The land of ice and fire

*loooong drum roll*
Here it is!
My first english blog post. And I have to admit, I am a little afraid.
For me there is a huge difference between just speaking english or writing a longer post about what I experienced on a journey. That’s often even my own language nearly impossible. Now I have to not just order my thoughts right and find words that fit but also translate it in another language.
So please be a little indulgent with me. 🙂

The reason for this change is: while traveling through France I met a lot of awesome people from all over the world. The most of them are still on the road, spread all over the globe. We talked a lot about bucket lists, our next travel plans and I told them about my idea of going to Iceland soon. I promised that when I would come back from Iceland, the blogpost about this journey would be in english, so that not just my german friends but everybody could read it.
So, here we go 🙂

You know that one moment, when you are on the airplane, excitement rushing through you in hot waves, trembling with your fingers, waiting for the clouds to rise and to catch finally(!!) the first glance of a new, strange country? How will it look like and what will it bring for you?

Iceland. The land of fire and ice.
When my dad and I started planning our journey I had to face the truth, that I didn’t knew much about this island. In fact I just knew three things:

1. There are a lot of horses in Iceland.
2. I wasn’t able to pronounce the name of the vulcano right, who erupted a few years ago. ( I am still not able to do this after my journey. But at least I know how he looks like. I mean, that’s an improvement, right? )
3. You can see polarlights in Iceland. And I sooooo wanted to see polarlights!

Seems like the best requirements for a journey :D.

But even after a few weeks of researching and scrolling through different guidebooks I wasn’t prepared for the moment when I first saw the island through a small, blurred window of the airplane. There were half- frozen shores with deep, blue water and green highlands with a few small villages. But what impressed (and frightened) me the most were those massive, snowdipped vulcanos who looked like overseasoned pimples to me, ready to explode the moment our airplane was near enough. “ A lot of the vulcanos are still active.”, my dad. “Awesome.”, was all I could answer. “That’s good to know.”
Fortunately nothing happened and so we were able to pick up our hired car at the airport and drive straight to Reykjavik, our first stop on this journey.
Reykjavik is a very arty (and expensive- like everything in Iceland) city with lots of colored houses, small pubs, galleries and a fancy church. It felt awesome to walk through this painted streets and inhale the first vibes of the country. The atmosphere in Reykjavik was very welcoming and relaxed and I just felt happy to be there, excited to know what the next days would bring.

At first, the next day brought a lot of rain and fog. Weather in general in Iceland is completely different to weather in Germany. Rain, sun, fog… every five minutes the sky changes. It’s crazy. But after four or five days you get used to it. At least a little 😀

Our first stop was a little “History of Iceland” museum near Borgarnes. I must admit I am not the “WOAH A MUSEAUM, AWESOME!” kind of traveler. I prefer learning the story of a country by talking to people who live there. But this museum was different. It was very interactive and even I had a lot of fun to watch the history of this young island pass in front of me. There was also a part about the different sagas of Iceland. And how cruel they are. When you come to Iceland you have to read the signs, which you can often find at the interesting points. At let’s say every second spot somebody got murdered, went crazy and killed somebody else.

On our way to our next stop, Grundarfjörður (when you think that’s a long name… wait for day 8) we came through the Snæfellsjökull-Nationalpark.

Beside awesome rainbows and high cliffs there was one of my favorite spots of Iceland: the Djúpalónssandur- Beach. It’s a small black beach between high rocks and cliffs. The atmosphere was impossible do describe and I felt a little like I was in the middle of a Harry Potter movie.

When the sun went down over Grundarfjörður, the last sunbeams filled the air around the Kirkjufell-Mountain with some orange-purple color. We were at the harbor, resuming our first day and feeling a little confused by all the new, overwhelming impressions.

And because there is so much more to tell about this awesome island, there will be more posts in a few days. I hope you enjoyed my first english post and feel free to leave a comment 🙂 I would be happy!