a big crack in the ground. In Þingvellir, there is a park with many beautiful sights like a waterfall called Öxarárfoss. We went to Þingvellir and saw many of the attractions there.




After that, we went to Geysir, a place with lots of geysers everywhere. There are about 30 geysers in Geysir but only one of them is still spraying water out, Strokkur which is often confused with Geysir but Geysir isn't spraying water anymore because people threw too much money and garbage that blocked the water from the volcano so it can't spray out anymore. It's a real pity because it must have been bigger than Strokkur which made it really famous. But we still got a picture of Strokkur spraying out water and you can see how far it spreads the water out so I can't imagine how big Geysir's would have been.



Next up, Gulfoss, one of the biggest, or the biggest waterfall in Europe. Gulfoss had two drops. One 11 metres and one 20 metres down. Isn't that amazing! But whats even more amazing is that there is more than 2000 cubic metres of water falling down from the two drops every second! To me that is just unbelievable. The fact that so much water in one second falls down... wow. Anyways we went there and took a few pictures there and Tonio took a video because maybe he needs to take a video to show that water is falling and that it's not fake? I'm not sure I need to ask him.




In the end, we went to Hveragerði, where our hotel was. We checked in, went into our room (this was the average hotel) stayed there for a while and then went downstairs to have dinner. It was quite the same as last time we had dinner in Iceland. Great ratings but a little expensive. The food was really delicious. I had some pasta (surprisingly good for Iceland) and Tonio had some lamb. He said it was the best dish in Iceland so far. I had to have a try. It was mouthwatering but Tonio said the best part of the food was the salad but I'm not much into salads so I let Tonio eat his salad.

We went up to our room, did our evening things and drifted off to sleep... Did you enjoy our first full day? If you have, make sure to read all the other days coming up soon in Adventures In Iceland!!!

                                                                                    
GianlucaDeGringu

Sunday 13 November 2016

Iceland Day 1


Today, was a short day. We had to wake up at 6 am in the morning to go to Iceland. No your eyes aren't deceiving you, Iceland. Can you believe it! Last summer, we were asking each other to go to Iceland as a joke. It was all in our dreams and unexpectedly, we found a good price and went by aeroplane to Iceland!

Oh by the way, I dislodged my wristbone so I had a cast on every day and sometimes, a sling under it. It was very inconvenient because I'm left handed and I dislodged my left arm resulting that we couldn't go to some places that were too dangerous. I hate myself for fracturing my arm and even now, I'm typing with my right hand and it is easier said than done!

As we came off I was feeling quite tired since we woke up at early and also because of jet lag but I felt really excited at the same time because we were in Iceland! 

As I went outside I immediately felt the ice cold weather. Well, not really ice cold but you get the idea. Throughout all 6 days we stayed here the weather said that it would be 1 to 7 degrees but wherever we went it was about -2 to 5 degrees. To be honest, slightly warmer than I expected but still very, very cold. 


We rented our car, a long white car (we took a selfie with it) and drove off to our hotel, Grand Hotel. I wondered what this hotel would look like. Grand, majestic, lots of beautiful things you can see straight away and yet so many details all over the hotel. We checked in and went inside our room, 313. It was giant with three rooms, two televisions, a sofa, two beds a bathroom and even a cooker and a fridge with some eggs in it! I asked if we could fry them but Tonio said no. [Tonio: such a pity - no cooking oil available!]

We basically sat there until dinner time because in Reykjavik, there was a giant gust of wind and also a lot of rain. In the evening we went to a restaurant called Kol. A highly rated, yet a little pricey restaurant. Tonio had salmon and I had mussels that you can find in many places in Reykjavik. There were many beers to choose from but the driving laws are pretty strict in Iceland. Always keep your seatbelt on, always keep your lights on, you can't have more than one bottle of beer that has 2% alcohol in it and you still need to wait about half an hour.

Finally, after our relatively short day, we drove back to our hotel and went to sleep... Did you enjoy our day today? If you have, be sure to stay tuned for the upcoming days of our adventures in Iceland!!!


GianlucaDeGringu